Thank you, and my new hat!

Thank you so much to all of you who left me birthday messages yesterday!  I really had a wonderful day, and it meant so much to me that you took the time to comment!

I'm off on my romantic weekend now, but I have a very fun update.  Remember that Secret Hat Project?  Well, I got to open my hat from my friend on Tuesday night.  I love it SO MUCH!  Isn't it beautiful?

Not only does it have a big ol' pompom and some beautiful aran patterning, but my friend made it using one of my all-time favorite yarns, Rowan DK Soft, long ago discontinued.  She had to hold three strands together to get the right gauge.  I'm so honored that she used this precious yarn from her stash to make my present.

One of my birthday treats was that another of my besties, Alicia, spent the day with me.  We had a yummy lunch first, and then went to Oak Park to tour the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio.  I've wanted to see it for years and I'm so glad I went, and that I got to enjoy it with a good friend.  Part of the tour was outdoors, so I wore my new hat the entire time:

 
Thanks again to EVERYONE who helped make my special day even more special.  I've only got 364 more days to act like Sally O'Malley, and I intend to make use of them!

Finishing the Hat, part 2

And we're done!!

Finishing the Hat, part 1

Here's the penultimate video in this hat series.  I made two this morning, but to avoid frustration, I'll post the second one tomorrow!

One thing I'm not sure I made clear is that depending on the number of stitches in your project, after a decrease round or two you may have to rearrange your stitches so that you again have an even number of stitches on each needle.  I find it easier to do this before working a round, but you can do it as you go along too.

A Post on DPNs

Circular knitting on DPNs is a little different than with a circular needle, so I made a video showing some things to keep in mind.   I mention having the work on 3 or 4 needles, but you can certainly have your work distributed on any number of needles greater than 3 - you'd just need to buy more sets of needles, since DPNs usually come in sets of 5.

I've been having a little trouble with YouTube the last few days because somehow I ended up with 2 accounts.  (I think Google automatically made me a new YouTube account a while ago which is linked to Google+)  All the videos I've posted before this one are on my old "channel" but this one posted to the new "channel."  I'm hoping to figure out a way to consolidate them, but I don't have a whole lot of extra time to deal with it right now, so I just wanted to let you all know!

Cheaters Sometimes Prosper

Here's the second video I made yesterday while starting my hat.  This one is even less rehearsed than the first, but I think you'll get the idea. Just imagine we're in your living room having a conversation.  Feel free to offer me a cup of coffee.  Or some cake :-)

Here I show you how to fix a twist in your first row rather than have to rip the whole thing out and start over.  When you're new to knitting, it's easy to think that everything has to be done right.  But there are lots of things that can be fixed on the go, and this is one of those things. 

What I didn't mention in the video is that this only works when you do it on your very first row.  If you knit past the first row with a twist in your work, you will end up with a mobius, which is a whole different (and sometimes desirable) thing.

Hat Tricks - finally!!

I promised some beginner hat-knitting tips weeks ago, and today I finally got around to making the first video!  Sorry it took so long - my schedule has been more full than usual lately, but I think things are slowly getting back to normal.

The tips I'm planning on showing can be used for any knitting in the round, but I'm making another of the Mock Rib Watch Cap.  I really love the style, and it's a free pattern.  I also found it very concise and easy to follow for a beginner - great if this is your first hat in the round.

Bear in mind that, like all my videos, this is completely off the cuff - rehearsing and editing are for sissies, LOL!  Actually, they're for people with more know-how and better equipment than me ;-)  But I do know a thing or two about knitting, so I hope you'll be lenient.

Also:  pay no mind to the ambulance sirens in the background!  A fact of city life!

Mock Rib Watch Cap

So yesterday while my hair was all snazzy, I took a couple pictures of my recently-finished Mock Rib Cap.  This hat was a joy to work on, and once it was done I liked it even more!  The thickness and wideness of the mock rib section is going to keep my ears nice and cozy this winter. 

Gah!  I love my hair!!

I have a teeny tiny head (exclusive of hair!) and I also knit pretty loosely, so I used a size 5mm needle, one size down from recommended.  It came out just right for me.   The style of this cap includes just a tiny bit of slouch - I think this is the perfect amount.

I wanted to use as much of my yarn as possible, so I added a few rows.  I'm going to write up a post for tomorrow to tell you the trick I used to figure out when to start shaping the crown.  I took a whole lot of pictures while I was knitting it, so it definitely needs to be broken down into two posts!

I know a few of you are brand-new knitters, and I've had a couple requests for tips on circular and DPN knitting.  So I'm planning on making a second version of this hat and doing a tiny tutorial series with a video or two.  I got the same yarn, but in a lovely orangey-rust that should go nicely with the coat I'm planning to make this fall.  Ooooooh!  Exciting!

Crazy Hat Lady

I LOVE hats.  I'm talking about the fashiony kind, not the kind you wear to keep warm in the winter.  Well, OK, those too!  I always feel like kind of a dork when I wear fashion hats around in public, but I just can't help it - I really love them!

When my mom was here a couple weeks ago, we headed up to my LYS, and I fell in love with a sample I saw there for a crochet sun hat made of PAPER yarn!  So of course I ended up with some:

Natural Club 100% wood fiber yarn

I got the green for me and the cream to make as a gift for my aunt in Germany. And here's a pic of the pattern:

"Shade Me" by Taylor Tengelsen

I tried the sample on in the store, and it is really cute - much cuter than it looks in the picture.  And the band is woven in with bias tape!

I didn't have a chance to sit down with this until the weekend, and I managed to finish the crown shaping:

So far I'm really liking this pattern.  It uses a large-ish hook (H) and all single crochet.  I also really like that the construction is spiral - no slip stitch, chain one at the end of each round.  You just mark the last stitch of the round and keep on going.  I will admit though, the "raffia" is a little rough on the hands.  It didn't take me all that long to get this far - maybe an hour and a half - but then I had to stop because my hands were getting fatigued.

The paper yarn is surprisingly sturdy.  I was worried I'd have to crochet very gingerly, but that's not the case at all.  I started with my hat so I could work out any kinks in the pattern and sizing before starting my aunt's, but so far things have been pretty straightforward.

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