novamade

millinery

 I have been on something of a hat knitting binge lately.

At first I wanted to knit a small baby hat for a special little boy; but, not something babyish perse.  I really liked Jared's Turn a Square pattern, so thought I would baby-fy it. I think it should fit a 3 month old's head, but all I have around here are the heads of an almost 4 year old and a 1 year old who measures more like he's 2.  Speaking of those heads...

 
When Little Sir saw the hat, he felt strongly that he, too, should have one, so I made him one.

 
And then he reminded me that his little brother still didn't have a handknit hat, which was true.  So I made him one too.

 
And then I figured that Special K should have a birthday hat, since he is very much into the whole functional gift thing.  It's good too because it goes nicely with his Noro scarf made for a birthday gift 2 years ago.

 
After knitting all these hats for everyone else, I thought I should knit myself one.

 
I had some Cherry Tree Hill Possum Merino Worsted that I bought years ago.  I am not sure why I bought it, but I did.  It has been sitting in my stash for a while now, so I decided to knit a skein of it. With some of the Noro left over from the mitered mittens I made last month.  I should have known something was wrong while I was knitting the hat.  My hands started itching, my eyes were watering, I was coughing and sneezing.  And then I wore the hat and I broke out in hives...so yes, I am allergic to possum. 

 
I gave the hat to my friend Emily, she is not allergic to possum.  I am not sure if my allergy to rodent hair/fur/fiber is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing; but, there you are.

finishes and starts

 
Hey there, Happy  New Year!  I hope 2010 is treating you all well, thus far.  My back went out just before Christmas (if you see it, please do send it back my way), so productivity was low; but, thanks to the power of pain management, sedation was high.  I hope the holidays had you merry.

 
I am loathe to throw all of the projects I finished at the end of the year in one post; but, that is exactly what I am going to do, because spreading them out now seems silly.  I did, indeed, finish Special K's vest (I am sure you were all wondering).

 
I am not going to lie, I hated knitting this thing.  I loved the yarn, butt he stitch pattern, I think, is completely lost.  It was not the prescribed yarn, but the one suggested was tweed too.  The pattern came from the Queensland Collection Book 9 pattern book, the designs are by Jane Ellison; and, there are, perhaps, some of the most interesting knit designs for men in this little gem of a book.  The pattern I knit is called Adam.  The book has tons of amazing sweater patterns, and that is why I bought the book...but Special K was all about the vests.  He picked out two other vests from the book.  Why do I even bother?

I also knit some socks.  Just plain and simple stockinette socks.  I made them for charity, which is a first for me.  I am not a selfish knitter by any means, I just usually have a particular recipient in mind. 

 
The Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock yarn was probably the first sock yarn I ever purchased, which means I have had it for years.  Years, people.  So I knit it.

 
And then I made some Christmas stockings. 

I actually started them in 2008 right after Christmas, I sewed the tops  on and stitched names in last year (2009!)... on Christmas Eve...while heavily medicated (the stitching leaves much to be desired, as you can probably imagine; but, I anticipate having to make new stockings for everyone when the boys start to either 1) think the fabric of the current stockings are uncool, or 2) think calling the 'rents "Mommy and Daddy" is totally gauche instead opting for "Mom or Dad" are dropping parental titles entirely and just refer to us by first names, as Little Sir is fond of doing now.  No, really.  He is.  

 

The stockings are the only things I actually made for Christmas this year, and I am okay with that .

So those were my finishes.  I have a lot of starts, but we will save my crafting starts for later.  Here is a teaser though.

 
I am pleased to report that last evening, at approximately 7:15 EST (or 1915, if you prefer), Little Mister took his first independent steps.  Four of them.  In a shocking turn of events his motivation had nothing to do with food; but instead, the boy was trying to get to his brother and a laundry basket.  Whatever works.  Jill guessed the exact day and will get to choose her prize.  Happy kick off to 2010, friends!

 

a crush on orange

 
I am a little sad about pushing Babette/Happy Squares down on the blog; but, I finished something else (that is not an afghan and not crocheted); and, it's actually for me!  I started this shawl, which I am calling Orange Crush (but you can call it Mara, if you want--the MadelineTosh folks do, after all) before the crochet bug bit me.  I was able to pick it up again last week and finished in over the weekend.  It's actually a pretty quick and easy knit.  The body is mostly garter stitch and the edges are two borders of ribbing.  I didn't have enough yarn to make the last edge four inches as called for in the pattern, but I think my two inches of border is sufficient.

 
My favorite part about making this shawl was working with this yarn.  I bought the Peruvian Highland Silk three years ago from Elann--I am not sure for what purpose (I was in my "buy with purpose" phase, so it had to be for something specific--what, I don't know).  I wish that I had bought more...in other colors.  Elann has discontinued this yarn; but, you could probably find people on Ravelry willing to sell or trade it.  I only had 5 skeins (so about 610 yards) of this DK-ish yarn to work with, and when I saw the Mara pattern, I thought it would be a good pairing.

 
The silk content in the yarn gives a nice bit of shine to the knit fabric and it also lends itself to some nice draping.  Also, the heavier weight of the shawl is nice, there is a little heft, but the fabric breathes so I don't feel like I am suffocating...which is probably a good thing.

 
Specs in Ravelry and the gallery, though I have put most of the info into the post.  Okay, back to crocheting, I have another afghan to finish (though I do have a vest on the the needles that would like to get done before the end of the month...yeah, you'll probably see the vest first.  Hopefully.