One Red Hat done!

I got a good chance to knit the cabled red hat Saturday afternoon while La-la napped. I'm still trying to figure out what to call everyone here. Do I go by the Dh, DD, SS, MIL stuff, use their initials and hope the context makes you figure it out, first names? What? Do I do formal introductions? So, anyway. Little girl naps, momma gets to knit up a storm! I got it finished this afternoon. Hooray!

I picked up a pattern at Sip N Knit - Ann Norling Any Gauge/Any Size Hat - formulas and suggestions for making various styles and various sizes of hats. It has guidelines for hat sizing for variously aged people, so with this, swatching for gauge, and free patterns out there on the net, I should be able to scale down other interesting hat ideas to make what I want for anyone. Yippee! So...I went to the Sip N Knit under the pretense of looking for a hat pattern, which I found. But there was a sale bin! 40% off. Unfortunately, I'm accustomed to what I've been thinking of as "drug store yarns" - stuff you can pick up at Wal-Mart, Michael's or JoAnn's. Even the pricey stuff there is well under $10/skein. I hadn't been to a gourmet wool shop and even though I've spent a lot of time browsing gourmet wool online...even with 40% off, I spent about $50 on 8 hanks/skeins of yarn and the pattern. I got two skeins of worsted Brown Sheep Waverly one green (5112), one blue (7111), Sirdar Snuggly in a pale shade of bluish grey Filatura Di Crosa Empire, a wool/silk blend. 3 balls of a very dark purple, one of a lighter purple. Unfortunately, it seems like that I have a bunch of other varieties of yarn in that same pale bluish gray. I've also been known to buy the exact same shade of lipstick and nailpolish as ones that I already own. Gotta keep an eye on that. I'm thinking hats in the Sirdar Snuggly, the wool/silk will be something nice for me. Perhaps instead of the Sari-a-long (or the same pattern, different yarn), and felting experiments for the worsted wool, if I can make them work with the colors I already have on hand.

Gonna move stuff from queue to queue and start working on a shiny purple acrylic hat to go with the 2nd seed scarf and watch the Oscars.

Hats!

Well, thanks to DH - I'm making a hat out of the rest of the patriot red. The cabled, single tassled hat from Hip to Knit (see the picture of J in A's green hat at the bottom? Like that, but one tassle). I'm still on the fence about it, though. I like that it's a quick pattern and has the seed stitches in the field, but.....I'm just not sure.

Here's what I need to figure out: 1. I need to find an interesting/cute/easy/fun/simple scalable pattern for a hat for a grown person and a kid. I've been reading various ribbed hat patterns and stockingette rolled brim ones, and it looks like the trick is in figuring out the fancy decreases. Maybe I should actually read the directions in Hip to Knit (or the other book I have on my shelf - Knitting in Plain English, I think) instead of just looking at pictures. Go figure.

And, inspired by the patterns I've been reading - I bought pretty needles in sizes 7, 8, and 9. I tend to knit everything on 10 or bigger. Smaller than that tends to make my hands hurt after a while. Hey. I type and mouse for a living and knit for a hobby. The stuff I usually do is not too dependant on gauge, however, hats look like it matters. So, not much on gauge and I really lose my place on multi-row patterns pretty quickly. I bought myself a row-counter too. I can't wait to use it!

OK. Gonna go peruse my pattern-stash.

Post #2!

Finished the fringe last night on Seed #2. The seed stitch scarves are from Hip to Knit by Judith L. Swartz. The two-tassled hat and seed stitch scarf for Amelia but modeled by Josh down below are also from the book.

Now....a hat or scarf from the rest of the patriot red. Decisions...decisions.

I found the felted bag that I want to make. It's from Knitty - the French Market bag.

I also found a knit along that looks fun. I saw a man-hat-along, but it's ending in less than a week. Bummer. Perhaps when I'm ready to knit RedHat, there will be something else along or I can find some other like-minded knitters. So...the one that I found is a sari-a-long a very pretty scarf made from recycled sari silk. That's two projects in the queue for me (my first projects for me ever). I'm making myself wait to get the yarn until after I finish the heirloom pink orphan sweater, PatriotRed #2, RedHat, and FrenchMarketBag. Well, maybe I can work it in before the French Market bag.

Since the stuff next takes either research or commitment...no knitting tonight. I got a new episode of Cooking Light, and Grocery List Day is tomorrow.

First Blog, First Post

I guess people have been doing this forever. Crazy.

My premise here is to think out loud about my knitting projects. My current aim is to knit down my stash so that I can justify buying more yarn. To that end, I'm planning to knit a whole bunch for charity.

Right now, I've got a snazzy red seed-stitch scarf that's ready for a cold neck - this wasn't actually stash yarn, but I found it at Hancock Fabrics for $1/skein and I couldn't resist. For $1.50 it's a darn-snazzy scarf. It's in Woolease Chunky USA in Patriot Red. I've got another skein and about a third left. I can't decide if I should do a coordinating hat or another scarf. My husband, M, really liked this yarn. Requested a hat. I bought some of a similar color but lighter weight to try making him a hat. We'll see how it goes.

I've got another seed stitch scarf just waiting for some fringe. I threw out the label, but it's some kind of acrylic worsted weight yarn in a very pretty colorway - fall colors (rusts, olives, navy, purples) OK that list of colors doesn't make it sound pretty, but it is. I think I originally bought the yarn for an ambitious Warm Up America project (instead of knitting the squares, I was going to knit me a whole afgan, but not in squares put together, I think it had an 8-stitch garter stitch border with the field in stockingette. Actually, the project is partly done, and next to my bed. Ugh. I started it before I got married 3 1/2 years ago.

My mom sent me a box with some of my grandmother's old projects and scrap yarn. There were two pink sweaters that were partly done - one, I think I just have to join the sleeves up from the cuffs to the armpits and it'll be done. The other is in a bunch of pieces and the yarn is in not so good shape. I'm not sure what to do about that one. Maybe I can do something with the yarn that's left. I've never made a sweater before - I tend to stick to plain old rectangles in a pattern that's so easy I won't lose my place. So, it's a little daunting, but I think I'll be able to put together the one that's almost done. There was a bunch of old wool-wool in the box too. I'm thinking of trying my hand at a felted bag. I remember seeing a picture of one on someone's blog, like a French Market bag or something like that, but I don't remember where.

Then, as far as more charity projects go - I've been spending a lot of time reading about them, I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm thinking of making some hats for people with cold heads (Caps for Kids), some little tiny hats and baby blankets for very new babies (Newborns in Need or something similar) and blankies for Project Linus. Oh, and of course some squares for Warm Up America.

I guess here's my queue:

1. Finish the current seed scarf.

2. Finish the pink sweater from Grandma.

3. Do something warm and toasty with the red yarn.

4. Other stuff. So many projects, so little time. (Red Hat for M, Felted bag from heirloom stash, more charity knits, etc.)

I need to find a place to send these scarves when they're done. I'm torn. In Orlando, there's not much need for warm scarves. I'd much rather send them someplace cold like Chicago. This quest is probably another blog for another day. I think I might be almost ready to go do that fringe, so I can be done with that scarf.

Amelia wears Josh's old bomber jacket. Not her bright and beautiful hat and scarf. 

Josh wearing Amelia's hat and scarf. Amelia refuses to wear them. January in Orlando.