shamrock hat

i needed a pick me up knit, and found the ireland rugby hat.  it had a shamrock color work pattern, but the pattern seemed pretty straight forward, so i dove in.

crappy picture, but the main color is patons classic wool in emerald, with winter white and peacock as the contrasting colors.

my project notes are here.  i modified the project as i knitted the brim on size 4 needles and the body on 5s.  i really wish i knitted the colorwork section on a bigger needle, as my tension was tight, and that section is tighter than the rest of the hat.

i also marked off the color work section with stitch markers, so it would be easy to keep track of the pattern stitches.

the hat is ridiculously easy to knit up, and the colorwork chart is very easy to follow.  this hat would make a good first project for a newbie colorwork knitter.

the hat is a beanie style, but my hat wound up a bit longer, making a more slouchy hat, which i really like.


i have no idear why i look so grumpy here.  and check out my wonky eyebrow!


my hat has been out and about over the past couple of weeks, becos i fear that by saint patrick's day, it won't be cold enough to wear a hat!

done!

done, done and DONE!

celtic owl hat, my first stranded project.  knitting two handed is a pain, but i love the result

this is a christmas gift for my dad.  shhhhh!

pre blocked...

more details...


top view.  i think i goofed the top up, but i don't think it's noticeable...


my floats...not too shabby!  the designer suggested knotting the ends together as they would felt when worn.  for the first half of the hat i wove in my ends...but dear bob is it a PITA, so for the rest of the hat i just knotted the ends out of sheer laziness.



my new favorite hat - rikke!


top of the hat...


arty shot of me modeling my hat.  i swear it's growing becos it seems more slouchy every time i wear it!



the million dollar albatross mom's shawl.


my shawl is crooked becos i started it back in the summer and when i picked it up i forgot to increase on the first and last stitch of each row, hence the shawl's weird shape.  at first it put me off, but when i put it on the "arms" of the shawl hang down the front and the shawl sits nicely on my shoulders.  my mom is not a "shawl wrapper" and i think she'll like this.  the pattern was to make a child sized shawl with fringe along the edge, but i kept on knitting until, as EZ puts it "knit until i was sick of knitting it".  i used only one ball of yarn.  i still have another ball of yarn (that would be for the matching mommy scarf).

i still have to make grams gloves, and i started knitting coffee cup cozies for the boy's teachers.  i have 5 of these things to knit.  i'm not in the mood for knitting (been hitting the books lately) - wish me luck!

help is here!

a few weeks ago i wrote about my stranded owl hat, and how i ran out of the main color.  i meant to email the mannings with my quandary but caught the zombie plague which put me out of knitting commission for a couple of weeks.  on monday i finally emailed the shop and explained that i ran out of yarn, had several rows to go on the chart, and was there a way i could obtain more yarn. i was hoping they'd spare several yards for me to complete the hat, but i was willing to buy the yarn becos i really wanted to finish the hat.

yesterday i got an email from the shop, where they explained that the hat designer discovered that she underestimated the amount of yarn the hat required and sent the shop extra yarn in the dye lot.  the problem was, the shop didn't know who bought the kits.  mannings were happy to send me my extra yarn at no charge.  i was ecstatic!  and today the mailman brought me my package of yarn!

i can't wait to finish hooty!

stranded hooty call

i've been cranking on my stranded celtic owl hat.  i started late last week, and i'm about 2/3 of the way finished.  i'm more than halfway through the chart.  it's been a fairly quick knit, considering i'm a slow continental knitter.

i have one concern tho...i'm nearly out of my blue yarn.  it's one of the main colors for the hat.  and i have several rows yet to go in the chart, not to mention it's important for the crown decrease. i'm not sure who makes up the kits, the LYS or the designer, but i think they didn't estimate for enough yarn.  now, when i cast on, i overshot by about 10 inches, but that's still not enough to make up what i'm missing.  and i have a ton of gold and grey yarn (accent colors) left.  i plan to email the LYS and grovel for more yarn, but i fear that i'll probably have to pay for the extra yarn.  sigh

knitting a stranded hat has taught me something about myself.  it's quickly proving that i may be more of a project knitter than a process knitter.  i just want this hat DONE.

i have another hat by the designer - the chickadee tam.  i can't wait to start that one when i'm finished with hooty.  

banging out the knits

i finished up a few WIPs last week.  i was quite the busy knitting beaver - i hope this means my mojo is restored!

winchester mitts.  knit with kollage yarns 1/2-n-1/2, a 50/50 wool and milk fiber blend.  incredibly soft, nice to work with.  these were knit with size US 3 dpns.  the lace pattern was easy to remember and they were a quick knit.

i didn't care for the thumb gusset - the pattern called for an additional 7 stitches picked up for a total of 24 stitches - it made the thumb very loose and big for me.  if i knit these again (and i hope i do, these would make awesome gift mitts) i would omit those extra stitches and just knit up the 17 stitches in the gusset.  

i took an intro to fair isle knitting class at KDO this year and the project we worked on was a headband.  we were to pick 3 colors in a dk weight yarn.  i knit the band on size 3 and 5 16" circs.  i had to learn to knit with a strand of yarn in each hand (dominant color/purling color in the dominant - my right - hand, second color in the left hand).  i got the swing of knitting two handed until i hit the row of a 5/5 stitches in the middle of the band.  basically, in a row where there are long stretches of same color stitches (in this case, 5 orange/5 pink), i had to "catch" the opposing color while knitting the other, to keep the floats smooth and neat.  i had a pickle of a time doing this that morning (plus i was tired, hungry and eager to drive to the mannings to try out wheels) so i abandoned my project for several weeks.

i wanted to get started on a fair isle tam kit i got at KDO but knew i couldn't until i completed my class project.  so i eked out a row here and there, messed up the chart in the middle becos i forgot that when knitting in the round, charts are always read from right to left in every row.   i finally finished it this week.  i should give it a blocking becos the ends want to flip up.  the band is also big - not sure if it's my gauge (heh), the yarn or the fact that it's supposed to be big.  the colors are garish (the yarn was cheap, can't complain) and if anything, petunia will prolly nick it to wear herself.

rav details here.  all yarn details are there was well.


two years ago i knit petunia the sophie poncho with a skein of cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky that i received in a swap.  it sat unworn during this time becos it was too big on petunia's small shoulders.  i unearthed it a couple months ago and, to my dismay, it was still too big and also on the short side.  i decided to frog it and recycle the yarn.

ribbit!


wiggles eyeing the cake of soft smushy yarn!


i looked at the projects knitters used this yarn for, and there were several feather and fan cloches featured.  i like feather and fan and thought it would make a lovely hat.  holy hanna is it a nice pattern.  i also knocked this off in a day.  woo!

details are raveled here.  the pattern called for size US 10 needles, but since mine are occupied at the moment with a shawl, i used my size US 9 circus and magic looped the hat.  i also used stitch markers to mark off the stitch pattern (ask me why - i wished i did this when i made my mom's feather and fan afghan years ago).


i'm slowly working my way through my WIPs - currently plodding through the $100 shawl.  it's a PITA to knit, but i would love to knock it off for christmas.  

slouchy red hat

after dealing with a knitting drought, i made a slouchy hat in screaming red.

pattern is my go-to basic tam pattern by ann budd.  yarn is sirdar click chunky with wool in a hot red color.  my mods to the pattern is that i use a smaller needle (in this case, a US6) for the brim and the body of the hat was knit on a US8.  i used the swirl decrease.  

dang, hot red is hard to photograph.  you can kinda see the swirl there...


last week i played hooky from church sorted my stash by weight and put it in large rubbermaid storage tubs in an effort to prevent infestation and also make it easier to find yarn, as i have stash in all sorts of locations around the house.  this yarn is a couple years old (i honestly don't remember buying it, but according to my rav notes i bought it at swishers which makes me think it's mercy yarn).  my knitting was nil, and i needed a quick knit project.  the yarn was chunky weight, in a cheerful color, perfect for a quicky hat.

i tried to take pictures of me wearing the hat but i look so ghastly, hence why jolie chapeau is modeling slouchy.  the hat's a bit big on me, but that's okay.  some day i'll have long hair again, and will fit nicely inside the hat.

i need more hats.  time to stash dive!

kdo tam

i had half a skein of brava left over from my KDO mittens so i decided to knit a matching hat.


using ann budd's basic tam pattern, i knit the small child size (preschool - early elementary age).  the decrease i used for the top was the swirl decrease so it would create a cute swirly on top.

oh, i magic looped this hat becos i didn't want to be bothered with dpns (except at the decrease of course).  also, despite being acrylic yarn, it was really easy to work with and felt pretty soft.

quick, dirty and easy.  the best way to make a hat.  now my KDO registration is complete!

FOs finally

i knocked out a couple projects.

my class reunion is at the end of the month, and there will be a silent auction at the family picnic.  i decided to knit a small felted bag and i'll add a gift certificate to Stay Sweet Cupcakery to sweeten the deal.

i winged this pattern by casting on 70 or so stitches, knitting with two strands of yarn.  the body of the bag was knitted in the round.  i used patons wool merino in brown and cherie anne designs eirian for the stripes - i threw a stripe in when i felt like it, and used the yarn for contrasting garter stitch handles.  the handles were 7 stitches and i knit them for 13 inches.

prefelted...

the bag felted through two short cycles.  i think i'm going to make a lining for the inside of the bag to make it sturdier.


cephalopod yarns is collecting hats, mittens and scarves for afghans for afghans until the end of june.  upon receipt of the FO, the knitter will receive an emailed code for a free skein of yarn plus one entry to win a $200 gift certificate for yarn.  each additional FO earns the knitter more entries for the gift cert.  free bugga!?  you betcha!

this is my a4a hat.  i knitted ann budd's basic hat pattern on size 10 and 10.5 needles.  i double stranded the yarn (briggs & little yarn i received in a swap) to make the knitting go faster and the hat is incredibly dense.

red fish, blue fish, one big dead fish!

i finished another UFO this week.  here's my dead fish hat:

i started this hat last fall with some spud and chloe yarn i bought originally for the kiddos' hats and mittens sets.  seeing that swimming pool blue would look horrid with petunia's lavender coat (and won't go any better with her fuchsia coat next year!) i decided to make a hat with the yarn.  it's not a hard pattern.  it shouldn't have languished this long.  but i lost interest, and decided to finish it to clear out some UFOs.

the mouth is shaped with short rows, and i forgot to pick up the wraps and knit them:


it wasn't until i got finished with the body that i decided oh, i should fix those wraps.  they look like crap.  so i dropped stitches, picked up the wrap and raveled the stitches back up.  fun times:


the hat's big, even on myself and hubby (who has a big melon head)  here's petunia modeling RFBF1BDF:

and freddie:

and this lucky lad gets to wear the hat for dr. seuss hat day!

knits whodunit

i found these goodies in my woolens stash.  the stitches are intriguing and i'm trying to figure out exactly what stitch pattern it is so i can replicate them.

these mittens were my favorite when i was a child.  they aren't hand knit - according to the tag inside one, they were sold at kmart and were made in china (!!)  the inside is lined with machine knit stockinette.  

the back of the mitten.  if that's a cable, it's one i've never seen before.  i poured over my barbara walker treasury #1 and couldn't find a single sample of the cable.  i checked out the the walker treasury for some suggestions but couldn't find anything similar.


the palm of the mitten.  it looks more like moss stitch than seed stitch.


i think i might do some swatching and see what i can come up with.  i'd love an updated pair of those mittens.  i can still wear them, but they're mighty small.

i can't remember ever wearing this hat when i was little.  maybe it's my mom's hat?  it's also not a hand knit.  who knows where it came from.

i love the stitch pattern!  it's not a popcorn stitch, maybe a bubble stitch?  a quick search on ravelry came up with this option.


methinks i'll be doing more swatching so i can knit a bigger hat!

have you designed a knit based on something you wore when you were little?  i'd love to hear about it!

forgotten knits

i cleaned out the bench by our front door for use as a toy box for the kiddos.  i stored our hats, scarves and mittens in there and i'm going to store them out in the mudroom.  i found these forgotten gems (pre rav, no links!)

lion brand fun fur and chenille hat:

ugh!  you can tell this was one of my first hats.  look at that hole on top!  and the chenille yarn sucks.  it looks like wormy hair yarn.  the hat is a sad love child of the cookie monster and abby cadabby.

lion brand thick and quick and (bernat?) boucle yarn.


the top of the hat doesn't look so bad, but it sat on my head like an oversized pancake.  i'm not sure if this thing was supposed to be a beanie or a flipped brim hat!

second scarf i ever made.  i think the yarn is bamboo, from mad about ewes.  gobsmacked i made a keyhole scarf.  not bad, but you can see my tension is off in spots.


i made this scarf a few years ago, with boucle from steam valley fiber.  it's a shame i forgot this scarf - it's beautiful and is great to wear.


it's fun to see just how far i've come in my knitting!

belated knits

i knit a hat.  and it's (almost) perfect.

what the heck - i got to model it too:



somehow i messed up the swirl and at one point had two extra stitches, so i double decreased those.  it made the swirl a little wonky, but it'll be sitting on my head and shouldn't make a difference anyway.

ravel'd here...i knit the brim on size 4 needles for two inches.  increased to a size 6 needle for the body.  i so hope that codex returns at some point - i loved the silkiness and it's lovely to knit with.

and...i finally finished the doxies!  ravel'd here!

backside...



this one has a stork bite on the butt, just like petunia's!  it was the only way to differentiate between the two!



i wish i knew why i took me so long to knit these guys.  the bodies and tails were done, all i had to do was make arms and ears then assemble.  i think i slogged becos i had to make two of them.  that seems to be the theme for making things for the kiddos (see also:  the owl sweaters).