Hats and Socks

...from top to bottom

Here I am combining projects into a single blog post.

First up, Frankenbaby! This is a Frankenstein hat that I made my nephew for Halloween last year. I was just recently sent the photos. I made up the pattern myself and I do plan on writing it down so you all can make one for your little monster.

Yarn: Cascade 220 in black and green. And a little bit of grey for the bolts and some red embroidery floss.

Second, my Honey Hat. I fell in love with the pattern, Honey Cowl but I didn't have enough yarn. I picked up this yarn at Churchmouse while I was in Brainbridge Island. I thought the stitch pattern and yarn would make a great hat. I made it slightly slouchy. Then I embroidered a tree and some orange leaves to it with some scrap yarn. I love it. Reminds me of a burning field.

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, colorway: loro barranquero.

My friends Heather and Erin are due with their first son very shortly. I've been wanting to make these little socks for so long and I knew they were the perfect couple for them. I call them The Snowflake Socks.

Yarn: Cascade 220 green, Knit Picks undyed natural yarn.

The dark spot on the toe is a raindrop!

Lastly, Bailey has been asking me to make him some socks for awhile now. I have had this yarn in my stash for years and thought he would enjoy some Candy Cane Socks. I knit them with an afterthought heel so as not to disrupt the striping pattern. Quite by accident, these socks have the complete opposite striping pattern from each other. WIN! I love it when stuff like that happens.

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Nation Color

My First Mystery Knit Along

...along with the awesome Leethal!

My favorite knitting designers is Lee Meredith or Leethal. My first project of hers was the Buttonhead hat. She recently organized a mystery knit along. I've never done one before and signed up immediately. A knit along consists of a knitters knitting the same thing at the same time. The mystery knit along means we don't know what we're knitting. Leethal broke down the pattern into four parts and sent them out in four weeks. I had so much fun.

I used leftover green Cascade 220 and some Knit Picks yarn that I dyed with Kool Aid.

Week One: It was some sort of strip with a zig zag rib pattern.

Week Two: Increased a little bit in stockinette stitch.

Week Three: I switched to the Kool Aid yarn. At this point, I was pretty sure it was a shawl or capelet.

Week Four: Went back to the green to finish the edging. It is a shawl and I love it!

You can now buy the entire Betiko pattern from Leethal that shows how you can

use different yarns and different stiches to make it customizable! I will definitely be making more of these!

Things I've Done

...but not yet blogged.

There's some knitting projects that I've completed in the last couple months that I just haven't gotten around to posting. So I'm going to do that now.

I made this cowl/scarf/scrunchie thingy for Amy's birthday. I used Knit Picks Gloss and Hannah Silk Ribbon. I love it, Amy loves it. Yay!

For Christmas, I knitted my husband gloves. I used Knitty's Cigar pattern but made all the fingers full length and made a button hole in the first finger and thumb so he can use them without taking the gloves off. I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool.

My husband gave me a Kindle for Christmas and my sons got me Malabrigo. Living the life, I tell you! I made this lovely Kindle cozy out of Malabrigo Worsted Amoroso. I altered the pattern a bit to include a flap and buttons.

My son has a Build A Bear bunny he named Tucker. Tucker is his best friend and when it snowed here awhile back, my son was very concerned that Tucker did not have anything to keep him warm. So for Christmas, "Santa" knitted Tucker a sweater. I used scrap Cascade 220 yarn.

A Penny Knitted

... is a penny earned.

I have to thank my friend Laura for the inspiration for this post. I recently made a cowl using The String Theory Scarf pattern. You knit and purl for ages and then at the end, you purposely drop stitches to create a string scarf. I had posted pictures on facebook and Laura asked me how many stitches did I drop. I did the math. I dropped 7,000 stitches of the 10,500 stitches that this cowl consisted of. Let's say that again- ten thousand, five hundred hand knit stitches.

So next time you're admiring something hand knit for sale, then exclaim at the price, please think of this post. Let's do some more math. Let's pretend we would sell a scarf like this for $60. The yarn cost $10. So now we have $50 left. At 10,500 stitches, you would be paying the knitter .48 cents per stitch. Less than a half a penny a stitch! And usually when one does sell their art or craft, you have to pay the fees (ebay, etsy, craft fairs, etc...) on top of that which means they get less that that half a cent.

Please pay artists what they are asking for. Do not haggle, do not barter. Please support your local artists.

Callista and Sabrina

Two sweet girls, two sweet hats.

I'm finally getting around to doing something I've wanted to do for awhile. Concentrate on producing more adult knits. I've also been wanting to design and sell patterns. I started this week! I bought some of Knit Picks City Tweed yarn and fell in love. It's soft and the texture is amazing. The two yarns inspired these two hats. I love collections that are named after people (I'm looking at you John Fluevog) so I named these two hats after my darling nieces.

Callista was made from colorway Tahitian Pearl. Pattern for sale here.

Sabrina was made from colorway Morning Glory. Pattern for sale here.

Both hat patterns are also available for purchase on Ravelry. I purchased the ribbon from The Tangled Lair.

Halloween Superstars

The family that costumes together, stays together.

I had a lot of fun this Halloween doing costumes. Originally, Bailey was supposed to be Ash from The Fantastic Mr. Fox. But when we went to our local Goodwill for dress up clothes, he found a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume. Being a 4 year old, that was that! So the only thing I had to do was make him a blue mask- which I did out of felt.

I made Silas a little gnome costume. I knit the hat and the beard. I just whip stitched the beard to the hat so now I can remove it and Silas can just wear the hat. Although babies with beards are pretty cute. I bought some fleece and quickly sewed together a tunic and belt.

I made myself a Marge Simpson costume. I crocheted the wig/hair, then stuffed it with a balloon and bubble wrap. I knit my necklace and used some green fleece to make the dress. And I bought a yellow long sleeve shirt to keep me warm while trick or treating.

My husband went as Ace Ventura Pet Detective. I found the shirt at another thrift store and quickly made him the pink tutu. Love it!!

Lastly, I helped my brother-in-law with his costume. He wanted to go as his brother- my husband! I snuck out some clothes, a hat and shoes. And I found a moustache for him to wear. So funny. I love Halloween!

Blue Ribbon Winner

... this ain't no Pabst

Chronilogically, this post should have come sooner. But the Eugene Celebration kept me busy until now. Earlier this year, I knitted my first shawl. I chose Gail (Nightsongs) by Jane Araujo. I find lace knitting easy enough (as long as you have the time to concentrate) but shawl construction was a bitch. Completely unlike anything else I've knitted. I forged through after finding some help on Ravelry.

I knitted it as a part of a knit-along with my favorite Ravelry group, Knit Knack. It turned out so well (love Malabrigo!!) that I decided to enter it in the Lane County Fair. I had never entered anything before.

To my shock, it not only placed but I freakin' won first place!!! Because I make money on my knitting, I had to enter in the pro-class which makes the win even more stunning. I am so happy and definitely plan to enter knitting in every year.

Me trying to take a picture with my shawl and the little bub completely stole the frame! I don't mind. ♥

Eugene Celebration

Chickens and Meter Cozies??

This weekend Eugene had their annual Eugene Celebration. What does that mean to me? Well, this year my family (and my hens!) walked in the parade Saturday morning. We walked with the Eugene Friendly Neighborhood Farmers in conjunction with The Backyard Farmer. We are trying to raise awareness of urban farming and backyard hens. Also Eugene recently suspended their two hen limit. So we marched in support. I knitted the boys cute chicken hats and we pulled the gals- Ramona, Fanny and Popcorn in a wagon.

About 30 of us farmers showed up with 25 chickens. It was a lot of fun!

This past week also coincided with my knitting group's one year anniversary. We decided to yarn bomb parking meters by knitting them cozies. I contributed two cozies. A rainbow fish cozy (which I installed on the meter directly in front of a sushi restaurant!) and a Pac Man cozy.

You can read more about it at the Knitting is Knotty blog and you can see more pictures on our flickr page.