Cloud Dweller

Well, I’ve got that winter hat problem all taken care of. It was obviously super important that I start and finish a chunky winter hat in the midst of the summer. Just in case? Regardless, I made a hat and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

I’ve had this yarn in my stash for a while now. I picked it up at Knit, Purl in Portland on a Thanksgiving trip we took in 2015 simply because I couldn’t pass up the color. I just love the combination of sky blue and dusty purple. I would totally make myself a big comfy sweater out of this stuff. The cables pop out perfectly and the overall heft of the hat is really satisfying. 

The other satisfying part? This pom pom. Of course I had to make a nice big pom pom to top it all off. I used my 3 3/8” gadget and wrapped generously to end up with this really dense beautiful ball of fluff. I attached it through a button on the inside of the hat hoping that will help it to stand up a bit better instead of sagging off the hat under its own weight. I used up almost as much yarn on the pom pom as I did for the hat! Totally worth it. 

Pattern: Illume, free on Ravelry (my Ravelry page) 

Yarn: madelinetosh chunky in ‘cloud dweller’

Needle: US 10 (6 mm), US 8 (5 mm)

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. 

forest fog, finished

Ta da! My second largest project to date folds up nicely into a cute little pile. Amazing to think it took me so long to complete it. Ha!

It does in fact roll out to quite a nice sized blanket. This is based on a pattern, but with a twist. I totally read the pattern incorrectly when I started and began with a field of flowers instead of the trees. There are supposed to be three panels of trees and two panels of flowers. Instead I found myself well into the first set of flowers before realizing my mistake. What I did to avoid ripping everything out was split the second panel of flowers in half so each pairs with the top and bottom tree panels and made sure that the dividing row patterns were modified enough that I still had the same number of rows in the blanket overall. I've worked a pattern by this designer before and don't recall having any problems, but it was a much differently constructed piece of crochet flowers, so I'm sure it was written quite differently, too.

Regardless, I like the way it looks with that modification. Each set of trees is sitting in a field this way! Yet another example of how an oops can turn into a nice design feature. After a good soak in the bath tub it was quite heavy but rolling it up in a big beach towel and walking on it fixed that. I wire blocked the center panel to 54x64, making the total dimensions approximately 60x70 including the border. It basically coopted the entire floor of my studio and nearly all of my blocking boards for a good several days while it dried.

Instead of pinning all the leaves I just stretched them out to lay flat and let them dry as they will. They turned out fine. I finished up weaving in the ends from the border on Monday. Many knitters decided to skip the border altogether and I was tempted. It seemed like a pain to sew a border on such a large edge, but I am very glad I did. It gives the piece a little more whimsy than straight edges would. Like it takes itself less seriously. 

I'm enjoying the pop of purples on the back from where I crocheted on the border. It's not very noticeable on the front but goes nicely with the gray anyway. I do love the particular shade of this gray. It's cool like the coastal fog in the redwoods. The coast and the fog is further away today than when I started, but the cool coastal winds still come over the mountain behind our house to say hello. Those winds definitely necessitate a cozy blanket to wrap up in, waiting patiently on the quilt ladder in the corner.

Pattern: Tree of Life Afghan by Nicky Epstein (my Ravelry page)
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solids, Heathers, & Twists in 'gray heather'
Needle: US 8
Size: approx 5' x 6'

star chart

I came, I saw, I conquered. This hat took me less than two weeks to make, but boy it felt like longer. The sheer amount of ribbing involved made the going super slow but the end result oh so squishy. It was easy to get into a rhythm since the pattern is pretty simple, but I did still keep track of my rows with a row counter because I'm bad at reading cables for row count. 

The yarn is malabrigo arroyo which is a nice sturdy feeling wool that stands up really great to all the cabling. The color, pleiades, is a really pretty speckled deep deep navy and white. I am a little bit disappointed that the speckled-ness of the yarn didn't come through as well when knitted up. It kind of looks just like a regular variegated skein would work up. It still looks quite spectacular though. Just not speck-tackular. 

We bought this yarn at ReBelle in Lexington on our recent trip to Kentucky. That was the same place where I saw and loved this hat which someone had made for the shop in a green version of arroyo - a great excuse for a skein of my own to hop in the bag. Despite that project and others on Ravelry using just one skein, I did run out of yarn at the very end. I ended up doing about half of the decreasing in some leftover dark gray I had. Not many yards, but enough that there is a little gray 'cap' on top.  

But fear not! I got this pom pom on that same trip (different yarn shop....) and once it got attached I couldn't even see the gray anymore. The pom pom really makes this hat for me. I liked it without it, but I love it with it. This hat has quickly become one of my favorites to wear. It's warm, fits really great, and makes me feel like a rockstar when I've got it on. One drawback is that I don't wear it when it's rainy... I'm not too sure how that pom pom would like it. 

I decided to call it Star Chart to reference but not use the color way name. The Pleiades are a star cluster that I can recall seeing with just my eyes on a clear night up on Kings Mountain with some friends this summer. It's pretty impressive just gazing up, but with a pair of binoculars they are stunning - a fun thing to commemorate! And just for fun, here is a photo of the two of us up in Napa this week, the maiden voyage of my hat. I literally sewed the pom pom on just before we got in the car so I could wear it on this trip. Fun fact, Dave's hat is also a hand knit and includes the SAME gray on the brim that I capped off my hat with. Cute. 

Pattern: Voleur by Beth Kling (my Ravelry page) 

Yarn: malabrigo arroyo in 'pleiades'

Needle: US 1 and 2.5