Happy 2015!

I will admit that I am not at all sorry to see 2014 go.  Enough said about that.

Piper, Jace, and Mallory got hats for Christmas this year.   I had a great time knitting them and the hats arrived at Grandma Sharon's on Christmas Eve.

I will say that I am very relieved that all of the hats fit and that the kids liked them.  Piper's hat with the hearts was a modification of a pattern from Siouxie Stitches.  I used Willow yarns and was really happy with the project.   Mallory and Jace's hats were both done from the Simply Cotton Beanie pattern.   That is an excellent top down pattern that I know I will use again and again.   It is another example of genius, yet simple design.   This pattern comes in a wide range of sizes that will make it a go to pattern.   It will be, I think, excellent for using up leftovers.   I would like to knit charity hats with project leftovers instead of tucking the leftovers into bags.  I am a firm believer in not wasting.   More and more though, I don't want to hang on to things just because I might need them someday.   My thought is that if I knit up the leftovers and donate the hats, I can avoid waste and do some good.   It will also be nice for those mindless knitting moments......of which I am having many.

My friend Jackie is about to have her first baby.   She is going to go the cloth diaper route and will be using soakers.   I had half a memory of my mother mentioning my aunt knitting a pair when my oldest brother was born.   I won't go into detail, but that would have been a looooooooooooooong time ago.    Soakers are back in use.   There were a lot of patterns available and I found one that I liked.   I made a couple pairs from odd skeins of Raggi.   I am hoping that the soakers work well for the new baby.   I have included a picture of one so you can get the general idea.  It is, I think, an interesting concept.  I hope it works as well in reality!


I have been feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of yarn in my possession.  This will, truly, be the year of the great stash knit down.    As one of the locations has to be relocated shortly...goodness knows where...there is a huge incentive to pare down.  Some of the yarn will be given away; some will be knit up quickly; some will be relocated to an as yet undetermined location:  it is one more thing to do and one more reason to use what I have as much as I can.   Lightening the load and making things for others will be a good multi-tasking project this year.  

Let us hope for a happy and health year to come.

The Needles Have Been Busy

My knitting needles have been busy...and so I have I.    The Christmas deadline is looming and things are going well...despite an arithmetic error that forced me to rip out half a sock.   Count twice, knit once.

As things were looking good, I have thrown three more hats into the mix.   If things go well, they will be knit and mailed by next Monday.

A Beret for My Friend Sigrid

Some gifts are already knit and gone.   Each year I knit a lot of socks.    This year I have also been on a hat kick.   My friend Barb got a hat to match the mittens she needed.   Sigrid needed a beret.   The pattern that I found was fun to do....quick...and will look lovely on her.

Each year, I knit something for my friend, Al.  This year I wanted to do another hat.   There are so many good choices for patterns.  It took a bit to figure out what I really wanted to do.   Then, bravely, I journeyed into the stash to find the yarn.   Yes, I am spoiled with the choices in my personal yarn store.   I found some Lion Brand Alpaka that had aged to perfection.    The choices were off white and black.    The black would make a glamorous watch cap but I wanted something a little more fun for me to knit.   I found the Between Two Lungs pattern and knew that was the one.

One of my thrills in knitting is finding hat patterns with clever decreases that elegantly support the design of the hat.   The Man Hat, which I have knit several times, is an excellent example of this.   Between Two Lungs is another.  The patterning was a lot of fun to do.   There was enough interest to force me to pay attention, but not so much challenge that I would curse...much.

Between Two Lungs

Al received the hat last weekend.   It looks great on him and I hope he will wear it all winter.

Jan Thompson and I went up to All About Yarn in Coon Rapids to take a Two Color Brioche class from Diane Augustin.    The class was interesting...well paced...and a great way to learn this technique.   My yarn was too fine...should have brought something a little bulkier....so I don't have anything to show yet.  I will do the cowl pattern when I have some "knitting for me" time.   With luck, I will have that before I forget how to do it.

Mindful Knitting.....

One of my current projects is the Fairbanks Cowl from Interweave Knits 2014 Gift Issue.  The pattern is lovely and is perfect for someone I know.  One of the Willow yarns, Blossom, was perfect for the pattern.   As I had wanted to try the yarn, I was ready to go.

Mindfulness...being present in the moment no matter what one is doing....is something I have been thinking about and working on being better at.   This project has been a powerful lesson in mindful knitting.  This project has also truly increased my skills in frogging (rip it, rip it) cabled projects.  

The cabled patterns in this project are truly lovely.   Unfortunately, the patterns are also truly easy to screw up.   I am enjoying the process despite the backward progress being much faster than the forwards progress.   It is shocking to me how much my mind wanders when I am doing this...and how hard it is to rope it back to what my fingers are doing.  This will be lovely when it is done....and well worth the effort.

Sam in his Heart Skull Hat

The Heart Skull hat landed in Lebanon.    Sam likes it a lot....says it fits well.   Siouxsie writes a fabulous pattern and I will use it as a base for more.    Sam, I think you will agree, really rocks the look.

Nearly Forgot!

Check out Craftsy for this free pattern....easy and so very cute.    This is the Punkin Head hat.   This is done in Plymouth Encore in 0-3 month size.   The pattern is written for a wide ranges of sizes.   The leaf is from a free Ravelry pattern referenced in the hat pattern.  It is an interesting pattern....and fun to do.

This is a great gift and a quick one to do.   I had a lot of fun with this.

Sam's New Hat

I like to knit for my brother-in-law, Sam.   He is a good receiver.  He wears what I make him.  He will wear stuff that is a little crazy.   When I saw the Siouxsie Stitch's Heart Skull Hat on Ravelry, I knew I had to make it for him.   It left in the mail on Wednedsday.  It should, I hope, arrive today.

The Heart Skull Hat in Berroco Comfort

The yarn is Berroco Comfort.  The colors are deep and rich.  The yarn itself is a nylon/acrylic mix.  It is soft and stretchy.  For people who do not tolerate wool and do not live in a particularly cold climate it is a good choice.  As it is a bit splitty, a bit of care must be taken to avoid mishaps, but it is a pretty good yarn to knit up.  Due to sales and random good luck, I have a big bag of hat exclusively for use of Sam hat production.

This was a really fun project and knit up quickly.   I may do a set for a cousin, his two year old son, and the new baby expected in April.   They would get a kick out of it....as would the grandma.  I might even do one for the mom, if I thought she would wear it.  What better way to express family love than matching skull hats?

My Socks are Wearing Out!

Many of my nice, handknit socks are choosing to die now.   As I really need to be in the mode of

Austerman Step Eye Candy

knitting for others, this is not good.   My Austermann step score from Elann came and I started on the Eye Candy colorway.    There was also a skein of Online yarn that keep surfacing in the baskets.   Now I have two pairs of socks active on the needles for me.   These I can pick up and put down as time is available....but I will have them done sooner than later and will be able to send the socks that can no longer be darned off the to the great sock drawer in the sky.