Yeah, I know what you mean. Henry seems to be a difficult one, but it looks so nice!
I think I need to be more patient when I knit - despite the fact I’ve gotten much better, I still occasionally end up with the wrong number of stitches and completely clueless as to how it happened. Usually it’s just one extra one at the end of a row. 
Just ordered more yarn a few days ago - I’m currently knitting the Meret and have run out of yarn and have my eye on this hat as a first Fair Isle practice project sort of thing. I’m still working on the second tail of my HeelHead Scarf - the last bit always seem like the hardest to get through.
I am so stealing this!
My inability to count to two without getting distracted was what led me away from knitting and into crocheting, where, let’s face it, you just don’t have to pay attention as hard.
So, I checked out the Yarn Store of Wackness. It was pretty interesting. There was lots of novelty yarn for $5 a skein (ladder, ribbon, frizzy stuff, sparkly stuff) and extremely good prices on luxury yarns like cashmere, silk, and yes, they had yak. A couple of clearance bins of this-n-that to paw through. There was whole cones of chenille and mercerized cotton you could buy by the pound. There was lots of hand-dyed cashmeres and cashmere-silk blends that were really, really beautiful, $25 for 250yds. But for the mid-range workhorse yarns, not too much selection.
After asking if I needed anything, the staff ignored me and that’s the way I like it. 
I saw a lot of cool stuff. But I did not find yarn I wanted for this particular project. 
I desperately want to be able to browse in a yarn store. There’s a market nearby but it’s too chaotic and not really browsing friendly. The yarn website I use is friendly and convenient but obviously I don’t get to see and feel the yarn before buying so it’s always a bit of a gamble when I try a new one.
On the bright side, I got free yarn for uploading a picture of my Saroyarn scarf on the website -they give out random free prizes for knitters who upload their projects. Yay!
I’m aiming to finish my hooded scarf and beret by this weekend. :: determined ::
So I knuckled under and bought more yarn from Knitpicks. Ah well. As penance I gave away a skein through my crochet message board.
Meanwhile, the yarn for the meatballs on the Flying Spaghetti Monster hat I’m making for my husband arrived. I got two 50g skeins, acrylic/cotton/linen blend, for $5 shipping included on eBay! Not shabby! It’s kind of a thin red chenille plied with a darker red smooth yarn. I think it will look really meatball-y. Everything else for the hat is just about done already, I guess I am going to have to figure out how to put it together!
Ooh, nice one.
And zweisamkeit - great lines for encouraging new knitters!
As for the Cerus vs. Henry question: I’ve knit Citron, which was designed by the same person who designed Cerus; I thought it was a well-thought out pattern (and easy to knit, but not boring, which is quite an accomplishment).
I’d never thought about looking at using finished objects when deciding on a pattern. Really good strategy, I think.
Yeah, I always browse what other people have done - it helps to get a sense of how difficult the pattern turns out to be, and sometimes they have helpful hints.
In other news, I thought 2 skeins of yarn would be enough for the Meret, but I think I’m going to end up short, damnit.
My giant bag I use for my stash was a total mess so today I decided to clean it up. All the small leftover balls I sorted by color and put into their own 1 quart bags. So I have a pink/red bag, an orange bag, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, brown, black, variegated, and very tiny scraps bags.
it looks SO pretty. I love things organized by color.
The larger balls/skeins I will probably try to bag in 1 quart bags as much as possible, but not by color.
I had a bug get into my natural fiber yarn this summer, so I’m really careful now about keeping my yarn sealed and sealed in small amounts (the big knot of yarn that happened when the bags i washed the yarn in exploded was a scary sight). So now if I get a bug, it won’t contaminate everything, I won’t have to wash EVERYTHING, just whatever was in its bag.
I’ve been knitting a black scarf for my new boyfriend; it was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but due to me being kinda crappy knitter and getting sick, it’s now gonna be his late January ‘good boyfriend’ gift. It’s extremely un-exciting: black acrylic (made from recycled bottles!) in a single stitch all the way down. I may put in a stripe of grey-and-white yarn. But he won’t wear it if it’s too frou-frou.
Finally finished my Heelhead Scarf, hallelujah. I got super lazy and made the second tail short. If I wrap the first tail around my neck, the lengths become equal. Works for me. 
I just joined the SDMB group on Ravelry. WooT!
I love things organized by color, too. I took all my leftover balls and put them in clear glass vases and used them for decoration.
I finally finished (this morning) crocheting the baby blanket I was making for my cousin’s baby shower (this afternoon). It is crocheted in the round with the number of rows in each stripe coresponding to the first 6 numbers in Fibonacci’s sequence.
It’s lovely, Rhiannon. There’s a blanket I’ve had my eye on for a while, but blankets seem to take so much dedication - I can barely finish a scarf as it is. I think my attention span is best suited for hats. 
Thank you. I know what you mean about attention span and blankets. I think I’ve only made 4 in my 30+ years of crocheting. Two of them were baby blankets and two were twin bed sized.
Ooo - very pretty!
I feel you on the last minute finish jobs - last X-Mas day I was knitting bears of out this book for X-mas gifts for my friend’s children that I was seeing the next day. I was knitting the outfits on the day of the party. 
Question - if a pattern says “bind off 3, k1, p1” - does the “k1” mean the stitch that’s already on your right needle after you’ve finished binding off 3? So after I’ve finished binding off 3, I’d go directly into p1?
I might guess so, but is there any additional context? Is there anything else in the pattern that might make it clear which stitch is the K1?
No, but . . . when I was knitting the Saroyan scarf, I always ended up a stitch short when I was knitting the last row of the repeating leaf pattern: p2tog, bind off 3, k1, p1, k3. I always k2 at the end instead of k3 because I didn’t have enough stitches. I just thought it was a flaw in the pattern . . . but I was browsing the Willoughby projects today and one knitter mentioned that when knitting the pattern, you should remember that the knit stitch on your right needle after you bind off (in the middle of the pattern) counts as the next k1 stitch.
So I was just wondering if this is a given when reading a pattern, because then it would explain why I had that glitch with the Saroyan scarf.
At long last, I finished the Flying Spaghetti Monster hat my husband has been asking for. He was basically thrilled. I have to say, it came out pretty sweet.
