Hats

I took a long break from any sort of fiber art because I had become bored with it all. It also didn't help that I had a really busy semester. Anyway, I spent a week at my parents' house in Seattle for Christmas. Idle hands being the devil's playthings and all, I came up with two hats:

The Seattle Beanie


A fabulous dirty mirror shot, complete with spur-of-the-moment lack of makeup and scraggly hair.







Pattern: My own. Want to know it? Crochet a circle. Alternate rows of sc with popcorn stitch. Do some decreases. The end.
Yarn: Wool Ease Chunky in charcoal, 1 skein. I ran out of that toward the end so I used Wool Ease Worsted in oxford grey for a row of sc and slip stitch.
Hook: Oh, who the hell knows. J? I don't know. Whatever the Wool Ease label recommended, probably.
Thoughts: Easy. It took a few hours. Both of my parents liked it. (My dad said I looked like Mary Tyler Moore.) The extreme thickness kept me very warm. Better pictures someday when I'm feeling glamorous.


Thistle Earflap Hat




Didn't really feel like getting gussied up for this one either.




Yeah, I didn't sew in the pink ends, and I probably won't ever. "Why? Don't wanna." --Stephen Colbert.

Pattern: My own, influenced by several elements: the shape is based on Knitty's Cross Country; the thistle pattern is a modified version of the one seen here; the random white-and-grey pattern is taken from here.
Yarn: Various acrylic from my mom's stash. I think Wool Ease and Red Heart were key players.
Needles: US6? 5? Not sure. DPNs. Plastic. Nice.
Thoughts: I was hoping the sc around the bottom edge would stop the curling, but it doesn't (though it doesn't curl too much when I'm wearing it). I didn't swatch; I just cast on the appropriate amount of stitches (108 I think; it seemed like a reasonable number, plus it worked with both the thistle and the white-and-grey pattern) and played it by ear. It ended up being kind of tight, but maybe it'll stretch over time. I don't really like the way I did the decreases for the top; I had no idea how those would turn out, and it just sticks up funny and looks kind of silly. Overall I think this is a pretty badass hat, but I'm just not a hat person. It's a shame, because they're so quick and allow for lots of variation.

Switch Hitter

Last night I was absentmindedly knitting away on Demi, proud of myself for having memorized the chart pattern. I realized that I forgot to do 2 bobbles, and now I have to rip out 2 rows in order to get them in there. I threw the knitting in a corner and I haven't looked at it since. Instead, I did this:



I had a crochet breakthrough today, thanks to the SNB book. I finally figured out how to crochet in the round. It was much easier than I had been making it. The red thing on the left is the Star Afghan. The two motifs on the right are from The Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches. All are done in Lion Brand Microspun, because I happened to have a lot of it sitting around, leftover from Kate and some other never-realized projects. At first I didn't like Microspun because it's so splitty, but it's so incredibly soft and I love the colors. It's really grown on me.

I still need to learn how to weave in crochet ends.

Happy Hooker Wannabe

I bought the SNB crochet book today. I'm not much of a crocheter, and I really didn't like the first two SNBs that much, but there were a couple sweaters in here that I really liked: the Prepster blazer with 3/4 sleeves, and the Go for Baroque bedjacket. This is odd, since I don't really care for crocheted garments; I find the resulting fabric is too stiff. I also don't like the vast majority of crochet lace patterns that I've seen. I'm picky. I haven't really looked through the instructional portions, but I'm hoping they'll really help me out.

I also bought the new IWK. I'm going to go read through the patterns now. This is how I spend my Saturday nights. Just let that sink in.