Camo Hat

I recently posted about some camo yarn I had kettle dyed. Well last week I finally finished knitting the hat. It’s for my friend and he told me last night that he loves it and it fits perfectly. That’s good because he had claims of a big head, so I made it and it was huge! I had finished it when I realized was too short, even for me. So I undid the crown shaping and added an inch.

Camo Hat

My friend didn’t even know I did they dyeing which I take as a compliment. It’s couture baby! I also did the inside band on smaller needles with a single strand, while the rest of that is on 10.5s using 2 strands of Knit Picks Andrean Silk.

Luella Ruched Band Hat

I’ve decided my hats deserve real names. So may I please introduce Luella….

Luella has a ruched band that you can’t see so well in these photos. She’s made of KP’s Wool of the Andes (grey) and Lion Brand Wool Ease (green). She needs a large pompom. Luella is also not that pointy. My model’s head is just not a big as mine.

Luella Ruched Band Hat

And here is a closeup of the ruching. I had originally planned to do a few rows of ruching, but it’s a lot of work and I am lazy.

Luella Ruched Band Hat - Ruching detail

I will write up the pattern…someday.

Ballband Hat

I thought all those ballband dishcloths from Mason Dixon knitter were pretty cool but I don’t have any use for them. Since I’m always looking for new patterns for hat I decided to adapt it. I don’t have the book but the same pattern is readily available on the internet.

It was an interesting knit. I don’t love the colors. I used Patons Classic Merino in green and one of the new ombre colors. I’m a lazy knitter so I always double up my yarn for hats, but that means the colors didn’t shift as they would in a single strand. If I had to do it again I’d make it with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky and Bulky Handpainted.

So here is the hat with the superpom

Ballband Hat

here is a detail shot of the pattern

Ballband detail

I have both Vogue Stichionary books and I love them. I bookmarked a few patterns that I’ll be using for future hats.

Agate Necklace & Pouch

My friend Amanda’s birthday was this week and I needed to send something off for her so I decided to make her a necklace. She broke her arm a few months ago so I decided to make her an agate necklace. One of the metaphysical properties of agate is healing. I got 2 stands of 4mm beads and on of 8mm beads. I’ve made necklaces before, but after the amazing bead flying incident at fuzzy’s bbq last week I wanted to try out knotting.

The smaller bead section is knotted between every 8 beads. The large bead secion has knots between every 3 beads. I used a bead awl so the knotting was pretty simple to do, but I’m surprised I don’t have a blister on my left index finger. Altogether the necklace is about 49″ long. So it can be single, double or triple wrapped.

agate necklace

I also made up a little pouchette for the necklace. Healing stones made me think of the little crochet bags my mom used to make when I was younger. I used to have a collection of stones I carried in the pouch around my neck. I decided to do a simpler version (my moms had patterns) with #3 pearl cotton. I used a 0 crochet hook and double crochet so it went rather quickly.

crochet pouch

I’m sending her the necklace with a wee baggie of sea salt for purification. I hope she likes it.

Some FO’s

I’ve been doing mini projects at home lately. I sent some stuff out as a gift so I couldn’t post it, but I think it should have been received by now so…

The turquoise trio..knit and crocheted with knit picks shine sport

crochet headband crochet baby ballet slippers cable knit bracelet (idea stolen from Heidi)

click to see big

There’s a little headband with a crocheted flower, some baby ballet slippers, and a cable knit wristband (with a nod to Heidi for the idea). I love the Icord fastener on this. I got that from Knitting Over the Edge. And I made all three while watching a Yankees game.

Now on to Aunt Flo’s Bag…yes that’s another tampon holder. This one is a bit fancier. It’s knit with knit picks shine worsted. The final verision has a shiny black dome button too.

aunt flo's bag (front)
the front

aunt flo's bag (back)
the back

aunt flo's bag (opened)
the inside

knitty uterus

Today I knitted up the uterus from knitty.com. I used blue skys cotton (which is lovely) and size 9 needles. I did my first ever i-cord, which I now loathe. It’s a gift for my friend who is graduating from medical school tomorrow and going to be, as she likes to call it, a vag doctor.  That’s obsetrican/gynecologist to us layfolk.

knitty uterus

look at lola’a cute little paws at the bottom. awww!

a little bit of knitting

This post might be a little TMI for guys, although I’m sure not many are reading it, but anyway…

 I decided I needed a case for my tampons, which tend to like to float around in my handbag. So I grabbed some size 6 needles and some Sugar & Cream cotton and a short while later I had this

knit case

I have a whole box full of buttons and strings that come as spares for sweaters and jackets so I stole one of them for this fastener. I want to make another one with a little fancier yarns and maybe some sexy cables. But for now this’ll do.

blue hat

When I was on the plane to Utah this weekend I knit a hat for a friend. It was sort of a surprise as I knew he was looking for a light blue hat. I like it so much I might just have to keep it since he never even knew he was getting it! Muhaha!

I think it needs a super pompom.

Purple & Grey Rib Hat with Uber PomPom

Friday I decided to knit a hat. I had some thin grey wool that was sort of varigated that I had used to make a poncho for Natalie last year, and it was conveniently wound into 2 balls so I could double strand it. I used a k3p2 rib and whipped the hat up pretty quickly. I added a few rows of some leftover Lamb’s Pride Worsted in lilac.

If I could do it over I would have added the lilac rows further down, but oh well. I think I did a little too much shaping on the top as it’s a little pointed, but at least the hat is long enough. The last few hats I’ve knitted have been too short for my ginormous head.

And then I added a gigantic pompom. Pompoms are like a hat panacea…they just make any hat good. I was clever and broke out a circle cutter to make my templates, now I just have to remember not to through them out. I want to try making some hats that incorporate some of the bits of homespun I have that aren’t long enough to make anything out of.

Christmas Update!

So I got most of my Christmas stuff done. And thankfully the rest I don’t need to finish until next weekend.

So first up is a skein of hand painted yarn for my sister. It’s Lamb’s Pride worsted that I painted using Washfast dye in Magenta and Black. I am so unscientific when I dye..I pretty much eyeball everything but I love the way this came out. I used the leftover dye to paint some roving as well. Now I need to find time to spin that up!

Next up is a Panta for my other sister. The pattern is on craftster.org somewhere. I used Lamb’s Pride worsted and size 8 needles. I also only did 5 repeats.

panta

Last up is a scarf I made for my Grandma in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk – Orange. I used 3 skeins. I forget what the stitch is called.