Bruce’s Hat - Cast on and Finished!

Of course the Every Love Hat is not a manly hat, and Bruce needed one for our walks.  I had two skeins of  Mountain Meadow Wool Sundance yarn in my recent stash acquisition pile so I looked for a pattern on Ravelry that I could use with them.  The yarn came in a cool legacy yarn club that they have.  I learned about them from the Fiber Nation Podcast.  Anyway, I wasn’t keen on the pattern that came with, but found one that would work - the Mistake Rib Stitch Hat.  It is basically a broken rib pattern and a super quick and easy knit, although I am not used to working with bulky wool and large needles.  In fact I couldn’t use the needle called for in the pattern because I didn’t have that size (US 11).  But I did have US 10 (6 mm) needles.  I knit this up in a single day (Sunday, January 9).  I adjusted the final decreases to make them more gradual (working a non decrease row between the decrease rows).

Pattern:  Mistake Rib Stitch Hat by Vanessa Ewing

Yarn:  Mountain Meadow Wool Sundance in Spring Song

Needle:  US 10 (6 mm)

Every Love Hat 2 - Cast on!

So these hats are kind of addictive to knit.  They are fun, not too hard, and I enjoy the Brioche stitch.  Plus what else can I do with a single crazy variegated skein of DK weight yarn.  After finishing up my classy pink one I cast on this one (this past Sunday 9 January).  Same yarn, different color set.

Pattern:  Every Love Hat by Dolly Laishram

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Dewy DK in Exploration

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Every Love Hat - Finished!

I finished this hat up almost a week ago.  The assembly was a bit of a topological challenge.  You have to first attach the bound off end of the long piece to the bound off stitches of the cap.  I did this with regular mattress stitch.  But you have to make sure that you have the orientation correct.  There are pictures in the pattern to help with that.  After pondering the pictures I figured it out.  But then I had to figure out the back and the attachment of the long piece to the cap.

For the back, which is the cast on edge, I gathered it with a running stitch and then just stitched it together to join from the wrong side with a whip stitch.  Then I figured out where the half way point was on the long piece and flipped things so that the right side of the long piece and the right side of the cap were facing each other.  Then I just did a running stitch though the slipped edge stitches to join, pulling things snug and then easing them out again a little before I tied everything off and wove in the ends.  I started the join at the center back and worked towards the front on both sides, stopping when it seemed the right spot to stop to allow the front to do what the front needs to do.

Pattern:  Every Love Hat by Dolly Laishram

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Dewy DK in Adventure

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

 

First Snowstorm of the Year, and the Winter

If you have been watching the news/weather at all this past week you might be aware that we had a bit of a snowstorm this past Monday.  This is our pair of Beech Nut Trees in the front yard.  We had about 10 inches of heavy wet snow.  Thankfully we did not lose power (buried power lines), but we did lose some branches out of some trees.  Not as many as we might have as we had a bunch of tree trimming done a month or two ago.  It was really beautiful, but thankfully melted fairly quickly.  We only missed one day of walking.  We walked on Tuesday, but I wore my snow boots and it took a bit longer than typical, partly because we stopped and chatted with folks out checking the damage or trying to clear it.

Every Love Hat - Cast On!

My husband and I walk almost every day in our neighborhood, and it has been a little cold lately so I decided I needed a hat to keep my ears warm.  I have been wearing a cowl on some days, and yesterday my husband wore one of the cowls that I have knit to keep his ears warm - I had on a hooded coat that went down to my knees.  Anyway, yesterday afternoon I searched my pattern library for hat patterns and spotted this one.  I then checked my stash and decided that I had the perfect yarn for it, so I cast it on while listening to a meeting.  The yarn is from Expression Fiber Arts and was just one of those random stash acquisitions (it is only one skein!).  Well, actually it has a companion skein that is speckled/variegated that I will probably use to make another hat, as this pattern is quite fun and a bit addictive.  It uses a cool Brioche stitch and knits up very quickly (at least so far).  There are increases and decreases to shape the hat.  Some assembly is required.

Pattern:  Every Love Hat by Dolly Laishram

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Dewy DK in Adventure

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Birthday Bliss - Day 25, Color 16

Once I finished up Joy to the World I focused on Birthday Bliss.  When I last set it down I was on Day 16 Color 10.  I have done 6 more colors, well almost.  I have a few more rows of Color 10 to work.  It has felt like a bit of a slog at times, but that is partly my own fault as I am working 10 more rows than the pattern calls for in order to use up as much of the yarn as possible.  The two sections at the very bottom of the photo that are worked in the same pattern are the midpoint.  I am working the charts to make the lace pattern symmetric about the middle.  I have four more colors to go.

Color 1:  Day 3 - Fathom - Chart 1

Color 2:  Day 4 - Charcoal - Chart 2

Color 3:  Day 6 - Medieval - Chart 3

Color 4:  Day 7 - Tart - Chart 4

Color 5:  Day 8 - Nocturne - Chart 5

Color 6:  Day 10 - Liquid Gold - Chart 6

Color 7:  Day 12 - Dirty Panther - Chart 7

Color 8:  Day 13 - Yucca - Chart 6

Color 9:  Day 15 - Phantasm - Chart 5

Color 10:  Day 16 - Ceremony - Chart 4

Color 11:  Day 18 - Esoteric - Chart 4

Color 12:  Day 19 - Madonna - Chart 5

Color 13:  Day 21 - Leopard - Chart 6

Color 14:  Day 22 - Wino Forever - Chart 7

Color 15:  Day 24 - Gilded - Chart 6

Color 16:  Day 25 - Cousteau - Chart 5

Pattern:  Birthday Bliss by Amy Gunderson

Yarn:  madelinetosh Euro Sock

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Joy to the World - Finished!

I actually finished this shawl back on December 26, 2021 and then didn’t get around to posting about it.  I did my currently favorite knit on edging to finish it off.  I did not work the I-Cord edging along the top edge.  As you can tell it is a generous size.  It was a bit more of a challenge to block than I expected.

I ended up using blocking wires along the top edge, then did my best to make sure the yarn over spines and garter ridges were straight.  The lace edging I pinned out point by point.  Because I used a 3-needle bind off to join the triangles the top edge isn’t quite straight across, but that is okay.

Pattern:  Joy to the World by Louise Robert

Yarn:  Biscotte Yarns Bis-Sock & The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)