Hats R' Us

I have been a hat knitting machine over the past few days. The option to receive a personally knitted item for Christmas List giving was a huge success. People placed their orders last week and I have been a busy girl. I got the fun of picking out yarn, the fun of knitting, the fun of not shopping at the mall, and the hopeful fun of seeing my handy work enjoyed by a family member. Yippee! Why did I not do this sooner?!?

Here's what I've got so far:
A sleeping hat for Hubby's stocking gift (which I already gave him). He shaves his head and doesn't like the drafts while he's sleeping. Based on the Ribbed Beanie pattern, with my own tweaking. The yarn (Super Nova Chunky Sirdar) was a frogged hat I made for him a few years ago. I got the sizing wrong and thought I'd try again.

An Unoriginal Hat for SIL #1 in Sulka (Marisol) Snow White, which is really a cream/off white. This yarn is just lovely and the money is used to fund a school for the shepherds' children.
An Unoriginal Hat for SIL #2 in Rowan's Cashsoft Chunky Thunder Gray. Part cashmere, springy yarn. Prewashed picture:
A Calorimetry in Savoy (Tahki) Black...will be started today. With all of the gauge issues and fit issues, I'm going to swatch a bit first.
My BIL just asked for a black scarf. We'll see what I come up with for that. I really want to finish my Jaywalkers and my mom's purple linen towel as well as the Bird in Hand Mittens. I don't want to do something on tiny needles and plain knitting. Hopefully I can convince him to use a fun pattern or a tweedy yarn.

Christmas Knitting, etc.

The Christmas knitting has begun. I picked up needles and yarn for the first Unoriginal Hat I'm making for my two sisters-in-law. I bought some AMAZING Crystal Palace dpns in the funky 10 3/4 size (7mm). For how much they cost, I'm glad I like them. I've already given them a test knit by reknitting MY Unoriginal Hat last night. Yes, I'm that big of a dork. The hat was a big too snug and I wanted to see how the fit would change with the larger needle. It is much better now. No need for a picture, cuz' it looks just like it did before. I used 0.2 oz more yarn, which seemed to be just the right amount.

Here's the yarn for the first hat:It is so nice and soft. Marisol Sulka in Snow White. Merino/Alpaca/Silk blend of squishy goodness. I had directives for which hat pattern to use, and it must be in cream. After hunting down all softness worthy yarns, I had three yarns to choose from. One was 100% Alpaca-too soft. One was 50/50 merino/alpaca-not soft enough. This one has just enough body to support the cables. We'll see how it looks. I'm making it a bit bigger than mine by inserting only 4 extra purls (2 each into only 2 of the repeats). Hope that gives me the extra inch in circumference I need.

Here's a rundown of the latest:
Garterloc dishtowel-fun and fast
Fetching Mitts-great use of a recently frogged baby hat. Made a smaller version for myself and did a bit of messing with the thumb area:
Socks that Rock Jaywalkers (finally)-also have done some sizing magic. Cast on 52 for ribbing, increased to 60 for leg, decreased to 52 for rest of sock. I'm not doing the zig zag stitch on the foot. The yarn is pretty, but it really leaves dye on my hands. I hope some of the color stays after I wash them. I know dark yarns often have "crocking" issues. Hummm, we shall see.
Off to knit a hat during nap time.

Undo, to-do...

A week has passed and I feel like I have recovered from Thanksgiving. The rest of my events went smoothly. Hooray! Some of the Christmas decorations have even made it up and the storage rooms in the basement are cleaned out and organized. Why? Because I was freaking out about it. Dumb, but true. I gave birth to our son right after Christmas last year, so other members of my family packed up all the decorations last January. Then, we had our basement finished this spring and the builders jammed everything into odd places to make room for...new rooms. Plus, they sprinkled everything with a good measure of drywall dust and sawdust. It has been eating at me all year, but other projects were more of a priority. So full steaam ahead for the holiday fun and knitting now that I've finished that item on the to-do list.

I rounded up a bunch more pictures of finished objects to add to my flickr sets. In the process, I came to the conclusion that I needed to frog a few things. Item one: handspun pink yarn made into a baby hat. I realized that I would rather remake this into something for myself than give it away. I bought the fiber while pregnant with my first son. Ummm, no girls to give it to so I'm going to repurpose it. Same with the cute purple handspun made from the same trip (SOAR).
Second item: pink earflap hat made from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran purchased on a trip to visit my brother before second son was born. Again, will make it into something cute for myself.
I was dumb and made a cute sweater while pregnant with my third son, again in a girly color. I'm going to give that to our kindergarten teacher's baby girl.

Third project destined for rebirth: a vest knit out of Polar rainbow yarn. Cute yarn, cute on a 20-something year old new knitter, not so cute on me now.
I also started my Jaywalker socks using Socks that Rock medium wt. Pictures next time.

Happy Stress Knitting to you

It is/has been a long week of prepping for visiting family and preparing meals. So, instead of contemplating all that I have to be thankful for, I have been knitting up a storm to take the edge off the stress load in between events and responsibilities. After hosting a brunch yesterday, I zipped off to the yarn store before nap time to pick up some 1.5 sock needles and yarn for a hat. The needles are to make socks with this:
Socks that Rock medium wt in Valkyrie. I think they will be Jaywalkers. After gauging issues are explored, I will commit more. (Like the pretty snow?)

The yarn was this:

And by bed time, I had this:
It is Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat. It is drying now. I doubled Malabrigo (worsted weight) on size 10.5 needles. My gauge was a bit tighter than I would have liked (on account of the stress), but I think it will fit fine. If not, I'll rip it and add a few purls into the pattern like others have done on Ravelry. I chose Violetas color, even though I have two other purple hats. I looked for other colors (I swear), but this one will look the best on me. I even have a bit of yarn (0.8 oz) left to use for some fun scrap project. Nice yarn.

The upside of all the visitors is that some of them are knitters. I got to do a little sock doctoring yesterday, and hope to do a bit of knitting in public during my visiting.

I also finished up my "Weirdest Socks Ever" made of the Essentials Meadow Multi. They are sort of ugly/fun, but feel great. I'll wear them anyway. I'll have to give some of the solids a try.
My big boys played outside in the snow this morning and the Packers are on TV. I have yarn, food, a home, and people who I love to share those things with. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Now pass me that ball winder and swift.

Retreat and compensation

I gave up on the Jaywalkers using the Knit Picks Essentials Meadows Multi. The yarn was fighting too hard and wanted to be plain socks apparently. So boring, spiraling socks they shall be. I really like the yarn, but will try it in a plain color next time.
To compensate for all that hard work down the tubes, I bought Socks that Rock in Valkarie. Yum! I love black and was wishing it was more common in the sock yarn world. Lo and behold, Blue Moon just debuted a new Raven Clan color line. I also figured out that if I got the medium weight, it would be enough to make two pairs of socks for me. The Jaywalkers will look nice with this type of yarn instead I am hoping.

I was feeling very frustrated with 3 days of sock knitting frogged, so I decided to do some quick knits to make myself feel better. Nothing says happy like ditching the size 1 needles for size 15! I used up some stash Ecological Wool (Cascade) and made two Button Hole Bags from Mas0n-Dixon's blog. They turned out fine, but I wish I would have made one big bag instead. Oh well. Next time.
My next triumph was to use up some scrap Patons Classic Merino in yellow, blue and mauve from a long time ago. I whipped up some bowls and a hot pad on size 8s. My laundry room has many buttons lying around which were begging for a cute little holding pen until I got out the thread to sew them on. The buttons like to hang out with the loose change I find too. The others bowls will be snatched up by my older sons for Lego warmers or rock beds, etc.
We had a wonderful warm November day today so all my pictures were taken outside on the porch. I even knit on the sock a bit during nap time sitting out there. Got to love Global Warming!

GRRRR

I have torn out my forth start to my Jaywalker Socks this afternoon. Here's the history:
-carefully knit and wash swatch, select size 2 needles instead of size 1s in pattern.
-start sock with 76 stitches...realize I'm not making knee highs...frog
-start on size 2s with 68 sts...still too big...frog
-start on 1s with 68 sts...finally fits but huge lighting bolts in brown, lime & magenta forming...carefully frog back to second row...
-use second ball to combat flashing only to realize I started it in the wrong place. If continued, sock will have one color on each side only...frog
-cast on again, but joining yarn in a better spot. We'll see if this works. I know I have narrow feet, but give me a break!

Swatch n' wash

All knitting these days seems sock related. I finished the purple Trekking XXL socks yesterday. They are wonderful. I obviously made the first pair too large. I worried I took out too many stitches, but they are doing just fine today (no circulation issues!). I will need to hold back buying more of the yarn. The colors and patterns Trekking comes in are stunning. I have about 1.3 oz left of this color; what to do with the leftovers?.
I also cast on for the Jaywalkers using "Meadows Multi" Knit Picks Essentials. I actually swatched and washed this yarn first to make sure my gauge would work out correctly. I've heard some people say the socks can be tight.

I also bought some Tofutsies sock yarn to make a pair of Monkeys. Also swatched and washed. Can you tell I've been burned lately by the gauge of several projects. I've noticed that I'm getting more cautious with my calculations now that my knitting time is diminished by the demands of three small children. I can't mess around and rip out a bunch of rows if I've screwed up. Get it right the first time is my new motto.