For once I'm on the ball! Take note!!

Holy cow! For once I'm ahead of my holiday crunch as far as getting gifts/projects underway! I bought the book Alternacrafts last year while on a field trip with Melissa. Normally I would not BUY a craft book unless it was something REALLY special. This is a lovely book with lots of GREEN but also what I would consider to be ho-hum crafts, but I was so STRUCK by the chapter on resin encased photo necklaces/magnets that I bought it! I have been saving all kinds of jar and bottle lids for months and I'd already bought the liquid resin and hardener and finally worked up the courage to try a project. I am beyond thrilled with the results! I have been saving the metal lids of my Starbucks Frappaccino drinks and I have a circle template and cut up the wallet photos of my dear friend Deedee and her new brood and made Christmas ornaments out of them! I haven't even decided on the string for them yet, but I couldn't wait to post pics of them! I'm even going to take these over to her house to totally spoil Christmas just so I can show them to her! What a wonderful way to archive photos and trinkets and what not! They are little 3D collages and I think the kids will be able to help with them as far as archiving pics of their late mother as long as we all wear gloves and work in a well ventilated area! They are such user friendly little projects! I was laughing to myself as I was pouring the resin that I was "encasing them in Carbonite," as they'd say in The Empire Strikes Back! :) My brilliant sister has devised a Christmas ornament exchange in November, and forget the exchange, I think I'd like to make an ornament of my beloved Late Grandpa Maynerd for each household (and by that I mean each cousin AND their respective set of parents) but that all hinges on the perfect photo of Grandpa. I painted over each lid with an "antique bronze" paint and used and awl and hammer to set in the eye hook before I poured the resin and it doesn't affect plastic or what not, so Mom had a good suggestion to even use the rectangular lids of mayonaisse jars for this project. Oh the possibilities! :D I would like to make a set for my dear friend Lin and her newly adopted Ukrainian boys too! What a great project!

I also threw together some Christmas potpourri. I bought these little Christmas tree shaped tin jello molds at a garage sale years ago and they've been sitting in my cupboard ever since. I tried making soap in them last year and had to BEAT them on the floor to get the soap out so that was way too much work! I had the great idea to instead fill them with spicy holiday potpourri for Urban Family Christmas this year! I went to The Good Food Store up in Rochester and bought bulk bayberries, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg, and anise stars. I cracked but did not split the nutmeg to release the scent and mixed them all together before filling these tins. Then I wrapped them in baggies and tied them with jute twine and twisted these darling holly ties from a garage sale around them. They smell LOVELY and technically could be used for mulling spices because they are all food-grade spices! I will have enough for everyone in Urban Family and for my dear friends from my hospital floor! :) What a great way to de-stash the project room!

Brenda's Just Deserts

Brenda had her bridal shower this weekend and asked me to make and bring a dessert. I wanted to make something really special for her and finally decided on puff pastry vol-au-vent with lemon custard filling and topped with sweated, sugared strawberries. I don't own a vol-au-vent cutter, so these are technically bouchee pastries, but vol-au-vent sounded cooler. I was very pleased with the way these turned out. I stayed up literally all night making the pastry dough fresh and and from scratch; formed, baked and cooled the shells. The lemon custard was actually a second attempt after a scrapped vanilla cream custard version. This filling was much simpler and not nearly as fussy and included egg yolks, butter, and fresh lemon juice. The tartness of the lemon was perfect with the sugared strawberry. I used a pastry bag to fill them and actually assembled them at the party, hurried and in a corner, but I was pleased with how pretty they were! They were a hit and well worth the effort. In the future, these would be a snap to make if you have some frozen puff pastry and fresh lemons on hand.

Seasonal (sweat)Shop

Here is part of the new Fall Line of seasonal scrubs. I cut out quite a few scrubs the other day and sewed these 3 so they could be worn ASAP. I made pretty good time on the leaf and Halloween tops, but that star one was a bit of a bother. It was a 2 yard piece of un-labeled cut fabric that we found in her new house and is very pretty. We literally unearthed it in a cupboard and therefore weren't sure of the fiber content, but it has stars that are some sort of plastic or vinyl that are applied and not printed on the fabric. I laid it out on the ironing board and began folding and pressing...only to MELT the stars with the first contact of the iron! I wasn't sure whether I should abandon the project or proceed. In the end I successfully made a scrub out of it, but I had to press all the seams and folds somewhat blindly by laying another piece of fabric between the fabric and the iron! I am very pleased with the finished shirt and it survived it's initial laundering/drying in a medium heat dryer. Oh how festive our floor will be this week! :)

Sock Blockers!

I have always wanted wooden sock blockers but they are always so exorbitantly priced when you find them in antique shops. My parents and I stayed with my sister and her husband in August so that we could wander through Gold Rush Days at their fairgrounds. Mom and I each got a pair of wooden sock blockers for $10! We were thrilled! This vendor also had a single pair of stocking blockers, so we split the pair and each got one for $8 as I recall. They were in pretty good shape, but I did scrub them down in my tub once we got them here, and then Mom took them home and sanded them. I just got mine back this weekend and will sometime soon rub them down with a beeswax wood finish I have. And of course I had to try some of my knitting on them! We were even at a yarn shop that weekend and saw a brand new, single and plastic sock blocker from Fibertrends for $24.95, so I am very happy with these. Very seldom do I ever block socks, but I've just always wanted some wooden blockers. Maybe if I ever have some semblance of a sewing room some day, I'll hang them up on the wall!

While I was home I had to get out the Elizabethan hose I knit for my mother--just so I could try them out on the blocker! I knit these several years ago when I was just learning to spin. My mother sews reproduction clothing and costumes and has a few Elizabethan gowns. She had found an article about knit silk hose and remarked that under all her hoop skirts and petticoats, her legs got quite cold when she wore her costume. I ordered some tussah silk roving from EBay for $28.00/pound and started spinning sock weight singles on my drop spindle so as to be authentic. I measured every aspect of Mom's leg/foot, knit a swatch, did some math, and worked out a pattern for these and began knitting. I even tried to include some "clocks" on the ankles like the article discussed. This was quite an ambitious knitting project for me at the time, and I've saved my sketches and notes I kept as I was working on them, but I don't know that I could make another pair from that alone! I'm still very proud of them every time I see them though!

Hat for Avery

We are having a birthday weekend for my little niece and I wanted to knit her this hat. It was knit from Lamb's Pride worsted yarn on size US 6 dpn's....and it was a bit small! I have plenty of yarn so I'll just try again and give this to Deedee's nephew. This is such a cute pattern! The bunnies have little bobble tails and the "tassels" are in fact carrots! Back to my chair...

finito

These are my cousin's finished Perdita cuffs made with beads cut from Grandma's wedding crown. I found some variegated DMC size 8 pearl cotton thread that was pretty close to her wedding colors. I doubt these will ever be worn by any of the recipients, but it is a nice way for each of us to keep a bit of Grandma with us.


This is actually something that my mother knitted. She gave me a lovely tea cosy pattern book for Christmas and knit me an aran tea cosy in some lovely oatmeal worsted yarn. Not having my tea pot there, she couldn't seam the sides around the spout and handle. I finally assembled it last week and had to pose it with my latest tea score from Rochester. That box of PG Tips is the size of a cereal box and cost $18.99! I was so excited to get it though because that is the biggest box of the stuff I've ever seen! I'm excited to try this loose Tetley tea as well. I drink Tetley's every night at work with their string less bags. The weather is cooling down so it is very nice to have a cuppa nearby.

Anna don't look!

My cousin is getting married on September 6th and I wanted to make her a bridal purse to hang over her wrist as she walks down the aisle. My aunt told me the dress was an "oyster shell" color and I found this lovely, subtly variegated white and pale grey size 8 pearl cotton thread. I knit this on US size 0 needles with size 9/0 Gutermann beads. I surfed around a little looking for pictures of bead knitting until I found something I liked and started there and didn't use any sort of formal pattern. I only had to rip out and start over once at the very beginning because it was a little too wide for the frame. The bag shape is widened simply by regularly sliding a larger number of beads in the middle and a smaller number towards the ends. The entire purse is knit in one long strip, sewn into the frame, and then the sides are sewn together. It was a very free form and forgiving little project. I wanted to knit this for the Knitting Olympics this year and I DID finish knitting and cast off on the 22nd before the torch went out for these Games, but I had a late start. I could not find any size 9/0 beads in this town to work with that thread and I was getting a little nervous! I knit this in exactly one week! Originally I had planned to line it, but I kind of like how the light shines through those rows of beads. With bead knitting, you slide beads on the WRONG side of the work as well as the right side, so those beaded "pleats" are actually gaps in the knitting that are help open with the beads.

Sparky Fur

I have wedding knitting I really should be working on, but instead I have been playing with dog hair! Our family dog had his first hair cut this week and I asked them to save the fur for spinning. He is a beagle/poodle mix so the hair was quite short. I had about 2 ounces or so and carded it all out and tried to spin it...with no luck. Since the staple is so short, I had to really WAD it up to catch the twist because you just plain can't draft it. It would get very thick and thin in places which is fine, but I had trouble getting it to feed through the orifice or it would get hung up on the hooks. Oh well. I tried. I had been laughing about it and hoping I'd be able to knit him a sweater with yarn spun from his own fur! Maybe I can use it for needle felting. Or...I could do what any SANE person would do--throw it away! ;)

Oh, and here is a before and after picture of Sparky the Donor Dog! :) Isn't he a cute little guy?

County Fair

Mom and I did really well at the fair in Britt and Mason City. I entered a pair of those Perdita cuffs, a felted purse, a temari ball, and Deedee's zig zag mittens. In Britt I got a grand champion on the cuffs (I sewed the buttons on just prior to dropping them off and noticed that I had TOTALLY left out a row of beads! I guess the judge didn't notice or didn't care!), a reserve grand champion on the temari ball, and blues on the purse and mittens. My mother entered a hardanger liturgical stole she'd embroidered for our church and got the grand champion overall best in show! She won it last year too with a hardanger baptismal gown! :) I was very proud of her! I even told her as we were dropping our items off that I was just sure she'd win it again! In Mason City, I got blues on everything but won a special "Judge's Choice" award on the mittens. And of course you win $1.50 for each blue ribbon! Mom entered her baptism dress and got a blue as well. Now we're already thinking about what to enter next year!

Merino Wool

I went to demonstrate spinning at the local pioneer museum at their annual pork feed day. I had a lot of people stop and ask questions, etc. My sister came down for the afternoon and we had a little birthday party for her at the Dairy Queen. Mom was quite taken with the merino wool singles I was spinning and remarked how nicely that yarn would knit up for a pair of socks and how much did I want for it? So I spun up 2 spools worth and plied them together and got about 226 yards of this lovely heathery dark purple-y (I like your sweater! It's very purple-y! ;) yarn and gave it to her for an early birthday present. I will spin up and ply another 100 or so yards so she has enough for a pair of socks. It is a lovely blend of black merino wool with red and blue blended throughout.

WIP--Holly Leg Warmers

I know. I've started another project. Another project to sit on the pile with all the others and be picked up and knit on here and there. But isn't it pretty?! These are legwarmers (being knit in JULY no less!) from the fabulous book Handknit Holidays. They were supposed to be knit from a DK weight yarn, and instead I'm using some Summit Hill worsted that I found in Rochester. I was just sweating it and thinking they would be way too wide and tall for the pattern, but they are coming along very nicely. This has been some nice fairisle practice. I made good time on this first one and really may as well have knit the back panel of a sweater! Knitting back and forth, stranding and changing colors, fooling around with tension and following the chart backwards while purling, etc. has really made me appreciate the rationale behind the dreaded steek! I didn't say I'm looking forward to them, but I can certainly see why you'd want to do that. I like looking at the wrong side almost as much as the right side! :)

Happy 4th Of July!

Here is a picture of my most recent socks and my blindingly white legs! They are knit from Trekking sock yarn on size 2 dpn's and I finished them on my trip. My grandma and uncle from Fargo were at my parents' home visiting, and Grandma and I spent the afternoon chopping and freezing young rhubarb! While I was out in the garden cutting stalks, I couldn't help but think how nice my socks would look next to those pinks and greens! Grandma and Doug will go on to visit my brother's home where my sister will join them, and then they will ride the train home. We don't get to see them nearly enough but it was so nice to be together and visit. There is nothing so precious as working side by side in a kitchen next to your Grandmother! We had a beautiful day, we enjoyed wonderful food (including fresh corn on the cob!) and even better company--we couldn't have planned it any better! Nothing is more fitting than rhubarb on an Iowa July day!

And of course, THANK YOU to all our men and women in the Armed Forces today! We think of you ESPECIALLY today!

Did I NEED this stuff?

No. Could I LIVE without it? CERTAINLY NOT! ;)





Here are some pictures of the PLUNDER I bought on my last trip for those of you not lucky enough to enjoy a Trunk Show in my living room! I always try to get things for my kitchen because I spend a lot of time in there, and because that way I will USE my souvenirs. I picked up some hard to come by and local ingredients such as gelatin leaves, vanilla sugar, Speculaa spices, and Dutch Process cocoa (from Holland no less!). I found some lovely mini blanc mange pudding molds as well as wooden and tin Speculaa molds. Since we were in Cheese Country, I acquired cheese shavers and shredders for myself and gifts for everyone. And of course I could not come home without looking for tea strainers (note both Delft and steel). My kitchen favorites have to be the Delft sugar caster and the steel egg piercer!


Anyone who has been in this apartment knows that I am a slave to trinkets, bags, and blank books! I happily found a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank in Norwegian, a melamine tiffin, another wax seal, magnets, Romanov bookplates, dreidels, knitting needles, a rosary, Christmas ornaments, and stickers--just to name a few things. Now I just have to find homes for them within my abode!

And my FAVORITE thing to shop for...RAW MATERIALS! Holland had all kinds of "souvenirs" because they are known for tulips, wooden clogs, windmills, etc. whereas Denmark did not have typical "souvenirs". I bought all kinds of nic nac paddywhacks in Holland, but I bought YARN in Denmark! I did find some lovely trims and linen thread in Holland, a meter of this 60" wide fabric, as well as my first Knitting Nellie, but I found 3 more Nellies in Denmark! My favorite had to be the 3 skeins of Kauni yarn! I don't know if it is officially a "space dyed" yarn, but unlike regular variegated yarn (where it knits up a mottled color combination) this yarn has long stretches of color that blend into one another! You can kind of see the inside of the middle ball! It has vivid rainbow colors in sequence, so just imagine how a scarf or a shawl would knit up! I bought 2 more balls of a soft purple/blue/green blend for a purse. We saw the example in that yarn shop. The pattern was an original design of the owner and not available for sale, but after we visited with her and shopped, she surprised and delighted me by GIVING me a copy of the pattern! My mother has already threatened to steal both the yarn and pattern and begin work on it! We'll SEE about THAT! ;)

Baby Knitting

These are a two of the baby hats I knit for pregnant co-workers! Once again the star cap from Baby's Lace Set in Homespun Handknit. I love this pattern! I used the remnants of socks I knit last year in Lerwick to make the purple cap and the blue one was knit with homespun merino/tencel fingering weight yarn. I finished a pair of socks on the plane home and used the leftovers to knit a third, but I finished it at work and happened to be working WITH the recipient that night, so no picture of that one. These caps are a nice way to use up sock scraps and they knit up relatively quickly.

Time me!

This is some fabulous roving I bought at the at Stof2000 in Copenhagen. We found it on our way back from the Arbeids Museet. It had beads, threads, buttons in tubes, zippers, and various specialty fabrics on rolls--I didn't see any cottons or blends on actual bolts. We are so spoiled by JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobbies because everything is right there, but you pay the price with stock that does not rotate much and does not specialize. It is still interesting to look around and to see what people buy and you think about what kind of home sewing this culture does. A lot of the fabric was very pretty, but it was a color combination or a design that was just odd and you just wonder what they would DO with it! I didn't see any quilt shops in Denmark but there are some FABULOUS ones in Holland.

This store had a few stray skeins of acrylic yarn, and next to it a basket of 15g merino wool balls of roving! It was intended for needle felting, but I was pretty sure I would not have another opportunity on this trip to get any fiber so I bought 2 balls of 5 different colors for spinning! I couldn't wait to play with it when I got home! My suitcase was still in the living room and I was spinning this into a heavy worsted thick and thin variegated two ply yarn!
I was VERY pleased with how it turned out! I knit myself a Maltese Fisherman's Helmet like the one I'd made for Deedee, and I had JUST enough yarn! I hadn't spun on the wheel for a while and I and already thinking of de-stashing some fiber! This has to be a record for the quickest I've used up a bit of newly acquired stash!

Field Trip!

Mom and I just got back from a trip to Holland and Denmark! We spent one week in Amsterdam and another in Copenhagen! Of course we didn't get to see or do everything that we wanted, but I would gladly return to either city. We had a great time visiting museums, chapels, towers, markets, monuments, etc. There were also plenty of knitting points of interest! Here are just a few pictures for the time being!



We saw the Rembrandts and Vermeers and Van Goghs in Amsterdam, including a recently discovered early painting "Rembrandt Laughing" that will soon be returned to a private collection. We traveled to outlying areas in the Copenhagen area to see Roskilde Cathedral, the Vikingship Museum, and Karen Blixen's home.

I parted with a lot of money in the yarn shops, fabric stores, haberdasheries, department and grocery stores and BankRot-caliber stores found along the way! These are the prized souvenirs I seek out for myself! I'll post pictures of my plunder later!

One of my favorite discoveries from this trip was this collection of knitting spools we saw in a window on our way to The Houseboat Museum. I remember making these with old wooden thread spools and larger versions with pencils and oatmeal canisters. We call them a Knitting Nellie and I know in Norway they are called Strikke Lise, but I found a Strick Liesl in Holland and a Stricke Sussel in Denmark!

We got to see The Little Mermaid on the waterfront. I had seen pictures of her since I was a little girl, so it was neat to see her up close. You'd never guess from this picture that there were about 5 tour buses worth of people clambering around on the rocks next to me!

We also went to Kronborg Castle, better known as Hamlet's Castle, in Helsingor. We traipsed through the apartments, chapel, and finally the casemates where we met Holger the Dane! Legend has it that if Denmark is ever threatened, he will rise from his slumber and defend the nation. And all through Denmark, jeg snakket norsk med alle jeg traff--og de SVARTE meg pa Dansk! That was SO rewarding to me! I haven't been able to interact like that since I was last in Norway in 2001. Jeg elsker meg i Skandisk land!

You never saw this woman...

I have a friend in the witness protection program who is therefore able to wear this hat in public. What a coincidence that she'd recently bought a striking orange ski coat! Actually it is just Deedee modeling her new ski gear, complete with dew-drop Unabomber-esque shades! I couldn't believe anyone would be PLEASED to receive this well crafted ;) yet HOMELY hat! I kept telling her, "Look more ASHAMED!" when I was taking the picture. I think I might try another one of these with my newly acquired local artisan yarn from K-town. I thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth Zimmermann's commentary throughout this pattern. The last line reads, "Make the tassel of your dreams."

Frontier Hat

A gal on our floor is leaving us next month. She is the mother of one of 4 boys born in our last floor baby boom and I've always had the best intentions of knitting "coonskin" caps for them all. I knit this up for her little boy the other day since they are relocating and it would be my last chance to get his done. The other 3 will just have to wait a little while I guess. I used Patons Classic Merino Wool stranded together with different shades of Lion Brand Fun Fur and I am very pleased with the results! I used just over one ball of the light grey fun fur and maybe half a ball of the Patons, so I have plenty of yarn to make a few more of these! Every little boy needs one of these to wear when building a fort! Heck, I might want one of these for MYSELF!

Zig Zag Mittens!

My dear friend Deedee has had a pretty crappy year this year too, so I thought she could do with a pair of mittens too! She is my mentor, my friend, my confidante, etc. She is planning on finishing her BSN (she has WAY more strength than I do!) and then she plans on TRAVEL NURSING! I admire travel nurses. I am much more of a "comfort zone" nurse! Her plans include Colorado or California. Either place is a great place to make money. I have traveled this big ol' world, but I can not brag about traveling withIN the USA. When she gets established, I'll have to pick up a few extra shifts and I PROMISE I'll be CHEERFUL about it and actually EARN the money so I can go and VISIT her! She has been to Red Rocks more often than I can MENTION and that is number one on my list of destinations! :) Plus if she goes to Colorado, I can go and visit my Great Uncle Stuart and bake kringlas for him in PERSON rather than just mail them to him in a box! I love my friend Deedee and I love my friend Melissa and I am so thankful for them every day! I miss my Deedee at work though, as do a LOT of us! I like to think of it as Deedee blazing the trails for the rest of us! And I was lucky enough to be knitting on the second of these dizzying things earlier in the week, because when I peeked out of the window, there was a mere dusting of snow on the ground to take this picture!

Lin's Babies

I work with a woman who is right now in Ukraine in the midst of a lengthy adoption. She is adopting two 5-year old boys with Down's Syndrome and it is the most amazing thing to hear her talk about it. She learned of the boys through an online Down's support group and has said that as soon as she was aware of them, she just knew they were meant to be her sons. She has created a blog while they navigate the legal and adoption process and it is very interesting. I'd bought some flannel for blankies for them and made them last night while I was home on call. I will have to get some books to go with them--The Mitten comes to mind--or THIS version. It is a Ukrainian story, after all! :)

Thank You Easter Bunny! Bock! Bock!

Melissa so pleasantly surprised me this week! She gave me this darling little box filled with Easter goodies! She was recently in St. Louis and picked up BUNNY egg cups! Thank You! This box is going to be the new home for all my Melissa Haberdashery! I am always picking up odd beads or buttons or ribbon or yarn or SOMETHING because it will remind me of someone and I'll just know I'll make something with it for that person some day... I know. I'm sick. But in Melissa's case, I have a lot of butterflies! ;)

My family got together for Easter at my parents' home. Apparently there was an incident with my sister's dog involving chocolate coins and required an American Red Cross BLS "finger sweep"! Usually at any family gathering, someone just throws up, but this was much more original! Happy Easter!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I went home this weekend to visit my parents and to bake lefse and kringla orders. I was so busy that I didn't even BRING any knitting home! I've had this picture for some time and couldn't wait to post it today!

I spent most of my time developing new varicose veins by STANDING in the kitchen this weekend! In the end I baked and sold 32 dozen kringlas and 15 dozen pieces of lefse! I don't want to go near that oven for some time, and it will be even longer before I can look at a potato! Once again, my dad was good enough to deliver all my baking around town--and there was a LOT of it! I also baked and frosted a triple batch of frosted sugar cookies for St. Patrick's since I never got around to baking Obscene Conversation Heart frosted sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I have a cheapie shamrock cookie cutter that has lots of compartments and angles that I'd been dreading frosting, but the stems kept breaking off when I tried cutting them out and they looked more like butterflies! I quickly scrapped that and just made large green hearts that would instead be "Kiss Me I'm Irish" cookies, but I also forgot to pack my festive St. Pat's Sprinkles, so now they're just goofy looking green frosted hearts! Oh well. They will taste just as good.

I also cooked a fake Irish Breakfast for my dad...for lunch. I didn't order any real Galtee back bacon or sausages or Shannon white/black breakfast puddings this year, but I did get some REAL (!!!) KerryGold Irish Butter and KerryGold Dubliner cheese at Hyvee via happy accident! :) That is extra thick bacon that you see, stewed tomatos, cold beans, fried eggs, fried mushrooms, and hashbrowns. I still don't have any Lyon's tea but PG Tips worked just as well. We enjoyed our breakfast/lunch. Note the festive Christmas table cloth on my mom's kitchen table! ;)

The other big highlight of my weekend was going out to a local farm to see their Jacob Sheep! My dad told me months ago that some local 4-H kids had some Jacob Sheep. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to sheep breeds, but what I DO know I have gleaned from the pages of Spin-Off magazine and even I know that Jacob Sheep are known for their fiber. At that time I was thinking about calling and offering to buy a fleece when it came time to shear. Well then my mom had run into a family friend who was knitting a project knit from YARN that she'd gotten from this family! So Mother and I trekked out there to visit the sheep and I bought 4 skeins of 2 different shades of heathered grey from them! They raise the sheep and a man shears them every June and they send the fleeces to a mill to be picked, carded, and spun. I was SO INTERESTED to hear all this and they are going to call me when they have a new batch of yarn! They were also going to check with the mill if they can get some picked and carded batts for me to spin myself!

I had a fun but busy weekend and now I start another busy work week! A few girlfriends and I were going to go out for some green beer tonight, but any more our Urban Family is more like Ladies Aide because come 2100, we were all too tired to go anywhere or do anything! I hope everyone had a fun day though! Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Slainte! :)

Hat On!

I have been dragging my feet lately when it comes to getting done with DeeDee's dizzying patterned mittens and my Toni Jacket. My living room yarn trunk runneth over and is in my direct line of sight from my chair. I sit there and look at that yarn while I'm knitting and think about what all to do with that glorious fiber.

I used up my designer Colinette skeins of Point 5 and Graffitti to make this "Maltese Fisherman Hat". The pattern comes from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. She is a knitting icon but I have to say her patterns are a bit pithy! I had no trouble following this simple one, but in reading through some others that I'm interested in...I just don't know. She is so clever and witty and it is an utter delight to "read how she thinks", but I can see how her patterns could be intimidating. And let's not forget to mention that this yarn is absolutely HIDEOUS! I bought it because it was COLINETTE and on sale for 70% off, and that was really its only redeeming quality! It is a very cleverly shaped/fitted cap and it's delightfully soft and warm, but I think I will only wear it when in a different state/country where no one knows me or in a Nuclear Winter! If I had paid full price for the 2 skeins, this hat would have cost $44!

Not wanting to waste any of that precious Colinette, I took the runt of the Graffiti ball over to Brenda's last night for Knit Night/Early St. Patrick's Day and Melissa started and finished a baby hat for her new baby niece! I think she used US size 10.5 dpn's and cast on a total of 42 stitches. She was so pleased with it that she was going to send it to her sister in the mail! I'm trying to take mental inventory of The Stash for any more nice bulky-ish yarn.

And finally, I just love this yarn and I love this pattern! I surprise myself from time to time because I absolutely HATE the color pink, but I am just enamored of this yarn! I knit another baby bonnet from Last Minute Knitted Gifts with the remainder of that pink purse kit yarn. I had just enough! I was so pleased with that yarn that I ran out to Jo-Ann Fabrics yesterday and nabbed the absolute LAST kit. I will sit on that yarn for a bit but I know I can whip up a little girl's sweater and bonnet with it!