I can’t believe that Blog Week Day 6 is here, and so it’s almost over! Today’s topic: revisit a past FO. (For the uninitiated, “FO” means “finished object.”) Since I have precious few of those, choosing a special one was relatively easy.
One of my earliest projects is, to this day, my most favorite. It is my first-ever felted hat.
Hat project before feltingI made it in the early spring of 2004, but I actually bought the pattern, the Fiber Trends AC-1, in 1999, knowing that I wanted to make it one day. It was the first knitting project I ever got really excited about, and felt jazzed enough to stay up til 3 in the morning to finish the knitting. It is made with Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride in one strand of purple and one strand of gray held together. Luckily, even though I was not yet blogging at the time, I did take a picture of the hat before felting (I was feeling the call of posterity).
Hat after feltingAnd this is what it looked like immediately after felting. I was amused that it looked so much like the silver mixing bowl that I used as a hat mold. I had to run it through a hot wash one or two more times after this photo was taken because it was so huge.
For Christmas that year in 2004, my co-worker gave me a large purple pin because, she said, it reminded her of my hat. She took the hat off my desk where I had it perched and put the pin on, on the spot. Because of this, each time I make these hats, and I have made several, I always adorn them with something. Usually it’s jewelry, but sometimes it’s a cabled hat band or something fun and funky. I’d love to make one with big, floppy flowers.
To this day, everywhere I go, I constantly get stopped on the street (literally!) so people can ask me where I got my hat. I beam with pride when I can say, “I made it myself!” This is the only knitted thing I’ve ever made that has gotten this reaction.
The hat, todayThe hat has mellowed with age. The shape is no longer crisp like that of a newly finished project. I’ve been tempted at times to re-run it through the wash again and see if it will “freshen,” but then, I kind of like the mellowed, aged look that this hat now has. I have plenty of yarn to make other hats, and have several more colors planned for myself. But this hat is my darling, and I think I’ve been avoiding making a new one because this one is so special to me.
So there you have it, my favorite FO. I’m off to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend, which is my favorite event of the year. Funny that tomorrow’s topic is about a favorite yarn. I’ll probably have lots of new stash to talk about!
Nobody likes a whiner. But, the truth is, I don’t really care right now. It’s my blog, and I’ll whine if I want to. You’d whine too, if you’d only left your house once in the last 13 days. I’ve been snowbound, and on kid duty, to two kids who won’t admit it, but who desperately want to go back to school. They’ll get their chance tomorrow. I’m working from home, so I won’t actually get out til Thursday. But, since I’d only be going to the office on Thursday, I’m not really complaining. I’m frankly not looking forward to the nasty commute on slushy, snow-narrowed roads. Today my husband spent a total of 3 1/2 hours in the car.
Our neighborhood itself has been cleared for a while, but we have no sidewalks here, and since the lawn still has more than two feet of snow on it, our mail carrier has been refusing to come. We get mail about once every three days. And I have a couple of packages that were due here a week ago from UPS that still haven’t found their way here. So, except for spending unreasonable amounts of time on sites like Facebook and Ravelry, I’ve been pretty much cut off from the world.
You know what really irks me? I actually wished for this. A week or so of unplanned downtime was what I needed, I said. And it was good, at first. I cooked like crazy for the first week or so. I even made Indian eggplant. I thought I might get caught up on sleep, but it turns out I’m a crappy sleeper, no matter what. Dr. Phil really got on my nerves, and I got pretty tired of seeing all the stars of Valentine’s Day making the rounds on every single talk show.
I will say that my daughter and I bonded over The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks, which was a good, easy read, though the subject matter touched a few raw nerves with me over the loss of my father. We’ve been a little lukewarm about the Winter Olympics, enjoying some of it, but I found myself wishing for more comprehensive coverage like we used to have when I was a kid. On the other hand, we were sorry to see the end of the Jay Leno Show, because even though he’ll be back on at 11:30 again, that timeslot is something that my daughter and I cannot do together.
I suppose there is one good thing about being home a lot over the last week or so:
Long stoocking cap with stripes nearly done I did finally near the end of my Elf Hat, which should have been done at Christmas, but at times seemed not ever to be done, no matter how much I knitted and knitted and knitted. Today, I can say it is finally off the needles! The pom pom for the end of the hat is done as of tonight, too, but it still needs to be attached. Plus, because the hat is striped, there is a mountain of ends on the inside to be woven in. I’m half toying with knotting them down and leaving them be, especially the ones wwwwaaaayyy up near the point, but I am sure the knitting police would surely strike me down, so in time, it will be finished.
Now the question is what to do next. Yes, I have lots of unfinished things. But, truth be told, not one of them is exciting me at the moment. I need something new. I opened a mitten kit from Knit Picks earlier this afternoon, as Kelley Petkun is hosting a KAL on mittens, but alas, I didn’t have the energy to start anything today. I do have a sock and a scarf on the needles, but neither of them are making me happy at the moment. I’m feeling the urge to make a sweater. Yes, I have one on the needles, but I haven’t been happy with it for a while and I am thinking I need to frog it and start over. My buttonholes are a mess and I don’t like it that it’s sloppy. Still, I need to think of something by the time I leave the house on Thursday, because the very idea of a potentially very long commute with no knitting is scary.
Back to that again. The long commute. You know, the last of the Big Snow fell here a week ago, and many of our roads are practically impassable because the snow piles are so big that it has been impossible to move enough snow off the roads far enough to make all lanes completely usable. So our already crowded roads are severely gridlocked and it is very unpleasant.
So yes, I wanted some extra time with the kids, and some extra sleep, and some time for knitting, and napping. But now, it’s been so long since I’ve been to work that I’ve frankly forgotten where I left off, and I dread the size of my e-mail inbox tomorrow. I was behind on stuff before, but now it’s much worse, I’m sure. So, I’ll be digging out… in more ways than one.
Recently I got the book, Gorgeous Knitted Afghans: 33 Great Designs for Creative Knitters. And I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. This book, written by Fatema, Khadija, and Hajera Habibur-Rahman, is not your ordinary afghan collection. There’s a lot to choose from in here, from simple stitch patterns knit with lovely, unexpected yarns, to complex patterns that offer a bit of a challenge and yield lovely results.
There aren’t many projects in here that I wouldn’t knit, given the luxury of limitless knitting time. I am especially enamored of the mitered afghan on the cover, which is called “Fascinating Rhythm”. (I checked; it’s not listed in Ravelry yet. Perhaps I should start one of these so I can get the pattern listing going, eh?) But, even if you don’t care for that gorgeous afghan, there’s something for just about every taste in this book. Whether you like simple, mindless knitting, or want to try something new, there’s probably a project in here for just about everyone. Whether it’s colorwork, motifs, lace, cables, or simple stitches in gorgeous colors, I’m sure just about any knitter of any skill level could find an entertaining project in this book.
I grew up in a home where scrap afghans crocheted in ripple patterns or the traditional granny square afghan could be found. These creations were never anything more than functional, as the typical 1970s earthy color schemes with an occasional fire engine red could just about make your eyes bleed to look at them, in their dizzying mishmash of color insensitivity. The afghans in this book more than make up for the sins of our grandmothers, though, because they are all simply stunning.
The book includes an introductory section that goes over some of the special techniques covered in the book, including the embroidery stitches that are required to complete some of the projects. And, the instructions in the book seem clear. However, a quick internet search leads me to believe that there may be some errors in this book, for which I can’t yet find the errata information. When I do, if it exists, I will post it here. However,
I am not deterred from trying the patterns in this book.
My only regret is that I don’t have 50 sofas in my house to drape them all upon. A home can only have so many afghans. How am I ever going to choose? But, I am certain that more than one of these will be in my future.
Update on my Christmas Elf Hat: Yes, I’m still knitting away at this project. Just like the last time I did this pattern, it’s looking like I’ll be done by the end of this month or maybe early February. I should know not to start my Christmas knitting in November because no matter how hard I try, it will never be done in time. But, I hope to be posting a finished photo soon! Wish me luck. Maybe a good stint of knitting this weekend will be all that’s needed; I’ve been decreasing away and the rounds are going much more quickly now.
Thank goodness it wasn’t a gift, but I was hoping to be able to wear my funky elf hat in Christmas morning photos. The same thing happened to me the last time I knit this pattern. I should know that starting this pattern in November just isn’t enough time, at least not at the Holiday Season. I mean, with everything that goes on at this time of year, there were days when I never even knit at all.
And this is why I don’t knit occasion gifts. I never make my knitting deadlines. So, I’ve for the most part decided just to never have any.
The thing is, I’ve started the decreases now, so soon enough the rounds on this hat will begin to go quickly. So will I wait til next Christmas to wear this hat? No way! Let everyone think I’m crazy when I show up wearing it when it’s done. (I was thinking of attaching jingle bells on the pointy end of the hat… maybe I’ll wait til Christmas for that part…) My coworkers already know that I’m weird, what with the other Santa hat and my eyeball scarf. So this one won’t be hard to wear to work, for sure. Except that it clashes with my purple coat. Oh well…
The weather has been really cold here! Ok, so we’re not below zero like a lot of folks in some parts of the country, but our area has relatively mild winters and it’s cold here! Our old drafty house isn’t helping. almost think I can feel the wind coming right through the walls sometimes. Yesterday was everyone’s first day back to school and work after the holidays, and even though the weatherman swears to me that the days are getting longer now, I don’t believe it. Not even the sun wanted to get out of bed yesterday morning. It’s supposed to get colder before we see normal winter weather again. I can definitely say I’m not looking forward to the rest of this week.
One thing I’d like to share before I go… my favorite Christmas gift. The kids went on a cruise with my in-laws this summer, and they had a photo taken while they were gone:
New photo of brother and sister
I love this photo. It’s on my mantle, on my computer wallpaper, and now on my blog. Now I can look at it anytime. I’m such a proud mama.
Well, I’ve been singing it to myself like crazy as I’ve been knitting away on my stripey elf hat:
elf hat in progress
It now has twice as many stripes as it did last week and I am beginning to have hope that it might actually be wearable by Christmas morning. I’m liking it better than I did last week, too. It always looks nicer as the spirals become obvious. I love this pattern by Brian Kohler. I wish he would re-publish it. It’s so fun to make! The original pattern was designed for two colors, a main color and a color for the ribbing and tassel.) By adding stripes I actually made the stripes a touch wider. The reason is that each row is a combination of knit and purl stitches forming a wide rib, and I wanted to make sure that the color transitions were not made icky by showing the interlocking nature of the purl side… so I added a row of plain stockinette at the beginning and end of each stripe. So, the stripes blend perfectly! Because of the spiraling nature of the pattern the color change jog is very minimal as well, so I think overall this has worked out well.
Christmas, here I come!
And now, I have a confession to make. I bought… cashmere.
Webs has some Gedifra cashmere on closeout, and for once I could find a color I can live with. So, I jumped.
I’ve been eying the cashmere wraps at Nordstrom for weeks, and I almost bought one, except John was with me, and well, you know… my relationship with the credit card is a little strained when the husband is around, so I didn’t. But, I figure I can make my own wrap. Now, to choose a pattern… any ideas?
I need some ideas on something else as well. Next week we’re having a holiday brunch/luncheon at work. My boss is the queen of breakfast casserole, and another coworker is famous for her quiche. So, I’d like to make some sort of breakfasty/lunchy side dish in my crockpot, so that it’s easy to do overnight and can be lugged to the office and plugged in. No pork. (Drat!) Any ideas? Please let me know…
Anyway, I’ve got a sick kid so I’m headed to bed early so I’ll have energy for him tomorrow. That, and I’m crazy behind on some projects at work so I’ll be juggling lots of stuff over the next couple days. Wish me luck!
Sorry I’ve been away so long. Do I have an excuse? Not really. I’ve been knitting, as you’ll see in a moment, but for the last couple weeks I thought it was sort of boring to look at so I didn’t blog about it. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t at least think about blogging. I thought about it, a lot. The thing is, I’ve been having trouble turning the thinking into doing. I didn’t even do the knitting group meeting report from two weeks ago yet. Maybe I’ll try that tomorrow. Or sometime before the next meetup on Saturday! Wish me luck on that.
In fact, I’m setting a goal for this month. In honor of the Holiday Season, I am going to try to blog at least 12 times this month. 12 times. It won’t be easy, given that the dark days of winter suck the motivation right out of me, but I am going to try. Hang in there with me!
So anyway, on to the knitting:
Long Stocking Cap in progress
I’m finishing up the third stripe of my long stocking cap. I like it, I think. But, the design has a lot going on and some of it is getting lost. The original pattern was two colors (a main color and a contrast color for the ribbing and tassel). I decided to incorporate stripes. But there’s also these cables in the pattern, that creep up the hat and shift around in a spiral as you do each repeat. Well, the stripes are sort of eliminating the effect of the spiral. So I could have left the spiral out, I think, but oh well. It will be interesting to see how this hat comes out.
I’m hoping to have it done for Christmas (it’s not a gift), but right now it’s feeling doubtful.
Hey, guess what? My Christmas shopping is almost done! Next… the dreaded Christmas card. I ordered custom ones again this year with our photos on them. I like making the card but I hate the whole mailing part. It’ll take me from now til Christmas to get them all done.
Finally, I’m going to leave you with a video of the cutest little kitten I have ever seen (today, anyway). If you watch the Ellen Degeneres Show, you probably saw this today, but it’s worth sharing:
by Nicholas Sparks, which was a good, easy read, though the subject matter touched a few raw nerves with me over the loss of my father. We’ve been a little lukewarm about the Winter Olympics, enjoying some of it, but I found myself wishing for more comprehensive coverage like we used to have when I was a kid. On the other hand, we were sorry to see the end of the Jay Leno Show, because even though he’ll be back on at 11:30 again, that timeslot is something that my daughter and I cannot do together.
. And I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. This book, written by Fatema, Khadija, and Hajera Habibur-Rahman, is not your ordinary afghan collection. There’s a lot to choose from in here, from simple stitch patterns knit with lovely, unexpected yarns, to complex patterns that offer a bit of a challenge and yield lovely results.
