Farmer's Almanac predicts a horrible winter in Boston

I just saw on the news yesterday that the staff at Farmer's Almanac are predicting that this coming winter in Boston will be colder and snowier than usual. Fear not! This is music to a knitter's ears! Time to get my knit on. I have a couple of warm woolies in the making. One is going well, the other 2 are kind of disasters.

The first pattern  pattern is called Wingspan. My sister sent me some cheerful yarn that is perfect for the pattern. First, I cast on way too many stitches on accident. 180 instead of 90. Oops! Then I decided I wanted it to be knit in a different stitch than the pattern calls for. For the knitters out there, I was going to do stockinet stitch instead of garter. This of course was not the right idea. Now the edges were rolling. I started over a third time, and will just follow the pattern as written. Third time's a charm, right!

The second project was inspired by a gift from a swap partner in New Zealand. She sent me some gorgeous pastel green, merino yarn. It's really beautiful and a color I may not have chosen for myself. I tend to stay in my color comfort zone of pinks, reds and oranges. Of course that means I miss out on greens and blues most of the time. This green will look so pretty with a brown top, or with my navy blue coat! The pattern, called Fault Line, is fantastic as well. I'm half way done and have a triangle that will be so small it won't wrap around my neck. In the past, I would have kept knitting and ended up with a garment that was less useful than I wanted it to be. Not this time! Despite all the work I've put in so far, I will unravel nearly the entire thing and then knit it in a way that will make it longer and skinnier.

Last fall, I started knitting a striped sweater. Bottom line...wrong color combos! I saw the colors all knitted up in a display and I really liked them. Now it looks like a bruised bumble bee. Chartreuse green and plum purple. What was I thinking? Maybe the stripes are too small. Maybe the colors are just wrong. Any advice or ideas would be much appreciated.

It's already starting to feel little like fall here in Boston. Makes me want to knit even more!