My knittings, let me show you them...

Well, it's been a busy month. No doubt about it.

It was M's birthday this month, and we're both Portal fans; so when I found the Knitted Companion Cube, it was an obvious choice. It was a really tricky knit! I have never used stranded colour knitting in the round, nor have I ever steeked -- but I thought, hey! A deadline five days after I discovered the pattern? That's perfectly feasible! Off we went.

It's a pretty clever construction, actually. You cast on for all six sides in one big round, with a few stitches in between each side for seam allowance and a few rows top and bottom for the same. I liked doing it that way: I think this kind of colourwork probably benefits from being worked in the round, rather than with intarsia (which would also be an option, but I think you'd either have to work all the squares in one long row, or individually). I liked it; I've never done stranded knitting in the round, and it took me a while to get into the swing of it, but I got there. I still couldn't say the tension was great, especially in the middle rows where I was juggling three colours, but the whole thing came together. I used a merino/silk blend, mostly because that's what I had in my stash but also because it was the only yarn I could find that came in just the right shades of grey (which surprised me). If I did it again, I'd probably aim to use a pure wool, but only to see if there was a big difference in the colourwork if I did so.

To celebrate finishing the cube (it took a while -- whenever I began to relax, I would jump and remind myself to start working on it again), I have cast on a new hoodie. I am as fickle as a breeze with the knitting, and the single day of deliciously cold weather we had on Good Friday was enough to inspire me. This awfully cute hoodie will be my new best friend: Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie (that one at the top there). I think I will look ever so casual and smooth-skinned, as well as stylish and charming. I haven't got much done, and I'm secretly very afraid I'll run out of that particularly buttery aubergine yarn I'm using. But in the meantime, I'm feeling the happy, loving the yarn, and cruising along on the cloud of Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong. Oh yeah. That's what we like.