Saturday, March 29, 2014

Intermission

I have not been knitting for the past couple of weeks. I started hat 11, but I am not very far on it. This happens on occasion, I just don’t feel like knitting. So I am falling behind on my goal.
What have I been doing instead?? Why needlepoint, of course…

Here is my Spiderman topper I have been working on. It is not quite done (I have to finish the webbing on the uniform). My granddaughter saw it and she asked if it was for her. She LOVES Spiderman and Batman and well any super hero. She is awesome! It is for her of course!

I did pick up a couple of old knitting booklets this week. I bought this one solely because I loved this picture on the back cover. 
Isn’t he the coolest dude ever!? I just loved the gritty New York landscape and the bright blue cardigan.
Once I looked over the booklet, it is actually really good. It has directions for various raglan men’s sweaters. The sizes go up to 56” and include different sleeve and neck options. Well worth the $.25 I paid for it. I am very happy.


I need to start knitting hat # 12 because I need to design a hat for the upcoming Shop Hop. Keep your eyes open for that post. 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Hat Number 10

This hat is knit with a new yarn from Lorna’s Laces called Masham Worsted, 70% British Wool & 30% Masham wool. I am not sure which colorway it is, maybe Cornelia. It is a great yarn to knit with. I would love to knit something else with it. 

The pattern is the Beaufort Hat (it is a free Ravelry download). I had originally tried a different pattern and I did not like it all. I have knit this hat pattern before and I really like the pattern. It is easy to remember and it goes quickly. I do not know that this is the best colorway to use for this hat. But I like how it looks like waves. It would think it would be great in a solid or tonal yarn.

Here is a picture of a Masham sheep. Isn’t it the cutest thing??



If you scroll down on this page, you can get more info about them. I am glad that Lorna’s is using a rarer breed for this yarn. There are many breeds of sheep and some are quite rare and if no one uses the wool, they will disappear forever. 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Hat number 9 – number 9, number 9, number 9

On The Beatles self-titled album, aka The White Album, there is a song called Revolution 9. This is not the one you have heard on the radio, which is Revolution 1 (I do not know what happened to Revolutions 2-8). Revolution 9 is over 8 minutes long and consists of backwards looping, noise, various statements and John Lennon saying Number 9 over and over again. So you are probably asking what this has to do with my latest hat… well, that is how I felt knitting this hat.
Here is all the mixed up SSK & K2tog
I ripped it back so many times that I felt like it was just repeating it over and over again.  Then when I was almost done with the hat, I discovered that I had mixed up my ssk & k2tog for most of the chart.  Arrggh! I did not rip it out because I was sick to death of the damn thing. The hat is Hepatica from Lace One-Skein Projects and I knit it from Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport. The problems were all due to me, not the pattern or the yarn. I am just at not good at knitting lace. It is not intuitive to me. I am forever making errors with the symbols, as is evident in this hat.
I want to love knitting lace because I would like to knit a big old lace shawl, but I don’t love it. I don’t hate it, but that is a long way from being able to knit a huge project in it.




Anyway, I blocked it like a regular hat instead of a beret because it is too small for that and I think it looks okay for all of the mistakes. 

Monday, March 03, 2014

Hat # 8 - In Which Things Did Not Go As Planned

This hat is knit with Colinette Point 5 and it is a pattern I improvised.
I bought this yarn with the intention of knitting a certain hat, but when I started it I did not like how the thick and thin nature of the yarn looked. So I started trying different patterns (many). Eventually I decided to cast on with a provisional cast on and do the body in mistake rib. I love mistake rib because it always looks good. Once it was long enough, it took out the provisional cast on and did a 3 needle bind off. Then I picked up around the top edge and knit the crown. It ended up having a little pointy thing at the top which I do not mind as it sort of reminds me of some hats from the 1950s which I have seen (or maybe Genghis Khan). Either way, I am okay with it. I then did single crochet around the bottom edge to even it out a little.