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/

Still Hat It Day 19

It's my 19th straight day of posting and surprising am still HAT IT.... And still not out yet of hats to share.

Today's hat is officially called the Vera Hat by Cathy Carron
and can be found in the book Hip Knit Hats.




But I just refer to it as the Chenille Hat...actually this is
probably the cheapest hat I've ever made, as the chenille yarn in
this hat was an acrylic purchased at Ocean State Job Lot,
and the pink isn't fun fur, but a similar readily available
lash type acrylic.
This isn't a recently knitted hat,
but one that has never been posted to either blog or Ravelry before.
I have made many hats from this book.
On Ravelry you can find some information on errata for this pattern, but
I either self-corrected as I went or never had a problem with pattern.
I remember it being a simple and rapid knit but that it came out a little
large for my small head...perhaps due to the stretchy nature of chenille.
Colors are certainly bold. The flower attached was one of my self
created gizmo's to add a little extra to hat.

From book description: A bit of a flirt, this eyelash-trimmed, flared-brimmed
hat goes easily from city to country and back again. Extra texture and color
nuance can be achieved by blending yarns from the same color family.





The following blog is today's peek and review, the wet felting is incredible!
Katie I am assuming it's her first name, is an amazing artist from the United
Kingdom who works in many mediums including batiks, but I am particularly
impressed with her highly creative felting...be sure and scroll down to bottom
of her blog and not miss these apples and other things she has made.



Her blog is called What Katie Did
and can be found here:
http://whatkatiedid.typepad.com/what_katie_did/

How to Joglessly Jog

Okay hurray it's finally done...and it was a sunny day and I was able
to take it's pic! Things went my way today in hat finishing/photo land!





Hat of day is by Jared Flood, called Turn a Square.
I actually made this hat twice, first time looked lovely but my jogs
were not quite jogless...however I had it figured out by decrease
round...so opted to pull out all my knitting back to very first
stripe and do it right throughout hat. Not too painful and a whole new
skill now in my pocket.

Jogging if you look at the hat...is the part where you make these lovely
stripes going around sides of hat...when you switch a color you basically
get this stair stepping, where one row of color is off from next...well they
invented a way...(knitter's are such clever thinking folks) to avoid this
jogging. so see further in post for details along with some good pictorials
on how to do this and note close up of hat...stripes look pretty behaved.
going around and around in the same line, it really works!
Yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca color 6205 and Noro Kereyon or Silk Garden,
not a 100% sure which as I tossed the label...silly me.

let's just say the alpaca is so soft and lovely...I may just knit
with alpaca from now on.

There are currently 886 projects on Ravelry as of today for this hat
pattern, and 61 pages of finished photos. Another more popular pattern.
By the way, this is a free pattern and can be found here:
if you are on Ravelry
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/turn-a-square

or at his blog, follow link on bottom of page
http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/

I was thinking of making Jared of Brooklyn, New York aka Brooklyn Tweed
be the blog of the day...but that seemed like cheating...
so instead will choose another see later in posting.

Speaking of jogless jogs, the best explanation I found and there are many
online was by Meg Swanson (no surprise there). See note here and good pics:

http://www.socknitters.com/kickback/joglessjog.htm

I definitely plan to knit another Brooklyn Tweed pattern as love them all,
very well written and easy to follow. Being a process knitter, I find I learn
new skills with each of his patterns...I love the challenge!

Okay poking around in blogosphere again and thought wouldn't it be lovely
to find a blog based outside the US as many visitors to my blog are from
other countries. So I found the following out of Australia, Monster Knits
and think it's a keeper to regularly follow...very interesting...love the gnome on the stocking, or at least think it's a stocking and also love those raspberry fingerless gloves. It does look a little bit like a shop's blog, but still
pretty interesting overall.

http://monsterknit.blogspot.com/

A Knitted Self-Portrait

The very first knitted item I ever sold was a hat. It's the pink felted
baby hat. I embroidered details after felting and added little flowers
and leaves. It's lined with a very soft pastel colored polkadot baby
flannel. This is one of my all time favorite finished knitted projects.
I remember bringing it to a guild meeting where a woman there asked me to
make an adult version and she would buy it.








Blog of the day is Color Joy! by Lynn H. of Lansing, Michigan
It is located at:
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/
Loads of cool stuff can be found there...but don't forget to scroll down
and check out the gorgeous purple polymer clay button. Also be sure and
go to this link and check out her own self portrait..
KNITTED and then done all in duplicate
stitch. Simply amazing!
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/1419



Tomorrow with any sunlight help for photo taking...I can finally post my very
first finished Jared Flood pattern aka Brooklyn Tweed!!!
Oh and of course...it's a hat...goes without saying!

No Calories in This Calorimetry

Okay it's 9:45pm...and home late from work with loads to do
before I go to bed and get up and start my day all over again.
And remember I am a nurse, so I need to get my unwind time
in order to face Tuesday. Add to that hat I am working on, had
error, pulled out most of it...looking really fine now...but not
done...so should make it for Tues. post...so this is a recap
and the posting I typed out last night for tonight...will be
airing when that hat is done!

Today's hat is the Calorimetry. And I will admit to date, this is
my very favorite hat I've made for at least myself. It never messes
up your hair. It's warm as can be particularly nice for those very
late season soccer games when the weather has turned to its coldest
and you are freezing to death on the sidelines, wishing your highschool
son's game was just televised on NBC or something.
It's made of Noro Kureyon...one skein, so many lovely color changes and
too much fun to knit!





I have had nonknitting friends request me to knit them one, as soon as
they saw mine...so Emiko if you are blog peeking again...one's on its way this
winter for sure.

and Jana if you are blog peeking, I promise to bring mine to next guild mtg.

Since I have lots of blog peeking friends, it's quicker to get messages
out this way.
by the way, this is a Knitty pattern from the winter 2006 issue and can be
found
here: http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/PATTcalorimetry.html
Pattern is written by: Kathryn Schoendorf an art student from San Francisco

who also explains a calorimety as the following:
"Calorimetry is a scientific term describing the measurement
of heat lost or gained".

by the way there are a mindboggling 5,951 calorimetries posted to Ravely as of today's date. Noro Kereyon yarn was selected 292 times, and they are posted to
490 pages of finished pictures....YIKES!

Okay this is the part where I am guilty of Blog Peeking and this is the blog
I'd like to share.

Today's blog is Maglia! Confessions of a Knitholic "my kind of person!"
and can be found at:
http://knit4ever.blogspot.com/

Well end of posting for today off to peek at blogs and catch up on Plurk!
Do you Plurk? perhaps I had best do a blog post about Plurk soon!

Gryffindor is My House

Today's hat is the Harry Potter House hat for the Gryffindor House.
Which if I could choose my wizarding house, would be my first choice.



Yarn used was Plymouth Encore worsted weight...less than one skein each in
Burnt Sienna and Butternut colorways.

I found the free pattern online here:
http://media.wiley.com/product_ancillary/14/04700673/DOWNLOAD/0470067314.pdf

but I believe it's the very same pattern in the book Charmed Knits by
Alison Hansel
This hat did go to charity.

Today's blog peek and review is about woollywormhead aka Ruth
and can be found here:
http://woollywormhead.blogspot.com/

I was poking around in the blogosphere and found several interesting ones,
and in particular came across this link.
I have many of Woolly (name she prefers to be known by)
patterns for HATS queued up on Ravelry so knew she was an innovative
and prolific designer already...
but I had absolutely no idea that she had no one home base
but instead spent her life
~travelling~
around in a self-built house bus. I cannot even imagine yarn storage in this case.
She writes in her bio that she is a sheep whisperer. also cool, very cool.
This indeed is a blog to check out in more detail!



~and for those of you emailing me to write up pattern for Harry, as I am
all hat obsessed, it will not be happening in 2008, as I virtually will
have to reknit him from scratch.

"By George I Think She's Got It"

Have just finally discovered that fair isle is fun, fair isle is
fairly easy once you do it right...and fair isle is
addicting, when you've finally got it.

Today's hat is the Skull Hat...as seen first on Ravelry of course
pattern by Gina Doherty and can be found here:
http://knittwotogether.typepad.com/
had trouble linking directly so
when you get to her blog, just type in on Right column if interested in
free pattern...skull hat.

Yarn for hat is Patons wool, white and black...so with double layer because of
floats plus it's lined...there are 3 layers of wool...so will be very warm.
Unsure who will get this hat...hopefully one of my son's will finally claim
one of my knitted projects.

Photo is of youngest son with hat and cat...kinda like a Dr. Suess kind of thing.
Hmmm.





This is ta da my very first successful fair isle pattern
and actually came out looking pretty much like other's finished pics on Ravelry...hooray. I think I finally caught on...

I needed to do two color stranding one strand in
each hand...tried every other way and this actually worked!!
I am a thrower...who knew before I started knitting, I would be termed as a
thrower...if the shoe fits wear it I guess.
So in my right hand, I throw, in my left hand, I hold less dominant color and I
pick it continental style. This took some getting used to, however going pretty
quickly now, and it's too much fun...a great knitting friend of mind, she is a
great person and a greater knitter...(hello Barbara)...hee hee...
said that this style of knitting tends to be addictive
because you can actually see pattern developing while you knit
which in turn makes you tend to knit faster and faster.
I think she hit the nail on the head so to speak...
that is so true...My only problem is I knit so rapidly, that I tend to go
right into a second row of same pattern, and have to tear out stitches
and move my marker up a row...such an eager beaver.

I went to my third guild meeting this week...and someone
there actually commented on current hat...another fair isle project, and she evidently also loves fair isle and discovered it years ago...
told her I was a total addict and could
knit nothing else now....
~So how long does this addiction last?, I asked her...she said she is
still hooked many years later...

Also wondering if I will ever return to just one color stockinette knitting
ever again...
She also warned me that soon I would go past two colors...
but I was born with only two hands so can't fathom yet just how
this will work out for me.

But husband claims absolutely never is he going to be coerced into knitting. was secretly plotting that with his extra hand could actually work in third color but no....
He does however willingly stop at Patternworks in NH and sits dutifully in car
reading paper and is quite patient, and also xmas and birthday gifts are of a
creative and most importantly unsuggested fiber type gift....hooray...
Holidays in my house are going pretty spectacular fiberwise!!

Blog of day is by: Grumperina aka Kathy from Massachusetts
and no, I do not know her even though she lives in same state.
I bet most folks if you haven't seen her blog before will recognize her as she writes awesome patterns.
But her latest beaded hat is a must knit for me of course. Okay not
fair isle, but still part of major hat obsession....
She is guilty/most known for her patterns of Odessa and Jaywalker socks...yup
now you know who I mean.
http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/



and by the way, it's still raining again today...

Now Isn't That Just Ducky

Raining outside today and kind of raw weather wise...I miss the sun.
But at least it's not snowing instead as we would have had some
accumulation. I know I should love the snow, but last winter here in
Massachusetts was a particularly long and rough one...so once it starts
to snow it just keeps up for many months.
All this rain reminds me of ducks, as they actually like it.
One of my early futile attempts at intarsia was the little ducky hat.





I actually did this in a stranding style aka fair isle when I didn't have
a clue how to do it right. Thank goodness the little ducky is such a
tiny motif or I would have majorly screwed up on my floats (a knitting term
for non knitters [as have a few that read my blog], floats are carrying yarn
across the back of work...floats or yarn trails should lay smoothly,
but the tendency is too pull work tight
as you knit so it looks good on front part).
~Long story short...Duckie sits pretty good on hat as he is a lone ducky...had
he had buddies going around sides of hat...they would have looked all squished
up, and squished up ducks is just not a good look to go for.
The pattern for the ducky hat can be found in Creature Comforts by Amy Bahrt
This hat did go to charity.

Addendum: I have since learned to do proper fair isle and intarsia. It is rather
amazing when done right. I liked how they wrote the pattern on this one
to have ducky's little wing be 3-D, and if ducky were smart he would have flown
right off this first intarsia attempt hat, but a good learning experience.

I love to look at blogs. One of my all time favorite designers is Kristin Nicholas.
I have been lucky enough to take classes with her and have all her books. Her blog
is such an inspiration and there are always new things going on there.
It's called: Getting Stitched on the Farm and can be found at:
http://www.kristinnicholas.com/

Moi Pooch Wears A Beret

Hello, it's 10:45pm and I am finally home from my day...so if you thought
yesterday was a short post, this will have to be shorter...
I plan to stay home one of these days and post properly.

Today's hat was tonight's hat...I had just made a hat for a special
friend. I saw her in my cooking group I attended tonight and was able
to present it to her. I think this is my favorite type of knitting of all now,
where I make a gift for a special specific person and try to create something
unique for them.
This is again another one of my wishes hats where I wish into my knitting for all things healthy and happy and things to go well for the person that the
hat is intended for.







This jaunty little number is called the

Super-simple fast
and easy chunky hand-knit beret!

by none other than
Crazy Aunt Purl (Laurie Perry) and the free pattern
can be found here:
http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2008/01/supersimple_fas_1.php

I included three photos, top view, person wearing hat but showing back of head,
as said person did not want to be photographed, but agreed to back of head shot,
and my favorite shot, moi pooch, my ShiPoo dog modeling hat....he is a cross
between shitzu and peek-a-poo, only a medium sized doggie. Oh and his name
is Wags...it's a tail thing again...most of my pets over the years have been named
because of their tail action. yup strange...but then the man that I married
had a beagle as a child named Tippy, which also was a tail thing...go figure.
Just means we are well suited for one another.
I used exactly one skein of fall shades colored yarn Patons Shetland Chunky
for this hat, which is a bulky yarn.

The blog of the day, one which I peek in on from time to time is:
http://blog.craftzine.com/
There are some strange things going on over at that blog, pretty much all of
the time...but loads of interesting ideas...had never heard of a bacon shawl
perhaps it's to wear to brunches...but there is always something fun going on.
As I have 3 cookie swaps this year, I particularly like their posting on how
to create your very own cookie cutters...take a peek, some interesting things,
more crafty, not just knitting things.

Short But Sweet

Today's hat is the Lydia Hat from Hip Knit Hats by Cathy Carron.
This is a felted brim hat. I used two skeins of yarn held together thruout...
Baby Alpaca Grande and Reynold's Lopi wool, two different shades of teal green. They felt so nicely...I then added a flower
that I made from scraps of wool with a beaded center on flower.
I placed flower on top of a lace doily.





My blogging will seem a bit skimpy this week, but as many of my friends follow
my blogs, they undoubtedly will know I am on a full plate schedule this week. I am back blogging finally after 10pm after a late night at my second
guild meeting of the week...I actually have 3 guild meetings this week, 2 knitting
group meetings and one recipe club meeting...most of these meet only once a month
and this is the week they all meet...so blitzed...plus I work days.

I hope to talk more in depth about guilds hopefully by Monday, as I have a lot
of interesting things to share.

Have several interesting blogs to share...but as I just came from one of my
knitting guilds, I think I will share a blog I like to follow of a fellow
guildmate...who knits really cool stuff....and in particular funky kid's hats.
Her name is Kate and she is minisoup on Ravelry.
You can find her blog at http://minisoup.blogspot.com/

Feeling guilty blog is so short tonight and very very hungry...so sharing cookie
pics...such a sweet ending!

By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea

Blog peek of the day is Knitting by the Sea
This looked so interesting to me. She has many ideas for knitting that she
has seen on other sites...particularly cute are the little christmas stockings
she plans to knit...great to put on little packages...so take a peek.
I too posted the u-tube video of the Last Knit...if you haven't seen it, check
her blog as she has it up and ready to view...It's a hoot!

It can be found at:
http://www.morecambesands.com/knitting_by_the_sea/

My hat of the day is another guild request for a men's hat...actually
went to a lovely knitting friend of mine for one of her family members. I was
listening to one of Yarn Harlot's books recorded onto cd by Stephanie herself,
a great way to knit and read at the same time.
On this tape she discussed about special knits for people that are sick or
ill in anyway and how as we knit the item for a specific person, our thoughts
and wishes for them to have a healthy recovery or less pain and suffering go
into our knitting. So I send this hat with all of my best wishes and
prayers that they may recover from their illness and be pain free.





I believe this is the Classic Ribbed Hat by Frugal Knitting Haus
and is a free pattern. It's being modeled by a knitting group friend.
I am unsure of yarn I believe it may have been Encore, definitely a worsted
weight.

Actual Pattern can be found here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060127052904/www.frugalhaus.com/scripts/ribbed.asp