My Mr's 2013 hat

It has recently occurred to me that I've been making hats for myself and my Mr. every year.  I only thought of this as I was knitting this year's hat. He has mentioned that hats I've knitted in the past weren't warm enough, so I poked around Ravelry until I found just the thing that should be perfect: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Very Warm Hat. This is a double-layered, reversible hat and is indeed very warm. You start by knitting a hat. When you're done, you pick up stitches along the cast-on edge and knit another hat.  You'll get a something that looks very much like this (note that the second hat is not quite finished).

Once both hats are finished, you just stuff one inside the other and ta-da!  A double-thick, reversible, very warm hat!  Last night I was cruising along on hat #2 and tried it on even though the decreases aren't quite finished:

It'll only take a little while to finish. I can't wait to give it to the Mr. I think he will love it.  And then I will cast on a hat for me, except that I will use fuchsia and charcoal gray and will knit skulls, crossbones and hearts into mine.  It's my own design, and one of these days I'll make it available on Ravelry. 

Happy Sunday, and happy knitting!

~mz

Almost finished!

Hood is finished. All that's left is to knit the buttonband and attach the bad-ass skull buttons.  First I must finish a bit of housework then it's time to settle in and finish picking up all the stitches!

~mz

Women and knitting

A coworker saw this coaster at a flea market over the weekend and got it for me. I love it!

Distracted

This past weekend I got to spend some quality knitting time with 2 of my friends in Columbus (OH). On Saturday we went to a little shop near Dayton called Fiberworks. I gotta say that I was not prepared for all the lovely stuff that was there.  The store has yarn -- lots of lovely yarn -- but also fiber. Lots of lovely, squishy, beautiful, soft fiber.  I was lucky to get my hands on 8 or so ounces of this:

50% red alpaca and 50% white Romney wool

... and about 4 ounces of this:

50% black alpaca and 50%white Romney wool

This stuff is SO lovely and soft.  I can't wait to get it on the wheel but it'll have to wait until I'm finished with this:

Lovely Malabrigo roving. Colorway: Baya Electrica

My friend Connee bought about a pound of lovely Corriedale roving on Saturday.  I told her that she should get all they had (about 2 pounds total) but she said 1 pound would be enough. But once she started spinning it later that night, she knew I was right! Luckily, the shop is open on Sundays, so we went back to get the rest of that Corriedale. And while that was happening I found this:

100% natural wool sliver*

There is only about 6 ounces of this stuff but I LOVE the way it looks and can't wait to spin that up too.  I think it'll make for a rustic-looking but not itchy yarn. I'm thinking it'd make a nice hat and for my husband. Although honestly, I'm not sure how he'd feel about fingerless mitts.  Hmm maybe I'll make those for me :-)

Well, kids, it's way past my bedtime.  If I don't go to sleep like NOW, tomorrow will be real ugly. Thank goodness for coffee, yo!

~mz


*Sliver is one of many different ways that fiber can be prepared for spinning.  Read more here -- Abby is a very knowledgeable and skilled spinner!

Sweater progress

I decided that THIS would be the weekend that I'd make significant progress on my Everything Nice sweater, and that is exactly what has happened.  Today I was able to finish the yoke and start the hood. After the hood, pretty much all that's left is to:

1. pick up stitches from one side of the cardigan, up the front, around the hood and down the other front -- and knit a border. I'm thinking maybe 2" wide or so.
2. knit i-cord loops and attach them to the border
3. sew on buttons (see below for a pic of the ones I chose)
4. graft the holes in the underarms where sleeves were attached to the body.

Here's me modeling the sweater after the yoke was finished. Check out that neat ribbing on the side.  

And here's a photo of my AWESOME pewter buttons:

I'm cruising along on the hood now. Shouldn't take too long to get finished, now that I'm super inspired to just keep knitting, just keep knitting.  It feels great to make progress on stuff that's been languishing on needles.  I need to keep it up, so the rest of 2013 will now be known as the "Finish ALL the things fest."  Can't wait to figure out how many sets of Addi Turbo needles I actually own, and see how much my wardrobe will be expanded once everything is finished.  It'll feel like Christmas -- hell, it might actually BE Christmas before I've made a significant dent in the WIP pile. But getting so close to done on this sweater is helping me feel all motivated and stuff.

~mz