Inga

Pattern: Inga Hat by Sheila MacDonald. It is true that following the pattern as written produces an awfully long hat, but I like awfully long hats.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in dark purple and light blue, a scrap of Ella Rae Classic in bright purple left over from my first crochet scarf

The top of this pattern is quite pointy, so I decided to celebrate the pointiness with a tassel. I think it pulls it all together.

This was the most complicated colorwork chart I’ve ever followed, and I was proud of myself for doing that. My issue was not with following the chart, it was maintaining even tension while holding the light blue in my left hand.

As you can see in this pre-blocking photo, my tension was somewhat uneven. I definitely think I’m improving though, and I am quite happy with how this turned out. I don’t think people are really going to get close enough to my head to notice the few wonky stitches.

Flora

I got so caught up in the fiber fest frenzy of the last couple of weeks that I forgot to show you the Flora Hat I finished before Rhinebeck.

Pattern:  Flora Hat from tentenknits/Margaux Pena
Yarn:  Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed, about half a skein of blue and half a skein of green.

I knit this to match my knucks and it worked perfectly!

Mods:  I decided to to a square top to the hat, I forget why.  I ran out of the blue, so the very top is green.  I didn’t like having a random green square up there, so I made little tendrils like I did on the knucks.  It’s a design element!  ;)

I enjoyed the pattern, and it inspired me to make some more stranded hats to practice the technique.  Currently on the needles: Inga.

Fishy!

Pattern: Fish Hat (Dead or Alive?)
Yarn: Noro Kureyon #150, Cascade 220 in Navy for fins and lips (buttons for eyes)
For: Elizabeth

My best friend from college, Elizabeth, is already in posession of a squid hat made by another knitting friend of hers.  So when I saw the Fish Hat pattern I immediately thought of her and knew I just had to make her one.  (I went to visit her and present the hat this weekend, but sadly forgot my camera, which is why you see it modeled by little old me).

I haven’t seen any other fish hats in Noro Kureyon, which frankly shocks me, since I found the yarn to be so perfect for it.

When Elizabeth put the hat on, she remarked that the fins made it look like a Roman helmet. I didn’t really see it, but when I saw the (fairly ugly) photo below I thought it looked familiar.

You be the judge.

Red Light Special – Take Two

I had long and bumpy road with my first attempt at Red Light Special.  Towards the end of that attempt I watched this video on stranded knitting with two hands, and it finally clicked.  I decided to make another Red Light Special using that technique, as practice towards my 2008 fair isle goals.

I think it turned out a lot better.

I used Knit Picks ambrosia for the liner, and it is delightfully soft. I knit the whole liner with the yarn in my left hand so I could get used to the feeling, and I’m glad I did. I’m still getting used to it, but I know it will only get easier with practice.

My tension was a lot better this time, as this photo shows. I don’t like the color scheme as much as I did on the first one, because I think the blue and green are close enough that the pattern gets a bit lost. This is a useful lesson for further projects.

In general, I’m pretty happy with it.

WEBS trip

One of my knitting buddies from college works at WEBS, and I had heard through the grapevine that there was a sample of Foliage over by the Malabrigo. Being the total dork that I am, I really wanted a picture.  I went up with my mom and my sister today, and we had a fun photo shoot with my friend the foam head.

When we were checking out, Melissa introduced herself and said that she had knit the sample Foliage, so I got a picture with her.  This is the first time I’ve seen an example in real life that I didn’t knit myself, and it was equal parts trippy and awesome.

Good times.  I’m sort of embarrassed to reveal how excited I was to see my hat at WEBS, but I was really, really excited.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom’s birthday was yesterday, and the Ms. Redjeans fitting was a success. 

I’ll bind off the body where it is, add 6.5 inches to the sleeves, do the button band, and we’ll be good to go.

You’ll also notice that she’s wearing Red Light Special.  Attentive readers will recall that I started it just over a year agoin hopes of finishing it for her LAST birthday. Heh.

It took me so long because I was embarassed of how it was turning out. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t as good as I’d like it to be. I almost didn’t give it to her, because I felt badly giving a project that I wasn’t happy with. She seemed to like it though, which was nice.

You can tell that it’s wonky in the above picture, but it was even worse before blocking.

The top motif of squares provides an interesting lesson in yarn dominance. Clearly the light gray is dominant in the bottom portion of the motif, when it looks better if the pattern color is dominant.

In the middle of that squares motif I started holding the pattern yarn in my left hand, and holding the background yarn in my right hand like I usually do. It seems to have made an improvement, even when the technique was very new to me. I’ll practice knitting with the yarn in my left hand before I start my 2008 Eunny Fair Isle Fest. I might make another Red Light Special.

Happy Halloween!

I went to a Halloween party on Saturday.  Do you recognize what I’m supposed to be?

Waldo! I think it was a hit.

I even made my own hat.

It’s not the best hat ever, I banged it out in less than 24 hours. The most interesting thing about it was the giant pompom. I’d never made one before. They DO use a ton of yarn. I’d always heard that, but never really appreciated it. Behold the carnage.

I hope everyone has a great day!

My very own Foliage

I had my mom and my sister keep the original Foliage hats so I made one for myself.

I started it when I still held out hope of going to Rhinebeck and the Franklin County Fiber Twist, but law school intervened. Thank you all so much for your comments on what kind of suit I should get. I ended up getting something from Ann Taylor Loft in very dark brown. And I ended up making it to the quarterfinals in Mock Trial. Yay!

Urchin

This was a fun and incredibly fast knit.

It looks OK on me, I guess. I’m not sure I’ll ever wear it in public. Despite my French heritage, I’m not really a beret kind of gal. Besides, no one can rock a beret like Ysolda.

It had a funny balloon-like shape before blocking, but after some time on my two-salad-plates-and-a-cereal-bowl blocking apparatus it has a nice crease in it.

I used a skein of Manos that I had lying around, so it was a stash buster too. I would recommend this pattern to anyone, particularly if you want to get more comfortable with short rows. It was a lot of fun!

Foliage FAQ

I’m absolutely thrilled that so many people have decided to make Foliage! From the emails I’ve gotten, it seems like there are a few things that could be clearer, so I’ve set up this FAQ. If there are any other questions that come up a lot I’ll update it.

What do the blank boxes represent?

It depends on what you mean by blank boxes.  If there is a blank box, it is a knit stitch.  If there is no box at all, it means that there is no stitch there.  I set up the chart so that if one stitch is above another in real life, it is above that stitch in the chart.  Most of the stitches are added at the edge of the chart, which is why it’s a triangle.  Since extra stitches are added on rows 9 and 15 there are blank areas on the chart before those stitches are added.  If you find it confusing check out the written directions.

Do I need a whole skein?  What if they yarn I want to use comes in smaller skeins?

Nah, I didn’t use the whole skein for either version.  I would estimate about 2/3 of the skein, but sadly I do not have a scale sensitive enough to tell me for sure.  Can anyone else out there lend us some more specific information?

The stitch count is wrong on row X.

I’m pretty sure that all of the stitch counts are right (thanks Mandy!) but this is the most common type of question.  The answer usually has to do with the missing boxes I mentioned above or the SK2P double-decrease.  SK2P stands for “slip one, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over” and it turns three stitches into one with this \ kind of slant.  Watch out for these on rounds 11, 13, 17 and 19, and in the main body of the hat.

Can I make the hat with 16 or 20 leaves per round rather than 8 or 12?

Yes!  I’ll post detailed directions at some point, but I need to talk to Amy about when/where I should do that.

I’m so psyched and flattered that you guys like the pattern.  Thanks for all the feedback!  I’m sorry I’ve been so delinquent in responding to comments, I promise I’ll get better now that the initial rush of questions has died down.