Finally, the hat is in my possession.

It took a bit over a week, but the hat has finally come off Matt's head, and I am able to take photos of it, while he's at work.



Pattern: Ear Flap Hat from Craftster

Yarn: Approximately 175g brown and white 'Hand Knitting Yarn' (100% wool, with some sort of moth repellent)

Modifications: 2x2 ribbing all around the hat, not just the back and front, put a Pom Pom on the top of the hat (as per Matt's request), 6x4 stitch cables around the hat, and a redesign of the decreases at the crown, to accomodate for the cables. The cables didn't show up very well in the first photo, so here's a slightly more detailed close up (beware, it's not very interesting):



It was a very quick knit (for me), taking less than 24 from cast on, to weaving in the ends. It would have taken even less, if I hadn't made so many mistakes, such as knitting too many rows between cable rows, that forced me to frog a few times.

The yarn was in great shape as well, considering how old it is (20-40 years old, I suspect). It doesn't show the cables very well, but it at least adds a little to the hat, than if it was just all stocking stitch. As the hat used up so little yarn, I should have plently left over to make a pair of fingerless gloves to match.

Now on to other projects:

I finally faced reality, and redesigned the raglan decreases, and the entire sleeve for the cabled zip up top, to accomodate for the problems with the row guage (i was getting 19 rows/10cm, while the pattern calls for 26 rows/10cm). I have fixed the decreases on the fronts and back, and am almost up to the decreases on the sleeves, so I'll soon see if my calculations were correct. I'll post photos of it when it's all done.

Stash Enhancement and Fasting

It is with much sorrow that I announce that I am going on a Yarn Diet. I came to the realisation (while buying yarn at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show) that I really need to start using up some of the yarn that I have been accumulating, because it's all becoming a bit ridiculous. I'm not a prolific knitter, especially during semester, yet I still manage to find time and funds to go hunting for yarn, and it's now getting to the point where I would probably have a couple of years worth of projects just based on stash.

The conditions I have for the yarn diet are as follows:
1). The yarn diet concludes only when my yarn stash is to a manageable size (i.e. 2-3 planned projects worth)
2). The diet can be broken where buying more yarn is essential to finishing the project (I have one project where I still have to buy some black 8ply - this is the only reason I put in this condition).
3). If I am commissioned to knit something that requires non-stash yarn, then the yarn diet can be temporarily halted.
4). The yarn diet extends only to yarn. Patterns or knitting instruments (I can't think of a better word that encompasses needles, stitch markers and counters etc.) can still be purchased.

The 2nd and 4th condition make the diet a bit pissweak, but really my intention is to cut down on the amount of yarn in the house.

In the coming weeks, I might do a few entries on what the various yarns in my stash are planned for. Not sure how that will work out, but we'll see.

Now, on to the skeins that broke the camel's back!

At the Arts Centre Market a couple of Sundays back, I bought this yarn from the Handweavers and Spinners Guild stall:



I'm planning on teaming it up with some brown 8 ply (dang it, I just realised that I need to buy some of that too!) to make the Checkered Scarf from Vintage knits. It's a lovely and soft yarn, and looks very good knitted up. I did have a swatch of it, but I frogged it before I realised that the photo I took of it was very blurry.

I went to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show on Saturday, on possibly one of the coldest and most miserable days this year. I made sure I was really well rugged up, but I still nearly froze. There didn't seem to be as much in the way of yarn than last year, although the crowds weren't as big, so it may have made it look like there was less there, when there really wasn't. I wasn't overly impressed by what was there - there seemed to be a lot of synthetic eyelash yarn there, but some of the hand dyed mohair and boucle was really nice. I found the weaving quite interesting, and I really want to start spinning, but perhaps after they introduce the 40 hour day.

I did end up buying some yarn, however, it was all yarn that I believe is from the 60s and 70s (and possibly the 50s).



I bought 3 balls each of the black (Sirdar fontein crepe), purple (Embassy crepe), green (Villawool 4ply) and orange (Villawool 4ply superknit). These are planned to be used for multiple pairs of fingerless gloves, all with garish stripes. I bought 10 balls of the white and brown (unbranded 'Hand Knitting Yarn), of which 3.5 balls have been made into an earflap beanie for Matt. I was unable to take a photo of it, as it's nigh on impossible to get it off Matt's head, and he's out at poker at the moment.

This entry is becoming ridiculously long. I should just start writing shorter posts, more often.

I have actually been doing some knitting during my time in blog wilderness. Unfortunately, also during this time I've had exams, and Matt went into hospital while exams were on, so a lot of the stress during the period manifested itself as silly mistakes in my knitting (and bad exam marks, but enough about that), so a lot of it has been frogged.

I finished my Dad's socks a little while back, but neglected to post a picture of them.. until now.


Next time I'll use a toe up pattern, as I don't like how the toes turned out on this pair. I think I'll also try to knit them at the same time to make them identical. Even though it's probably more realistic to assume that one foot is slightly bigger than the other, I still like my socks to be exactly the same, which this pair isn't. All in all though, I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at socks.

I've also bought yarn, intended for a pair of socks for myself:



Despite the retina-burning shade of green, I think they'll look great as a pair of socks.

I usually knit a lot of small guage items, so it has been somewhat of a relief to start knitting with Inca. The zip up jacket is coming along very quickly, however I'm a little concerned about the fact the row guage is a bit out. It's resulted in the sleeves looking huge, so I'm a little worried that it will come out looking like a raglan/dolman sleeve when its finished. We shall see.



I have also finished the back of Matt's diagonal rib jumper, and had a fair bit of the front done, when I noticed the worst of my recent spate of silly mistakes. I've ripped a good 10cm out to get to the mistake, and it's now sulking in the corner, thinking about what it has done. It is also being punished by not having any photos taken of it today. That'll teach it a lesson, no doubt.