From One Hat to Another

I finished a project! Late Sunday night I completed the baby hat for my friend's 17-month-old. I made them matching hats out of the Berry Baby Hat pattern and used black and white, flipping the colors so mom has the white with black top, and baby has the black with white top. I hope I can get it in the mail tomorrow. They've already had a bit of snow there!

Very late Sunday night I started a new project, the Cabled Chapeau, a pattern from Stitch Nation which is free on their site and on Coats and Clark. Last year I made a hat I loved but it doesn't look good on me. I would also need to frog it a bit and make the crown a lot deeper to get the fit I'm after, namely, to cover my bloody ears!


I'm using Plymouth Encore Worsted Tweed for this project. It's a wool/acrylic/viscose blend that is springy and soft. I noticed when casting on that this yarn is a 'Z' twist. I hope that doesn't cause too much of a problem for me. The only other time I knit with a 'Z' twist was for a baby kimono sweater in 2009. The Lion Brand Microspun has a tight 'Z' twist which gave the knitted fabric a different texture. This yarn seems to knit up fast and is very cushy and lovely so I hope that will offset the irritation of cables. They are lovely after all, so I must put up with them.

Tonight when I picked up the hat to work on it, I noticed a weird stitch. Well, not so much a stitch a mistake. There is a loop of yarn pulled from one row up over 5 rows and knitting back in. I don't know how this happened, but I will be ripping back a bit tonight to take care of it.

Also, does anyone have tips on how to knit cables? I end up with some loose stitches on one side of my cables, and I think there's a trick to preventing that, twisting the stitch, or knitting through the back? Something like that.

Projects check in - late fall 2010

A few weeks ago I was sick and down for the count with the really bad cold that's been going around. My knitting friends tell me they are able to knit when sick, and I suppose I could probably manage some stockinette or garter stitch on a project, if I had one that was that simple.  I wish I spent more time working on knitting and other projects. When I'm sick I don't do much of anything, and when I feel fine I waste a lot of time on the internet or watching tv with knitting in my lap. Maybe I need to institute a rule that I can only watch tv if I'm actively knitting since I don't have any progress to show. I did try and knit while I was sick and realized later that I did have a stockinette hat in the round in progress, but instead had reached for my Lace Ribbon scarf - been in progress since, oh, May 16, 2009, according to my Ravelry notes.

Do I really knit that slowly? No. I have major startitis. It's disappointing that I can't seem to finish projects. Story of my life. REALLY. I think it might be time for a post about all of the 'in progress' projects and a run down of where they stand and why. Sound good?

I actually HAVE been working on some of these. Here's a quick list of what I've work on in the past month (fiberwise):

Babette - came out of hiding, looked at ALL the yarn. Started work on some in progress squares. Monday night 10/25 tried to start a new square and realized I can't remember how to start them. That's always been a stumbling block with this project, nothing new. Hate starting new squares.

Lace Ribbon scarf - this was next to the couch so I started working on it again 10/24. Have done 7 rows!

Citron - worked on at knitting group briefly 10/18. Realized I had a dropped stitch and panicked. Wasn't feeling good (impending monster cold) and set it aside with dropped stitch caught and marked. A big thanks to Jimmy who counted all 273 stitches and discovered that no, I didn't have any weird stitches going on and yes, just keep knitting. So, I've done another row, and put it down to work on

Black and White Pair, hat #2 - no excuse for this not being done other than monster cold. As I write this I am working on the i-cord stem of the hat, but stopped to post! I will definitely be able to follow up with another post on the finished product tomorrow!

Static Socks - probably 5 more rows knit because I was going through all my projects.

Emmaline - I stopped this because I reached the point in the armpit where I needed to continue on with the body, and the stitch count didn't add up. Now I've lost some weight and was thinking about ripping it out, but I think I will continue on and make the whole thing so at least I can say I've made myself a wearable garment. I was going to have to modify the belly area on the original pattern, but now I will knit it as written and see where I end up with the fit. Maybe I'll be finished by spring?

Wabenschal - I started this during my last flurry of startitis. I sort of like the pattern, but I am pretty sure I hate the yarn. Its scratchy and I can't think of anyone I could give it to who would be please to put this around their neck, so I'm going to move it to hibernation for now and probably frog it.
One project was in the current list, but...

Modified Twenny Dolla Sweater - officially frogged and put needles, yarn, etc back where they belong.


Posts coming up - an update on all my hibernating projects, sharing my new obsession craft, and reorganizing my craft bookshelf.

look it'S my hat!

My friend Emily just sent me a picture little man Xavier modeling his baby shower gift, the berry hat I made in the spring. Hooray! It looks great and look at that smiley kid. Thanks Em!

I'm trying to be productive today, I really am. It's a Saturday morning and what am I doing? Going to have some bloodwork done that I was supposed to do before my physical in March. I've been either sick, busy, or forgotten until now, since I have to fast the night before and I tend to be a night owl. Just routine checkup stuff, like cholesterol. Then it's off to COmcast to return the cable box and modem. I switched to RCN two weeks ago and I've gotten 3 prerecorded phone messages about returning my box. Sheeh! I'm going already!

On the craft front, I've now cast on three times for the Lace Ribbon Scarf, and I thnk I've got it. The first time was when I was still working on the baby gifts, and I wanted to have a new project to carry around. Part of the cast on got stretched out, and it still bothered me 4 rows in so I ripped it out last night. Cast on again, went along merrily, and realized that my cast on was waaay too tight. RIP. Now I have 8 rows, can see the pattern emerging, and the yarn is even getting soft. Amazing! I'm using Plymouth Yarn's Sockotta, which I bought a year ago for socks, I think. Now that I've started this scarf I have found a sock pattern I want to try this year, but it needs a self-patterning yarn that makes a clearer stripe pattern so the stitches will show up better. Broadripple by Rob Matyska

I thought that I would spend this entire week cross stitching, since I felt I needed a break from knitting after cranking out baby gifts one after the other. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed making them. I would think about the parent(s) and baby to be and try put my love into the piece. It all turned out beautifully and is posted on my Ravelry, and I've put the finished pictues below. I did end up working on a hibernating cross stich, the 18th Century Band Sampler (or Long Dog Mystery Sampler). I really like the colors in this piece, and someday I'll get this one finished and framed. I'll post a picture this weekend.

Knitting updates

I thought it was time for some knitting updates so here we go. I usually end up burying my thoughts on proejcts on various Ravelry pages, but this time I'm putting those comments in both places, since people seem to check here and not in the notes section.

***Disclaimer***
If pigs start flying and the people these things are intended for actually visit my blog, tough.

Berry Baby Hat
Started March 18, Finished April 6, 2009 for Tom and Emily's babe (maybe).
Not doing the weird knot thing at the top but just having a straight up stem. Finished except for binding off the stem and weaving in ends and blocking. Yay! This worked up pretty fast, so I might make some more. Though really - what colors are for boys? I had made this for a boy originally but a friend said that if it was for her that she wouldn’t have put her baby boy in a hot pink raspberry hat. Eh. Do I give it to them anyway? It's really cute, and they're not ones to only dress their boy in blue, but raspberry? It's progressive, right?

Baby Comfy Kimono Sweater
Started July 13, 2008 (before a baby was in sight) for Tom and Emily's babe.
I need to make one more front panel, then stitch it all together. The baby shower is on April 26, three weeks away. I need to mail the sweater and hat to a friend in order to get the gifts there in time since I will not be able to go to the shower.

Baby Blanket
Started Feb 3, 2009 for Ayondela's babe.
I've been working on this for two months now and it measures 23-24 inches. It needs to be 30-36 inches before I can start decreasing. If I fudge it a little. Am I ever going to finish this thing? I'm supposed to have it done by the baby shower May 9. Granted, I've also made a cowl and berry hat from start to finish, and worked on the baby sweater, but still - this project was supposed to be fast and easy. Why oh why didn't I use larger needles???

Oh, and there's one other project that I have in mind as a gift this year. I don't know if there's enough time to make it, if I have the skill to make it, or if I will lose my mind. I've already bought the yarn for this project and found an insanely complicated lace pattern. I don't think I'll even be able to touch it until May. Maybe I should reconsider...

Snoozing in the wings...
Babette blanket and Irish hiking scarf. These two fill in the gaps when I don't have other pressing projects, though I've had pressing projects since November. Oops!