I have in my room:

A hat.

On a bowl.

On a stick.

Blocking is hilarious. Everyone cross your fingers that it turns out ok! I hope it's warm enough for it to dry overnight, because I am impatient.

(I would show you a picture of the hat on a bowl on a stick--the 'stick' is my rolled-up yoga mat--but there's too much mess. In fact, the mess is what's holding the stick upright. Never let anyone say your mess isn't useful!)

mmm, sweaters.

I think I may be coming out of my hat haze. For the past day or so, I've been having sweater urges. I haven't made anything 'big' in a while, so that probably accounts for it. Gosh, was the last sweater I made in July? No, I did my February Lady Sweater, that's right, but that one knit up so fast that I don't think it counts.

So. Sweater planning time! Which is always fun, only I am majorly broke (though this major brokeness is in part due to the fact that omg I think my student loans will FINALLY be paid off in a month or two, whee no debt!) and so can't quite afford a sweater's worth of yarn. However, I do have a less-than-successful sweater lurking in my dresser, and I could unravel that bad boy without feeling a twinge. Ha ha!

The only question is, what kind of sweater do I want? Of course I WANT to make a big ol' piece of Aran gloriousness, but I know my sweater doesn't have quite enough yarn. I'd also like to do something with colorwork, but again, only one color in the soon-to-be-ex-sweater, and that color is a burnt orange. (Of course, I think I've got a skein of brown lurking in one of the bins . . . ooh. That might be fun.)

I wonder what I'll end up making? I know I've got a bunch of sweaters favorited on Ravelry . . . I'll have to go back and refresh my memory.

I also kind of want a vest. I love the kind with a low scoopy neckline and two or three buttons right under the bosoms, only I know this would make me look like a pair of boobs on legs, and happy though that would make a good portion of the world, I don't think I want to go there.

sorry about that.

Argh, I haven't posted in ages! Nothing worse than a neglected blog.

Though I have clearly not been blogging, I have been knitting. Mostly hats, as I am wildly hooked on the Hat Trick KAL. Like, WILDLY. Well, and I like knitting hats anyway.

Since you last heard from me, I've done a Claudia hat in red Caron Super Soft for my grandma's birthday, and a ridiculous black and gold earflap hat to keep me warm at the AFC Championship game. Holy crap, it was so cool to get to go! I'd never been to an NFL game. Froze my butt off, but it was totally worth it.

Let me see if I can scare up any pictures. I haven't photographed my grandma's hat yet, but I might be able to find the yellow one . . .



Ok, you can't really see the earflaps, or the awesome way it ties under my chin, but you can almost see the cold!

Check This Out!

If only I'd found this a day sooner! I was looking at old posts on my other blog just now--God knows why--and I discovered this gem:

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

this may not seem like much, but . . .
. . . I finally figured out how to purl, and I am thrilled. Go me! I haven't been able to figure it out by looking at any knitting books or charts, and one of my random variations of the basic stitch has finally done it right. Yay for experimentation! Too bad I thought of this one halfway through my plainknit scarf, so I can't apply it. Would look funny. And I really don't want to pull it all apart, though I'm vaguely tempted. No. I won't be that crazed. I won't. I swear it. The yarn's pretty enough that plainknit is fine.


Behold, the day when I actually became a knitter. Go me! What's that, four years? I don't think I knit very much that first year, though. I know I didn't buy any yarn until October, when I was leaving town and needed stuff to make Christmas presents.

look, we've got photos!

First off: the cute! It burns! I hadn't made my mama a Christmas ornament in a while, so I busted out this terminally precious stocking from Last Minute Knits. It's very wee. And very cute. (You may also recognize the green hat it's lying on.) My mom was very pleased. It was her Twelfth Night present.





Next up: A Hat Full of Sky (because, well, that's what the colors make me think of, and any time you can name a hat after a Terry Pratchett book is good.) This is just my own random pattern, Lily Sugar n' Cream on size 6 needles.



And lastly, we have a 2x2 rib hat (triangle on top!). Well, more or less. I think I only did 90-some stitches on size 8 needles, in Patons Classic Merino. This will be a gift for a friend. I will probably end up making more of these in the future. It's a quality dude hat.

she shoots and scores!

My first goal for Hat Trick 2009!



And yes, I believe you have seen this yarn and this hat before. It's my new Lacecap, to make up for the one that shrunk. It's even a wee bit big--I made it on #3 needles, instead of #2--so if it goes in the wash, it should be ok.

Two more hats to go!

70's Couch Socks!

Ok, it wasn't actually a couch, it was a loveseat, but it had stripes freakishly reminiscent of these socks.



The pattern is your basic Plain Sock, 56 stitches on #2 needles, with an eye of partridge heel, because I think they're cool. Oh, in Patons Kroy Sock Stripes, or whatever it's called. As usual, I seem to have lost the ballband. I believe the colorway is "Deep Sierra Stripes." Something with sierra in it, anyhow.



Though I think these socks are vaguely ugly, I do rather love them, and there's a part of me that wants to run out and get like 16 balls of this yarn and knit up a 70'stastic sweater with a slightly larger gauge than the socks. I plan on not letting it.

I will probably use this sock yarn again, if Michaels' is a dear and keeps carrying it. It's not the softest thing in the world, but it's warm as hell, and I would totally be down with using the solid colors for Manly Socks.

Also, they go nicely with my chair.

why don't I have any pretty acrylic?

You heard me. Now that Christmas is over, and the flu is over, and I have finished my 70's Couch Socks (photos eventually, I'm sure) I'm ready to move on to this most excellent Hat Trick KAL.

Why am I pining for pretty acrylic, you ask? Well, my grandma's birthday is coming up, and she's the sort that bundles up, so hey, I could totally make her a hat as a gift. Only I'm pretty sure she's not the hand washing sort, so something that won't be wrecked by the washing machine is a must.

And I've been trying not to buy any yarn right now, because really, I have lots. (Most of you would laugh at my meager stash. Hard. But I'm poor and stuff. Hell, I even did my Christmas knits from the ol' stash. Go me! Anyway.) I just have no pretty acrylic. I have some cotton that might work if I did stripes . . . and probably some acrylic that would be ok if I did stripes . . . but I was feeling like doing some kind of simple cables, because they always impress people.

Anyway. We'll see. Maybe I'll dig around tomorrow and discover something I didn't know I had. That would be AWESOME. Everyone cross your fingers for me!