my first vest attempt

I am doing a solid job of sticking to my intention to both knit garments this year and use the yarn I bought on the yarn crawl. This is another one of those projects. I started this on the 4th and this is the progress I made through the Sunday. It's been quite fun to work on, if slow going because I have to actually read the chart. I have now run up against the arm hole decreases which require more attention than a weeknight with YouTube (or knitting while waiting for my car to be fixed) can provide so I'm a bit stalled. I really want to wear this once the weather gets cooler though so I am motivated to find my way through. It's going to be an oversized vest, and I am hoping it turns out as edgy and hip looking as I imagine. 

The color changes of the Noro are surprising and beautiful. The unexpected color shifts are going to make this quite a statement piece! I like the navy I chose as my background, though I was not anticipating that it would blend in with the Noro quite as much as it is doing. That makes it harder to knit, too, because at night I just can't see the difference very well in the darkest sections. Aging eyes - SIGH. I will soldier on! Maybe just in the daylight. 

nearly there

Clint and I have gotten back together. We put our relationship on hold for a bit while I worked on socks and cross stitch and coasters, but we have settled our differences. In a stroke of adult knitting maturity, I made myself pick up one of my two current wips rather than casting on something new. I did cake up yarn for the next thing, which made it even harder, but I am determined to not let things languish too long. Well. Things I started this year. Let’s not discuss the couple of hibernating projects. Move along. 

I think it’s looking really good. I really like the colors together and can’t wait to see how they play together in the wings of the piece. As of this writing I only have the two uppermost squares of this center panel left to do, so I am very motivated to try to get those done tonight. Then I have a gaggle of ends to weave in before moving on. I solemnly swear I will not let that be a point where I put it away for weeks again. 

something much less simple

It occurs to me that it's been a while since I started my Clint and I have not updated at all. This project is much more complicated than the shrug I just started, so I don't tend to pick it up unless I am craving focused knitting time. I have found a rhythm with it recently after it sat for a little bit while I worked on easier things. 

It's looking pretty good so far. I've made my peace with the fudging required to get the corners "close enough" to having pointy points (some slip stitches in the patterns make this less than automatic), and I'm ignoring the one intersection where I must have added a stitch or something because the alignment isn't particularly close. All that to say it's not joyful knitting right now, but it is pretty fun. I do find humor in the fact that I am knitting a quilt - that was in fact part of what drew me to this piece. I have just a few more additions to this middle panel, which will be two or three more good chunks of time I think, and then I believe things will simplify and start progressing at a speedier clip. My goal is to have this for a cozy fall. Around here there's no pressure on that until like November because we get some pretty hot weather in September and October (NOT at all great for this girl who loves cold crisp autumnal weather). So there's time. 

another new cast on

I seem to want to start all the things this spring. Tonight I finally sat down to figure out how to get started on my Clint shawl, which has been #1 in my queue since I wound yarn for it a month ago. Somehow that green and pink sweater jumped the line :) 

It does require some attention, at least for now until I kind of internalize how it works, and the pattern is complicated enough that I just printed it out and tucked it into the handy outer pocket on my project bag. Having e-patterns is nice, but sometimes I don’t want to keep refreshing my phone screen or worrying if my iPad is going to run out of battery. Let’s enjoy some analog in life, eh? I can tell this is going to be potato chip knitting now that I’ve gotten going and I can’t wait to see the quilt block grow. I have three of my four colors knit into it so far and I can say that I’m really pleased with the palette. Adding the pop of fuschia is going to make it even better. 

I now have five things going in the yarny world, so I think I’ll cool it on the cast ons until I finish something. I do have a lot of projects planned with some more very pretty yarn crawl yarn, so I’m motivated. Plus I think all of them are going to be great and I’m looking forward to being able to have the finished objects. Onward!

well that was quick

I cast on the project I saw this weekend on Monday evening and got a few inches done that first night. As predicted, it was quite a quick knit! The pattern is easy to memorize and as usual the striping makes it so easy to think "just one more row". The pattern is Washington Square, and I modified it to cast on fewer stitches and kept it one gauge instead of switching needles as I went for a more rectangle cowl vs the shaped one meant to go over shoulders. I also didn't reference how many rows to do - I decided I would just keep knitting until I rain out of my single skeins of yarn. (The sample at the shop said it was one skein each color, but when I looked at the pattern the "true" project turns out to require more.)
 

I actually had a pretty obsessive relationship with this one, though it was a bit limited by the fact that it was harder on my hands because of the chunkier yarn. Still, it didn't take very long for me to finish it up. I took it to Wednesday knit night - perfect project for chatting and catching up - and finished off the bind off when I got home. I'm not 100% pleased with the Icelandic bind off I chose, I think it's a little bit too loose and doesn't nip in the edge quite as nicely as the long tail cast on does. In the photo below you can tell which the bottom is just by the way it funnels out. I have half a mind to redo it, but I also kind of think no one will know but me? The jury is out. 

Other than that nagging detail I just love it. The color combination is stellar. The warm neutral, while difficult to coordinate with any other gray in my wardrobe, sets off the gorgeous variegated yarn so well. And apparently I was pretty smart when I got this skein of Lotus even though it sat around in my stash for so long. It is such a beautiful combination of some of my very favorite colors. I especially like the squares where the purple and blues combine, it's very reminiscent of clouds at dusk. I am very pleased with it (as you can tell from the "ta da it's finished" photo below) and have already worn it to work today! 

shift begun

True to my intentions, I started a new thing. This little corner has grown in the last few weeks from this... 

... to this! I was a little intimidated to take this to knit night because talking and knitting on a piece where I had to refer to the pattern seemed like an invitation for mistakes, but it's been totally ok and no harm done yet. I'm really enjoying the color changes of the variegated yarn, the weight of the cotton, and the surprising ease of the pattern. It is quite well written.

I've also learned how to do an I-cord edging, which looks so very satisfying marching up the side. There will be a seam in the end, but I expect that the way the seamed edge is set up that it will go together cleanly. Enjoying each row as it comes for now!

 

kaffe the red

I'm very excited to have splurged on myself for a workshop early in February to learn to knit gnomes. Mom and I walked into my LYS in November and were greeted by the most. adorable. knitted gnomes who were scattered among the shelves. A few weeks later I noticed the pattern designer was going to have a workshop to teach gnome making. The folks that run the store are really friendly, so it seemed like a great way for me to continue exploring town and perhaps meet a few new people. I signed up. Fast forward a couple months and I saw an announcement on instagram (totally serendipitous, I spend like zero time on that platform) that the designer is having a Year of Gnomes to-do on her Ravelry page where the idea is to try to make one gnome a month. That seems fun and achievable so I figured I'd give it a shot. I want to wait until the workshop to learn how to make the 3d gnomes, so I bought her pattern for a cute cup cozy. It turns out that the YoG only counts for the 3d guys, but that's ok. I can do the rest of the months and this was a fun thing to knit! 

I dug through my yarn stash to find some leftovers that I thought had enough contrast for the gnome to show up and went to work. It was so fun I had a hard time putting it down - thankfully a lot of my work that day was able to be done with yarn in hand, so by the evening I had a cozy finished and ready to block. This was a fun, low pressure way to remind myself that I need to be careful about how I tension yarn when I'm doing color work and trying to hold both colors at once. The yarn in my right hand ends up tighter than the one I hold in my left, and things get a little out of whack. It's nothing that made the cozy not coze, but something I definitely messed around with while I was blocking. 

The end result is super cute (here finishing blocking on a cup), and if I make more I might consider going down a needle size to make up for my looser knitting. It fits on my travel mug, but is a little bit big likely because I was trying to knit loose enough that I didn't have my floats too tight. No big deal. I am calling him Kaffe the Red because the orange beard obviously means he's a redhead. 

Pattern: Gnome Need to Thank Me by Sarah Schira (my Ravelry page)

Needle: 2.5 mm and 2.75 mm

Yarn: madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Terra, Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Blueberry Mix, and Greenwood Fiberworks Yakity Yak in Lime - three animals in one cozy! 

giant julekuler

Made for Dave and the cats, who now live in Santa Cruz. The moose pattern has been his favorite, and we affectionately call Laker "moose" so it felt especially appropriate. Instead of the usual size, I used some chunky yarn leftover from a pair of hats we've got and some vampire-slaying needles. It turned out looking great, I should keep that in mind for more. 

 

it’s julekuler season again

It’s just after my birthday, so you know what that means - julekuler season is upon us! I got this book for my birthday a few years ago and have enjoyed making a few baubles a year since then. This year is no different. These two I started in August when I just couldn’t resist the siren call of this book on the shelf. Now that the tree is up, it’s REALLY time!

I’m still working off the same yarn I’ve used before; I keep it in it’s own little project bag so I’m ready to go whenever the fancy strikes. This year I had a rocking horse to make for a friend who is moving (who also happens to have a black horse... not a coincidence), and I decided to make patterns that I’ve enjoyed previously.

These knit up pretty quick, in a few hours, but I find that the quickest and most fun ones to make don’t have long color runs requiring a lot of twisting. The horse is an exception because well it’s a horse. But other than that I really enjoy the patterns with a lot of... pattern? Whatever the right word is, here’s a few that are done already.

julekulers begun

Soooo week 23 post quarantine went by in a flurry of anxiety because of the wildfires. Ick. Not much of anything except reading CalFire updates, worrying, and more worrying was happening until just a couple days ago. We finally found a little bit of comfort the last few days in both the fact that the fires are getting more under control and (for me) in knitting these little guys. 

Julekulers are definitely comfort knitting! They’re quick and fun, and I really enjoy reading the little blurbs about the different patterns. I’m not sure how many of these will get made this year, but I’ve got a good start already. I’ve been mostly browsing through the book looking for patterns I haven’t made yet. I’m finding that I enjoy the ones where there isn’t as much behind the scenes twisting of the yarns. The red and white one had short enough color runs in each row that there was NO twisting. It went much faster and I was much less frustrated by tangled yarn. I would like to try some in chunkier yarn and in leftover colors that aren’t necessarily holiday related, too. I think they would look quite pretty as well. For now I’m sticking with holiday baubles for gifting. Can’t wait until I have a bowlful. 

week twenty two

 I’ve been wanting to knit lately. That’s somewhat strange given the fact that it’s so incredibly hot outside - in the 100s! - but there it is. I should say that I also did finish a couple more hexagons for my tree skirt this week and picked out a layout, but that’s for another post when I actually have it done... sometime before Christmas. Back to yarn. Current mood: use things in the stash.

These three lovelies are from my Honey Girl Farms Outlander Yarn Club that I was in for a while. I was accumulating too many skeins without using them so I paused it. The colors are so nice and I really like the silky yarn base, so maybe someday if she’s still got it going I’ll start up again. Along comes an itch to make another large shawl and boom, three skeins will get used. It’s a somewhat unusual combination, but that is just what I was going for. This piece will have narrow stripes and panels of lace. In theory the stripes could be very contrast-y, but I am curious to see how the blue and green mottled yarns play together. I think once the fabric gets larger the stripes will become apparent. It’s reminding me of a dragon’s scales or a phoenix feather right now. Such pretty colors.

The pattern is out of a book I got down at a new-to-me shop in Monterey sometime before the pandemic - The Before Time. It’s going to be an asymmetrical sideways chevron which is a new construction for me. It should be really interesting! 

week nineteen

I'm about four weeks on from the last time I posted any knitting projects. It's been a summer of sewing for the most part, but that doesn't mean that I haven't sat down a bit with needles and yarn. I have only a couple of small projects on the needles and a pretty empty mental queue at this point, which seems about right if I'm going to try making any knitted things as holiday gifts this year. 

I've been enjoying the chunky texture of this hat as it comes to be. I love the subtle peeks of purple in the otherwise sky blue base. It should work up to be an interesting looking fabric that I think will match my dusty purple winter coat really nicely. While I really like the driftwood Lykke needles I'm using, I'm finding that I wish I had a circular needle of the appropriate size instead because of the cabling. It gets a little bit fiddly, and this is supposed to be my easy project!

And speaking of fiddly, I have finished the body of one fingerless glove so far and have a start on the second. I will leave the thumbs (my least favorite part) until last. I am very happy with the way the colors are looking with the pattern, and super impressed that some of the complicated looking details are so easy once you know how it's done. I'm solving some knitting mysteries here, people. I've really enjoyed working on these so far, but I definitely needed to switch over to the chunky hat or risk stopping knitting forever! That's a (slight) exaggeration, but my hands and my brain really craved a simpler more mindless piece to break up the counting and yarn wrangling this pattern requires. 

week fifteen

Having finished my sweater this past week, I was faced with my only knitting project being joining all of my color work patches. I was not (and am still not) looking forward to that, so what's a knitter to do? Start a new project of course! I wound these cute little cakes of yarn while on a video call with my mom. We were both rummaging through our craft supplies looking for new things to work on. We are so in sync that we were between projects at the same time! Rummaging through my stash led me to these and reminded me of the color work mittens I had planned for them. These are more goodies from the Stitches West marketplace last year. I considered just working from the skeins since they were mini skeins, but her pragmatic "just get your swift out and wind them, you'll thank yourself later" was enough to get me to winding. As ever, she was right.

This color work is challenging but fun. There are just a few rows where I needed to manage three colors, and I learned a couple of new and flashy techniques: the Latvian braid and that fancy hemline. As of this posting I've made a bit more progress up the hand and it's looking really cool! This past week was full of knitting and I anticipate this week will see a few more inches of these come to be.

As I write this, things are looking like we may be taking a step back on the COVID front. My understanding mid week was that the county would be issuing a new order that would reflect increased relaxation of our lockdown, but it seems like this weekend the news was all about rising case numbers again. We may be headed for a step back, or perhaps just a delay in continuing to open. Fingers crossed that we can get a handle on this and make some progress soon. We will see where the wind blows this week. 

week four

Week four of sheltering in place is in the books. We had a video Easter dinner with some friends of ours up the peninsula, so that was nice. It's amazing what a difference the video chatting makes vs talking on the phone! It's also a way for whole groups of people to feel like our rooms are somewhat connected. In the meantime, I finished up my last three patches of Arne & Carlos's knit along last night, steamed them this morning. 

I love the way the pink and navy lily came out, the contrast is perfect. And the vine block in the middle with the two greens actually looks pretty good from this distance. Annoyingly despite being very different colors in balls next to each other they started to feel blended in as I knit, especially with this pixelated design. The teddy bear is not my favorite block, but he turned out pretty cute in gray. I guess he's more of a polar bear. Below is my collection of patches from the last month, the first four weeks of these strange times of social distancing and face masks. I used a part of every single partial skein/scrap of fingering yarn I had in my stash except two. One of those was not enough to do anything with and the other was very like another green I'd already used. 

It's been fun to have these to distract this last little while but I'm ready to move on and focus on my sweater for a bit. I'm looking forward to seeing their directions on how to sew these up and make them into a pillow, because I'm not sure I "get" it yet. In my mind I'm seeing stretchy seams and stuffing coming out the knitting, but I know I must be wrong! In the meantime I suppose I'll tackle weaving in all those ends. 

week three

The third week of our sheltering in place and the third week of the knit along are both in the books. Here are my five patches from this week. I tried again to use a variegated yarn and failed royally, but the subtle star is still kind of fun. The rest of the week's color combinations went a little smoother. I really like the blue and green combo in the butterfly block, but I definitely lost at yarn chicken. Serendipitously it was near a decent part of the top wing for a color change so I stuck with it and just did the rest of it in yellow. We'll call it a design feature! I love them all. 

It's a little strange to think that we as a county are approaching what would have been the end of our original shelter in place order tomorrow. Three weeks ago it seemed unthinkable that we'd be out of commission for almost a month. Now we are looking at more of the same through the beginning of May and it's amazing how quickly we've adapted our thinking. Now instead of unthinkable it seems like "oh that's a good idea". The rhythm of life is actually starting to take shape into something I am rather enjoying. To be clear, not the reason nor the requirement, and it's not all sunshine and roses, but some of the unintended consequences on our lives can be perceived positively - the slower mornings and lack of a sunrise commute; having Dave working from home; leaving behind what felt like a rat race most days. Nowadays the rats are strolling rather than racing. What is most worrisome to me, aside from the obvious hope that everyone maintain their health, is that this whole event will definitely have a global impact in many ways both predictable and not. We still have our health and the ability to work from home, even if it's less work than usual, so for now I will count ourselves lucky and hope very hard for minimized impacts and speedy recovery for those less lucky. 

I have been ruminating on these and many other thoughts while working on this kaleidoscope of patches the last three weeks. This knit along, while it may seem frivolous, has given me a good space to think on what is going on while allowing me to put it down for the rest of the hours of the day. I'm inclined to be a worrier, and it is nice to have a tool to help put a box around the amount of time I can spend thinking over things I cannot control. That said, I have also been enjoying the color play and creative process. Looking over the photo of all the patches I am enjoying the way they all look together while also 100% knowing that I wouldn't have ever thought to throw this many different colors into one project. Just three more patches to go before pillow assembly.

inversions

Chunky yarn is great. Hats are great. Hat's made with chunky yarn? A knitter's addiction. The last couple evenings I took a break from tiny yarn and tiny color work patches to try out yet another Arne & Carlos pattern, this Norwegian color work hat. It's from their New Nordic collection with Rowan, and I have to say it was so fun I did it twice!

I jest. Actually, when Dave and I went to Monterey one of the last couple times we visited a yarn store and he bought me this pretty chunky yarn with the request "can you make me one of those hats Arne makes?" (he may have watched more than a few YouTube videos with me...) How can a girl say no? His second request was that I make one in inverse colors so we could match. I married a good one! 

I'm pretty proud of my tension on these, the floats on the back also look superb. If I had to do it over again I'd probably go up a needle size. I must knit somewhat tightly? They fit, but I did try to wet block Dave's to get it to relax a little bit more. That worked but it's taking forever to dry! Also, the red yarn bled a LOT. I didn't want my white one to get red stains on it, so I decided not to block. I'm sure it will grow over time like the other hats I've made. Dave also made that point ("well, they don't get any smaller with wear, dear") 

It's not exactly winter here. In fact, Spring is in full swing in our garden with flowers and leaves popping out everywhere. We've had several salads and meals of kale from our veggie garden, too. But! These hats were too cute and too fun to wait until winter again. You never know, maybe we will have another cold snap and then we can be "that couple" when we go out. Even with social distancing folks will know we are a pair. 

week two

The second week of quarantine, and the knit along with Arne & Carlos, has come and gone. I find myself getting a lot of little chores done at home. It seems there are no excuses anymore! Not to say that it's all been productive and full of accomplishments; there have been a fair share of hours sitting on the couch with the cats trying to stop reading the increasingly worrisome news online and plenty of time on the phone with friends and family. The higher frequency of phone calls especially seems to be a nice side effect of the strange times. 

Most days I get my patch done, sometimes I don't and then I catch up with a couple the next day. The ones in the photo above are steam blocked, which worked really well instead of wet blocking (the colors didn't run at all) and had the wonderful effect of evening out some of the wonkier stitches. A couple of the ones I wasn't super happy with because the contrast with the variegated yarns wasn't great improved a bit upon being tamed with the steam. They still aren't perfect, but I like them all. 

It turns out we will be making a cushion! I mean, folks are making whatever they want at this point, but A&C have set out with a cushion in mind and I'm curious to know how they will approach the construction, so a cushion these will be. This green and gray vine patch is the last of the nine for side number one. They have decided to continue the knit along for two more weeks beyond their required two weeks of quarantine, so there will be nine more patches for the second side. Mine are small because I'm using fingering weight yarn so I will have to see if they make a decent pillow size or if I should make more patches for each side. Not sure what I'll do yet. 

I could of course just use all 18 patches on one side, but there's this. In a clever nod to the isolation protocol, the "Love" patch is intended for one side and this "Hug Me Later" patch is meant for the other. So when we're all done with this mess, we can all love each other and stop forgoing hugs! I enjoy the tongue in cheek nature of that design feature very much. 

quarantine knit along

After traveling during the ramp up of the COVID-19 epidemic, Arne and Carlos, wonderful people that they are, have started a mystery knit along while they are quarantined at home. Their daily podcasts are a nice diversion (as their videos always are) and they have generously shared a pattern each day for color work patches. The intent is for this to go on for two weeks, the length of their quarantine, and I just finished the last patch from week 1 last night. They suggest using dk weight yarn, but I've got way more fingering weight scraps so my patches are turning out as miniatures. This is a fun no-rules creative exercise in an otherwise trying time.

Our county's shelter-in-place order took effect on St. Patrick's Day, so that's when I started my first patch, choosing festive greens. Similar to the embroidery hoop I just finished, this is a really nice skill building exercise. I'm learning how to do flat color work, which seems to me much harder than working in the round even though it shouldn't be. Maybe it's all the purling, who knows. It is getting easier though. I'm enjoying these small squares so much think I might even start swatching for projects! Hah. Maybe not. Let's not go overboard.

I'm also getting to practice more color combination skills. Each patch takes just a couple of hours and then it's on to the next, so getting to pick out new pairs comes much faster than it would if these were larger color work projects like shawls or sweaters. I'm learning what works and what doesn't in terms of value and variegated skeins for charted patterns, that's for sure. Sometimes these speckled and variegated yarns work up in surprising ways! The green and pink yarns above seemed to be a great pair while sitting next to each other but are maybe a little too close in value to provide the contrast needed to make the pattern pop. The one next to it worked out much better. I like them all, to be sure, but it's nice to note. Arne had a wonderful point - pick a couple of colors from your stash and you will probably love them in combination because you loved each color and bought the yarn in the first place - and I find that to be true.

The last block of the week, Love, was very fun. I took a couple of ocean inspired colors and worked it up last night. I'm very pleased. Looking forward to the next week of patches, though I wish the reason for the KAL did not exist. Everyone is taking things one day at a time so far and thankfully I get to include these fun little knits as part of my day. 

Cocoa with the Frasers, finished

Ta daaaa! I blocked my Baubles shawl last night with a quick soak and stretch with my blocking wires on the floor of the studio. The only color that bled much was the brown, but I'm happy to report that it didn't catch at all on the light yellow to dull it at all. I did not block aggressively because of the brioche sections. I just did enough to get the lace panels stretched a bit. 

This was a really fun pattern to work up that started simple and increased in complexity as it moved along. The simple stripes were a nice way to work into the project followed by the fun brioche columns that switch color dominance halfway through. As I worked through that switch I started to understand better how the brioche stitch is actually structured, and learning that was pretty gratifying. I was even able to fix a dropped stitch or two along the way which is pretty impressive if you ask me!

The yarn color choices were not mine, though I wish they were. I would not have thought of this combination and they are not my usual suspects at all, but I think the vibrant turquoise and orange Jamie Fraser yarn with the lighter and (dare I say it) daintier Sassenach yellow is just gorgeous. It's an appropriate combination from a character perspective, yes, but also they manage to work well together sharing some of the silver and orange hues. The variegations especially make the striped sections look incredibly dynamic. The Hot Chocolate brown is a subdued shade somewhat like the Grand Street Ink that I used for my Waiting for Rain. I prefer the latter, but this brown is also very soft and pleasant and provides a great neutral for the variegated yarns to play on. In my mind this has been my "Baubles shawl" as I've worked on it but now that I write this paragraph, I think I'll go with the cheeky name Cocoa with the Frasers in a nod to the colors and the book/TV series I love so much. 

The whole effort of pattern matching with colors was accomplished by the lovely lady who dyed the yarns and runs Honey Girl Farms. Last February I attended Stitches West here and purchased entirely too much yarn... if that's a thing. This kit was one of the items that came home with me. Look at me! I finished the project before a year passed! Let's not talk about the other yarn... this was the first dip I allowed myself into that stash so far. And I also joined her Outlander yarn club, so there's that. Suffice to say I'm looking forward to finding creative uses for all of her lovely colors in the coming months (years). 

The pattern itself is very well put together and written clearly. There is a written version (my preference) as well as a charted version of each section. What I liked the most about it was the detailed instructions for each stitch, no matter how simple, and specific recommended cast on and bind off techniques. So many options are available that sometimes it's difficult to know what the best choice is for a given edge. It's so common for patterns to just say "cast on" and "bind off"/"bind off loosely" and then despite your best efforts you still end up with a less than satisfying edge. The designer also included great notes for each section to explain unusual things or to clarify. There were a lot of crazy increases and decreases in the brioche sections but the notes and instructions made them very easy to accomplish.

I was pretty wowed when I got to the last section and started shaping in brioche. Whaaaaat??? It turned out looking amazing. There is definitely at least one spot where I messed up the decreases and fudged a row or two (see above comment about really learning how brioche works...) but no one will know besides me and nobody's perfect. When I blocked this edge I just put a few T-pins around each outside curve to avoid pointy-ness and let the inner ones settle in by themselves. After unpinning it looks great. This pattern is definitely a "need to pay attention while working" pattern, at least while not working the striped sections. It was a really enjoyable knit where I learned a lot and I am going to love wearing this thing. 

Pattern: Baubles, by Andrea Mowry (my Ravelry page)
Yarn: Honey Girl Farms Silky Sock in "Jamie Fraser", "Sassenach", and "Hot Chocolate"
Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Size: 100"across, 30" deep

I love this hat

I started this hat late yesterday afternoon and finished it early this morning. And I love it. I am really enjoying the color combination of these four leftovers of madelinetosh dk yarn, the stitch definition, and the way the color work pops. Super excited for my dad to open this gift on Christmas morning.

The pattern is a free one from tincanknits called Anthology. They give you a recipe for the hat, a cowl, and I think one other thing in the pattern as well as a bunch of colorwork charts. I ended up finding a different motif on their website called clayoquot that I liked better than any of the charts in the actual pattern, so I referred to a picture of that and used it in part of my hat. I started with the brim in dark gray (until I ran out) and then finished with the beige. The clayoquot pattern then morphed right out of the brim really nicely in a way the makes the overall color transitions look great. After one repeat of the motif I improvised my way up the rest of the hat, dictated by when I ran out of the beige. The crown decreases were really easy, and I still think the whiskey barrel brown is one of my favorite colors to knit with. 

I added this spiffy leather tag on the brim, which is witty and true for both hat and wearer. 

Pattern: Anthology by tincanknits, free on Ravelry (my Ravelry page)

Yarn: madelinetosh dk in 'el greco', 'court and spark', 'terra', and 'whiskey barrel'

Needle: US 4 and US 6