Something About Hairy

I named this blonde hat Something About Hairy because I knit it while watching Something About Mary. In the movie Cameron Diaz has a cute blonde bob, which this loosely resembles.

That's three fun fur hats down, plus the other three hats I plan to send that I knit in March. They are just sitting in a drawer waiting for a home.

They are "Sunshine", "Orlando" and "The Perfect Summer Day"

I called the middle one "Orlando" because I knit it while I was in Orlando, FL and it has yellow for the sun, green for trees and blue for water. The Perfect Summer Day follows a similar formula, but it has lots of sun.

I have more Sugar and Cream cotton in the drawer and the hats go so fast, I think I'll make some more. This is stash bustin' on steroids.

No Hair Hairy Hats for Children's Hospital

http://minisoup.blogspot.com/2007/01/contest-and-childrens-hospital.html

I have two hats done and enough yarn for at least three more. They are kind of fun and don't take long at all.

The pink hat was just a partial skein. Actually there's a little band of glittery pink yarn that I got from Grace in my knitting group. Thank goodness she gave it to me otherwise I would not have had enough pink to finish. As it is it's kind of short, but cute. I did the decreases different on the pink one (I knit the blue one first and followed the pattern). I knew I was running very low on yarn so when I hit the decreases I kept decreasing. I didn't do the knit row in between. I prefer the flatter topped hats. The blue one is kind of pointy for my taste. Because the blue one turned out a tad big, I only cast on 50 for the pink hat.

The blue one, I call it Dr. Seuss, is a combination of three skeins or partial skeins. The dark blue is glittery (thanks again Grace) I really only wanted the dark blue and white stripe around the bottom, but switched back to the white when I ran out of the medium blue. It's difficult to see, but there's a small spot of the dark blue at the top of the hat. I followed the pattern http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/kpatt10.htm for the smallest size but it still turned out pretty big. Hence the cast-on of 50 for the second and all subsequent hats.

I'm having a lot of fun putting together the different colors of fun fur and naming the hats. Like the blue one is Dr.Seuss. The pink one made me think of a flower. So I've decided to call it Pink Thistle.

I'm also happy to say that I have stash busted the pink and the blue fun fur yarn. I have little white leftover, but there's a spot for it in another hat I'm sure.

Stash Scarf a Success - Sort Of

Alterknit title might be

I Hate It When Jeri's Right, Jeri I Hate It When You Are Right

My stash scarf is a little long. Well it's a lot long. I'm not bending over in this picture and I'm 5' 8" and it drags the floor - significantly. I have to wrap it around my neck 3 times to keep from stepping on it.

I love the color combination and I did use up both of the blue skeins - stash busted.

I think I may have a solution to the length problem(if I ultimately decide it is a problem). I came up with it today while waiting at a presscheck. I was studying the problem and remembered an episode of Knitty Gritty where they added new rows to old sweaters by picking up exisiting stitches in the middle of the sweater and knitting with a new yarn and then cutting the bottom portion of old yarn off. Because you pick up live stitches and knit, it doesn't unravel.

Of course that was stockinette and this is garter knitted longwise. But I thought I would mull it over a bit. There's a scarf on knitty that has cute ruffles added after it's knit. I could add a black ruffle to each end to shorten the scarf. It's a WIP.

Did I mention I hate it when Jeri is right?

And my felted purse that was more like a baguette bag is now a cat day bed. Fawn loves it.

Our New Puppy

Marshall's been wanting a puppy and as luck would have it Fancy needed a home. So now she's our baby girl.

Marshall and Fancy played and played.

Then she took him for a walk.

But before we took her out into the cold, he had to put her sweater on her.

Finally it was bathtime.

Such cute puppy love.

Stash Bustin' Scarf and Bad Kitties

I guess it isn't all their fault, I did leave the yarn around for them to get to. It could have been so much worse, I walked into the living room today to find my two scoundrels playing with a small ball of black yarn.

I've seen at least three girls in one day wearing cute, super long, thin, vertically striped, machine knit scarves at work. I think they look pretty cool. I was checking one out and realized first that it was machine knit and then that it was knit side to side with lots of color changes. Been there done that, definitely not doing it again. So I decided to make my own and knit it longwise. I picked these colors because I think they go nice together. I may have to toss in some WOTA natural to give it a little bit of a color break. I'll decide as I go.

I have 80 grams of the green, just under 50 grams of the bright blue (blue bonnet WOTA from KnitPicks-left over clog stash), 40 grams of the dusty blue (the label is gone but it's probably rain) and lots of black.

Here's my formula. On a previous project (same yarn, same needles and I liked the fabric) I was getting 4 stitches to the inch. I would like my scarf to be at least 7ft long. 7*12 = 84". 84" x 4" = 336 number of stitches to cast on.

Then I figured for every foot of the long tail I left I could cast on 16 stitches 350 (I rounded 336 up to nice round number) /16 = 21 feet or 7 yards. I used the old hand to shoulder measuring method and added an extra yard for security.

I had a little over a yard of the tail left when I had cast on 350 stitches so I added 50 more for total cast on of 400.

The only way 400 will be a problem is if I run out of yarn before I finish and when I go to cast off. I bet I'm going to hate casting off.

I'm going to starting knitting tonight. A mindless or mindnumbing garter stitch. I plan to weigh the black ball before I start the first row and then again when I'm done to see how much yarn a row chews up. I have other colors I can add in if I need to. There's plenty of stash to go around.

I was knitting this scarf in my dreams last night so I have to get started on it.

Leftovers = Stash

I'm part of a yarn destash along and they have ruled that yarn leftover from a project (which you finished, but over bought for) is stash. I tried to call it leftovers, but they said that's like saying broken cookies don't have any calories. OK, when you put it that way.

Looks like I have more stash to confess.

Zephyr Peacock 50% wool/50% silk leftover from my Mom's peacock shawl. I have no idea how much there is. I wish I'd weighed the cone before I knit off it. Now the weight of the cardboard core throws it off. I'm open to suggestions to help me determine what's left.

Leftovers from three pairs of socks. I have just over 50grams of the pink (it's wool and feltable). 40 grams of the green (autumn flashes, I dyed KP superwash) and 80 grams of the blue and white (some sock yarn I bought at Hobby Lobby - it's superwash.)

I guess the green really is stash because I don't think I ever did anything with it. It's a Knitpicks yarn. There are just over 50 grams of it.

The white is also a Knitpicks lace yarn. I have just under 50 grams. Its the yarn I used if for my swallowtail shawl.

This is the yarn I hand-dyed to add to my SIL's clogs then it didn't go so I made fingerless mittens. I cannot locate it right this minute to weigh it, but I think I have about half the skein left which would be 50 grams. It's KP WOTA Natural. I'm considering an overall dyewash to change the color and then a second pair of fingerless mittens, but we'll see.

I have this leftover. I'm going to frog the finderless mittens because they are too big so technically it's back in the stash pile again. It's Silky Wool which I love. I'm waiting for it to talk to me again. I obviously misunderstood when it said it wanted to fingerless mittens.

With all the rain and ice and overall nasty weather, I got a closet cleaned out and started on the second clog of the green pair.

I also felted my green purse the one from Knit It Mag. I hate it and I'm going to stop felting. Once the felting is done there's no salvaging the yarn, it's just lost. I guess you could cut it up and make potholders, but I didn't work on it that long to make a stupid pot holder. Maybe I'll take pictures today and write more about this later.

I Want to Make this Scarf

Cast on 90 sts
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 7: Knit
Bind off

I used less than two skeins of Trendsetter Dune with #13 needles. Apparently using larger needles and a thinner yarn helps the spirals. Glad you like it!

Isn't it cute?

To get a longer scarf I may cast on more stitches.

Confession - I Found More Stash

Well, I didn't find the yarn, but I found this picture that reminds me the yarn is somewhere. I actually listed the blue, but forgot about the white. I think the white skeins might be two different brands of yarn. In a previous blog entry I say it's wildfoote superwash. I wonder if I'm right?

I've decided I want to hand dye it. I found this picture digging through my own blog. I'm so glad I made notes.

I like this colorway. It's very pisces. I have several skeins of blue sock yarn, but not like this.

I didn't get much knitting done this last week. I just wasn't in the mood. I did finish one clog and one sole for a second clog. I knit a few rounds on the felted purse. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but that never ending stockinette is about to drive me crazy. I used to love to go round and round. Now it's boring. I'll take it to knitting on Tuesday. At least I can talk and do it at the same time. I probably have two more inches to go - yawn.