One More Day To Go

Coming to the end now of 30 days of Hats...and almost done NABloPoMo....
others are done today...but I started one day late...so I plan to post
my last day on December 1st and hope to go out with a bang...Fun hat
planned for tomorrow.
Today's hat is what to do with that leftover sock yarn hat...



Yup this is my go to baby hat done in self-striping leftover sock yarn with
a contrasting pompom added also made from same yarn.

Hat 2 (yes am posting two today)
still not finished is a more complex fair isle project only two colors.
I especially like the braid edge...my first. It's a twined herringbone edge.
This hat is the Turkish-Patterned Cap from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch.
I am eventually planning on posting finished pic, but as it won't be done today
or tomorrow and I have another hat set for tomorrow, will post it as a partial
hat as of today.



Blog of the day is: Fig and Plum
It's a little knitting, a little travel, and some yummy, yummy food...Love this
blog!
This blog is by Jessica from Brooklyn, NYC and can be found here:

http://www.figandplum.com/


Yummmmy!

In Which I Meet Louisa Harding

Today's hat is another low budget hat, which anyone could make. It is yet
again from Hip Knit Hats...yup really love that book.
It's called the Nina Hat.

My hat is knit with Lion Brand Moonlight Mohair yarn in Rainforest
most likely purchased with a coupon from AC Moore, although had been in
the stash for awhile. It has a cute roll brim and fits me nicely and as
I like the colors, it is in my own personal collection. I added the
crocheted little flower and leaf with added little buttons.
I am forever adding doodads to finished items.



Today's blog is: Feltmeupdesigns.
I was reading the special issue of Interweave Felt Magazine, and found this blog
listed under notables and had to have a looksee...It's really a lot of fun and
of course want to be sure and share it with everyone else so the perfect choice
for today's blog. How cute are these little felted birdies.



I could not find much of a bio on her...but seems we share same nickname, we
are both Mel's...how cool. She can be found here:
http://feltmeupdesigns.blogspot.com/

Back to Knitting Guilds and special speakers they sponsor who come and teach us
new things and even let us model their latest knitted treasures. This past
month, November, my Boston, Massachusetts Daytime guild hosted none other
than Louisa Harding of Knitting Little Luxuries fame and also ROWAN....
She is not from the US but from County Yorkshire England...
very lucky us.

She presented to our guild then had a small impromtu fashion show of our members
wearing her garments. She then stayed thru Sunday, and taught classes in a
lovely little yarn shop in Salem, MA. about 1 1/2 hours from my house.
Yes Salem the home of the famous witchcraft trials in Massachusetts.
It was my very first visit to Seed Stitch Fine Yarns yarn shop.
My initial impression was very bright and airy. Staff were very
helpful and so nice.

First two photos are of the yarn shop.





Next up is Louisa showing us and explaining how they came to be her
Miss Bea Collection books. I actually bought one of these and had her
autograph it along with a few other books, will blog about those another
day, as no photos tonight.

a few pics from fashion show.









Then some pics from our class, including a finished pic of bag we were making
in our class. First photo was Louisa showing us how to make cording for our
bags, her assistant Adam (aka one of her yarn reps) was holding other end of 5 strands of yarn at once to make the cording. I also forgot to mention this
class was held on same day as my first cookie swap. Lucky for
me a friend swapped my cookies for me. I made them Sat. and since Louisa said
her favorite cookies were peanut cookies to me on Thursday at our guild meeting,
I made peanut, chocolate, and caramel cookies for the swap but brought
along extras for Louisa and the group. This is now my family's new favorite
cookie, which they claim is "way too good for a cookie swap."
They did go very quickly in class and folks there wanted recipe too.









Oops almost forgot my way too good for a cookie swap cookies...Yummmm!

That Wild and CRaZy Colored Stash Busting Hat

Hey there that's one funky hat you're sporting there...
okay so I found this new hat pattern, which called for bulky yarn scraps...
which I had of course, did they match or harmonize together...not exactly,
so here goes.

I knitted this one on car trip yesterday, along with my regular fair isle
project...still in progress.

It was fun and fast to knit...
It's from Knit Hats! by Gwen Steege...and is actually the cover hat from
same book. Hat is called appropriately....Color Me Bright.
I cannot tell you any of the yarns used...as they were only bits and pieces
and labels long since gone...but any bulky weight scraps will do. Knit on
#10 circ.'s or double points it goes really fast.



Equally wild colors is this really cool blog I found while surfing around
in blogosphere Zebra Knits.
This is by far one of my favorites, her colours are awesome...wait until you
see the way she photos her knitting and general everyday life. It appears
to take on a life of it's own and kind of floats across her blog pages!
Fantastic job! She can be found blogging at address below:

http://zebraknits.typepad.com/zebraknits_a_knitting_jou/

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in our house means all of us being thankful for once again
to be able to go see family and catch up on everyone's goings on.
Many of my relatives actually the majority of both sides are
in New Hampshire, so we travel by car to meet in a relative's home...this is
bonus knitting time for me about 2 hrs. one way, so can't wait.
I also hope to persaude family members that they really would like
knitted gifts this year...wish me luck.
It would not be Thanksgiving without...in fact, I was told I have to have
this item as my holiday entrance ticket my Trifle.




This is a very popular recipe so probably most recognize this and I always
make it by just putting it together -no recipe...By the way, if anyone is
interested in recipe, will write up and post to blog...just let me know.
have lost count number of times I have made it...certainly way more than say pancakes.
Yup every Easter and Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember.
It's basically Chocolate fudge cake, layered with coolwhip,
layered with a special brand of dark chocolate pudding,
layered with crushed Heath Bars, and repeat...I used to put Kahlua in
the layers, but then the kids came along, and somehow now that they are in
high school and college, the Kahlua never made it back in again. Strangely,
it's one dessert I really don't care for, but then I am a fruit lover...
so someone usually brings cherry pie...which has the same reaction for me!

i.e. I am going home now and am taking this whole cherry pie with a fork
for long car ride back home as a snack if I get hungry. Of course, I really
just have my token king-sized piece...but I always think of that
just the same!

I hope to be able to blog when I get home late Thanksgiving night...but if not,
I will be back again on Friday...that insane holiday shopping day of the year,
happily blogging instead! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that reads my blog and
even those that don't!

The Husband Hat

Okay so I have blogged that the family so far has turned down all hats offered.
Perhaps if I threw scratch lottery tickets or game tickets inside they would
at least look at the hat.
and Tim, oldest son, if you are reading this you are excluded as you actually
requested a hat from me at one point...He's the one that his head was in Ohio,
and still is, and hat for him to be sized was in Massachusetts...Makes sense.
Anyway, I made the comment I would be giving some of my hats to friends, and the
husband said, you never make anything for us.
Well whoa pony....stop all knitting in progress and leave on those needles.
I immediately got out my most husband colorish yarn and decided subtle stripes
was my best approach...and I knit that hat up so quick, my needles are still
smokin'.
I bound off yesterday, and quickly put that hat right on his head...He seems to
like it....It is gnormous....but then I have a tiny head and he is definitely
men's LARGE...so it works...seemed pleased with results. It is not my favorite,
yet it cleans up pretty nice in a photo shoot! Must be those lucious husbandish
colours I chose.



The pattern I chose that would seem most mannish and acceptable to my household
was the Ribbed Cap pattern which can be found here:
http://tiajudy.com/ribcaps.htm
I added my own stripe pattern, I did not rib all the way through as in
pattern, I did stockinette instead...I used my new found method of Jogless
Jogging for the stripe rows, so they would be horizontal and not "Leaning
Tower of Pisa" stripes. I also forget the decrease instruction part of hat at
home, so I did mine completely different. I did however cast on same no. of
stitches and use sized needles pattern called for, but I think that's it...so
nope not too much like original pattern.
HOWEVER, important thing is, he appears to LIKE it...true test is if he
ever wears it....It is screaming to be blocked...so that's my next step.

Today's blog...did not spend too much time poking around as I have to get
baking for tomorrow's big day is: All Tangled Up...unsure too much about
author just that she is across the pond, so definitely not from the US.
http://www.alltangledup.com/
I did not realize that the Kiri Shawl was her original pattern until after I
had posted her blog on this site...I do love her scrolling galleries.

You Are Not Moosestaken

Today's hat is colorful, was fun to knit, is very, very warm and is made
out of yarn spun from....
wait for it....of course....Buffalo, you thought I was going to say
moose...personally thinking that this shade of buffalo equally exotic
to idea of knitting moose.
It truly is as warm as you would think, and not rough at all but quite soft.
I am envisioning the buffalo as bathed in a lovely bath salts and
creamy lotion applied liberally after his bath...unsure about all this,
but very soft yarn just the same.









The original yarn for this hat was purchased at the Ohio fiber fest, and have
currently misplaced buffalo clay button in pic to go on hat...so when it's found
I will finish hat with button.



Important to note that yarn unknit is most true to actual color...Today
was hat photo day and it rained...even playing with the lighting, I could
not make the indoors replicate the true colors...so what you see on unknit
yarn is exactly the correct color...it came out rather striped...this is a
new hat and due to cost and my secure belief that buffalo will be very very
warm, I do plan to keep this for myself.

Pattern is yet another freebie, the Button Band Hat by amazingly Kathleen
Taylor...I guess I do like her patterns, I had no idea, but liked the button
part, which I plan to add at a later date. Pattern can be found here:
http://kathleen-dakotadreams.blogspot.com/2007/10/freebie-friday-button-band-hat.html

In the news, if you haven't heard of this already, the Lion Brand Flagship
Premier Store opened this week in NYC...take a peek.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/knitting-through-a-downturn/

By the way, our neighbors across the street from us had a delivery truck the
other day...curious I watched a new washer being unloaded from the truck...I
immediately noted it was the kind that had the opening on the side of the washer
and my mind quickly thought...."front end loader, going to be much harder to felt
with that kind of washer, should have stuck with a toploader."
~and she doesn't even knit...now that I am a knitter 24 hrs./day/52 weeks/yr.
has my mind switched over to formatting all my thoughts based on how it will
directly affect me as a knitter....next I will probably rationalize that the
recent drop in gas prices is now more than enough reason to make that short
1 hour plus trek to WEBS...shucks...but gas is so cheap now....
hadn't really dreamed up the gas argument one but now that I read what I've
written on the blog, it's a pretty rock solid argument to me...just fascinated
that my brain was in "knitter mode" about the washer...even if the owner doesn't
knit at all. hmmm.

Blog of the day is Bowerbirdknits and can be found here:
http://bowerbirdknits.blogspot.com/
A very bright and colourful and well done blog. She has some amazing
patterns also, including HATS too!

Bunny Has a Tummy Ache

Okay here we go again, home tonight at 10pm...I did prewrite today's
blog, and have a lovely hat to post, but no photos yet...tried my old
approach to squishing hat into scanner and doing photos that way.
"Don't laugh, I have been known to put baked items, i.e. cookies
squashed into scanner to photo in same way"....less crumbs with hats
though.

Anyway, THE OTHER hat has lovely colors, but scanner shows
it as very drab and depressing colourway.
Thus, Monday's hat will have to be Tuesday's hat and will take proper
camera lens photos tomorrow as rather late at 10pm for good outdoor
camera lighting.

Therefore, I will pull up a hat I made a while ago, but not yet included in
my 30 days of hats...this is another one of my personal favorites.

The Banana Republic Hat Knockoff by metaphysical_muse on Ravelry.
This was first posted on Craftster, another website I also post to often.
Smaller pic is showing closeup of da button.





This is a free pattern and can be found here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=197572.0
This is what the original from Banana Republic looked like, so the pattern
creator rather than shelling out all the money for this hat, just recreated
it based on what she saw.


By the way, there are only 25 pages of photos of finished hats from this
pattern as of today on Ravelry.
Also this pattern calls for a bulky weight yarn, and I used Noro Silk Garden NOT
doubled, and not bulky, so cast on far more stitches and basically had to play
with pattern for awhile, but happy with results, love the colors, and it fits
great...This is also in my personal collection still. Nice hat for spring/fall.

Today's blog that I chose after having a lovely time new blog surfing
....is to me just eye candy...
will definitely be coming back to visit here again...please note that some
of her rabbits are knitted, otherwise
I would call this an all types craft blog.
But so nice!

Rachel Rabbit can be found blogging here:
http://rachaelrabbit.blogspot.com/

How cute is this rabbit from Rachel's site, she also has an Etsy store...
strange but still have not been able to figure a way to link over to any
other site yet from my own blog.
I am holding out for a copy of the book, Blogging For Dummy's, just as soon
as someone writes it! Can you preorder on Amazon a book you wish someone
would publish?

There's a Cat In My Coffee

Okay once again find myself not home from my long day until 8pm, and since I
am a huge Amazing Race fan, will need to sit and watch my show before I can
blog tonight. I have 2 t-shirts of this show which proves what a fan I am.
It's the travel part that appeals to me.
I have talked one of my kids into competing with me if we ever had the chance...however would need to get a lot more in shape before I would ever
take that event on...but would be great fun!



Regarding today's weather update...actually just checked thermometer 27 degrees
Farenheit...suppose that's balmy compared to yesterday, think it was 24.
Still too cold for me and am using all my scarves, hats, and
mittens, and wool socks too that I've knitted all year....
....brrr it's getting cold!!!
Speaking of winter on it's way and the holidays rapidly approaching...



"Workers hoisted this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree into place
November 14, 2008 in New York City. The 72-foot (22 meter) tall Norway spruce
comes this year from Hamilton, New Jersey, where it was planted nearly 80 years
ago. The Christmas tree has been an annual ritual in midtown Manhattan since the origins of Rockefeller Center in the 1930s. (Getty Images / November 14, 2008)"



As far as today's hat, as it's late, will post a simple hat for today...it's my
go to baby hat yet again, this one was the first hat I gave to one of my little
patients. I have actually made several for them now, each one has been different. This one kind of reminds me of a teletubby and it looked so sweet on. It was so tiny, thank goodness I think
this baby may have grown out of it by now.






Teletubby Hat and actual Teletubby pretty close

Blog of the day will actually be two blogs....one my children absolutely
adore and use as screen savers for their computers and a knitting/fiber one
of course.

First up you have to take a peek at this one:
it's kid tested and recommended, of course my boys are older...so not sure
about language content, but can imagine, some of them would need some screening
for younger viewers.



website is here:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/

The blog I chose for today is found here: http://idreamofthesea.blogspot.com/
I Dream of the Sea blog is by Kendra of the United Kingdom.
Be sure and take a peek at her lovely pastel baby block blanket.

There are so many awesome blogs out there, you can spend hours just looking.
Loads of wonderful ideas, such clever crafters!

I did by the way make it to my class today and I did meet a new to me yarn
shop, so will have photos and review tomorrow when I have much more time to
blog properly!

In Which We Finally See Cookie A

Today's hat is a strange little number called Cal by the creator of the pattern
but I simply refer to it as my pink bobble beret. When you look at the photos
you will see why I call it that and not Cal.

This is yet another hat from Hip Knit Hats
by Cathy Carron

Two different yarns are used in this hat and are knit together...
the off white yarn has little nubs of gray in it and is called Lou Lou
by Classic Elite and is a bulky weight wool yarn.
The pink is Montera by Classic Elite an aran weight wool and llama mix.
So it was very neat knitting these two textured and different weight
yarns together.










This hat is still in my collection as I have no one in particular pining away
for this unusual beret...Yarns if I remember right, were rather expensive, so
prefer just to keep in my private hat stash...yup it's growing all the time as
you can imagine.

For those of you reading my blog from Hawaii or Australia (where they are
celebrating spring right now~so envious of you), or any other warmish climate,
the temp. outside my house right now is a rather cold 20 degrees F.



The blog of the day is by Crowing Ram. I had surfed around reading many blogs
and then I often look to see what other blogs others are reading and it just
keeps mushrooming further and further and so found this one. The pictures are
spectacular, they are very vibrant, the best I've seen so far.
The site can be found here: http://www.threadbearfiberarts.com/cram/
Some interesting photos of Cookie A teaching a class and a nice write up...take
a peek. She is not as I had pictured her, but funny most folks never are to me.
Not sure it this is the same for others. I would imagine you picture me as someone
not at all as I appear in real life, but then again, maybe not.

By the way, I have an early morning class tomorrow on Sunday with a very famous designer, and am bringing along camera so don't let me forget to share all the lovely details on tomorrow's blog ~ the highlights of my day!
~and this is my only hint...

~The Weather Outside Is Frightful....

Hat of the day is my first ever attempt at a Fair Isle hat created by myself
adapted from a mitten pattern. Of course I had to monkey around with the
stitch count and play with motifs I wanted to use and add some extras,
but overall thrilled with outcome...
I took the basic premise of the skull hat by knitting a lining, then
you do a purl row (your turning ridge) then you go into pattern for
front.
The fair isle portion with floats actually creates a double layer of
knitting and since this is wool, double thick warmth...with the added
lining, it now has 3 layers...thus even warmer!
I am proud to claim that this hat is for me!

I got the original idea by pouring over patterns on Ravelry for mittens
and came across this clever designer, Kathleen Taylor who took a knitted vest
and turned
it into mittens.

see here on Ravelry:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stranded-snow-mittens-child-size
I also did a blog peek of her blog back on November 10 which can be found here:
http://kathleen-dakotadreams.blogspot.com
Below is her mitten pattern, which is available for free.



This is my version done as a hat pattern, which I just emailed to Kathleen.
She asked to see any finished mittens, so thought she'd like to see the hat
as well.





Photo was taken while blocking and came out more fabulous when completely done,
but was anxious to get photos out, so just assume it tightened up nicely
and stitches were no longer loose as they are during the blocking process.

I did not cast on same number of stitches as in skull hat nor follow any of
pattern, nor use decrease finish, just created my own...I did however use
same needle size and idea of added liner. I also added beaded eyes and mouth
felt it looked better than the embroidery floss.

Speaking of the weather...it's 26 degrees farenheit outside right now in
Massachusetts where I live...I have a feeling it's going to be another long
cold and snowy winter again....We have no snow yet, but I drove by the local
small ski place a few miles away and they have been making snow for some time
by basically spraying water up in the air from pipes and because it's so cold,
it turns to snow, crystalizes before it reaches the ground.
I am thinking when finished Hats 30 days of posting...my next 30 days of
knitting had better be set aside for knitting woolen mittens...perhaps even
the snowman/snowflake pattern which could
match my lovely new hat.



Blog of the day is: Kathryn Ivy
She has loads of great patterns and ideas...check out the homemade mitten blocker
which could also be fashioned into a sock blocker pretty easily...I first found
her sometime ago for her delicious mushroom patterns...but I like the how to on
the little knitted felt patches, also ruffled scarf pattern, dyeing tututorials,
and particularly cool how to go about making your own yarn scrapbook/knitting
journal...I keep one of these myself, and sadly...do not post every project as
I should, but the ones I have posted are a great resource whenever I want to
revisit them.



http://kathrynivy.com/