Keeping track!

I'm going to keep track of what I finish this year with a new tag: cjproject2017

just to see how much I get done crafting while running a store.

The first start (and finish) of the year is a hat for my god-aunt Suzanne:

Gonna have to write up the pattern, it worked out well!!

Kim Dyes Yarn

Got a skein of aran and bulky in the "Birthday Sprinkles" colorway from Kim Dyes Yarn. The bulky is a Trainspotted Too Hat:

The aran will be a modified Peace Cowl. I'm trying out Chiagoo Lace needles; I really like them.

Yay, new yarn to try!

Free Pattern - Trainspotted Too!

I wrote this a few years ago. It's quick! 

If you want a roll-up brim, start with k1p1 around for six rows, k around one row, then start with Row 1 of the pattern. Makes for a nice warm band over the ears!

Willpower fail

!!The plan: do not buy any Ancient Arts yarn (the Stacked Stitch Shawl Kit I got last week doesn't count).

That failed, and I'm making another Emergency Hat.

Oops.

Edited to add later: Oh look it's finished!!

And the seam is pretty darned invisible, too!

So now I need another project...

Emergency Hat!

Started yesterday, finished today. 2 balls Camelot (Classic Elite Yarns) in the St. Stephen colorway. Size 9 needles; this meant only 15 pattern repeats total, instead of 20. 4-stitch icord for the cord.

Top: as hat!

Bottom: as cowl!!

Things started...

Another entrelac hat. The stockinette beanie was not working, so I unraveled it.

A Red Skies at Night scarf from my ball of Island Yarn Rivulet in Huntsman:

Things finished:

Yeah.

New Term Begins

I have absolutely no idea what year I am I  HPKCHC - M4, possibly, or B7? No clue.

The manor system is still operative in the Snake Pit. I'm assigned to Cerberus Manor this term. Abycat & Cattiekins & MrsMouse are there (that I noticed in a quick glance). As usual, the Common Room filled up so quickly I'll never catch up! 

We'll be doing a Detention Whoompf on September 1, so I'm scrambling to get my entrelac hat almost finished so I can finish it Thursday morning. It just needs the corrugated ribbing!

Honey Melon Hat

So, I made a hat: 

I wrote a (not super-technical) pattern so I can replicate it:

Materials: One skein Zen Serenity Chunky, size 13 needles, yarn needle, pompom making device of your choice.

CO 54 in the round, k1p2 around for 24 rows

k2tog p1 k1 p2 around 1 row (48 st)

k1 p1 k1 p2 two rows

k1 p1 k2tog around 1 row (42 st)

k1 p1 two rows

k2tog k1 p1 around 1 row (36 st)

k2 p1 one row

k1 k2tog around 1 row (30 st)

k one row

k2tog around one row (15 st)

k2tog 3x, k1, ktog 4x (8 st)

Pull yarn through all st, secure.

Roll 1.5" brim 2x, sew in place with yarn loosely - make sure hat stretches to full width!

Make pompom with remaining yarn, attach snugly to hat.

(I used the wide vertical part of a wire hanger.)

Weave in all ends, block if desired.

Koolhaus Hat

Finished the Koolhaus hat. Dream in Color Classy SW, Daylilly colorway. 

It fits perfectly!

Easy Ombré Slouch Hat

The Easy Ombré Slouch Hat is done. It was, in fact, quite easy. The yarn is Rowan Alpaca Merino DK, which was a delight to knit. I may have secured a ball or four for some Fair Owls mitts.

Olympia 048

One of the balls of yarn I got at Yarn Basket no longer exists. During the course of yesterday, I had some waiting time, so I pulled out my Neko needles... 

... and made a hat.

Then, as I had more time, I started some mitts... 

... and finished those, too.

This turned out to be a good thing, as it is COLD this morning!

More Hats!

Finished more hats! The black & white is for Project Frontlines, the blue was *supposed* to be for my husband, but he thinks it's too big, so it's TOTALLY mine now.

Hearts Aflame - Mixed Knit & Crochet Set

So, we made some adorable crocheted hearts for First Saturday Happening this month. And then I decided to run amok with it.

First, using the heart pattern, I crocheted a scarf. (Yes, that's orange-flame fun fur (Bernat Boa) for the picot edge.)


Then, I made a matching hat:


Top down, winged it completely turned out adorkably great.

Then mitts. Crocheted, because that uses more yarn, and I had to make sure to use over 375 yards for the set.


Here, all together - and turned in at 541 yards. phew!!



Been wearing the scarf since I finished it mid-week - it's very warm, and the fun fur is fluffy and soft. Wore the hat this evening - quite comfy, also warm. Haven't tried the mitts yet (as of this writing), as I finished them not five minutes ago.

Wheeee?

More Simple K2P1 Rib Hats

So, more hats: I made another sparkly gray and [fill in whatever color here] hat, this one in red, and this time writing down exactly what I did. So, yay, pattern soon!


I used two strands together (Red Heart soft and Caron Party) to make two of this kind:


Unlike the two previous hats, this one does not have a fold-up brim. It didn't really need it, as it has the illusion of a brim anyway due to the double thickness of yarn - and I ran out of Caron Party on the second hat anyway!

Transsiberian Hat

So, another hat I tried was the Transsiberian Hat, a lovely free cabled hat pattern found on MadtownMammaKnits's blog (and it's also on Ravelry). I really like the way it turned out, so score another hat for Project Frontlines!

Really, I mean it this time!

Okay, seriously, it's time to get back to blogging. Especially since I now work at a knitting store part-time! I have lots of yarn to talk about, and projects, and....

... well, let's start with how I ended 2014. For a lot of reasons, it's a year I didn't mind seeing in the rear-view mirrors, but I did get some good knitting done.

To wit, the store is doing a giant knitalong/crochet-along/hat-along for Project Frontlines. The goal is to have 250 hats made by July 1, 2015, and we're already 10% of the way there! I've been using yarn that lost its original purpose from my stash, or charity/donated yarn from the shop, and just going to town. It's been a chance to try a lot of fun hat patterns. For my last hat of the year, I made up my own pattern.

Here it is about an hour before midnight:


And here it is all finished:


And, just for the heck of it, here are my pattern notes.... I was a bit groggy at this point due to a truly mixed up sleep schedule:


The pattern will be available shortly (once I've written it up and test-knit it once). Wheee!

Houndstooth Hat (and, um, cousin?)

So, for each new bit of yarn or whatever I bring into the house, I have to try to use two things I already have. So, as the bedsocks for which my Navy and Orange Hometown USA yarn were intended kept Not Happpening, I turned it into two hats.

Two AWESOMELY WARM hats, which will be great. Next winter, of course, since it's starting to hit the 90s already this summer.

Anyway, I did the orange-on-blue first, and had thought I'd followed the houndstooth pattern, but as you can see, I didn't. On the second hat, though, I got it right:


The navy-on-orange (the proper houndstooth one) can be worn out of the house. The other, with the weird lightning bolt things that clearly aren't houndstooth, will do just fin as a winter sleep hat, since, as you can see, it nicely covers my eyes if I fold the brim all the way down.


Hooray!

All-Over Diminishing Cables Hat

Whilst at the Uniquities retreat last November, we encountered cabled hats. Done with bulky yarn on large needles, they knit up quickly. The ones we saw were just cables, that diminished into the center. My mom, at the same time, was fixating on all-over cable designs - rather like the Poor Unfortunate Sweater I made in the last decade:


I didn't really understand, then, how much cables pulled in... so that sweater wound up being for someone with stick-arms and no boobs. (This is NOT me.) Now, since that was aaaaal the way back in the O0s, I didn't really remember how many extra stitches needed to be added to make cables work. So my first attempt, while it did work GREAT for all-over diminishing cables, wound up very pointy.


Luckily, it was saved by vigorous blocking over a stainless-steel bowl:


My second attempt worked MUCH better, but just to be sure, I added earflaps and a button under the chin. (Which wasn't really necessary.)


I knit a third one in green for my husband (never did get a picture of it, and I'm in the process of knitting another red one for me. I should have the pattern solid enough to write it up soon!

Coeurs et Fleurs Snood

For Charms, we had the option of making something about/for/to do with Fleur Delacour/Weasley - so I picked a Coeurs et Fleurs hat. Since I didn't really pay much attention to gauge, and the yarn was both smaller and fluffier than called for, and I'm pretty sure I just used whatever needles were on hand, what I actually have is a lovely Coeurs et Fleurs Snood. But as a snood, it's one of the prettiest I have!

Got a ball of this stuff ages ago, and I'm sure I was going to do SOMETHING with it, but now it's going to be a Coeurs et Fleurs hat:


See? Here it is! This is a lovely, quick pattern, and perfect for about 50g of this yarn. I wanted something in dark lace that wouldn't drive me completely nuts to test-drive for a later project (you'll see). Success was had! Here it is, blocking on a 14" pizza tray, since a 10" plate just wasn't cutting it:


So, that's three hats in three classes. Yesterday's Dragon Hat was the second, and the third hat is the Yuccalike hat from last week. So, *phew*, my March Hat Trick is done, and I've made Nine Hats this term! Woohoo! A Hat Trick o' Hat Tricks!!

Ear* be Dragons!

Here's my dragon hat WITHOUT ears or horns:


... and here it is all finished:

For CoMC, we had the option: "Make something popular in Britain" - so the following is the blather that supported my wish to make a Toothless hat (from How to Train your Dragon).

Defense of Position: There's the obvious - a dragon on the Welsh flag (which dates back to around 650 AD!!), and there are dragons all over Celtic and Celtic-inspired artwork, historically and today.Two quick internet seraches with british/london dragon revealed a goodly number of pubs around London with "Dragon" in the name, together with the mad proliferation of George and Dragon British Pubs in America - so Dragon is certainly a popular component of British Pub Names. Covent Garden has a Dragon Hall (which has shown the St. George and the Dragon panto). At least one of the boundary markers of the City of London is a dragon:


And then there's this... and we all know that Harry Potter is popular in Britain, and there are definitely dragons associated therewith:


So... I'm going to say Dragons are indeed popular in Britan, and thus I made a Dragon Hat!


Wheee!!



*Joke for the G+ crowd.