F.O. Report - Orange Hat

I made the mistake of introducing my kids to Malabrigo, and now nothing else quite compares for a good, warm hat. I don't mind buying it and love knitting with it, but I don't like it so much when they accidentally wind up in the wash (= toddler felted cap). So imagine my delight when I finally made it the Yarn Lounge to pick up some yarn for myself (gasp!) and saw Malabrigo in my son's favorite color!



Hats are SO fun to knit. This Ann Norling pattern is just such a simple classic, fits infants to adults and covers lots of gauges - I loved it so much after seeing a sample at the Yarn Lounge that I bought two copies by mistake. (If anyone needs a good pattern - leave a comment this week and I'll randomly select the winner!



Still talking, that boy is. I had to answer a question the other day with "Honey - I don't know - I stopped listening 10 minutes ago". The mother-of-the-year award is still open, isn't it?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The last of my washcloth binge, knitted and quickly passed off to a favorite leprechaun.

Have a wonderfully, green day!

Sn-oatmeal

Let's ignore that this is two snows ago (sounds like American Indian timekeeping) - and remember that I am trying really hard to catch up, shall we?

Sometimes the silliest things become "family traditions". When the kids were very little I would scoop up a little snow on their oatmeal and call it snow oatmeal or sn-oatmeal. Mind you, we don't get much snow around here, so it is a rare breakfast treat.

Imagine my surprise when we had a little dusting a few weeks back and my daughter hurries into the kitchen asking breathlessly "Can we have sn-oatmeal?". Well - yes you can! And here it is - in all its frozen, gray glory:



And since it had finally "snowed", we even scrounged up a few marshmallows to add to steaming mugs of hot chocolate:



And what do all knitters think of when it snows - knitting! I had just finished working on a pair of mittens for myself and thought the snow was a perfect backdrop. Here they are in their frigid, gray glory:



This pattern was posted on Jimmy Beans newsletter and linked to the pattern from Pure and Simple. I used Rowan Biggie Print from JBW. After being chilled to the core for most of the winter, I really wanted thick, sturdy mittens to tend to outdoor chores, like chicken arc mucking. The yarn was supposed to more about shades of brown, but the actual yarn came out to be more like gray, white, and red. Prettier, indeed. And so easy! The pair took less than 3 hours on size #10 dpns. The short wrists are perfect with a coat and the thickness makes them super warm. I loved the proportions - not too long in the hand or the thumb. Very wearable.



A word of caution about this pattern - be careful with your yarn. Each skein makes one mitten, and this is what I had left - after both mittens!

Really, I Do Still Knit

It's true - I still knit! Just way slower and with more distractions (like re-reading the Sue Grafton Alphabet mystery series - seemed like a fun idea this summer, but man has it cut into my evening knitting time).


Carpal tunneling went well, so I am trying to pick back up where I left off with some oldies, but goodies. The best of the best is the Mitt-A-Long:




How long ago did we start this, Pam? A year at least. Anyway, Pam has discovered the secret to life by way of fair isle and we've both gotten re-energized. I think that I am almost half-way done on the first mitten? I've found tons of mistakes, but I am looking at this as a technical practice piece. If I get a wearable mitten out of it, great; but if all else fails, they'll make a fun Christmas decoration.




Now that I've posted all of this, I'd better take less than another year to finish!

Re-Entry

We made it back from London in one piece and I am trying to figure out which end is up.

Here are a few pictures to keep you distracted from my fuzzy-headedness:


Now that is some knittin'! Can you see the skirt? I'm sure she has a project in that bag. I was just happy she didn't notice me hurrying up behind her to snap this photo and whack me with it.



My wonderful friend scoped out a knitting stop for me. A whole knitting department in a multi-floor department store! Attention Macy's: get a clue! These samples were set out in such a cute display. Unfortunately, the yarns seemed mostly the same as home, but at twice the price due to the exchange rate, so I left all the lovely yarn on the shelves.

And speaking of shelves: check out the selection here:



Just PART of the giant wall of Rowan. I have never seen so much Rowan in one location. The color selection for each type of yarn just blew me away.



And now I'm off to figure out what meal we should be eating...

Dirt Knitting

Christmas knitting is finally finished!

Here are the convertible fingerless gloves/mittens for my Dad:



And the socks for my Mom (two - a whole pair!):



And while I was on a roll, I knocked out another Kim's Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts out of the spare Christmas knitting Manos for my husband:



It fits nice and tight, just what he wanted and it a reverse color-way of his brother's Dirt Hat. I couldn't help notice that there is a drab colorway going on in my current knitting projects. In fact, this hat matches the mud that is half of our front yard.




Mud is everywhere as the garage continues to limp along toward completion. It is everywhere and on everything. It shouldn't be a surprise that it has invaded my knitting.



And see that skein of Lion Suede - another dirt-colored project. I hope I can cast out all the mud and dirt out of my house when I cast off with this last dirt knitting project.

Calling it Quits for Christmas Knitting

I made most of my goals this year, so it time to call it quits for Christmas knitting. I finished Mom's pair of socks, and I'm only short one and a bit of dad's convertible fingerless mittens, but have been given an official pardon from the 'rents. When I tried to excuse my tardiness by accusing them of not being very ramped up for Christmas, Dad got a little defensive. So I asked "Do you have a tree?". "Sure" he says. Ceramic trees don't count, Dad! In fact, I let him know that you are officially "old" when you only have a ceramic tree up. Is it any wonder I don't get invited home very often!

But I did get the last of the presents completed for Tim's family. Here is the hat I made for his brother. It's Kim's Hat from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, knitted on size 7 circulars and dpns out of the recommended Manos de Uruguay.

I ran a bit short, so I swung by Unraveled to pick up a coordinating color. They helped find the perfect color - sort of looks like soil layers - but I really don't like how they have all the yarn organized by color. I came in looking for Manos and needed professional help just to figure out what they had in the store.

I tightened up the gauge to make the hat fit the recipient (the final dimensions seemed big), but didn't really think about adjusting the inches of height. I knitted the men's size, but got the women's dimension for the circumference. Perhaps I should have knitted the women's height as well. I have the same head dimension as my brother-in-law and it is comfortably snug. The men's size at gauge would have floated on his head.

On my daughter it looks very much like a top at, don't you think?

It's not so bad in person, a little funky edge to a ski hat design. And by getting extra yarn, I have just the amount for another hat for my perpetually cold husband. Win-win for everyone - except my Dad!

Pumpkin Head Beret

I'm not sure what it means when the only head model you can find around the house is a pumpkin.



This is the Tweed Beret from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. I knit the larger size first (22 1/2") for pumpkin-headed reasons, but it came out more like a rasta hat. I tried frogging back and messed it up so much, I just yanked it all out. After all, since it is labeled "Simple Knits", it was easier to just start over again.



The hat is knitted from the center out. A bit fiddly at first, but fun to watch grow. The increases make such a pretty spiral on the top. Reknitting wasn't so bad since I was knitting with Classic Elite Waterlily. Yummo! #9s got me to gauge.



A detail of the rolled edging and the decreases.

I'm so happy I made a garment that fits! Maybe I should finally start a sweater...