Clown Barf Hat (Needs A Better Name)

I've finished another project (or two? I'm having trouble keeping track since I can't actually talk about all of them here) since last we spoke.    A wise friends suggested that if I needed to knit a hat from stash, and all my stash is fingering or lace weight, that there are not actually any ordinances prohibiting holding the yarn double.

Duh.

So, the Clown Barf hat was conceived and born.   Made of a pattern of my own reckoning:  simple-simple...rolled brim on size 6 needles, stockinette on 8s.  CO. 80 stitches, increase to 88 when changing needles.   Knit until you are bored or about 6 inches.  Spread the decreases out evenly across the 88 stitches--first round was knit 9, k2tog around--I decreased in a manner that made sense and ended up without being too flat or too pointy, et voila:

I swear I just took this picture...it is not, in fact, Spring in TN.

Made from two ancient balls (heh heh) of Knitpicks Memories Sock Yarn.  It will make some clown 11 year old happy.

In other news, Halloween is nearly upon us.  I have had neither time, nor energy, nor spoons to devote to kids' Halloween.    Morgan is planning to be a Hogwarts student (a costume that anyone in this house could put together with their eyes closed, and one hand tied behind their back...although that would make putting the robe on awkward).    Rowan wants to be a cone-head zombie from Plants vs. Zombies.   It'll be adorable, assuming I can come up with a reasonable facsimile of an orange traffic cone to place upon his pate.

Wish me luck.

Weekend of Knitting, Net Gain 2" of Hat

I decided yesterday to find a pattern for the blue wool that Jess brought me from London-town.

Pretty Wool From London-town

It's a pretty blue-dark blue aran weight twist.  So I used Ravelry's brilliant search system and found Vegamot.  It's designed for DK weight yarn and relies heavily on texture (Down-side: it involves purls.  Up-side: it is super-cute.)

I cast on, and made it about 2" in when I realized I wasn't loving it.  Something wasn't quite right.  (Two somethings...my cast-on looked terrible).  I decided to take it off the needles and try it on to see if that changed anything.   It did and it didn't...once it stretched out the cast-on was fine, and the yarn was taking the pattern pretty well, but my forehead started itching like you wouldn't believe.

Poor thing ended up in the frog pond - I decided that it didn't matter how cute the hat was if no one would wear it.   I am going to set the yarn aside for now.  I think it might be a bag when it grows up.

So, today I decided to try again.  I found a new pattern, and chose a different yarn.   Except for the part where I missed two yarn overs two rows down (which, through my extreme lack of attention led to the loss of six total stitches...long story, it was dumb.  Okay, that's actually a pretty short story), yeah so, except for that this next hat is turning out MUCH better.   I tinked back three rows, fixed my boo-boos and am back on track.

Seems like October and I are not getting along as well as September and I did.

Slowing Down and Gearing Up

The knitting is starting taper off here at chez woolly.  After hurting my wrists last weekend, I decided to take a bit of a break.  I did (finally) finish Saucy McGoogles' mitts, though -- so that's done and good.

That brings my Yulemas knitting total to 7 completed gifts.  I need to hurry up though, because November is National Novel Writing Month, and not only will I be writing a 50,000 word novel during the month, I'm also the co-ML (municipal liaison) for Murfreesboro.  So I will be a busy, busy girl in November, with no time to knit.

Yule Gifts in potentia

See that up there?  Sure it looks like a pile of yarn, but really it's a bunch of hats.  They just don't know it yet.

Wish me luck, y'all.

My cat is constitutionally incapable of not getting in the middle of every picture taken in his presence.

Wherein I Discuss Gifts in Couched Terms and Have no Pictures

I'm pretty sure that with a blog title like that, you can't wait to read this.

I've slowed down quite a bit on my knitting because I hurt my wrists this week (a combination of too much knitting and moving a couch.  Waily.)   I'm going to try to get some more done this afternoon though while I watch football, so all is not lost.

I starting trying to make up a mitt pattern to go with the Tam I made for Miss Awkward Potatoes (hey!  I can show a picture.)  Here's the tam in question:

A Fine Hat

I had a bit of a gauge accident though, and the result was something not fit for man nor beast nor wee little girl.  So, back to the proverbial drawing board on that one.   Also, worsted weight color-work with magic loop technique and only 40 something stitches is whatchacall AWKWARD.

My gift for Saucy McGoogles is more than half done.   I can post no more here, lest they be reading, but suffice it to say, my plan continues apace.

On a final note, I would like to report that I have been more prolific in producing knits in the past few weeks than perhaps at any other time in my knitting career.  That sentence had a preponderance of "p" words.   Anyway.  My plan (there's another one) to knit from stash was dashed when I realized that my yarn is nearly all lace and fingering weight.   The lack of worsted weight yarn in my stash, and my previously demonstrated inability to finish projects in a timely manner may be directly related to one another.  I'm just sayin'.