Slipping and Knitting

What a great weekend! I feel like I have played for 3 days. (Considering that I was spectacularly uninterested in doing housework this weekend, except for the absolute bare necessity, that statement is not far from the truth.) The basketball game was a lot of fun. UConn won and clinched a share of the Big East title in the process. I was a little disappointed with AC Mooore, but I still managed to find some yarn to buy! I also made up for it yesterday by visiting all of the craft stores in the area and finding yet more yarn to buy. Between sales and coupons, I bought a lot of yarn for not much money. I didn't take a picture because it was mostly acrylic yarn in baby colors for guild projects. You will see finished projects made from it eventually! And as far as my yarn diet goes, I guess this weekend I used my "get out of jail free" card. Now I really do have to be good until July!

On Sunday, I finished up a project that I had picked up again the weekend before last. I had originally started this one in November of 2005 - the pattern was in a magazine, making it easy to date. This was my first attempt at mosaic knitting. Mosaic knitting is a technique for adding color to a project while only knitting with one strand of yarn per row. The second color is brought up into each row by using slipped stitches. Consequently, the patterns tend to look rather angular or geometrical, like the tiles in mosaics (hence the name).

I realize there is nothing in the picture to give perspective, so let me tell you the problem with this FO. It is huge! There might be some men out there with a head big enough to wear this hat, but of course the colors are so feminine that giving it to a man isn't an option. Apparently, not only did I not check gauge when I started a year and a half ago, I actually went up a needle size - always a nono for me! However, I am not too disappointed. This was a practice piece so that I could learn the technique, and I have an idea for a class I might put together on mosaic crochet for my guild, so this will serve as an example of mosaic knitting for comparison.

Finally, I want to thank the person who left the anonymous comment reminding me that Connecticut does have a professional major league sports team - the Connecticut Sun, a WNBA team. I had forgotten about them, even though my dh and I are talking about trying to see one of their games this summer. I will add, however, that the reason CT has a WNBA franchise is because of our support of UConn women's basketball. The WNBA decided that it would be financially lucrative to build a team around former UConn stars Nykesha Sales and Asjha Jones, and so far, I think it is working out well for them. Especially since the team has been the Eastern Conference regular season winners for three years now.

Have a terrific Fat Tuesday!