Hat's Off to You

Hi, my name is Jessica and I am addicted to making hats. I finished yet another hat last night and immediately I started thinking of making more. I looked through my stash to find the right yarn to make another Turn a Square hat. I'm not sure that I have that yarn. I may have to make it to my LYS to buy the Manos Silky that I've been craving again. I bought some for my Good Karma swap partner a while back and it was very difficult to get it all into the package. One skein kept calling my name and asking to stay at our house. It was very difficult to do the tough love routine on a skein of yarn and explain that it would indeed be going to a very good home. Now I know what that skein was calling out to be made into. I need more yarn.

Details:

Turn a Square Hat by Jared Flood - Free pattern by following the link above and clicking on the link on the right hand side of his blog

Yarn: A leftover skein of Sublime Yarns Cashmere Merino Silk Aran (which may win the prize for longest yarn name ever) and 1/2 a skein of Boku colorway 15

Modifications: I did 2 inches of ribbing instead of 1 in case the recipient decides that it doesn't quite fit as is. Otherwise I did the jogless joins just as I was supposed to.

Time Keeps on Spinning

Someone asked me the other day how my spinning has been going. Well, to be honest, it hasn't. This has been the extent of my spinning since August. It's a fairly even worsted weight single. I think it's destined to become a hat for my neice. This is from some pencil roving I picked up at Athena Fibers in Sioux Falls, SD this summer.

If you're anywhere near Sioux Falls (and really, there's nothing near there) you should check out Athena Fibers. It's in a beautiful old Victorian House. My non-knitting companion at the conference was amazed by the flooring. Personally, I was more amazed at the silk lace weight that they had! It's a beautiful house and she stocks the first floor with beautiful yarn and roving.

Elyanna's Hat

Part 3 in my crusade to keep the heads of my tiny relatives warm is complete. I finished up the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap (Ravelry Link) for Elyanna this weekend. It was really fun and easy to make. The finished hat fits on Lily's head, but it was too tight for her to comfortably wear, so Curious George had to step in to model.

Pattern: Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap - directions in both English and Norwegian
Yarn: Claudia's Handpainted fingering weight - Strawberry Latte. I've been coveting this stuff since my LYS started carrying it. For some reason the yardage is a bit slim - 112 yds I think - so I could never justify buying 2 skeins. It's really dreamy to work with though. The color pooling is beautiful.
Needles: Size 2 circular and double point.
Modifications: None. I did the strings by doing the long-tail cast on and then casting off. I really hate making I-cord and this seems to work for me.
Size: This should fit a 15-18 inch head or maybe slightly larger. My gauge was slightly off (as usual) but I knew I wanted this to be big enough for a 6 month old with maybe a bit to spare.

Knit Along With Us

My bloggy friend Knittymuggins and I just started a Knit-a-Long on Ravelry. We're going to be knitting Fiddlehead Mittens from Hello Yarn.

Not my photo. :) Taken with permission from Hello Yarns

The group is located here - everyone is welcome! The more the merrier! The actual KAL starts November 1 and runs through December 31. I can't wait to see what kind of color combos people have and how many mittens get made. I've heard this is a great pattern and is slightly addicting.

I picked out my yarn for this last night. It's not at all my usual colors, so I'm not really sure who these will be going to. I bought 6 skeins of Frog Tree Alpaca in greens and brown. I'm not going to do as many color variations as the pair you see above. I just want to pet the yarn.

Instant Gratification

*Edited to add photos*

Sometimes, you just need a little instant gratification. I feel like I've been working on big projects for so long and they just don't do a lot for the blog. It's hard to take a picture of 3 more inches of a big pink sweater. So I'm on a bit of a hat making jog.

Fancy Nancy Hat -done. I decided to do the Marley curls on top instead of the tulle because I wasn't sure how well tulle would hold up to the Wisconsin winters. It's not quite as Fancy Nancy as I had hoped, but Addie loves it.


Bunny Hat - One ear done at swim lessons last night, one ear to go. It's going to be the cutest freakin' hat you've ever seen on a 2 year old.



Inca Hat - My sister requested this for her littlest one



Yet to be Determined - a pale blue hat for my neice and a yellow & black hat for my nephew (also requested by my sister). I'll have to search the stash to see if I have pale blue yarn. I know I don't have bright yellow - that's just not a color I normally use. I would love to do a bumble bee hat for him, but at 4 I think he might be too old for that.

Sherbet

Sometimes, when the weather gets cool and the leaves start changing colors, I rebel and go for a little dose of spring and summer. What is more summery than sherbet? The pretty pastel colors all melting together to make a wonderfully creamy cold treat.

At the same time that I was rebelling against the cold weather we've been getting at night and early in the morning, the practical side of me was digging out hats to send to school and daycare for the girls. I realized that Lily's winter hat from last year wasn't going to fit anymore and that Addie didn't have a really good hat that fit her. She's been wearing a slightly illfitting bear hat that I picked up really cheap last winter. I looked at a couple of shops, but had a really hard time spending $18-$20 on a kids hat. (Somehow I ended up spending around $18 a hat anyway...)Ugly photo that blogger won't let me delete.

Instead I did what any good knitter does. I stopped at the LYS! Yes, I have stash yarn that would probably work, but I didn't have what I really wanted. I wanted a nice soft superwash wool. Something that would keep the girls toasty warm and yet be washable AND supercute.

I found the perfect sherbet-y colors in the perfect worsted weight yarn from Lorna's Laces. It's Shepard Worsted in Happy Valley and Winona. Addie choose which color she liked (I guessed totally wrong! She liked the pink purple blue yellow varigated.) and then picked out her hat pattern. She choose a very plain hat with a very Fancy Nancy foof on top.

Lily on the other hand didn't really seem to care which yarn was hers, she was much more concerned that I make her the Bunny Hat. I was slightly bummed that neither girl wanted a pretty lacey hat, but these hats from Itty Bitty Hats are so sweet that I don't think I could go wrong.