The Year of the Hat?

Another finished object, can you believe it? So far, two of the things I've finished this year are hats! I therefor dub this the year of the hat. Or at least the few months of the hat. (I have a pair of fetchings I have to write up too, but they didn't take as long as the hats. Maybe it'll turn into "the year of the extremities"?)

Jak's Jaques Cousteau[R]:

Pattern: Marsan Watchcap[R] by Stacey Joy Elkin
Materials: Cascade 220 Wool[R]; 220y/100g; 100% Peruvian highland wool; color: 8339 marine; dyelot: 9733
Purchased at: Natural Stitches in Pittsburgh, PA
Amount: less than 1 skein
Needles: size 7 clover DPNs, followed by 16" #7 Addi Turbo (swoon)
Gauge: what's that? (aka, never checked)
Size: L
Cost: $5.61 yarn, + $16.00 addis = $21.61

Started: 1/27/08
Finished: 2/03/08
Total time: 1 week




Pattern notes:
When I first learned to knit, I thought you knit into the back of a knit stitch, so all my stitches were twisted. This made knitting the twisted rib in this pattern very easy. I have to admit, I'm still not a big k1p1 rib fan when it comes to the knitting enjoyment, but nothing else works quite like it. I suspect I'd gotten this hat confused with the actual jaques cousteau hat somewhere along the line, but I'd described it to Jak as a jaques cousteau hat, so that's what he knows it as. I think this is a nice mens hat pattern, and I'd probably knit it again. I don't yet know what the recipient (a 21 yr. old male) thinks of it, but we'll see. It was a nice chance I could use the yarn I'd gotten on sale (with no plan for what to do) to make this belated holiday gift. The color's beautiful, and I'm sure I'll get it again.

A Fun Little Meme and some more Fos!

" You are breakfasty, like a pile of pancakes on a Sunday morning that have just the right amount of syrup, so every bite is sweet perfection and not a soppy mess. You are a glass of orange juice that's cool, refreshing, and not overly pulpy. You are the time of day that's just right for turning the pages of a newspaper, flipping through channels, or clicking around online to get a sense of how the world changed during the night. You don't want to stumble sleepily through life, so you make a real effort to wake your brain up and get it thinking. You feel inspired to accomplish things (whether it's checking something off your to-do list or changing the world), but there's plenty of time for making things happen later in the day. First, pancakes."


That just might be my favorite quiz I've ever taken! Breakfast, especially a breakfast at 10am, (which, to me, means a leisurely breakfast) is my favorite meal of the day, and reading the paper every morning has become an important part of my daily ritual. That time of morning always holds so much promise for things to be accomplished in the day!


I really haven't been doing a spectacular job at updating the blog. I blame this on the fact that I'm still not in the habit of unloading my camera each time I use it, and who wants a pictureless blog post?


Since finishing my Urchin, I have two more recent FOs, neither of which I've had a chance to photograph. A pair of Fetchings for me, and a watchcap for my stepbrother. Though I'm not officially trying to only knit from my stash in any real way, I *am* trying to keep it from getting much bigger, and both of these projects were good stash projects. The Cashmerino for the fetchings I bought back in December when I was making a pair for my friend, and the Cascade 220 was bought in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the year because it was on sale. Happily, its shade of blue works well for my stepbrother!


The other finished objects I'll have to share with you are two sewing projects I made - two purses which were belated Christmas presents for friends of mine. Those I can show you now! (The astute might've noticed the green tweed purse as having appeared on my giftmas wrap up page a while back.)

Erika's Tweed Pleated Beauty:

Pattern: Pleated Beauty Bag from Bend the Rules Sewing
Materials: Sparkly tweed "holiday" fabric, green "spring suiting" fabric, interfacing, flannel, magnetic snap
Purchased at: All materials are from JoAnn's Fabric.
Cost: I should pay more attention to this...

Started: 1/6
Finished: 1/12
Total time: 3+ hours, over a number of days





I like the way the green fabric sets off the gold sparkles in the tweed. Though this is definitely more of a fall/winter bag, hopefully the green can help it transition through spring.

Hannah's Clutch:

Pattern: Pleated Beauty Bag from InStitches
Materials: Brown cotton, Alexander Henry Loteria fabric, cotton batting, magnetic closure.
Purchased at: All materials are from JoAnn's Fabrics.
Cost: I should pay more attention to this...

Started: 1/12
Finished: 1/20
Total time: 4+ hours, over a number of days
Modifications: Due to a mistake on my part with the magnetic snap, I had to remake the closure tab, and make it longer than the one in the pattern. I also chose to line the tab with the lining fabric instead of with the exterior fabric.






Pattern notes: This was the first Amy Butler pattern I'd sewn, and the book was from the library, so there was a bit of a time crunch. Though the pattern was not as simple and easy to understand as the patterns in Bend the Rules Sewing, it was more precise. Steps like basting all layers together, though a pain to do, helped to make the finished purse look professional. I definitely plan on purchasing the book for myself so I can make more of these, and so I can make some other patterns in the book. The pattern was quite frustrating at times, but this was also the first "real" pattern I've sewn anything from, so I'm pleased with the result.

As far as the fabrics go, I love the loteria fabric, and it reminds me of the style of jewelry my friend Hannah, the recipient, wears. I liked how I was able to center the magnetic closure on the center of the devil, and if I had enough of this fabric to work a pattern like this again, next time I'll pay more attention to matching up the pattern. Though the brown wasn't an obvious choice to match with the fabric, I think it works, and Hannah enjoys brown.

There, that's enough for now I think!

New Year, New Hat!

All right, so it's been a little longer than I anticipated...the good news is, I have even more to share with you! I'll start with my first FO of the year.

New Year's Urchin[R]:

Pattern: Urchin[R] by Cheryl Niamath
Materials: Del Sur by Aslan Trends [R]; 80m/100g; 100% Merino wool; color: 2979 (Scarlet) dyelot: 1200
Purchased at: Natural Stitches in Pittsburgh, PA
Amount: a little over 1 skein
Needles: 7mm (NOT US 7s, this is not a US needle size) Addi Turbos
Gauge: what's that? (aka, never checked)
Size: L
Cost: $16.80 but I still have a bunch leftover

Started: 1.02.08
Finished: 1.03.08
Total time: 1 day!

I wanted to knit this hat in the first place because Anna J's mother knit her an Urchin and I fell in love with it and ended up wearing it all New Year's Eve. I know trying to recreate someone else's finished product is a bad idea, but I loved the hat so much that as I was leaving Pittsburgh, I picked up some yarn to make myself a hat. I got the Del Sur after much deliberation. Anna J's hat was (I found out later) knit in Lamb's Pride bulky with size 11 needles. (Yeah, I got her to check with her mom.) AnnaJ is also a fellow knitter, and we both thought the hat might look nice in a thick/thin yarn, which is what led me to chose the Del Sur.

A few notes on the hat: I was a little disappointed in how small my final hat was. AnnaJ's hat was nice and floppy, a proper beret. My hat ended up much more tightly knit, and while it fits on my head, it's a pretty tight fit. I've been debating taking out the seam and adding another wedge (which makes sense if you've done the pattern) but the yarn would not be easy to undo, and I'm not eager to go back to working on this hat.

I've worn my hat quite regularly and it is warm, and it's received complements, but I'm still not thrilled. Hopefully one of these days I can bring myself to go back (I still haven't woven in the ends) and add another wedge or half wedge.

A few notes on the pattern: Before knitting, I checked Ravelry (of course) and saw most people considered this an easy fun knit. My first attempt at a wedge left me utterly perplexed. This is partly because, instead of knitting in relation to the last wrapped stitch, I attempted to do the math to count how many stitches I should leave. This did not work. I asked for help on the Rav boards, and people pointed out the directions were in relation to the last wrapped stitch. On my second attempt, I places a stitch marker every time I wrapped a stitch (yeah, you end up with TONS of them; I used the removable markers so I could reuse them) and just worked in relation to the marker. This made the knitting much more pleasant and much easier. Though it took me longer than few hours, it was still a quick knit.







And, here's a picture of the yarn, all wound up.



I do have more knits-in-progress, more sewing projects, and a 101 in 1001 post I owe you, so keep reading. =]

Past Crafting

So, in the rush that was trying to get things done in time, I've neglected to post about a few finished objects. Here's my catchup post!

Anna's Fetchings[R]:

Pattern: Fetching[R] by Cheryl Niamath
Materials: Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran [R]; 90m/50g; 55% Merino wool, 33% Microfibre, 12% Cashmere; color: 300008 (brown) dyelot: 44
Purchased at: Woolworks
Amount: 1 skein, just barely
Needles: size 6 clover DPNs
Gauge: what's that? (aka, never checked)
Cost: $8.28

Started: First glove started:12/19 -12/20; Secong glove: 12/20-12/21
Finished: 12/21
Total time: 3 days

Finished gloves:



Gloves with care sleeve:


Gloves with Artsy Clutch:


These were enjoyable to knit. I wish I'd read all the reviews on Cashmerino Aran before choosing to knit with it. It's a very soft yarn, and the resulting fabric is extremely soft, but everyone who says it pills is right. I will probably use this yarn again, but maybe not for such a high use object as gloves.

The pattern was exactly what I hoped for. It was interesting enough to keep me going and fast enough I was able to finish it in a few days. If I'd knitted more on a given day, I could probably even finish this sooner. The one thing I didn't love about the pattern was the picot bind off, and if I do these again, I will probably change the bind off. To me, it makes the bound off edge looser than I'd want it, though it does look pretty. Also, as you can tell if you look closely, I forgot to reverse the cables on the second glove. I hadn't realized it until I was in the main body ribbing part, and I decided I didn't want to frog it back. Next time I knit this, I plan on reversing the cables. All in all, a satisfying knit. Hopefully, the recipient will like it too! As you can see in the bottom picture, this will also be given with an Artsy Clutch. That's my second FO of this post....

Anna's Artsy Clutch:

Pattern: Artsy Clutch from Bend the Rules Sewing
Materials: 3 fat quarters; could be made with two
Purchased at: Dragon fabric and lining butterfly fabric were purchased at an open market in Hilo, Hawaii years ago. The black fabric for the front and the black button are from JoAnn's Fabric.
Cost: $3 for black fat quarter (still have a lot left); $2 for button (still have one left) other fabric (both prints as well as lining flannel) from stash; 3$ for elastic (still have a lot left) total: $8

Started: 12/23
Finished: 12/23
Total time: 2 hours, maybe less

A closer look:

A look at the lining (with a glove inside):


I loved this project. Loved it. I see why it's as popular as it is! When I finished sewing, I was amazed and incredibly pleased by how polished it looked. I made my pouch slightly smaller than the pattern in the book, partly because of the size of some of my scrapps. It's just big enough to be a pencil or pen case, or as a small purse. I decided to have a 'cuff' of the dragon fabric instead of having the entire bag in that fabric for a few reasons. First off, I thought the pattern would be overwhelming if it was the entire bag. The way it is now, you have the two dragons looking down on the 'front' (aka, folded over) piece, and the rest of the black sets them off. One thing I did do, thanks to the suggestion of someone on the blogosphere (though I forget who) is reverse the pattern of the dragon on the folded over flap so that it looks right side up when it's upside down. Other than that and the size adjustment, I followed the pattern. I will make many more of these, I'm sure.

Giftmas

Unlike many other bloggers out there, I have no fear in blogging my holiday gifts. It's much easier when the intended recipients don't know about the blog. =]

I'm glad I've learned to sew, because there are some projects that are much easier to complete, time wise, sewing than knitting. Purses, for example. I wish I knew good gifts for guys! It's so much easier for me to figure out good personalized (hand made) gifts for the females in my life.


Here's a list of gifts, by friend name, with photos attached when the item is complete. Family gifts are different and will come later:

Anna J:
icecream pint cozy
beer bottle cozy


Anna B:
1 set fetching; artsy clutch


Emma:
pink polka no cash wallet

Erika:
pleated beauty in green fabric & sparkly tweed



Hannah:
InStitches clutch.




Maeve:
actually reads this blog, but knows one of her gifts is going to be a mini sweater ornament. If only I had size 5 dpns!

Rachel:
teacozy with removable flower pin

First sock!

My first sock is now DONE! I'm very excited. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of it - it's not the most exciting thing in the world, and it's far from perfect, but darnit, I'm just glad it's done! Now....for the second sock. =]