Hey there, dear readers, I’ve had a real surge of crafty creativity lately and I thought it would be fun to post about what I’ve been up to, what I’m thinking about, and what’s up next.

After unveiling the hat from my last post I somehow got myself involved in a whole ton of swaps for more of those. I’ve just about got the pattern completely memorized at this point, not to mention perfected. I’ve since finished two more of those and am almost done with the third. Exhibits A:

and B:

The gray one is cascade eco wool held double (sounds crazy, but it’s a very lofty yarn, trust me!) and the maroon one is lamb’s pride worsted. The third hat, also in lamb’s pride worsted, is waiting until I can get together with the recipient and make it fit her. She’s getting a custom fitting because when she tried on the original lumberjack hat the fit was, um, interesting. And by interesting I mean that a hat that normally hits the middle of my forehead was halfway down her face. I didn’t think my head was that big, but, well, apparently it is.

As for what else I’m working on, I really need to get off my ass and finish this vest. I mean, really. The last time I took a picture of it was right before I started the neck and armhole decreases:

I swear there’s more of it now. There is no good reason why I haven’t just finished this up. Remember vestvember? As in – NOVEMBER? I started my vest about the same time Minty started hers, and I had big plans of finishing it during the month, which I completely could have done. To be fair, there was a design project that came up with a deadline, and that was initially why I set the vest aside. Listen to me and the BS excuses. I’m a huge fan of knitting colorwork, and I really, really want the finished vest. And I’m chomping at the bit to try steeking for the first time – sick, I know? I really want to knit this huge complicated thing and then cut it with scissors. What is wrong with me.

The real reason I haven’t finished it is that I have total craft ADD. I just want to do everything all at once. I have big plans to make a Stripes (seriously, check it out – it’s basically the perfect sweater), which, initially I thought I’d at least start for the knitting olympics, but it may be more reasonable to finish this vest first. But then there’s the omnipresent temptation of colorwork mittens. I’ve had a kit for the Chevron Love Mittens hanging around for God only knows how long, and I really desperately need another pair of good cold weather mittens. Imagine those with a lining in laceweight – oh my.

Oh and just when I thought this post about my imminent cast-on frenzy was done, I remembered two other things I’m frothing at the mouth to try. The first is colorwork in crochet. The minute I saw these mittens I had to run out and buy the latest Interweave Crochet – which, I might has a ton of really cute, eminently wearable patterns in it. Then I saw their feature and patterns on Tunisian crochet, and oh mah gah. I tried this technique years and years and years ago when I first learned crochet, so it seems I need to re-learn. I’m planning on making a couple swatches and hopefully a quick scarf, and then moving up to this jacket. I’m pretty wary of bulky yarns for sweaters, because frankly I don’t really need the extra bulk, but in a jacket it works. I love the feminine cut, and I imagine that jacket would stitch up pretty quickly and then provide me with endless hours of wooly warmth. That texturey stitch pattern would be great in a semi-solid yarn.

Now when am I going to find the time to do this? Well I was thinking those 10 or so hours I spend every day doing useless things like eating, sleeping, and bathing – those would be good.

A little over a year ago I picked up the Jan/Feb 09 issue of Crochet Today because I absolutely HAD to HAVE the lumberjack hat. Immediately. I needed it right then and there. And then things happened and time got away from me, and finally, a year later I had yarn and time (two days) to stitch it up.

This is a great hat for me because, not only is it warm as all get out, it suits my totally bizarre need for hats – that is, I cannot STAND having any kind of natural fiber touching the top of my face. I don’t know why I would be so sensitive in that domain and not others – I could probably wear a scarf made of burlap, for example. Obvs slouchy hats made of wool are fine since they’re on my hair, not my face. But if I’m going to wear a snug hat that’s going to touch my forehead it needs to be 100% synthetic. Usually when it’s really cold I wear a fleece hat, which is fine, but kind of tragic, given that I’m a knitter/crocheter.

As for my lumberjack hat, the outside is oh-so-warm and oh-so-scratchy brown sheep lamb’s pride worsted. The floofy lining, however, is red heart moon & stars and it is 100% soft, floofy, and man-made. The pattern is very simple, considering the fact that you’re making a multi-layered hat. The construction is top-down, and you crochet all of the brown outer hat first, then pick up stitches along the straight bottom edge with the lining yarn. The only modifications I made to the pattern were to make the front flap and ear flaps slightly shorter than called for, and to line the inside of the forehead section with the red heart.

Now, at long last, I have a ridiculously warm hat made by my own hand. No more crappy store-bought fleece hats for me.

And to all, some belated Christmas presents!

So I may have bit off more than I could chew with the Christmas knitting this year. I still haven’t blogged a couple things I gave away, and there are a couple more I’m still working on. And um, I want to knit some stuff for myself, too? When is that going to happen?

Anyway, my first FO of 2009 is from another minty pattern. This is her roman earflat hat (pdf!):



As far as mods go, there’s a pretty obvious one – no earflaps. I took Minty’s advice and increased the number of rounds of straight knitting after the brim to a total of 15. I’m pleased with the look of the finished hat, but now it goes down low enough that earflaps are completely unnecessary. I may try the pattern again for myself (I’m really really in love with that squishy brim) and only do 12 or so rounds of knitting post-brim. This hat is a good size on Peto, but it was a tad loose on me, so I’ll go down a needle size in the future.

The deets are on ravelry, but here they are in brief:
The yarn is berroco pure merino DK and it feels like butter. I have serious issues putting any kind of animal fiber on my head (no idea why – I could wear a burlap scarf, but my forehead can’t handle anything even vaguely itchy) and I would really like to get some more of this for a hat for myself. I used a US5 circular needle and was done after a day or two of plane travel.



Happy new year, everyone!

This is a quick drive-by blogging of a hat I recently made for Peto!



The pattern is thorpe (PDF!), and I used it as kind of a stashbuster to get rid of a bunch of different gray yarns. I think the hat lends itself nicely to that… I was generally holding two worsted/aran weight yarns together and knit on US10s, so I actually made the smallest size to make up for the difference in gauge. It took me a while to figure that one out – I knit the thing three times in the end, but he’s pleased with the final result!



On the top there we have some cascade 220 combined with some alpaca from a farm in Oregon (beautiful stuff – I lost the ball band eons ago), then two strands of cascade 220 for a bit, then cascade 220 (again) with some jo sharp silkroad aran tweed, and on the bottom there’s the silkroad aran tweed and debbie bliss alpaca silk aran. Yeah, there’s a few yarns involved in that hat.

But seriously, I loved this pattern so much I’ll probably start one for myself next. I didn’t put the braid ties on Peto’s because, as he put it, “UGH NO! I’d look like Pollyanna!” I’ll take the braids for mine, I guess…

It occurred to me that I never introduced the shedir hat that I knit over Christmas as a real finished knit – just a screwed up one! After its surgery it recovered well, and turned into an absolutely fantastic hat! I tried it on my own head before I gave it away, and the size turned out perfect, and it felt great. Honestly, this one was hard to give up.



Pattern: Shedir(PDF!!!) by Jenna Wilson (the pattern on ravelry)
Needles: 2 US3 circs
Yarn: 1 skein of Jojoland Cashmere (4 ply)



mods: I’m not sure if this really counts as a mod, but I finally learned how to cable without a cable needle, and boy did it ever pay off on this hat. It would’ve taken me EONS to finish had I used an actual cable needle. Seriously, this cabling without a cable needle is thrilling and fast and efficient and only a little bit terrifying the first time, and not at all after that. I really recommend the technique and grumperina’s tutorial!

Also, every knit stitch you see on that hat was knit through the back loop. This yarn is some fuzzy stuff, and I really wanted the cables and traveling knit stitches to pop out and not spread all nastily into the purls.

I’m hoping I can crank another one of these out this year. I have a skein of quiviut hanging around (it was a really, really nice gift) that would be perfect in a shedir for me!