Lord Kelvin Would Be Proud

After months of waiting (well, only two), I finally have my own fair isle hat. The pattern is my own creation, although the waves are directly from the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary, Vol. 3 (Color). The lining instructions are identical to Rob's ski hat, from Jared Flood's Red Light Special.


Yarn is Mirasol Yarn Cotanani (Wool/Cotton blend) that SissyP made me buy in Frisco. I've slowly learned that she knows best - so now I don't question as much.



In case you care (and you should), the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (by Lord Kelvin) is an atmospheric science term that represents waves (unlike lenticular wave clouds, but I won't bore you with details about that).

Phat Hat

OK PP - you want posts? I hope to get most of this finished tonight (on the bus and before the wine kicks in). We are having PIE right? Ooo. I'll need celebratory pie for completing the hat, don't you think?

I took this picture with my phone. Guess who just got a new phone? Last night. It's Chocolate. Kept me from knitting. Had to put new BBoys ringtone on. And new wallpaper. Takes much better photos that my last POS phone.

I'm just about to start my decreases. I measured Rob's hat and I really like the way it lies nice and flat on the top of the head - so I may use the same decrease instructions. The regular swirl-like decrease might be a better choice - seeing as how I have swirly waves in the pattern. Yeah, better.

After trying it on so far I think it might actually look better on me than Rob's hat - which is a great relief for him.

I'm also painfully close to finishing the brimmed hat for Chris - bought the (eek) lovely plastic canvas last night. I just need to slip into knitted brim and sew to hat. Should be done this weekend.

SissyP - what about posting your quilt stuff? I mean, why not?

Yet Another Hat

Another hat you say? Why yes, of course! I admit that I'm feeling some envy from Rob's latest gift and now feel the need to devote precious knitting energy to creating hats that might be just as good, if not better. This one is good, but not better, so I'll have to try again. Shucks. Darn.


Pattern is Fake Isle from MagKnits. The black wool I bought while Rob and I were in Argentina (the yarn might be from Peruvian wooled creatures, however), and I don't know much about it. The Noro is from SissyPrincess - her leftovers that she was happy to rid herself of. Nice girl, that one. =)

A Hat I'm Thankful For

I'm really really happy about this hat. It fits me perfectly, but oh yeah, I promised Rob that it's his. darn. =|



It looks good on him too - darn again. It hides his crazy hair anyway. He needs all the help he can get with his hair, and he seems to be cold most of the time - so a super warm hat that hides his colossal mangy mane is my gift to him.



I finished this over Thanksgiving - a reason to be thankful for sure. The pattern is Red Light Special using Knit Picks Telemark sport weight yarn (awesome stuff) and Misti International Alpaca Worsted for the lining - nice and soft for tender ears. I love that it's sport weight - really warm and thin, especially with the lining.



Oh, and I'm putting a "If found, please return to:" label in it this time.

I suppose I just might alter the pattern and make a similar one for myself.

Labor day weekend projects

I was working on the lovely fair isle tam this weekend and noticed something odd. My increases didn't seem to make the hat as wide as I expected. I checked my gauge. The swatch was 5.75 sts/inch. The ribbing on the hat is 6.5 sts/inch and the rest of the hat varies from 6-7 sts/inch. Argh. Abandon ship!


Now that the size problem has been solved on the oriel lace blouse, it's time to work on the sleeves. Yes, that's it. I'm not abandoning the hat, I'm going back to what I should have been working on all along. The knitting goddess was punishing me for not working on this beautiful project. The pattern has you use 4 different needle sizes in the first 8 inches of the sleeve, going from large to small to create a flare at the wrist. I was skeptical of how well this would actually work, but it seems to have been quite effective.


My new project desk arrived Saturday. Here I show the most important feature of the desk - the stash storage. I had yarn stashed in various drawers and bins. Somehow now that it's all in one place it doesn't seem like all that much yarn. See that in the upper right? That's a notions bin. That could easily be moved to make room for MORE YARN.

Hattiness

I love hats, they're the closest thing knitting has to instant gratification. I enjoyed the colorwork so much that I want to knit another one. It's a bit silly when the temps are flirting with triple digits, but at least they're small.



Went to the LYS to pick up the last skein for Jennifer's bag and somehow this made it into my bag.


I should not be allowed to go there without supervision. At least I resisted the new sock yarns. Maybe that's only because I didn't see them until after I paid, but maybe not.

Anyone want to go to the yarn store this weekend?