Riga Bonnet FO - Really, it's finished.

Hey, lookit this! I finished a knit thing! According to Ravelry, the last knit thing I finished was in July, and the last crochet thing was in August, so I've been taking a yarn break, apparently...

This bonnet, the Riga Bonnet, is one of Allyson's patterns from a recent Knitscene Accessories. It's super cute - but as Allyson wrote in her recent post - the pattern as written in the magazine is a bit hard to follow. That's probably why, even though I cast on in August, it took me awhile to finish. I kept losing my place! 

But I powered through, with Allyson's help, and I love the finished product. I did some stash-diving for this, and used a black skein of Lamb's Pride Worsted, and teal skein of Caron Sheep(ish). I love the effect of the two together - the neon teal really pops with the black. I finished the ties with some tassels, as modeled above. 

The construction is great, too. The latvian braid portion is knit back and forth, and then joined in the round for the crown. I love this bonnet style of hat, but I'm wondering how much use it'll get here in Southern California. Maybe I'll start a new trend - bonnet with tank top?

Ps. I posted this photo as my Facebook profile picture, and my friend Derick added some Wes Anderson-inspired text. It's too funny not to share!

A Lacey Red Hat and talk about Show Biz

Here's a hat I've been meaning to show you for a while. Remember how I said I was all about knitting with my stash yarn? Yeah, that motivation also created this hat. The pattern is Debbie Stoller's All-Day Beret, and the yarn is Knit Pick Shine Worsted left over from this debacle. 

What do we think? I'm going to talk business right now, and by business, I mean the entertainment industry. Aka, The Business of Show. 

There's a trend right now for ladies my age to get not just one headshot (that looks like them and is lovely), but lot of headshots with different "looks." Inevitably, one of these "looks" is some sort of hipster person wearing a slouchy hat such as this one, and/or glasses.

In some ways, I want to embrace that trend because I look darn good in this slouchy hat! And I love wearing fake glasses. But in other ways, it seems silly and I think I should just trust my local casting director to know that if I look like a person in a picture, I can also put on a hat and look like the same person, but a hipster. 

All this to say: I haven't actually worn this hat in public, but it turned out great. 

Purple Heart

Look at these pictures: hair curled, pink shirt, purple heart hat. I think this is the girliest picture I've ever taken.

Raveled

 Ok, I just went and looked through my iPhoto, and yes, it is confirmed: This is the girliest picture I have ever taken.

I have two problems, and luckily they go hand in hand. Problem #1: I have a lot of small quantities of yarn; and Problem #2: I don't have any cute, slouchy, lacy hats. After I finished my most recent design, I had a skein and a half of this Knit Picks Swish DK in Amethyst Heather, and I knew what I had to do with it. 

The pattern is the Ruby Red Heart Hat, and it was the perfect balance of quick & easy, but interesting enough to keep me knitting row after row. I followed the pattern exactly as written for the large size (my head is huge - I can't wear hats from regular stores), and a few episodes of American Horror Story later, I had a hat. 

Speaking of which, have you watched that first season of American Horror Story? I loved it, and I blame it all on R.L. Stine. The plot and setting made me feel like I was watching the Fear Street books come to life, especially the 99 Fear Street series. Anyone else totally in love with those books as a pre-teen?

Meghan's hat & mittens

When my family came to visit for Thanksgiving, my sister wore a hat I knit her for her birthday in January 2009. I only had one measly WIP picture of the hat, and asked her to take some more of her modeling it.

She agreed, but told me, "I need some mittens to match!" I asked her what kind she wanted - gloves, mittens or fingerless gloves?

She responded that she would like the kind of mittens where the top folds over so they can be fingerless gloves. Otherwise known as the most difficult type of mittens. 

I started with a pattern that matched her hat - BonBons - and modified it. I made the cuff longer, closed the thumb and added the flap over the fingers. I winged it with the flap, picking up stitches on the back of the hand and using even decreases with the cable pattern. There's a loop at the top so they can button back to the wrist.

The hat, by the way, is the Slouchy Copy Cat and both are knit in Wool-Ease.

So it only took two years, but now she has a matching set!

stash busting - a winter hat of strange color

Oh, don't mind me. 

I'm just rolling around on the floor, trying to find good light in my house. Really - it is bad news to live on the first floor. 

But on to the hat!

About two weeks ago I looked through my knitting magazine collection, which is not much to brag about - 12 magazines total. And I pulled out patterns that I actually thought I would knit, then I further narrowed it down into patterns that I had yarn for in my stash. This won - "#07 Trapper Hat" from Vogue Knitting Winter 2005/2006.

And guess what? I didn't actually have the yarn for it. 

Once I had completed the back flap in that yellow color, I realized there was no way I was going to get through the entire hat with it, so I pulled out some orange yarn. The orange yarn - ahem - was not enough. Luckily this thing is knit on size 13 needles - I ripped it and used white. Even then, I took out an entire repeat of the cable pattern and started decreasing about 10 rows early. 

Folks - using up yarn is hard. 

Of course, the minute I lay on the floor, Sir Thomas More has to come over and check things out. Good thing he's so cute. 

First FO of 2010!

Huzzah!

It's here! The first completely finished knitting project of 2010. Pattern is "Felicity" from Knitology. Yarn is Lion Brand Microspun in "Cherry Red." I was in need of a plain-ish hat that would completely cover my head and ears. This is actually the second hat that I knit from this pattern, and I highly recommend it. I did cast on 7 extra stitches, because my head is laaarrge. Then I just followed the increases as per usual.

I do have two other knitting projects in the works: one which will be finished after someone >ahem<>

In conclusion - it is difficult to take a picture of your own head.