eleven

Let us take our hats off (the needles).

This week, I finally finished my Sockhead Hat. Insert applause here. I'm quite happy with the look and feel of the finished object, and I'll be getting some use out of it this winter. The hat is quite slouchy, just like the pattern noted, and I'm happy with it. This was a great project for my weekly knitting group, as it was 4" of ribbing, followed by 9" of stockinette, and a crown. Mindless knitting kept alive by the wonderful company of friends and lively conversation. I also worked on it during a couple movies, and a few episodes of Frasier. And now it's done... Finally.

As if that weren't exciting enough, I (gulp) knit another hat this week. And not just any hat, I knit the Fitful Head by Aileen Ryder. This was knit in 6 different colorways of Knit Picks Palette, and the seventh color was Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in Jade. This was my first time using either yarns, and I enjoyed them both. Palette was nice for this project because I needed seven different colors, which can get expensive. I may have also mentioned that I just so happened to have this yarn in seven different shades of green. The pattern was wonderful as well, and I guess I have a thing for fair isle crown shaping when I work on hats. I mentioned the crown shaping details on the Norwegian Snowflake Hats in an earlier post, and I really like the six-pointed star that developed on the top of this hat as well. This was also my first foray into the world of corrugated ribbing, and the jury's still out on that. I love the finished look, but the process... eeshk. Suffice it to say, I've had my share of hats and fair isle to hold me over for at least a few months now. Weaving in 38 ends will do that to you. My husband was a good sport and decided to model the hat for you in the shots below... Or maybe I forced him because I just finished today and the hat now belongs to him, but that's neither here nor there.

Is it a coincedence that the two most complicated fair isle projects to come off my needles were both for my husband? Has this ever happened to you? He's 100% worth it, though. He supports my crazy knitting adventures and that is no small task. Can't help loving that man of mine...

Oh yes, and my next project, whatever it may be, will be worked from (mark my words) one ball of yarn.

ten

I've been all about knitting hats lately.

Honestly, I took a look at the last few projects on my Ravelry page and I've really been on a hat kick. I've finished three hats this month alone, and the only project I have (lingering and languishing) on the needles currently is my Sockhead Hat. Please don't take this as a complaint, though. Knitting, no matter the project, is always fun. And speaking of fun... I already finished the pair of Norwegian Snowflake Hats that I was worried about starting. This was a great project, and I particularly enjoyed the crown decreases. The hat is squared at the top, and I love the look of the additional snowflake that comes together as you are finishing the crown. The public project pages are here (red) and here (navy). I may even have a chance to wear one of these hats, as the weather reports here in Pittsburgh are calling for snow on Friday, the first day of winter. How nice.

Even without snow on the ground (yet), it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house. Full disclosure... We put the tree up (and the stockings, banister garland, and decorations) the Monday after Thanksgiving, and I've been listening to Christmas music since October... So I guess I should really say that it's continuing to look a lot like Christmas. Oh yes, and there are pine cones in a bowl on the dining room table, in case you were wondering. Here's a picture of our stockings hung in the stairwell (since we don't have a fireplace) with care. I knit the stocking on the left for my husband this year (for a few months), and the one on the right belongs to our chihuahua, Ringo. I don't have a knitted Christmas stocking yet, but maybe by next year.

And if anyone is curious, my stash is now down to 36! I'm slowly, but surely, getting to my goal of 30 by February 2013. Sadly, I can't type anymore at the moment. Somebody needs some attention...

nine

The weeks seem to be getting shorter.

This week has been quite busy. Not in a bad way, though. I was mailing Christmas presents, making marshmallows, enjoying two different holiday lunches at my office, finishing up the Christmas shopping, and of course there was some knitting and a Christmas movie or three.

First of all, let me take a moment to address the marshmallows. I've been making homemade marshmallows for years, usually sometime in December (when the Hot Chocolate really hits the spot), and they always get great reviews. However, I'm not a confectioner in any sense of the word. Anyone can make these. All I have is an excellent recipe from Ina Garten (or the Barefoot Contessa) in which my stand mixer does most of the work. Honestly, they are quite easy, albeit a little fiddly at the end. Patience required. If you thought you liked marshmallows before, well, just wait until you try these! In the picture below, there's a few pale pink marshmallows on the left, those are the peppermint... Thanks for the inspiration, Williams-Sonoma. The others are vanilla, and just as soft and pillowy.

I've also started a rather daring knitting project. Well, maybe not as daring as one I've done in the past, but certainly ambitious for me. I'm knitting a set of two hats. The Norwegian Snowflake Hat pattern is free on Ravelry and was designed by Tim Doran. I'm using the last three hanks of yarn from the 2012 Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival that I mentioned here. I'll be knitting two hats, one blue with white snowflakes, the other red with white snowflakes. Here's my public project page for the first hat. I've started with the red hat, and here's my progress so far...

As if knitting two stranded hats one after the other isn't ambitious enough, I've just added another stranded hat to the mix. This week, Knitty released their Winter 2012 Issue. For those that don't know, Knitty is a completely free online knitting magazine. 2012 marked the 10-year anniversary of this publication, and it's a resource I've always loved. Anyway, anyway, back to the hat. The new issue had two stranded hats, and the one that caught my eye is Fitful Head by Aileen Ryder. It just so happens (cough) that I already have seven different balls of fingering weight yarn in my stash, all in different shades of green. Between the available stash, the pattern requirements, and the fact that I'm trying to stash-down, this was a coincidence I couldn't ignore. In any event, I think I may end up spending the remainder of 2012 knitting stranded hats.

I hope I'm not as crazy as I sound...