A few hats.

Over summer I got out of the habit of both knitting and blogging. The last week or so has been a lot cooler and has inspired the completion of a few projects.

B's I want a slouchy hat.
You know, the hat she decided she wanted after teasing me about my hats saying they looked like trees and onions. Brat.

It's the Slouchy Copy Cat Hat by Terra Jamieson.

2 balls of Cleckheaton Country 8 ply
4 and 5 mm circulars.







Also finished is my hat, Marquess by Ashley Knowlton.

I skein of Naturally Harmony in 8 ply.
3.75 and 4.5 mm needles

Progress happens in a non orderly manner.

Why is it that as soon as I get close to finishing something I want to cast on something new?

I have several projects sooooooooooo close to being finished.
A few ends to weave in, washing and pictures to be taken. Nothing that would take a super long time if I focused and just did it. But knitting is fun and the one area I can totally ignore things like should and could. The biggest consequence likely to be that it will get cold and I will have to weave those ends in to wear something before I leave the house. Or just tuck them in my sleeve which is much more likely.

Miss B has added to the startitis this time. After paying me out about Porom and Gretel, she has decided she would like a slouchy hat after all. She has chosen the 'Slouchy Copy Cat Hat'.





K mart were nice and reduced their Cleckheaton Country yarn to $2 a ball. It looks like B may end with some mittens as well.

I am playing about with a few shawls as well as trying to focus on working on some older stuff too. For now that means I have picked up the fuzzy feet





and have been working on them as well as Damson





I still want another Ishbel and and and......

Casting off, ripping and casting on.

Casting off - Porom.

I saw this on Brooklyntweed's blog and had to have it. I raided the stash for the totem I had bought last year when spotlight had a clearance.
Like any other hat I make Miss B gave it a nick name. This one is affectionately known as the onion hat.


Pattern by Jared Flood.
Yarn - Patons Totem 2 balls.
Needles - 4mm and 5 mm.


I ripped the purple Koolhaas. The Moda Vera Mousse is just too fuzzy and was looking worn out while still on the needles. So it is back in the stash and I am wondering if it would felt........

I have also cast on a something pink with yarnovers in it. I may just be crazy.

About time...

It feels as though I haven't finished a project for a very long time. Everything seems to be hanging on forever and going so slowly around here. Especially these socks.
I really, really didn't like working with the tangly yarn and am glad I sent the other two balls to a new home so they couldn't sit there staring at me, making me feel guilty, knowing that I was never, ever, going to knit them up.

Now that they are done though I am glad I persisted as somehow I do like them.



They are a little scratchy but should come good with a wash.



I enjoyed finishing something so much that I decided to cast on a (hopefully) quick knit.

Koolhaas just because I wanted a purple one for me even before I made the grey one for C.






Gretel is growong slowly..............

And I am about to start the sleeves on the Cobblestone Pullover.

Settled now?

Between moving, classes starting up again, personal happenings and the ridiculous heat we have had lately, I just haven't felt settled.

Funnily enough my knitting seems to follow the pattern of my current classwork. Scattered and all over the place.
I start off all enthused and race along until something gets tricky/ I make a mistake/ I don't understand something. Then I skip ahead to the next section as best I can.
Ultimately I have to come back to that point and fix it to be able to finish it.

Guess what I am doing this afternoon...........and no it's not knitting :(.




Where does that leave me with my knitting?

Spotlight socks - Yarn needs major untangling.

Opal socks - I need to rip back a few rows, my feet aren't THAT long.

Black Black Black - I need to sew up the pieces.......... someone send seaming mood.

Mitts - I need to rip back......... I forgot to increase for the thumb duh.......... oh and what do I do with all those ends? Do I just leave them and sew them in later? Do I sew them in along the way? If so........ how and where?

Rogue - I love this. I have separated the front and back.
Working on the back and eeek, my tension seems to have changed.

I think I know how to fix this, I am just not in the mood to rip back just now.



That is one pile of uninspiring knitting staring at me. It all needs fixing of some sort.


What to do, what to do.......... ohhhhhhhhh I know cast on............

YAY!!! Cleckheaton Angora Supreme in grey. Cast on Gretel for me.

Knit, knit, knit.

What the ??? Broken yarn........

Join yarn.

Knit, knit, knit.

Broken yarn......... eeek moths have been munching.

Throw yarn down in disgust.

Get out other ball of yarn and wind it to check for damage.

Perfect ball, nothing wrong with it. Trust me to have started with the moth eaten ball.

Wonder why moths ate one ball and not the other. Decide it doesn't matter and just be grateful they left me something to knit with.

Decide it's time to work on the one thing that doesn't need fixing.

Cobblestone.

Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed raided from stash.

Firsts

First - FO for the year



Patonyle socks with picot edge.
72 Sts on 2.25 dpns

I have little ladders in these and am reminded why I like those little circulars so much.





First- Absolutely love this knit

Koolhaas.

I am making this in exchange for someone making me a swift.

It is nice and squishy and I am going to have trouble parting with it. I am already scoping out yarn to make one for myself.

First - Colourwork.

I saw these mitts over at Chrisknits and just had to try them.

I was having so much fun with them I forgot to do the increases for the thumb....... Oooops also first mistake for the year.

First - Ripped Project.

The Sirdar Eternity jumper is no more.

I started it in 2006 and have worked at it on and off ever since.

The yarn is a mix and while I don't mind it, I just don't love it enough to keep going. It has been ripped and re wound into balls.

Gretel

Gretel is done and I love it. Pretty, pink and poofy, just how it is meant to be.

Miss B is still in her 'refuse to model hats' mode so I will have to wait till this is gifted to get a better pic.

Yarn: Cleckheaton Angora Supreme (Discontinued) 1.5 balls.

Needles: 3.75mm and 4.5mm

I followed the pattern as written, apart from the few times I became distracted or interrupted which required fixing.

This yarn also sheds fluff which somehow ends up in your mouth when knitting. I don't remember the purple I used to make Wicked doing this, maybe it's just the pink

It is very warm and really shouldn't be knit on a 33 degree (celcius) day.

Hats

I am really looking forward to making things for those of you who are participating in Pay It Forward.
I think I am just as excited to see what you come up with for your giftees.
So many choices to make; patterns, yarn and colours.


Miss B could not be bribed into modelling hats today (or any time in the last week) so I'm sorry, you get flat hats on a table pics.






These beanies are going to family in Canberra.

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 12 ply
Needles: 5mm
Size: Hopefully one that fits; it's hard to measure peoples heads when they live hours away.

Seeing as these were cast off I decided to ignore all other WIP's and cast on for Gretel.

I am taking Miss B's advice...... we don't need those jumpers finished until winter....
Shush about taking advice from a teenager when it suits me.

I am loving the prettiness of this and will shut up about having just stuffed up half of the last row by twisting the wrong way in the wrong place.
Just when I was thinking I knew what I was doing.........




Time for a cup of tea, some chocolate and some fixing.........

Holidays

I am loving this lot of holidays, just enjoying the break from deadlines and having to be places at certain times.

I have been spending a lot of time doing a lot of not much. Sitting in the sunshine, playing with the cats and guilt free knitting.

Catching up on blog lines and drinking way too many cups of tea.

Shopping for yarn with Tigers, and convincing ourselves that the yarn we bought in the first store doesn't resemble the yarn we bought in the second store in any way.
The fact that both of my purchases were of the same brand means nothing.
Actually it may mean that I end up with knitted items that I can wear together for once. Or not.



Miss B is happy, her cap is done.




Cabled Newsboy Cap from Stitch and Bitch Nation.
5mm and 6mm needles
Cleckheaton Country 12 ply in Black.

Now that hers is done I am thinking I'd like a black one too. Me who doesn't wear hats. I just want one, same as I want a beret that I wont wear either.



To make Chris happy and show that I do have arms, although most days I could do with a couple of extra ones.......




Cleckheaton Country Silk raglan sleeve roll neck jumper.

Cleckheaton Country Silk 13 balls
Colour Overly bright berry
4mm needles

I added 5cm extra to the length meaning I worked 40cm of the body before starting shaping for the arms.
I am still undecided about how this looks but I love how it feels.
It is comfortable and warm and I'd like another jumper that fits like this but in something not so bright. The sleeves could be about 1cm longer too.

Is it holidays yet???

I feel as though the most I have seen of any knitting lately has been to wash a bathtub full of knits and have them sitting all over the house taking their time to dry.

If I am not going to get much knitting time I can at least have some new yarn to look at.
Sock yarn found in Lincraft yesterday in a sneaky visit on the way home.




June's Project Spectrum projects, Irish Hiking Scarf and Mittens.

Both made using cleckheaton Country 12 ply, % balls for the scarf, two for the mittens.





The hat in the middle is the Newsboy cap made in Paton's Jet.
Miss B is trying to claim this. She hasn't succeeded so far so has put in her demand, uh, request for one in black.