the streetlights, not the stars, now

Let this serve as a warning to any parents planning on "productive quiet time" for their overactive child:

11-year-old girl: The worst part about my week was yesterday when I had to sit in my bed all day and knit! Just knit. Or read. Knit or read. But just sit in my bed and only knit or read!

HEB: Hey, hey, hey: knitting isn't bad. Why would that be the worst part of your week?

11yog: Knitting is torture! When all you can do is knit and the whole house is silent, it's the worst thing in the world!

Not pictures of my knitting

No, instead I want to show you something I _want_ to knit.  But I need some help.

This is the Bunny Yoke Pullover by Angela Hahn.  I want to make it for EVERYONE.  But first: for at least one baby.

Caveats:
1) Rowan Cotton does not excite me as far as yarn goes AND seems expensive.  No thanks.
2) Obviously the colors need to change.  I'd prefer black bunnies* over white, and the pale pink will have to go.

Questions for YOU include:
1) Fingering held double = DK?  I feel like fingering held double feels more like worsted, but with my usually loose gauge, maybe it would work?
2) For those who have used Plucky Yarn....Plucky yarn?  I don't have any in black, and don't really feel like I should buy more yarn (though maybe I could find someone on the boards who has a little extra they'd trade or sell.)  The other challenge would be finding non-variegated yarns, though most of the Primos have been solid colors recently, so maybe I could do something with that.
3) Other thoughts, opinions?

* For an example of a black bunny rabbit: see below.

whatever name it's got, it's got me circling

note to self: Think through whether color-block raglan sleeves can be knit in the round before you knit the body and sleeves of the sweater in different colors. Although, really, just having that thought process before the join round would be an improvement next time.

ssk vs. k2tog*

Apologies in advance: this post may bore you all to tears. But I do need your help, so please persevere for my sake!

EW's comment on my last post made me realize that the blog might appreciate an illustration of the differences between k2tog and ssk, so you all don't have to learn the hard way like I did. Until I started working on designing a project that highly featured both, I'd thought that they were perfectly interchangeable. And, being quite honest, I probably prefered the motion of the ssk, even though it had more steps. I'd read the TechKnitter's description of the difference (basically, ssk stretches out the stitches so they are a lot baggier than k2tog) but I'd filed that difference away as something that probably wouldn't affect my knitting much. After all, there are a lot of ways to perfect knitting that I never bother with, so why should I worry if my left-leaning decreases were a little sloppy? But then I started working on desigining a wristwarmer pattern that made the differences between the right-leaning k2tog and the left-leaning ssk all too apparent, so I've now got photographic proof.














The ssk is on the left and the k2tog is on the right. You can see how the k2tog creates relatively straight lines while the ssk meanders in clumsy steps. Now, if the project only included ssks, I'm not sure that it would be as noticeable. But when they are right next to k2togs, I've found the difference to be unfortunate.
I've found a number of suggestions for better left-leaning decreases online, but haven't found one that works particularly well with this pattern. Many of those techniques rely on being able to pick up stitches on the side of the decrease, which isn't possible in this pattern because the decreases are surrounded by yarn overs. I'm still hopeful that TechKnitter's solution will save the day, but I haven't had much success with it so far. (I think I'm messing up the yank somehow....)

In the latest iteration of this pattern, I'm using slip, knit (sk), which I think is better, but still not perfect.














Here the sk is on the left and the k2tog is on the right.

So. I'm opening it up again: any suggestions for a better left-leaning decrease that can be worked between two yarn overs?

* RJ, decoding is available at the end of this post.

Homework is for people without knitting blogs

Plucky Merino Cashmere Nylon, colorway: Hear Me Now*

Tonight I wound up my birthday yarn instead of doing reading. (Nostepinne = such fun!) I had some thoughts for what I could do with this beauty. I would love to hear your thoughts or recommendations!

Yarn on the Nostepinne.

The options I was considering tonight include Grumperina's new Mother of Pearl scarf (rav link) and the Point's Claudette Hat (rav link only, sorry!).

The scarf:
Pro: I was checking my google reader just before class today and thus spent the boring part of econ thinking about this pattern. That's got to mean something.
Pro: The colorway totally fits the idea of the pattern! It's not the pinky white kind of mother of pearl, but it's shimmery and ocean-like all the same. While I would normally hear "brown and green" and think forest, this yarn has hints of turquoise and greyish green that really says "ocean forest" to me.
Pro: I was thinking today that I love how scarves drape and flow and get tossed over one's shoulder.
Pro: Grumperina's patterns are always nice, and (so it seems) are good with plucky yarn.
Con: The pattern calls for 600 yards of DK, and I have just less than 400 yards of fingering. I was thinking how I love long scarves!

**
The hat:
Pro: I mean, take a look. Freaking cute!
Con: Do I have enough yarn? Is this fingering the same as what the pattern calls for? (It seems much thicker to me!)
Con (secret pro): This is a pattern I could see myself making with other yarn and being perfectly happy.

Ok, so maybe the hat isn't really a contender. (Except, the yarn would look lovely in that pattern, I'm sure of it!) But despite my list of mostly pros, I'm not totally sold on the scarf for the yarn. What to do?

*Elizabeth's autoresponse: I WILL ALWAYS COME FOR YOU! *swoon*
**Picture totally stolen from ravelry--I'll take it down if anyone wants.