(2) If you have to get a ball of yarn to finish a project already on the needles because you ran out of said yarn and you intend to finish said project by the end of Stashalong, that's okay.I don't know if I will finish the blanket in time but it won't be from lack of trying, I'm working on it pretty much every day.
I also just joined the Unloved Sock Yarn Swap. Deadline for signing up is this evening.
Rebecca asked me about stranded knitting in the previous comments. So I'll give you my take on colour-work.
My mother taught me to knit fairisle when I was about 14, so this is the only way I know. First, I am a thrower and carry the yarn in my right hand, when working with two colours I carry both strands in my right hand weaved through my fingers and palm in a certain way that they don't get tangled. This varies with the type of item and type of yarn I'm using but my general rule of thumb is to carry floats for 5 stitches, after 5 stitches I weave in the float.
Whenever possible I weave in the float yarn over a stitch from the previous row that is the same colour as the yarn I'm weaving, of course this is not always possible. The 5 stitch rule works well for me as I find that if you weave in at shorter increments the woven in threads have a tendency to show through.
When working in the round on dpns I always use 5 needles since knitting the Gotland Island Mittens. It was a little bit fiddly at first but now I find using 4 needles awkward. Go figure! When you use 5 dpns (using 4 as working needles) you are able to lay your needles horizontal when switching needles and carrying floats over the join which avoids your work pulling in.
Oh, also when carrying a float longer than 5 stitches over a join between two dpns I always weave in the yarn at the last stitch on the needle, again making a nicer transition over the needles.
And basically, that's how I knit stranded work.
