An update on knitting

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting lately.  I feel like I'm a bit stuck.  I started a sweater back in March/April. I knitted the front and back, but then ran out of the main "Marl"colour.  I decided to forge ahead and knit up the sleeves using the other contrasting colours I was using, but at about bracelet length I ran out of the those colours too.  So now I'm struglling with how to finsih it off.  It really just needs cuffs on the sleeves and a neckband.  I've tried buying more of the  Marl colour but I can't find any!  Maybe I'll go back and see if I can find any more of the blue.  But I don't want to start another big project until I've finished this off.  

Looking at these photos I'm wondering if I can get away with black to finish off the cuffs and the neckband?  

In the mean time - as it sits there waiting for inspiration - I've knitted a couple of pairs of socks.

I bought a ball of sock yarn called Queensland Collection Perth in the colourway Kings Canyon.  I think someone's a bit confused about Australian geography! - but what do you expect it's made in China.  It's a 80% superwash, 20% nylon and the colours are beautiful - that's the main thing.

The first pair of socks I knitted using my standard foot and heel pattern with 4 simple cables running up the leg and finished with a 1 x 1 rib.

The second pair was made with the left overs from the yarn of the first pair.  I felt like doing something a little different so I added a lace section running along the inside of my foot.

I added tiny little 1 x 1  cables to the ribbing around the ankle. and then just added a couple of rows of stockinette to the top to create a little roll. 

The length of these was dictated by the amount of yarn I had available so they are just ankle socks.

Then I decided that I needed to learn something new and decided to try some brioche. 

I found a pattern on Ravely for the Triangular Brioche Cowl.  It was listed as a beginner project but with some interesting design.  I pulled a couple of left over balls of Caron Simply Soft glitter out of my stash in blue and green - I love that colour combination.  For this pattern you start knitting at the tip of the triangle and I found I was really struggling with all the increases with all the new notation etc so I went back and did a swatch just to figure out all the terms and so I could see just what each stitch was doing and why.  Once I had that down I got to work.  I followed the first section of the pattern ( the set up part) exactly  as written, but It was starting to get really long so once I got onto the repeat part I decided to add in a few extra increases so that I got to my goal number of stitches faster.  The pattern calls for 6 repeats of the pattern, but with my extra increases I only had to do 4.  I then also left off a repeat or two of the "in the round " section,. doing the repeat 2 times instead of 4 (I also ran out of yarn at that point).  

A quick google search and youtube tutorial showed my how to do a two colour bind off since there was really no instructions in the pattern - it just says bind off with main colour - and my cowl was done.

And the back.

Maybe its just that I'm not used to it, but it feels quite awkward to wear - too much at the front and not enough at the back.  The good news is that L loves it - so I think it's going to be given to her.

But I've now learnt how to do brioche knitting - next step is to design a new pattern using my new skills.  Hopefully I can figure it out!