Summer Project #1: String of Lights

Despite having a lot of my stuff packed in boxes in the storage unit in anticipation of moving out of the dorm apartment, I did leave out a few projects and miscellaneous craft stuff. One of the projects I decided to work on this summer is one that I'd seen a friend knitting several years ago, a string of lights. The pattern is part of a set of patterns from Knit Picks, called Winter Wonderful, which now comes as either the pattern alone, or with the yarn; when I bought it a couple of years ago, I bought it as a kit with the yarn included. Of course, I really only love a few of the patterns, and in retrospect probably could have figured out on my own how to make the lights. But I like the yarn colors that were included in the kit, and I already have some ideas for using them up down the road.

five lights done:
dark blue, light grey, light blue, white, blue.
repeat.

The pattern is essentially a long I-cord with the lights coming off at regular intervals. I started with the string itself and it's now just over two yards long (measured very accurately using the nose to fingertip method), with space for about 30 lights. You can see the loop at on end, and the stitch holder at the other end. The safety pins are holding the stitches that will start each light. 

The pattern leaflet shows white lights, and suggests an alternative of multicolored lights (with colors included in the kit). But who am I to follow the suggested directions! Instead, I dug into the sky-blanket leftovers, which are conveniently the same kind of yarn as this kit, and have a combination of blues, white, and light grey lights. I haven't quite decided how long to make the finished string, but given that I left one end on the stitch holder, with the green skein still attached, I can make it longer.

It has been the perfect project for while I'm watching hulu during the rainy afternoons we seem to be having almost daily. Stay tuned for the end result!