Kiss My Knits!

I had a friend and her daughter who admired the coronet I knit, and so I am knitting them each one in their choice of color.

The daughter’s is done. The mother’s will be started tonight. I did mine in Galway, but these will actually be done in the recommended yarn, Lamb’s Pride worsted (unless I hear otherwise from the mama half of the hat duo). The Galway is a little bit softer, I think, but the Lamb’s Pride is a blend of wool and mohair with the mohair giving the wool a nice bit of sheen. They’re both good yarns to work with.

The daughter’s hat actually looks *better* than my hat, because I learned from doing the first one. The seam on the band on mine looks fairly obvious, but the daughter’s is much more smooth and unnoticeable.

This hat seems to be pretty popular with folks going, “ooooh, do me one!” right now. The pattern is here, if you’re interested in trying it yourself.

For my nephew, just in time for Halloween.

http://www.tvini.org/images/devilhat.jpg

The pattern is free from http://www.kittyville.com/knit.html

Believe me, he’s already got the ‘little devil’ attitude thing going, the hat is just the topper.

The last hat was too big, so I’d be damned if I was going to make that same mistake again, and I hate sending things to people that aren’t quite right. The things not being quite right, not the people not being quite right. Most of my friends are “not quite right” if ya know what I mean.

Bah. I make no sense. Where’s my coffee?

(slurp)

Ahhh, that’s better. So, using some more of the Noro Lily, here’s a little knot hat sized to fit newborn to about three months. The colors are more pastel than they appear in that photo. It was fortunate how the Lily made lovely swirls up the fabric. I’m very pleased.

I think this colorway of the Lily may be discontinued, so I’m considering going back to my local yarn shop to snap up another skein. This was a quick and easy knit, and I’d happily do it again for any future babies.

The last hat was too big, so I’d be damned if I was going to make that same mistake again, and I hate sending things to people that aren’t quite right. The things not being quite right, not the people not being quite right. Most of my friends are “not quite right” if you know what I mean.

Bah. I make no sense. Where’s my coffee?

(slurp)

Ahhh, that’s better. So, using some more of the Noro Lily, here’s a little knot hat sized to fit newborn to about three months. The colors are more pastel than they appear in that photo. It was fortunate how the Lily made lovely swirls up the fabric. I’m very pleased.

I think this colorway of the Lily may be discontinued, so I’m considering going back to my local yarn shop to snap up another skein. This was a quick and easy knit, and I’d happily do it again for any future babies.

I finally bought the pattern to the Bottoms Up Bucket Hat from ChicKnits. I was going to make it for yet another baby. (Seriously, people. Just keep one foot on the floor. I can’t knit fast enough.) It knitted up nicely in Noro Lily, a blend of 70% cotton and 30% silk. It was fun! However, I knew it would be a little bit big. Soo… now, once again, I will probably wind up knitting another baby gift.

Aaanyway, here it is on my resident 5-year-old model. Brim down, and then with brim up. I’m thinking about making a little flower pin to go on the brim. We’ll see.

I finally bought the pattern to the Bottoms Up Bucket Hat from ChicKnits. I was going to make it for yet another baby. (Seriously, people. Just keep one foot on the floor. I can’t knit fast enough.) It knitted up nicely in Noro Lily, a blend of 70% cotton and 30% silk. It was fun! However, I knew it would be a little bit big. Soo… now, once again, I will probably wind up knitting another baby gift.

Aaanyway, here it is on my resident 5-year-old model. Brim down, and then with brim up. I’m thinking about making a little flower pin to go on the brim. We’ll see.

Just in time for a baby shower tomorrow night, I’ve completed booties and hat. They wanted something pink, so it’s pink with a vengeance. The hat is a combination of the “Li’l Devil Baby Hat” and the “Official Kitty62 Hat” from kittyville.com. I believe there’s an adult devil hat in “Stitch ‘N Bitch” too. In retrospect, I could have gone smaller and it would have been fine. The hat and booties together only used about 2/3 of a skein of Lamb’s Pride Worsted, and I even doubled it on the booties to make ’em nice and thick. So the whole project came in for less than 7 bucks in materials. We’ll leave aside the question of labor, of course.

It’s too small for my five-year-old, but nonetheless I made her put it on (before I attached the pom-poms) so I could see it. And now I must share with all of you.

I do like to do something new for every project, so for this one, the new thing was a provisional cast-on around a crochet chain. And pom-poms. I’d never made pom-poms. Pretty easy, since McGyverish directions are out there on the web. 🙂

I’m pleased! Now, I must wrap. And no, I won’t be hand-crafting the wrapping paper.

So I was too embarassed by the stoner hat to put it up for sale at Simucon, but that didn’t stop me from forcing various people to try it on.

I present: Guy Whose Name I Forgot! (Dude, if you still want a scarf, e-mail me and I’ll knock one out for ya. If not, no big, my plate’s always full anyway.) Miekhael. Festive, festive Miekhael. Always a pleasure, buddy. And GM Ceosanna, who may be the only person in existence who can wear the hat and look good in it. Note, however, that not even the hat can distract from the evil GM-ness expressed in her demonic red eyes. Or it could just be the booze. Same difference.

Also, I had frogged the few rows I’d knit on the mother-in-law scarf until I had time to actually do it properly. That time was this week, since her birthday’s coming up. So here it is! It’s 2 1/2 skeins of Noro Lotus worked in a seed stitch. (Cast on uneven number of rows, k1p1 to end of row, then turn around and do it again.) You can’t see the detail, so here’s a closer-up view. I swear it’s not actually that radioactively bright. The picture of the yarn itself is much more accurate.

My mother-in-law has the ability to wear things with style and flair, and she bought a black coat last winter and mentioned she wanted something to wear with it. My hubby pointed out that most of her wardrobe palette is reds, so we went with that.

I think she’ll like it.

Next: a metaphor-laden lacy red and purple wool shawl for a friend who needs a warm hug and a blue purse for the middle sister who hasn’t gotten one yet!

ETA: Miekhael reminds me that Dude Whose Name I Forgot is actually Dailian. Thanks, sugar! Mwah!

Me: “Look at this hat! It’s too much. It’s awful.”
Mr. Tvini: “No, no! It’s good! Some stoner will love it!”
Me: “Hm. $30!”
Mr. Tvini: “Well, no stoner is going to pay 30 bucks worth of good pot money for it. But they’ll gladly steal it from the table when you’re not looking!”
Me: “$20.”
Then I force Mr. Tvini to try it on so I can see.
Me: “Well, maybe $15.”

I’ve never knitted a hat on straight needles instead of circular before, and I have to say I’m not fond of it. The seam seems obvious and the bottom doesn’t match cleanly (Note bulge over the right ear).

Bearing in mind that I have the rhino-thick hide of a GM, what say you? Keep it, or rip it out and do something else with the yarn?

ETA: My cousin stopped by and modeled the hat. As God is my witness he does not do drugs, but if you wanted an example of what a stoner would look like in this hat, you will never find a better visual.

So whatcha think, maybe use it as a band in another hip-hop pope hat, maybe picking up the pink or the blue?

I finished up another ball of the Berroco Hip-Hop, leaving me with two half balls out of the original four full skeins and forwarding my stash reduction project. So here’s the result!

I made this scarf to match the hip-hop pope hat (tm Khaman). Unfortunately, my arms aren’t long enough to take a picture of myself wearing both, so instead, here is the Bear in the Big Blue Scarf. If this baby doesn’t sell at Simu (and it may not, what with it being summer) then I’m definitely keeping it. Heck, I may keep it anyway.

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*Begin knitter geek section*
The pattern is very simple, and I’ve used it for scarves before. It makes an incredibly warm scarf because it’s really two layers knitted at the same time. Even though it lies in a flat rectangle, it’s really a big tube! Plus it has the advantage of looking like stockinette on both sides, meaning there’s no ‘wrong side’ to worry about showing. Cast on an even number of stitches, then slip 1 purlwise, knit 1, bring your yarn forward, slip 1 purlwise, bring the yarn to the back again and knit 1, yarn forward, slip 1 purlwise, knit 1… etc. to the end of the row. You should wind up with the last stitch being ‘k1’. That’s written out as sl1p, k1, *yf, sl1p, k1* to end of row. Look at the Roxanne pattern on Berroco’s website to see the pattern written out.
*End knitter geek section*