Tag Archive | hats

FO Friday: Another Hinterland Hat

I just can’t stop making these hats. I have a finished one that I think will be a gift, even if it is a beautiful beautiful purple hat. The red one might also be a gift, since I don’t wear red with my purple hair.

The purple is Malabrigo worsted that I rescued from another project a while back. I think it was another hat that I frogged? I don’t remember, but I’m glad I did because it’s so good for this pattern. And the red is… hmm, it might be from Show Me Yarn? It was already wound and the tag is somewhere still on the shelf in the stash. I’ll find it at some point. Anyway, the red might be my last Hinterland for a while. I think I’m ready to get back to all my WIPs.

Grace is feeling a bit peaky and the dishwasher is broken and the temperatures are going to be in the single digits for another few days, so that’s all super. But let’s look on the bright side: the repairman is coming today and I took Grace to the vet and should get bloodwork results today or tomorrow, and I have flannel sheets and Cuddl Duds. And aside from milk, I don’t know that we need much from the grocery store this weekend, so I might just continue hibernating with knitting and blankets and dogs. I know it’s been pretty cold in a lot of places, so I hope you all are staying warm!

Hello, Hinterland Hat!

Oct3

Okay, well, I knew hats were fast but apparently even cabled hats are a pretty quick project. I finished the Hinterland Hat today and heck, it’s cool. Here’s the Rav link if you want to check it out.

I did mess up two of the cables early on, but there was no way I was going to frog back to fix them. And it worked out well because the folded brim hides the worst of it. I’m still not sure I love the cabling process but I do adore finished cables, and it makes it worth it, at least for smaller projects. I don’t know that I’d want to do a cabled sweater yet.

This pattern had two versions and I chose the second version, which had extra little cables between the purl sections. I know, crazy! The yarn is Island Yarn Blackwater in Silver, and it’s a smooth, squishy superwash yarn. There was a bit of splitting with some of the little cables, but otherwise I love it. Maybe the variegation hides the cabling some, but I think subtle is okay for the recipient. Let’s just hope it fits him!

While I was outside taking photos, I had some furry helpers. What could I do but take a few shots of them too?

Pretty soon it will be too cool for me to want to be outside with them very much, so I’m enjoying while I can. Oh, and last night we watched Enola Holmes. It was cute; I enjoyed it. I loved Millie Bobby Brown but somehow Henry Cavill made Sherlock a little too … likeable. I guess I prefer Sherlock as a curmudgeon.

Hope you’re having a good weekend too!

Okay but seriously

Sep15

Do mittens need to be exactly the same size?? I’ve been working on my donation hats and mittens, and I have two awesome mittens but one is two rows longer than the other. Argh.

I have enough green yarn left to make either a hat, or a second set of mittens so that I have two sets that match. I prefer making hats to mittens but I also prefer to have mittens be the same size. What would you do, mittens or hat?

While I ponder, I’ll make a set of brown mittens and cross my fingers that I can make them the same size! And if anyone else is interested in donating, here’s the info: Maine Access Immigrant Network, 237 Oxford St, Suite 25A, Portland ME 04101.

Two More FOs!

Feb9

Maybe I needed that fast FO to kickstart my finishing urge: I finished two more projects in the last two days! Apparently, if you keep knitting on something, eventually it gets done. Crazy, right? First I finished my Gossip socks, on the needles for two months.

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The yarn is Hedgehog Fibres Sock and it’s so pink that I struggled to get an accurate photo, but this is pretty close. I liked knitting with this yarn; it wasn’t like alpaca-soft but it felt good in my hands, and it feels like it will hold up well. I’ll let you know!

My other FO is my Standing Rock Hat, which took a month despite being just nine inches of ribbing. It was my travel project until I decided it needed to just be done.

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Mine didn’t look as good as a slouchy hat as the designer’s did, so I cuffed it up and like it a lot. The yarn is Primrose Yarn Co. Jasper, a DK merino. It wasn’t nearly as soft as I thought it would be, so I don’t know how it will feel against my skin for prolonged periods. I don’t normally block hats but I think I’ll unsnap the awesome removable pompom and give it a soak in some wool wash to see if it softens up.

I can see the finish line on another project, so that’s my goal for this weekend. Hope you all are getting some productive knitting in too!

Someone wants a hat!

Dec21

I finally finished this pair of socks. I started them over six weeks ago, which is a really long time for me. But these got set aside for some gift knitting, so at least there’s a good reason. Still, it was a relief when I wove in that last end and called them done. They don’t quite match exactly, but I’m telling myself I’m okay with it.

So it has a longer section of gray at the toe, what’s the big deal, right? This way I didn’t have to get into the second skein of purple for two inches. The important thing is that the socks are soft and cozy, and they’re the same size. That’s pretty good!

With the socks done, I could move on to new projects without guilt. A friend asked for a hat for her husband, and I was delighted. I do love making hats, and I’ve overwhelmed the rest of my people with hats, so it’s a treat to have someone who actually wants me to make a hat! Within two days I’d whipped up this simple red and white striped hat, which could be considered festive but is secretly Huskers colors.

And that was so much fun that I decided not to stop there. Ask for one hat, get two, apparently! I pulled these out this morning and cast on with the navy already. (These are Seahawks colors, just in case you’re like me and don’t follow any sportsball stuff.) I’m improvising my own pattern again; casting on 88 with size 6 for the ribbing, then switching to 8s for the body. I’m doing a different stripe pattern; hopefully it comes out like I see it in my head.

I’ll close with two bits of good news: a while back I made pombe yeast hats for two new people in the lab at work, and they received them on Monday. Both of them seemed to be genuinely delighted, and they both wore them around most of the day at work yesterday. That really made my day; I work with such awesome people.

Finally, Grace is doing so much better. She’s clearly got more energy, isn’t sleeping as much during the day. She was even playing outside with Duncan this morning, which she hasn’t done in a few weeks. Her appetite is back and she wants to eat everything…except the kibble we’ve been feeding them for ages. But that’s fine, we’ll look for a different food at the store today and hopefully find something tasty that won’t break the bank. Feeding three big dogs gets expensive! We’re being pretty generous with her, giving her some chicken when we cook it, and extra treats here and there, so that she’ll gain back some of the weight she lost. It’s such a relief to not be so worried about her!

That’s all for now. We’re all taking a vacation day today and in a bit we’re going out for a Family Fun Day, at least as soon as I can get everyone motivated to get out of bed and shower. There’s probably a visit to a bookstore in my future, a trip downtown to see some Christmas lights, maybe a lovely dinner out. Here’s hoping your holidays are equally delightful!

Socks, Hats, Dogs.

Sep3

Remember how I finished two baby blankets for a friend with twins, and they just needed to be blocked? Well, they were washed and laid out to dry last weekend and looked great. Then I woke up Monday morning and spotted this in my craft room:

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Naughty pupper! But still cute. Thankfully, he didn’t damage it at all, just left some dirty spots so that I need to rewash it. And now I know to close my craft room door when things are blocking on the floor!

After finishing all my WIPs recently, I got to cast on a couple of new projects. The first is a sock, of course, since one must have a sock on the needles. I chose The Theory of Relativity socks and my new Cherry Tree Hill amethyst sock yarn, but pulled out a bit of leftover hot pink for contrasting bits. I have to pay attention to the pattern, but so far I love how it’s turning out.

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I’m just a little scared of the size. The pattern strongly recommends casting on more stitches because the pattern isn’t as stretchy as most, so I went with the size I needed per their measurements, but it seems like a lot! I really hope they don’t come out too big.

My other new WIP is a hat, which I’m loving because I haven’t done a hat in so long! This one is a donation for a silent auction. At first I thought I’d do this Zig Zag Chevron hat. I love how it looks and thought it would be a good way to try colorwork. HA! It did not go well and I hated every moment of the attempt. I do know that if I spent more time feeling comfortable with English style, it would be easier, and I could watch videos and blah blah blah. Bottom line, I didn’t like it enough to spend that much time on it yet. I’ll learn how to do colorwork someday, and that’s enough for me.

I still wanted to do two colors, though, and I still wanted to do something other than basic stripes. I decided to do my own thing based on a cowl I’ve made and loved called the Twinkly Lights cowl. This is what I’ve got so far:

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Just decreases and a big pompom left to do. Then I’ll make a pair of matching fingerless gloves to go with it, and hope someone likes the set enough to bid on it. And with it being a long weekend, plus jury duty on Tuesday, I should have time to make good progress.

Oh! And today we’re going to look at puppers! All the shelters are running specials to make room for dogs coming up from Texas (they’re bringing up dogs that were already in shelters, leaving room in the Texas shelters for dogs displaced by Harvey in hopes that they’ll be reclaimed by owners). That’s a good time to adopt a third dog, right? Haha! Yes, I’m probably crazy. But I’m okay with it, if it means I get to have lots of dogs!

So Many FOs!

Dec18

I have SO MANY finished objects to share, it’s ridiculous. And just so you don’t hate me, keep mind that some of them I finished a while ago and couldn’t share at the time, and some of them were simple travel knitting, and some of them were super quick crochet hats. So, now that we’ve agreed not to judge or compare, let’s take a peek, shall we?

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First up: Messy Bun Hats! Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon, but it was by request. The bottom two are for two of my nieces, and the top two are for a friend’s nieces. I used this pattern as a basis but modified a bit, mostly by picking up stitches for a knitted brim instead of crochet. These hats are incredibly fast to make.

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This scarf is for a coworker, and it was also super quick to make. I used Susan B. Anderson’s Leaf pattern and one skein of Bernat Roving and got one cute scarf. Hopefully the blocking keeps it from curling too much.

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This is another cowl with Cascade Yarns’ Spuntaneous yarn and I think it’s stunning. Plus, big yarn + big needles = fast project! Pattern is New Years Cowl.

This little kitty just needed whiskers, so that was a fast finish too. I dabbed some glue on them and now they’re drying, so hopefully they’ll stick out nicely and my nephew will be pleased. He’s one of my favorite people to knit for; he just loves everything so much.

Okay, this one was not a fast finish. I started this in February 2015 and finally forced myself to finish it. It’s not perfect, not exactly what I thought it would be, but it’s done, and once I’ve taken a break from looking at it, I might even be able to wear it. Pattern is Purl Soho’s Gradient Cowl and I used 8 colors of KnitPicks Palette.

All right, are you ready for the last reveal?? It’s my favorite, I think. So, I work in a lab that studies yeast, and a while back my boss asked me to make pombe yeast hats for the team. She didn’t have any other requests or ideas beyond that, so I asked what it looked like. (I’m the non-scientist admin person; I don’t actually play with the yeast.) Tetrads, she said, like four peas in a pod. I went hunting, asked my Knitting SIL for advice, and eventually stumbled on bobbles. Bobbles ended up being perfect.

I started with this pattern, but it was mostly for the general look. I kind of made up my own stitch counts, and changed the bobble pattern to be groups of four. But guess what? Bobbles are horrible. I mean, they’re not that hard, but good grief they’re fiddly and interrupt the rhythm of knitting and they were a pain in my butt. I don’t think I’ll be doing much more bobble-knitting in the future. Still, I persevered and everybody got their own color, and I think they were pleased. At least some of them were. Some of them might not be hat people, and that’s okay. It was a fun project.

And after all that, I’m down to only four WIPs on my needles. I didn’t commit to very much gift-knitting so I don’t have any projects that I *need* to finish. I mean, I really should pick up one of my WIPs, but I’m also feeling kind of desperate to cast on something new, something else with bulky yarn. What’s your favorite quick bulky-yarn project?

Fairy SnowCap

Nov13

I finished a hat this morning and it’s so pretty! This was my spur of the moment “I need to make a hat” knitting this weekend, and it fit the bill perfectly.

Pattern: Fairy SnowCap It was well-written, included lots of tips and instruction and photos. Very little repetition in the lace pattern so it made me think without making my lose my head. Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Jil Eaton Minnow Merino in dark pink. Used every bit of 154 yards, and that was making a slightly smaller pompom than the designer.

Now, here’s what I didn’t like: making a hat top-down! You have to start on DPNs, which aren’t my favorite, and this pattern has a lot of YOs and my YOs never ended up at a good spot on my needles so I switched to 9″ circs as soon as I could, but they were metal Addis and way too slick for this yarn/pattern. Once I was able to get to my bamboo 16″ circs, it was okay, but then you run into the bottom edge problem: it needs to be stretchy without being too big. The pattern recommended a sewn Kitchener bindoff, and included a handy phototutorial and everything, but I’m a lazy knitter and I just did Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bindoff instead. It fits my medium-size head well, maybe loose enough that it would work well on a large head too. So I’m calling this a win, but I probably wouldn’t knit this pattern again. That’s totally me and my preferences, and not the pattern.

I hope you’re all enjoying your weekend as much as I am mine. (It’s wonderfully unscheduled, leaving my lots of crafty time.) I even have plans to go to a LYS today!

Bittersweet Birthday Cowl

Sep24

I have made some progress on my quest to knit all the things. Yes, I only have one FO, but I think that’s reasonable given my WIPs. One is a Sockhead hat, yes, a hat knit with sock yarn on tiny needles. It’s my brainless knitting so it doesn’t come out all the time. But I do love knitting on it. It’s so pretty and the yarn feels so nice. I have about two inches left before starting the decreases.

I also worked on my KC Royals Crackerjack scarf, and I’m all caught up to last night’s game. We only have eight games left, which is 16 rows, and then I’ll graft the ends together and it will be done! And I’ll probably set it aside and not want to wear it right away because I’m tired of looking at it. I just should have made it last year, when we won the World Series. Oh well. Who knew, right?

Here’s the FO, the Bittersweet Birthday Cowl. I worked on this during lunch at work and really enjoyed it. I modified the original long cowl to a short version, and I think it’s perfect. The lace pattern is beautiful. And this might be some of the most gorgeous Malabrigo I’ve used yet; it’s Rios in the Sabiduria colorway. The photos don’t even portray the color honestly. It’s deeper, darker, richer. Just gorgeous.

It’s not blocked yet. It will look neater when it is.

I didn’t work on any of my other WIPs this week, and I might not get much done this week. I have a couple more chemo caps to make, special color requests, so those come first. But when they’re done, I might be casting on a new project. Check out The Secret Way of Patterns. It’s a beautiful buttoned cowl pattern, but the story touched me too: a young girl who wants to be a fashion designer, who lost her grandmother and now wants to support her grandma’s charity. Yep, I bought the pattern, and would have even if I hadn’t thought it lovely. But I do, and I’ll enjoy making it.

Until next time, I’ll leave you with a nice thought from a movie we watched last night: “Have courage, and be kind.” Just about says it all, doesn’t it?

Knitting all the things

Sep20

Ha, I finally finished that dumb ribbed beanie! I mean, the pattern was fine–I just messed up at first and then got tired of it. I tried to modify and guessed wrong and ended up with a hat that was too small and too short for the boy. Okay, fine. I frogged and started over. But 1 x 1 rib on size 3 needles with fingering weight yarn, even held double, takes a while to knit. It got rather tiresome, which is probably why I set it aside for a while. Then I got tired of seeing it so Sunday I decided it had to get done. I was at the decreases anyway, so I was thisclose to the end. Before too long I had a finished hat and the boy put it on and said…”It’s a little big.” Argh. Yes, he’s still alive, but only because I had witnesses. Anyway, it’s done, it’s close enough, and he can wear it or not, I don’t care much at this point.

After that I was free to cast on something new because I only had 4 WIPs. Of those, one is a blanket (hibernating WIP), one is a long seed stitch cowl (hibernating WIP) and one is my Royals baseball crackerjack scarf, which is by design a summer-long project. I needed more! First I started Here Be Water Dragons with Stitchjones Dyepot Superwash Merino. I’d actually started it a couple of days ago, but didn’t like the fabric with the suggested needles, so it got frogged and I’ll start over with size 9 needles. I love the colors in this yarn–they’re perfect for fall/Halloween knitting–but it’s not the softest. I don’t know if I’ll be able to wear it next to my skin.

Then there’s Madelia. I started it last week and accidentally pulled the needle out of several stitches, and there were way too many k2tog and YOs to try to pick them up. No biggie, I wasn’t that far in. Plus I used the opportunity to switch from my Karbonz to bamboo needles. I adore my Karbonz; they’re usually my favorite needles. But they were too slippery for lace with this yarn: Berroco Fiora, which is 40% cotton and 30% rayon. After yesterday’s knitting session, I’m on to the fourth section and having a lovely time. It’s a really fun knit. I think I needed to add a more complicated pattern to the mix.

I also cast on for the New Bittersweet Cowl. I’m calling in the Bittersweet Birthday Cowl because I’m using my birthday yarn, and because it was my 40th birthday, which is a little bittersweet. I’m modifying it to be a one-loop cowl because that’s all the yarn I have.

And in that picture you can see my only FO for this post: the yarn bowl! It was actually made by the Knitting SIL for my birthday, and I added the black frog closure over the weekend. I LOVE it. It’s so pretty, and fits one wound skein perfectly.

I’m still working on my Sockhead hat and it’s knitting up beautifully, but it’s definitely too simple and mindless to be my at-home knitting.

Finally, I have Silverleaf. I’m loving knitting with the Malabrigo Arroyo but I’m a little stuck in the garter repeats. I’m so eager to get to the leaf pattern! And eager to wear it, too, so I guess I better keep on knitting.

Now I have this fun, varied collection of WIPs to choose from when I have some knitting time! I’m not sure I’ll even do much gift knitting this year: my knitting time is so diminished that I don’t know if I want to spend it making things for other people, unless I’m 100% sure they’ll love it, and use it. So far I don’t have anything like that in mind. Selfish knitting for the win! I’m sitting at 8 WIPs right now, and that’s a great number, don’t you think? Heck, I think I’ll add one more–I just remembered a birthday gift I need to knit. But it’ll be a small, quick knit, so that barely counts, right?

As if all of this wasn’t enough, I did some blocking over the weekend too, and now my Saroyan scarf and Fern Lace Cowl are ready to wear! The scarf is especially scrumptious and makes me long for a colder day.

Yes, with all this crafty stuff going on, I’d say it was pretty darn close to an ideal weekend. I definitely felt like it recharged my creative battery–and that helps keep me sane and happy throughout the week. Now, let’s see how much I can actually get done on all these projects this week!