TUSAL: July 2011 - First of two

This month is rather unique in that we will have two new moons in the same month.  When there are two full moons that second is refered to as a blue moon.  Anyone know what you call the second new moon in the same calendar month? (Other than the obvious, "rare".)

Stitching with tiny needles and fibers still doesn't hold any appeal for me right now so there hasn't been much added to my ort jar.  But, unlike the last two months (or so) there actually are some new orts in the jar; they are yarn orts, but orts they be!

I've managed to knit three things.  The first started life as the second incarantion of my learning swatch.  It turns out I was knitting with a twist.  Wish I could remember the actual name of the stitch I was doing, but it wasn't the garter stitch.  Once, that got sorted out, SH showed me how to do decreases and at a good enough time to turn the practice piece into a little buttoned pouch.  The yarn reminded me of water and there was a cute fish button in my stash waiting to be used.  This little pouch will be about the right size to use for credit card, ID and a bit of money to tuck into my pocket.

The next two projects (which were actually finished before I did the finishing on the pouch (confused yet?)) were the ubiquitous knitted wash cloth.  It's a nice learning project for several reasons: (1) you learn yarn over and knit two together; (2) there are plenty of repetitions to reinforce the motor memory; and (3) you've actually got something useful at the end.

The first one had some problems.  I tinked and reknit and tinked some more.  In the end, it was a good learning experience.  The second one had fewer problems and looks better than the first. 

My current project is a scarf; it shouldn't be a big deal and will be completed unless I get bored.  There's a pattern for a matching hat.  I'll believe it when I see it.   Actually, it's kind of exciting learning a new craft.