Owlcrate - May 2016

My 1^st Owlcrate shipment came last weekend. 

The theme was Steampunk!

It has many wonderful things… I love this necklace and pin. I adore keys and these just make me happy.

The book is called Everland. It is a steampunk version of Peter Pan. I am almost done reading it. I actually like it more than I thought I would. I have never read Peter Pan, mainly because the story does not appeal to me. There are some points in the book which have too much teen girl angst… which I can always do without. 

There were some items that I will never use… there was a ring, I don’t wear them and if I did this would not be my style. And there was steampunk nail art. I do not do my nails, so it is not useful to me. I will see if the girl would like them…

Overall, I was pleased with the box and I am going to continue getting them for now.

I have something to say!

So, things have been going along pretty good. I know it is now basically the middle of 2016 and I have not written anything since the beginning of 2015, which is a long time. I would like to say I have just been super busy, but not really. More like I have not had much to say.

Last year we got a dog from the Humane Society. He is a Chihuahua & Whippet mix, we call him a Chippet! He is a great dog. He was originally from CA and he is not very keen on the cold. He loves his sweater and will wear it inside if it is below 40 degrees outside. He is very snuggly… and he sleeps a lot.  

 

I have been working. I have been doing some knitting, but not as much as I should… I did learn how to knit a sock inside another sock in March. It is a totally awesome technique. It is perfect for the questionable way I hold my knitting.  

The Hub and I drove to CO to take classes. It was a great trip and very relaxing. 

My granddaughter turned 7 in March. She is lovely and smart and only a little sassy, which I think is okay. She comes over every other weekend and in the summer she spends most of the week with us since her mom is working. 

Lately I have been just a little down. The terrible whispers having been at me, telling me I am a failure. I know I am not really, because things ARE going okay. I have a roof over my head and food on the table. But some days, I want to travel and see all the things there are to see and I know that it is not really possible.

Anyway, since I have been down, I have wanted to buy things… I try to be good with this impulse since it can be dangerous. However, I decided to sign up for some monthly subscriptions… hence the blogging. I am going write about what I get. I also signed The Hub up for one for our anniversary. I told him that he didn’t like it I would cancel it.

It was really hard to decide which the best was for me. There are a billion options… books, comics, geekery (this is what they call it), dessert, wine, food… the list goes on and on. I decided to Owlcrate, which is a YA book subscription. It should be shipping soon and as soon as it arrives, I will download pictures and let you know what I think.

When I was deciding which subscription, it came down to Owlcrate and The (book)ish Box.  Both were young adult focused, which I have started to read more of in recent years, but in the end, looking at the past boxes decided I would like the Owlcrate better. I did order a one off box from The (book)ish Box which will ship in June. It is Harry Potter inspired. Who doesn’t love all things Potter?

There was also one from England that I wanted to sign up for, but I could not make the PayPal work on my iPod… Oh well.

Happy 2015

Happy New Year’s everyone! I hope all your holidays were great and safe.

I had a very good Christmas and a quiet New Year.

At this time of year we find ourselves looking forward and looking backwards, so let get right to the meat of the matter.

I did not make my goal of 52 hats. I did 34. Which is not terrible, but not what I had hoped. I learned some important lessons from trying to accomplish this goal. I will review those lessons after I catch up with the hats I have not blogged about.

Hat 33 – Francie Nolan Tam from Literary Knits, made out of Mountain Colors 4/8’s Wool. I love this hat. The yarn is fantastic and I just really liked knitting the pattern. I would make it again only I think it would be great if it was a tiny bit longer in every section. My row gauge is always smaller than any pattern, so I think that is where the problem lies. I am sure a normal knitter would have no problem with the length.

Since I had extra yarn, I made these wristers using the same stitch pattern as from tam. I wear them all the time and I love them.

Hat 34 – my design knit out of Cascade 220. I have wanted to do a hat using the Fibonacci sequence for a while. I did corrugated rib for the beginning because I could not make the sequence look as nice in the ribbing. I went up to 13 rows and then went in reverse. I like the look, but I think to get the true Fibonacci sequence I would have to do a lining, which I hate doing, but I think it would look better. Still, my granddaughter liked it and she looks darling in it.  

LESSONS LEARNED

I need a wide variety of projects. I thought that doing a wide variety of types of hats would be enough, but by the last hat I did, I no longer wanted to do any more hats of any kind. I would have had enough time to do at least one, maybe 2 more, but I just couldn’t do it.

I am an unreliable blogger. I want to blog, but I just don’t do it.

I like colorwork, lace – not so much. I really don’t like knitting with bulky yarn and needles. And the truth of the matter is that I like to knit with nice yarn. It is worth it to me to knit with yarn I enjoy. Of course, I do enjoy yarn that is not expensive like Cascade 220.

I also wanted to post a photo of the hats I gave to the GirlScouts Knitting for Warmth program. .

If you would like to donate, you can bring items to 3 Kittens or contact them at knitforwarmth@gmail.com

2015 RESOLUTIONS

Well, what shall I do for next year? My only goal is to knit The Null Hypothesis Scarf. It is a huge thing for me to try. I have never actually done a double knit project. I know how it works, but 6’ in a non-repeating pattern is a big step. I have loved the pattern since I first saw it. Now to find the yarn…

I am also going to knit some more wristers. I have really enjoyed wearing the pair I made.

Lot of Hats

Why haven’t I been blogging about my hats?

a)    I have been super busy

b)    I am really lazy

c)    I have been having trouble with my Internet

d)    All of the above

That’s right D!

Last week our internet completely died. It has been acting up for a while, but on Sunday it decided it could not take it anymore and went to the great modem place in the sky.

We now have a fancy new modem, 12x faster than the old one. I know you are all thrilled!!

So onto hats…

Hat 26 – This is a shadow knit hat. I have had this pattern forever. It was a very easy knit. I used some yarn I had around and it did not have the ball bands, it is either Cascade 220 tweed or Encore Tweed. I am not sure. They are very similar and I think this pattern would be better if it was done in more contrasting yarns.

Hat 27 – I designed this hat for a contest by SMC. I did not make it to the semi-finals. The hat is knit with SMC Active. It is a wool / poly blend. It has some sort of wicking property. It was a strange yarn to knit with… not bad, it just felt weird.

Hat 28 – This pattern goes by the catchy name of Mix Number 32. It is knit with 2 strands of ShiBui Pebble held together. It is a dead simple pattern, but it takes a long time because it is thin yarn. But it is worth it because it is so soft and lovely. The hat is very stretchy.

Hat 29 – I made this hat with my mom in mind. I have not seen her so I do not know if she will like it. I did not realize how purple it was until I was about ½ ways done (apparently I need better light where I knit). The pattern is called Spiral hat and that is what it does, spiral. I am pretty sure it is Galway worsted yarn (again, I could not find the ball band). The pattern is simple and I think the hat looks good.

Hat 30 – I made this hat for The Hub. He wanted an earflap hat. This is the Basic Earflap hat. It is knit with Galway chunky. It was a straight forward pattern. I added an applied i-cord because I could not make the crochet edging look good. Stupid crochet.

Hat 31 – This pattern is Lotus Bowl hat. I love the design of the hat. However, there were a couple of issues. The band should have been done on a smaller needle; I don’t know why I didn’t do it. And my gauge was all wonky. I am not sure what my problem was, but it was a problem all the way through. And I was worried about running out of orange yarn, which I did not. I have not blocked it yet, hopefully it will look better after the blocking.

Hat 32 – this is the perk pattern for December for the shop. It is a little critter cowl for the child in your life. Sorry the picture is not great, it would be better on my granddaughter, but she is not around right now… It is a very easy pattern. It is knit out of Spud & Chloe’s Outer, which is a washable super bulky cotton/wool blend. And will knit up quickly for the holidays! 

Hat 25

WHAT?? Two posts in one week; surely it is a sign of the Apocalypse.

I have been knitting like crazy. This hat is made with Plymouth Inspire and the pattern is on the ball band. It is dead simple and knit on big needles (I used US 11). It went very quickly. 

The yarn has sequins but they are subtle. It is a chainette construction, which I have decided I really like. I made this had for the shop, but I might actually buy a ball and make one for me.

It comes with the fake fur pompom, so you do not even need to make one.

I also want to mention the duck I made.

We are making them for the Little Yellow Duck Project.  It is an Alan Dart pattern and it is free at the website. If you live in the Twin Cities area, you can make one and bring to 3 Kittens Needle Arts before 10/10/14 (I Love Yarn day). We are going to put them out in the park area in front of the shop. We hope to get 100 of them.  

Hats - More Than One (3 in Fact)

First, I realized that I did not tell you all what yarn I worked on for hat 21, the purple was Sweet Georgia BFL Sock (I love this yarn) & the grey is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine. They are both very nice yarns. I would recommend them both.

Hat 22

The pattern is Figheadh’s Fundamental Watch cap; it can be knit with any yarn from fingering to super bulky yarn. It was a really well written pattern. I knit it with Viking of Norway Nordlys, which is 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon. It is a sock yarn. I liked knitting with it and the colors are very pretty.

Hat 23

This hat is knit out of Schachenmeyr Lova Fan. It is a super bulky acrylic / wool blend yarn. It was not bad to knit with and it was super quick. I did not have the right size needles available when I started so I went with an 11. I actually think it is a nice fabric for a hat. It is just a hat I improvised. I was going to do ribbing, but I did not like how it looked. So I tried something else and did not like that either. In the end I just knit in a circle. 

Hat 24

This is an all cabled version of my Choose Your own Adventure Hat. 

I have been trying to perfect the decreases done in pattern. It was made with Cascade 220 Superwash. 

Hat 21

I finished this hat a couple of weeks ago, but I did not post it. Not sure why, just sheer laziness, I guess.

This is the Frosted Pine Hat from Interweave. I did the lace wrong in the beginning. I think I mixed up the Ssk and K2tog, as usual. Have I mentioned I don’t like lace??

Overall, I like the hat. The fact it does not look like the pattern does not really bother me. I will still wear the hat.

The MN State Fair has come and gone and I did not post my award winning hat.

Here it is.

I won 4^th place. I received an “Excellent“ score on everything except for the blocking, which received a “Very Good”. I actually think it was really well blocked, so I disagree with the assessment. But what can ya do?

I should be on hat 37 this week. Obviously I am not, I am currently working on Hat 22 and a crocodile. I am beginning to worry about making it now…