Not All Sixes Are Created Equal

 So I cast on Wildwood using my short (6") dpns, and when it started to get longer I switched to the long (10") ones. At which point I realized why I'd found conflicting information on the internet when I looked up the conversion from the metric needles called out on the pattern to the US sizes...My bamboo Takumi dpns are 4.25 mm. The long Brittany needles, also marked as US size 6? Are 4.0 mm. It doesn't sound like much, but the difference is about 12%. I knit a few more rounds, but I could definitely see the transition. Here's where I was when I frogged and started over on the longer needles, which are also the size the pattern calls for:

On the plus side, re-knitting also let me fix some mistakes I'd made and and fixed in place rather than tinking back. Not surprisingly, following charts is also easier after a good night's rest than it is while stupid tired.  I'm already past the point where I frogged, so I have hopes this might be finished this weekend. 

Next

It's been a busy week and until today I wasn't sure what I was going to knit next.  I've been puttering around desultorily with assorted WIPs...but then I got this in the mail:
 
A couple of weeks ago, I won the Easter contest over at Wandering Cat Yarns.  The  yarn is their Top Cat DK, and is super soft and incredibly gorgeous.  And the beret pattern is beautiful.    Definitely the next project.

Which is not to say that puttering with WIPs hasn't been useful.  I've got neck decreases in hand for my cabled sweater.  I've got an experimental stranded mitten project that's coming along.  I've finished some more plain mittens:
 

And I've finished the brown self-patterning socks-- I'm wearing these today, and very happy with them. 


One of the reasons that the week has been busy has been Biscuit....let's just say that when a fluffy Himalayan cat has diarrhea...and therefore can't effectively clean himself...and therefore needs to have his bum shampooed...twice...to the dismay of everyone involved...and gets taken to the vet....in the evil car....where indignities are perpetrated upon his fuzzy person...like having said bum shaved...and being given pills...well.   It can take up a lot of time.  And make a person knit lots of stockinette.   But Biscuit is back to his old self (absent the shave, which from the rear makes him look like he's wearing fluffy harem pants), and so I'm ready to move on. 

You'll have to excuse me now, I need to go wind a skein of yarn. 

Pushy

So there I was last night, pool under control, ready to get back to my sweater....and then I realized I was sitting in the recliner with this falling off my needles:

I certainly hadn't been thinking about knitting a scarf.   Hadn't planned to knit a scarf.  But there I was... with a scarf.   Pushy little thing, isn't it? 

The pattern is the Frosted Glow Cowl, though I made it longer as I wanted to use up the yarn.  I finished it this evening and wove in the ends.  Possibly the fastest scarf ever.  But I'm still not quite sure how it happened.