Oh, baby.

I'm makin' a sweater.

For a baby. 

I haven't as yet found a specific baby to bestow it upon but I'm really excited about it.

This yarn is awesome. Yes, I got it from Michael's and it's acrylic but one skein (ball) can make one ear flap snowboarding style hat with pom-poms and braided straps.  The color reminds me of the renaissance and it's gorgeous and I love it. The yarn has been just sitting around for 6 months because I originally bought it for a blanket but realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn for the size I wanted to make and ended up turning it into a cowl sorta thingy.

 

I'm hoping to make the acquaintance of an fashion conscious toddler who will luxuriate in the wearing of these gorgeous colors as much as I would.

Happy Thursday all.

- N.

Do you like my party hat?

The next stop on my hat adventure was this baby, a slouchy, stretchy number with really easy faux cables. Instead of using cable needles it's just a twisted stitch. The pattern was quite easy once I looked up the couple of things I didn't know (What would we do without youtube? Have a lot less hats, I'm sure)

I love the way cables look but am a little intimidated by them, so this was a nice introduction, a brief handshake of sorts with the idea of cables.

I'm not super happy with the back, because I messed up when decreasing (reducing the number of stitches) so at times it gets all lumpy and sticks out with a weird little point, but it's a learning process and now next time I know how to do it differently. 

This is what it's supposed to look like, effortless and cool. Just like me, obviously.

But hey, mistakes and all, I love it 'cause I made this, dude!

P.S High-five if you know what Dr. Seuss book the title of this post is from.

Must I always be a day late and a dollar short?

Remember the helmet liner I was working on for my uncle Ryan? I got the neck finished,  got my knitting teacher to help me figure out the face opening and I was happily knitting away (the night before our trip to El Paso to see Ryan off) when I decided google the size requirements and all that just to double check that everything was to regulation and guess what I found? An announcement from CitizenSAM (The organization that shipped the liners to the troops) saying the military can no longer accept knitted helmet liners, and have not been able to for almost a year(Great observation skills, I know. I am always the last to know these things), as they now issue their own. Awesome. This left me no more time to knit something to give him before he leaves nor is there now something he could use while downrange (That's right, I picked up some terms). I continued it for a little while we were in El Paso, but figured what's the point now that he can't use while deployed. He very kindly said he would take up hunting so he could use it at home but I figured starting up a whole new hobby for sake of helmet liner wear-ability was a tad much. So, I frogged it (used to describe the ripping out of stitches. Riiiiippit) and decided to make him a winter cap to wear when he gets back. Portland can get cold and icy so I figured a warm wool hat for winter would still be useful and heartfelt. Still discouraged from the liner debacle I went a-searching for a uniquely patterned yet still masculine looking hat and.....*insert heavenly music here* I found this baby.

Not the actual baby, mind you, but a fabulous hat pattern called Nottingham by Melissa Mall. I searched Celtic hat patterns on ravelry.com (super-de-duper awesome site, if you're involved in the art of crafting things from fiber you should definitely check it out). It's cables on a larger scale than a swatch, which is all I've done before, so it'll be a challenge but some change is much needed after all the Christmas present hats I've been making that use the same ridiculously simple 2 stitch pattern. I'm going to use the same yarn as I was using for the liner, a dark grey wool and hope it'll end up at least slightly resembling the picture. Off I go to cast on. Toodles.

*Photo credit - Melissa Mall. Here's the link to her pattern page

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nottingham-2

Warm heads

My Uncle Ry is deploying to Afghanistan in a few weeks, and I wanted to make him something before he leaves. Preferably something heartfelt but also useful, as opposed to, say, a knitted coat hanger. I found a helmet liner pattern and cast it on Monday night. I got the six inches of the neck done and was all ready to take it to my knitting class to have help with the face opening when my friendly neighborhood whirling dervish  decided to attack and stitches were irreparably damaged. Now I must redo the 6 six inches of neck tonight seeing as class is tomorrow morning. Plus I have all my other homework which I have very uncharacteristically put off until tonight (HA).  I have this dream that the whole thing will be finished by the time we visit him, which is 2 days away. And then maybe it will go so well I can make a bunch of them and send them to other soldiers. We'll seeeeeeeeeeee.

I AM A LEAN, MEAN, KNITTIN' MACHINE.

I finished two more hats this week! They are of the same variety as the first one but with different yarn that is lovely because it defines the stiches so well and it's striped without any work from me. This hat pattern is now my fallback Christmas and birthday gift, everyone I know is getting one this year. It only takes one skein (ball) that has happened to be on sale at Michaels for the last week so each one is about 3 bucks to make. This is music to my school-is-eating-me-alive-how-am-I-going-to-get-a-paying-job-and-I-barely-have-money-for-gas-and-insurance-but-must-feed-yarn-habit ears. These things are wonderfully fast to finish, yet still nice and personal. I love it. I am churning them out. I am a hat factory. There is no stopping me now. Pictures to come. If you care, which I'm sure you do, because who wouldn't be innately fascinated with my hat escapades. Now, what you really should look forward to, if you enjoyed Shakespeare's Macbeth, is the story of my foray into the sock making world. Tears and blood, my friends, tears and blood.

Finshed, Almost Finished and Work-in-Progress.

CAN'T STOP.

MUST KNIT.

MUUUUSSSTTT KNNIIITTT.

HAT=FUTURE

I started knitting this hat on October 26th. I finsished the ears flaps and body on the 31st and then the pom-pom and braided hangy-downy things on November 2nd. Picking it up whenever I could and working on it here and there. It's nothing all that special. Just a simple pattern. But it's warm and fuzzy and was finished in one week. This is big for me. I am the crowned queen of procrastination and half-done projects that never get finished. This hat is symbolic. It's my metaphorical fresh start. It's telling me, "Yeah, you CAN do this, girl. And you can also finish high school and keep up with your job and no matter what people think of your as-of-yet unplanned future, you're doin' alright." (It's a very chatty hat.) Yes, it's just a hat, but, to get slightly cliche, it's also the first step of the rest of my life.

Hey world, look out. I've got pointy needles and I know how to use 'em.