Tag: hat

2020

Christmas Countdown

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Ten days until Christmas and while I’m definitely in hurry up and get these projects finished mode, I’m not panicking. I am, however, hyperfocused and am determined to be finished by Christmas Eve. No photos as these projects are destined to be gifts, but here is a photo of the grandkids to ooooh and ahhhh over.

Susannah, Harper, Annabelle, Charlee and Emma

Shepherd

After a long dry knitting spell I think I’ve gotten my knitting mojo back and have finished several projects that were started pre-covid. I keep forgetting that one of the biggest reasons my knitting/pottery projects were in limbo was because I broke my arm in March. It’s impossible to knit with a casted arm!

My First Go at Arm Knitting

Trieste Hat

These two FOs aren’t gifts so I decided to go ahead and show them off. The arm knitting experiment was interesting and easy so I ordered 12 skeins of jumbo yarn to knit up into one of those ginormous squishy throws that keep showing up in my Pinterest feed. The Trieste hat is for me to wear when I walk Dixie. My ball cap just hasn’t cut it warmth-wise on our last couple of walks!

Details on these projects can be found here and here.

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. Epictetus

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2020

Finally A FO!

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Not only one, but two FOs and, unfortunately, two fails.  Let’s start with the successes.

First up – Flower Cloche

Day before yesterday, I decided that I couldn’t live another day without a Downton Abbey style hat. This happens to me a lot. A quick trip through patterns on Ravelry was rewarded with this, a shallow (for once) stash dive yielded suitable yarn so I cast on yet another project. Never mind the 4+ UFOs begging for attention.

                                                            Before Felting

After Felting and Adding Crochet Flower

Quick, Cute and Easy!

Second FO

Tiny Pumpkin Box

That’s my knee it’s balanced on. Don’t try this at home! 🙂

I  made this using leftover clay – waste not want not – and it turned out well. Another cutie!

On to the fails…..

Bummer…..

It just goes to show that when working with clay and glazes, in the end they have the last word. Good thing we potters are an optimistic bunch! Am I right????

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Epictetus

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My project notes can be found here.

Knitting

Seeing Red

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RED

I’ve started three new projects this week and it’s easy to see their common thread – red.

 

Hermione’s Half Blood Prince Socks

Stash yarn – no ball band

Mercerized cotton

Sockhead Hat

Malabrigo Rios

Ravelry Red

Simplex Shawl 

Frosting Worsted

Delicious Yarns

Cherry

and

Sweets Worsted

Delicious Yarns

Red Velvet

This is a Yarnbox project.

What can I say?  I love red!

Roses red and violets blue and all the sweetest flowers, that in the forest grew.  Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

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Knitting

Fun with Dye, Crazy Cables

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INTO THE DYEPOT

So, up until now, I’ve been experimenting with dyes, mostly Kool-Aid, but a couple of weeks ago I decided to take this dyeing thing to the next level.  I ordered the sample set of Jacquard acid dyes from Knitpicks and here are the results of a first time for everything dye trial.

This is some of my handspun – Natural Bare Superwash Merino/Nylon, dye color Vermilion

More handspun, this time Knitpicks Bare Superwash Wool/Nylon, dye color Sky Blue

I love, love, love the intensity of the color and, really, the process was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I’ll be doing more of this!

A LITTLE BRAG

Babymama picked up the needles again earlier this year and has been knitting up a storm.  Look at her latest project, modeled (of course) by Babydiva.  How bout them cables??!!

The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.  Buckminster Fuller

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Knitting

FO Friday 01/18/13

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ON AND OFF THE NEEDLES

This week’s FO Friday is Meg White’s Cabled Hat, a free Ravelry pattern.  Turned out right nice as a friend of mine would say.

A quick knit, with just enough fiddliness to keep me interested.  I think the yarn is some I picked up at Hobby Lobby a while back, I Love This Yarn 100% wool.  Due to our (Mr. Iknead’s and mine) new austerity plan, I’m working toward losing at least a little of my yarn snobbiness.   I’m trying as hard as I can to bring Mr. Iknead, a very thrifty (read tightwad) guy over to the dark side, knitting him a pair of soft, warm, merino socks, I think it might be working.  The upshot of this plan is that in order for me to be able to stay home, baking and knitting, I have to scale back on some things, like high end sock yarn.  Ouch.

I’m still working on the Phloem socks using a happy discovery of two hanks of beautiful Shibui Sock that I found during a stash dive.  Hopefully by the next FO Friday, I’ll have them ready to wear.  I loves me some Shibui!

BY THE BOOK

Another casualty opportunity to cut back is with my book and audiobook habit.  I downgraded my Audible membership and have been using our local library instead.  I love the downloadables, both e-books and audios and I’m nearly always at the ten book limit at any given time.  One I’m listening to now is Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psy.chiatrist, by Paul R. Linde.  Fascinating.

IN THE OVEN

Have butter and eggs sitting out, getting ready to make Sour Cream Pound Cake, a recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, a wedding gift 33 years ago.  It’s been well used and well loved, judging from the stains and sticky stuff between the pages and is the first cookbook I grab when thinking about what to have for supper or what to bake when my sweet tooth kicks in.  A classic and a favorite.

Check out Tami Amis blog for more FO Friday goodness.

Simplicity is the key to brilliance.  Bruce Lee

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Knitting

FO Friday 1/11/13 and the Great Washing Machine Crisis

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ON AND OFF THE NEEDLES

I finished the Sideways Grande Hat last night, just in time for today and earned the Mr. Iknead Seal of Approval.

Don’t know the reason for the odd look, there’s no telling.  At least my mouth is closed.  It seems like every photo has me with my mouth open, either talking or eating and sometimes (I’m not proud of this) both at the same time.  Anyway, I think the hat is way cute and it was a quick, easy knit.

I’m nearly finished with Meg White’s Cabled Hat, ready to start the crown decreases and am now browsing through Cookie A.’s Knit.Sock.Love.  On an expedition into the stash the other day, I ran across some awesome Shibui sock yarn that just begged to be transformed into a pair of socks and, well, I aim to please.

NOW WHAT?

We finally finished all the electrical work this week, which turned out even better than I had hoped, just to have the washing machine bite the dust.  I’m waiting on the repairman now.  There’s something busted about the spin cycle, when it hits that part, it starts making an awful banging noise and shuts itself off.  I’m not talking about the I’m unbalanced thump, this is the I’m getting ready explode and scatter shrapnel banging.  Here’s hoping that it’s an easy fix and not the arm and a leg and my firstborn child sort of fix.  Anything under $250.00 would be good.  Here’s hoping!

Check out Tami Amis blog for more awe inspiring FOs.  You’ll be glad you did.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.  Alexander Pope

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Knitting

The one where she gives

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the Wollmeise socks the boot (no pun intended).  I took a close look at the yarn I was using and decided that the Sinfonia yarn was totally wrong for the project, for any sock project actually.  If I had kept going, my socks were going to be way, way too thick to ever wear with shoes.  So, as much as I liked the color and the sock pattern, I frogged them completely.  Note to self:  Sport weight yarn is not sock pattern friendly.  The yarn’s not dead, just waiting for the right project, maybe a scarf or hat. 

So, I really have nothing to share tonight, but I’ll do better tomorrow, I promise.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.  David Starr Jordan  (1851-1931)

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