hats – Page 2 – Behind the Smile

September 9, 2009June 24, 2010

Hatapalooza 2009

I must be out of my mind. I haven’t whipped out this many hats in years, since I first started knitting. I got SO tired of them. And yet, in five days, here we are:

From left to right we have Swell, #14 Blossom Hat, and Koolhaas.

I started off with the Blossom Hat, which can be found in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting (Fall 2009). It’s a Norah Gaughan design, and it is great. The only things I changed about were that I knit it in the round, and the ribbing is 3 inches, not 4.

It’s knit from the top down and hides these fun bobbles at the top. I like the structure of it a lot.

Next up is Koolhaas, which according to Ravelry has been knit approximately 3500 times. I can see why: it’s awesome.

The texture is just fabulous. I should have knitted it a smidge longer, though. As it is, I knit it to exact specs for the ladies version. Probably should have fudged it a bit between the ladies and mens version, ie about half a pattern repeat longer. However, no big deal as it is totally wearable, and I probably can block it to the size I want.

Then, I had a ton of the yarn left over (Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon and Spring Tickle) so I went wild and knit the following in a single day because I AM CRAZY:

Swell, from Knitty. It’s a good little pattern that I didn’t follow exactly to specs. Left off the purled peace signs on the earflaps (ugh, I hate peace signs), knit the whole thing a bit longer before decreasing, and did two rows of single crochet around the edge to help flatten everything out.

Anyway, I had never used the Classy before, but I had used Smooshy for various things. LOVE IT. LOVE IT MORE THAN SMOOSHY. I got three hats out of 2 skeins, and STILL have more – could probably get another hat out of what’s left, though to be honest, I am sick of the colors at this point! hahaha. Still, I think it will become my go-to hat yarn, because it is THAT AWESOME. As soon as I have more money (as if) I am going to get another skein in a pink or red for something else.

The other thing that is crazy is that there is almost another done hat to behold. Needs earflap ties and a healthy blocking, then will be done. It’s a Malabrigo cabled hat. SORRY MALABRIGO WORSTED, YOU HAVE BEEN SUPPLANTED BY DiC CLASSY IN MY HEART. I know, right? Who woulda thunk. I still have a bunch of Malabrigo to knit up too. I think I will be knitting a Zimmermann Ganomy hat out of some Mal in that awesome red candle wax color. I have one going in a purple/green colorway, but I can’t friggin find it – looked everywhere, but it seems to be a casualty of the move. It’ll turn up, I know it will, but MAN, that’s annoying.

I still love Malabrigo sock the most.

August 31, 2009June 24, 2010

17 Months

After a healthy 17 months on the needles, I finally finished ye olde Berry Nice Socks.

I used Knitpicks Felici in the Mixed Berries colorway on size US 1 DPNs. For my sizing, it was 80 stitches on US 1 needles with a 3×1 rib over the whole thing. Easy peasy but I guess I was bored by them. At any rate, they are finally done!

I like the yarn a lot, so the fact that these took so long is stupid.

Speaking of Felici, I cranked out a quickie stockinette scarf on the knitting machine on Friday.

Felici Scarf

It’s also out of Felici, and knit at a loose gauge. It’s an experiment that worked out all right, though I’m not in lurve with it or anything. I will have to tighten up the gauge a bit for future experiments.

But all things considered, I made a six foot scarf in a half hour, so whatever. I blocked a little bit and it curls less. I’ll probably block it a bit more another time to see if I can kill the curl some more. Hopefully that will work. I just pinned it this time; I didn’t use the blocking wires.

It’s a good way to use up that self-striping yarn, because despite its flaws, it turned out fine, so more will probably be on the way.

I also finished a scarf I knit the summer of 2004 while I was staying in Leon Springs, TX – house-sitting in BFE, basically. I’ll post pictures of that another time. I found the scarf when I moved again in January, and I finally wove in the ends and blocked it this weekend, so technically speaking it is a 2009 FO. Heh.

Right now I’m working on some socks and also thinking about a sweater with all this dark grey Wool-Ease I got on sale awhile ago. We’ll see. I’d knit the front and then machine knit the rest because I am super lazy and product oriented when it comes to sweaters.

I also got a bee in my bonnet about hats, so next time: a finished Norah Gaughan hat from the latest Vogue Knitting, and maybe, if I crack the whip, a Koolhaas, which is a hat I’ve wanted to make since its debut in the 2007 Interweave Knits holiday issue, and finally found the perfect yarn for it – the blue lagoon Dream in Color Classy I got for my birthday. The Norah hat is also knit with Classy, in Spring Tickle. It’s been a busy week, and I haven’t really been home when there’s been good light, so no pics just yet.