Hats

My 'new thing'. I have discovered that there is something infinitely satisfying in hat knitting. Knit in the round, which I love doing, they can be simple and relaxing, like Sam's Very Warm Hat (Freedom Spirit and Wensleydale Longwool DK) which has 6 inches or so of stockinette with a minimum of shaping at the crown.


Or fancy and lacy, like my Foliage (Brigantia Fusion). This is now a bit the worse for wear having been my staple commuting hat for a couple of months - although worth noting is the fact that you can successfull block a lace hat by leaving the house with wet hair every morning.


Hats can incorporate novel techniques, such as fancy beading and magical swirly patterns (Odessa in Rowan Cashsoft DK)

Or funky patterning to show off the yarn. This is IKs Short Row hat, which was a very quick knit on 2 needles (just 6 rounds of dpn knitting for the crown and I-cord bobble). I love the colour change that the yarn - Noro Silk Garden - gives. Just over a ball for this, so a quick knit, although extended by the fact that I had to spend ages in the stash trying to find a second ball that matched the colour phase of the first. Sigh.


Hats can even enhance the most handsome of husbands (Brooklyn Tweed's Koolhaas hat in Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran - looking faintly ridiculous on me, as husband currently unavailable for modelling)

Finally, the best thing about hats is that they are simply crying out for ...

Mittens!

Catch up post

Well, it's been a while, for various reasons, so here is a post laden with some yummy knitting goodies. I am in the middle of furiously knitting christmas gifts for various family members, and in fact the only thing I have on my needles for me is my second baudelaire sock. Sigh. Still, this will be remedied after christmas, when I shall knit myself lots of goodies (he he he).

My christmas pressie list is currently running at 6 WIPs, all, for some reason, in really muted colours. Perhaps this is because I am knitting for men, but it really is no excuse. Dad's scarf (don't look dad) is the closest to being finished, as I am running out of yarn. It's a zig zag pattern I picked out of Jan Eatons ripple book, and is turning out lovely, although I am still struggling with the whole 'carry yarn loosely up side of work' aspect of things - it always ends up looking messy so I think I will have to fold the edge under and seam it before I am satisfied.

Secondly, I am in the middle of making warm things for my little brother, who is off to Iowa in January to visit his girlfriend, and where I am reliably informed it will be -23degrees. Thus, we have the very warm hat (Zimmerman)
The outside (or inside) is Freedom Spirit wool in pale grey, blues and a little brown (not really shown in the photo, oddly enough it was rather too bright!). The inside is some lovely silky Wensleydale DK in a very dark navy. For DK it is rather thin, which mean that the knit lining will be quite loose gauge, but I think this will work nicely - don't want his head getting too hot. I do hope this fits - its quite a tight fit on me but I do have quite a large head. Blocking will be the order of the day methinks.

I have also decided (perhaps misguidedly) to make him some thrummed mittens. Thrumming is the process of knitting in bits of fleece (in my case combed Shetland tops) into a fabric See the yarn harlot for comprehensive information.

I'm using the Manly Mitts pattern from knitty.com as my basic mitten pattern, but have added a few extra stitches to accomodate the thrums and the fact that the wensleydale needs smaller needles than you'd think for a DK (not that it isn't lovely, just slightly uninformative - no gauge or needle guide whatsoever on the ball band). So far, it looks like something from another planet, but rest assured I have not murdered some small space creature for the sake of my brothers paws.
We shall see. It could end up huge and ridiculous, but then, I don't think I have made the equivalent of Mark Darcy's cringeworthy jumper in Bridget Jones yet so something had to go pearshaped.

I also have a Kiri shawl (pdf) on the go for my nanna, in some glorious Drops Alpaca, but it currently looks like an crumpled mess so pictures will have to wait until I have blocked it.

Labyrinthitis

No, not a word of the day unfortunately, this is apparently what I have wrong with me, although the doctor couldn't spell it. It is basically gunk in my inner ear, caused by an infection, which has completely ruined my brain's ability to detect where I am in space and time (the practical and rather comical result being that if I turn my head left I fall over).

The good thing about this problem is that as long as I don't move too much or too quickly, I feel fine. I can't ride a bike therefore, but I can knit (and type). Hoorah! The bad thing is that it might not go away, which is a shame as I have a nice shiny bike waiting for the good weather in the shed. Ah well.

As a consequence of aforesaid labyrinth issues, I decided to make something nice and easy and non-brain-taxing yesterday - and chose the Watch cap from the Opinionated Knitter. This uses Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Prime Rib" stitch, which creates a lovely thick stretch ribbed fabric. I knitted it on 7 1/2 mm needles, with some gorgeous space dyed Freedom Wool (which smells so sheepy - mmm) and it took less that 100g to make a warm hat with quite a big turned up brim.

Then I tried to photograph it on my head. Bearing in mind that I can't look too far up, these were the results ...



I think you get the gist of the gorgeousness of the hat. I was going to give it away, but given the weather today I think I might have to knit another one for the intended recipient.

Small hats, small coats, small everything ...

Well, once again I have been delayed in posting, this time by the insistence of a friend that we all go out for a meal together last night. Being forcefed calzone and zabaglione - what a trial!

Anyway, on to the myriad crafty things I have been up to recently.

Up till recently, my craft space has consisted of a cupboard and an old bureau in the spare room. The bureau didn't open out far enough to put anything bigger than A4 on it, and wasn't strong enough for my sewing machine (which spent its working life on the floor), and the storage space - well, don't get me started ...

So a couple of weeks ago, I hit upon a cunning plan. I persuaded my dear husband that the bureau would be much better placed in the library, where it could house the laptop and modem and look a lot nicer than the large melamine ikea table we had in there already. Of course, we'd then have to find something to do with the table ... can you see where I'm going yet?

So now, after much planning, painting, drilling of holes (it's a chimney breast so we kept hitting stone lintel - I have much filling and repainting to do - sigh), organising and reorganising, my "craft room", which used to look like this:

now looks like this:

I have lots of drawers on the right for all my paper-related crafty things, boxes above for my fabric, a linen-basket under the desk in which shall live my yarn (until deemed pretty enough for display in my new display thing - more in a later post when I've photographed it - suffice to say I am turning irredeemably girly), a board for inspirational/unfinished items, and a plinth on the left for my sewing machine. Bless Ikea! I'm feeling more creative already!

Other craft news is mostly knitting related, as that is my latest fad. I've made a start on some hats for the innocent smoothie people who put them on the top of their drinks bottles and give 50p to age concern for each one sold. They are dead easy to make, and may make a small dent in my yarn mountain. Some require bobbles, and I have rediscovered the lost art of making pom poms, which pleases me no end.

and finally, possibly the most exciting news. After reading all about her work on the web (and becoming a little obsessed, it has to be said, I was inspired by this picture on Brooklyn Tweed's blog to overcome my miserly nature and buy the book to get the pattern. And lo, the postman did provide, and he provided mightily:

and out of the book, came forth marvellousness ...

jellyfish? terrible mistake??

but no!, it magically turns into this

hoorah!

This is made in nasty cheap wool, but now I know I am capable of such wonderful things, I'm straight off down to Stash yarns asap to stock up and start making some of these (hope it's cold in york this winter otherwise the recipient is going to be a little warm!)