My 3AM Cable Hat

I finally knit a hat for myself. And it fits nicely, a little loose, with enough extra brim to pull it down to cover my ears more when it's colder. I finished it this morning, weaved in the ends (yes, I'm trying to be good about doing this right after I finish something, instead of letting it sit around for weeks), and wore it when M & I took a little walk around the neighborhood. I put M in her stroller, and she did something she seldom does in the stroller ... she fell asleep!!! I got a half hour nap out of her. Now our day is a bit screwed up with her nap happening before lunch. What am I going to do with her for the rest of the day?

Anyways, the hat is definitely warm. I'm beginning to suspect that I might have a slight sensitivity to wool. My usual winter hat is a felted wool hat, and it makes my forehead itch a little bit. I thought it was just that hat. But after wearing this 3AM Cable Hat I just finished knitting, I experienced the same thing! This purple hat is made of superwash wool. I guess that makes no difference in the itch factor. ???

Here's what it looks like with the brim unfolded:



Here's what it looks like with the brim folded up:



The hat looks a little "peaked" doesn't it? It just came out that way when I designed it. I wanted to keep the cable pattern going up to the very top, and that's just how it worked out. I supposed it would have been easier to let the cables stop right where I start the decrease, but I didn't think it would look as good that way.

Will have to add more later ... M is fussing about being stuck in her high chair. Guess she finished her apple...

Ok, I'm back.... :-)

My 3AM Cable Hat was originally designed with Worsted Weight yarn. This purple one is knit with lighter DK weight yarn, 2 balls of Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply superwash wool (Per ball: 50 gm/1.75 oz; 96 m /105 yds; 22 st/4 inches 4.0 mm/US6) . I love this yarn, and wished I had bought more of it.

Here's what I did to knit my purple hat, using DK weight yarn:

- I took my 3AM Cable Hat pattern and cast on 108 stitches using US 6 (4.0 mm) needles.
- I did K2P2 ribbing for 3 inches; I would do this for anywhere between 1 inch and 3 inches, it depends on what kind of brim you like.
- Then I knitted Rounds 1 through 8, five times; you would want to adjust this depending on how long you made your K2P2 ribbing, and how you like your brim to be (fold-up or non-fold-up).
- Then I did the decrease. When I got to decrease round 18 (repeating round 17, doing SSK again), I had 9 stitches left on my needles. I cut off the yarn, threaded through the remaining stitches, then weaved in the ends. My hat is a ladies small size.

Hope this helps anyone who might want to make this hat using DK weight yarn instead of WW yarn. If you need to make it larger, try casting on 120 stitches; you may need to play around with the number of times you knit rounds 1-8.


Please email me if you would like your photo and a link to your blog (if you have one) to appear in My Readers' Gallery.




.

30 inches

Here's an updated photo of the red cable scarf I'm knitting for T. It's about 30 inches long, I think. Although it's slow going working all these cables, I find I am really enjoying this pattern. You'd think that I'd get faster at this pattern after knitting it this far, but I am still averaging 2 inches per hour.

Working this cable scarf makes the 3AM Cable Hat I'm working on using DK weight yarn go much faster in comparison. ;-) I've knitted about 2/3 of the hat, I think I'm just going to knit about 5 more rounds, and then start the decrease. This hat is for me. I prefer a fold up brim, so I made it about 3 inches. Yes, it covers the bottom part of the cable pattern when I fold it up. I suppose I could have made it easier by knitting more ribbing and less cables.



You probably noticed that I am knitting my hat using 2 circular needles. I was intimidated by circular knitting, and I don't own any any double point needles. For a while I was collecting hat & sock patterns that were knitted flat. Then someone told me about the 2 circular needle method of knitting in the round. I gave it a try and was converted. Now I only want to knit in the round, and not do any flat knitting for round things. This was confirmed when I knitted the Claudia Hat, which turned out to be very inelegantly done, especially the seaming (which I should learn how to do properly someday).

My right thumb was hurting a few days ago, and there appeared to be a cut in the flesh near where it meets one corner of my fingernail. Where did that come from? I think my thumb grazed a knife while I was hand washing it. It sure did make doing things difficult & painful ... knitting (you'd be surprised how much thumb work in involved in knitting!), washing dishes (even holding a dishtowel to dry dishes was painful!), pushing the buttons on the microwave, and grazing against any surface caused a sharp pain. So I'd try to do some things without the use of my right thumb. Makes me wonder what we'd do without opposable thumbs. My thumb is feeling better today, still painful but more bearable. It hurt like bloody hell during the last 3 days. I think it'll be back to normal in another day or two. I will have to be more careful when washing my knives from now on. And that knife isn't really that sharp as I'm absolutely certain that I have not straightened the edges of or sharpened my knives since M was born. It must have been either the 6" chefs knife or the 8" chefs knife, as those are the two knives I use most often.

Teatime ... I've been drinking Lupicia 7005 Huang Jin Gui Oolong today. M likes to drink tea too, and will ask for it. She says, "tay," or "tee." I think she knows that tea is nice and warm ... something more desirable now that it is cold over here. We're in the mid-40s tonight (~ 7 to 8ºC).

.

Not much going on here...

Haven't had much time to use the computer. I spent much of the past few days reimaging my hard drive because I just couldn't use the computer with the brightness cranked all the way up. I thought I could get used to it, but it was just too painful on my eyes. I tend to like my LCD on the dimmer side. So I spent some time backing up my data, because by this time I had already saved new files all over the place, so I couldn't just use the data from the old laptop. This took a while over USB1. Then I went through the process of reimaging using the Sony Recovery CDs, this took a long time. Then I had to go through Windows Update to get all the updated patches, almost 100 of them, I think, and of course this meant lots of reboots. Spent time transfering data to the reimaged hard drive. Had to get my wireless nic configured, I don't know why this is always a hit or miss kind of thing. And I've installed some apps (MS Office, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Palm PDA software, Colins French/English dictionary, Norton Antivirus, Mozilla Firefox). Still have a few more misc apps to install when I get around to it. Although this is the same size hard drive as in my old laptop, I have tons more space now... probably because I haven't reinstalled some big apps like Adobe Photoshop and The Sims (base game & all the expansion packs), and I'm not sure if I had MS MapPoint and the Webster unabridged dictionary on there because I stopped using them at some point in time. I won't be reinstalling Le Robert French dictionary because it requires the CD to be in the drive, which is a major pain for me because I usually have some other CD in there, and I hate having to swap CDs whenever I want to run something. I still need to tweak stuff on the computer, that's always fun...

The upside to fiddling with the computer is that I was able to spend more time knitting. I made good progress on the scarf. The cable pattern is slow going because it takes more time to work the cables. I'm averaging 2 inches per hour of knitting, and that's when I don't have to stop to fix mistakes. Right now it's about 24 inches long ... that's roughly 9,200 stitches knit, and 500 cable crossings so far. I really love this pattern, and I will be sharing it with y'all when I get around to typing it up. Yeah, typing patterns up is always the hard part, especially when I'm trying to decipher my notes, which is usually in a combination of pen and crayon. Crayon?! Yes, crayon. When I make notes in front of M, I grab a crayon cuz it's a relatively clean writing instrument for her to get her hands on. If I grabbed a rollerball pen, she will definitely want to get her hands on it, and then she'll make a mess of things (on herself, or on everything else in the room).

I received my MDKAL exchange package from Linda, a beautiful cloth of the Eiffel Tower, pattern, stitch markers, & yarn. What a nice surprise. This was my very first exchange, and I have a much better idea of how these exchanges work now. This gives me a few months to put together a nice package for the next exchange, if I remember to sign up for it!

Still working on a hat for myself. I haven't knit myself something and it's time that I did! And I could use a hat this winter. I am looking for toddler mitten patterns so I can knit a pair for my little girl M who has cold hands when we go out for our walks now. She likes to nibble on stuff (usually goldfish crackers) while we're out. I'm not sure how this would work out while she's wearing mittens.

Teatime... I'm drinking Bigelow Mint Medley, my usualy before bedtime tea because it has no caffeine. Of course the sugar from the pumpkin cheesecake I just ate isn't going to help my sleep. I'm an insomniac. I have a hard time falling asleep, and a hard time staying asleep. Hmmm... I guess that's where M's sleep trouble comes from, lol. Last night was a doozy for me. M woke up before midnight and cried. Maybe a bit of teething pain cuz she wanted some Orajel. Then she rested on my shoulder as I held & walked her around. I tried to put her back in her crib around 1am, but she cried about it. I gave her some time to try to sort it out on her own, but she didn't, so I ended up picking her back up and holding/walking her around. She was restless, wouldn't go back to sleep. I didn't put her down in her playpen until 2:30am, she cried a bit for a few minutes before settling back down to sleep. Now the bad part is that I climbed back into bed and could not fall asleep. I was tired, but I just couldn't sleep! I hate when that happens. I was awake for 2-ish hours, and then I was in and out of sleep until 10am. So it was not a restful night for me. I'm hoping she will sleep through the night tonight, so that I won't be somnabulistic all day tomorrow.

Oh, so while fiddling with my computer these past few days, there was a period when I'd use Internet Explorer because I hadn't yet installed Mozilla Firefox (my usual browser). I noticed something odd. When I load up Cap Karma, the sidebar stuff which usually shows up from the top was not there ... I scrolled down and found it near the bottom. Very strange. When I eventually reinstalled Firefox and loaded up the Cap Karma page, it looked fine. Strange ... usually most webpages look normal using IE, and sometimes a bit off in Firefox.

Have I bored you guys yet? I realize this is a bit prolix, and boring without any photos. Well, here's a pic of M, taken at the SF Auto Show.

.

Which tarot card are you?

Whoopsie, just found this in my "drafts", I thought I Had already posted it. That's what happens when I'm in a hurry to finish up (usually because M is trying to reach for & play with the laptop).

Found this on CBM's blog and gave it a try ...

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Take the Test to Find Out.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!! If you're travelling, be safe. Enjoy the company of your family & friends, eat well, stay warm...

We'll be going to the inlaws for lunch. My MIL will make her Thanksgiving duck; they're not big on turkey. M will have her afternoon nap with her grandpa. I wonder if it would be rude of me to knit while I'm there.

I guess now that Thanksgiving is her, November is almost over, and December is creeping in. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by? What have I accomplished this year? Well, I can look back on my finished objects and say I've done quite a bit considering I have limited knitting time with a toddler in the house. But why does it feel like I've gotten so little done this year? I'll try to do better next year...

Teatime ... today I am drinking Pineapple Guava White Tea from The Republic of Tea. It's not bad, but I like their Persimmon White Tea a little more. White tea is supposed to be good for you, and I've even read about anti-cancerous properties in white tea. Hey, it can't hurt to drink it, right?

.

What's your accent?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
The Midland
Boston
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

I saw this on CatBookMom's blog, so gave it a try. I find the results puzzling ... Minnesota?! I've never even been to Minnesota! Strange results for someone who has lived in San Francisco all my life. Ok, well, that's not entirely true, however I have lived in California all my life. I was born & raised in San Francisco, lived in San Francisco most my life, and live not too far from SF during my college years. That little quiz is smoking crack, lol.

The bar graph thingie doesn't seem to show up. It looks like ~80% West, 70% Midland, 60% Boston, 30% Inland North, 25% South, 20% Philadelphia, and 10% Northeast.

.

Playing with Highland Silk

I've started playing around with Highland Silk, it is such a soft yarn, I think I can roll around it that stuff. lol. I'm wishing I could turn my 180 balls of Baby Cashmere & Baby Silk balls into Highland Silk balls ... but I don't think I can pull that off with any amount of prestidigitation. Oh well. This picture shows a much brighter red than it actually is. It's actually a darker red than the skin of a Red Delicious apple.

I have to ask for your opinion. Two questions really...

How wide do you think a scarf should be for a guy? I was playing around with this pattern (which you see in the picture above) and think the cable pattern doesn't look too "girly", but wonder whether the red color and the width, which is just over 6 inches wide, will make it a "girly" scarf. What do you think? Does it need to be wider? I need to figure this out, because I don't want to dig myself into a deeper hole if this turns out to be too narrow and too "girly" of a scarf for a guy. If it's not "manly" enough, I need to frog it and start over again before I spend too much time doing all those cables. I've probably already done 100 cables on the scarf already!

Do you think this scarf pattern is appropriate for a guy? Do you think the scarf is "manly" enough for a guy to wear, especially given its width & color? Will a guy wear this?

If the scarf needs to be wider, I can frog what I have now and cast on more stitches to add some width. But then my concern would be how long I can make the scarf using only 5 balls of Highland Silk. I've never used Highland Silk before so don't really know what kind of mileage I should expect. The nature of cable patterns tend to make the scarf contract some, so I lose some mileage there.

DH took the day off today, so we went to the San Francisco International Auto Show at Moscone Center. We timed it so that we would leave the house at M's naptime, so she would fall asleep on the way. We parked at the garage at 4th & Mission streets, and just waited for her to wake up about an hour afterwards. I worked on the red cable scarf while we were in the garage, and boy was it a challenge to work on those cables in dark. The garage has dim lighting. It's too bad we couldn't find a parking space closer to the outer perimeter to benefit from a little sunlight. I really can't complain about the cables, after all, I'm not even using a cable needle. Too much trouble. Cables still slow me down, even without using a cable needle. I do have to say that the Highland Silk is a bit splitty. While at the car show, I got to sit in a Porsche Cayman, it's such a pretty car. There was a 911 Turbo on a revolving pedestal, couldn't get inside it, but that's a sweet car as well. Didn't see the Targa.

Teatime in a little while... Since we were out and about, I did not make or have any tea at home. I will have some Bigelow Mint Medley tea in a little while, after dinner. This is usually my before bedtime tea, because it is caffeine free.


.

Stamping & Computer Hell

I mentioned stamping in yesterday's post, and said I would take a picture of the things we made when I could get to them (couldn't get to them at the time because M was napping in the same room where they were sitting). Well, I don't have to anymore, cuz V took pictures and put them on her blog. That works out perfectly cuz she is a much better photographer. Click on the picture to see a larger image. The little gift card on the lower right is cute; the 6-sided (kinda house shaped) "Make Merry" piece actually slips out of its pocket! The purple on on the lower left is a gift card holder. The blue one is a "latch" card design, you pull the grey flap out to open the card. It's not obvious in the photo, but on the green card on the left, the red "celebrate" flap opens downwards. The box was fun to make, but also a challenge. But you can do so much with those! You can also decorate the inside, stamp words on the inside bottom too, add ribbon or something else to the top.

When I went over to V's place, I had brought over 15 little jars of stage 3 baby food, which I had leftover after M transitioned into solid food. Can you guess for who? For her babies! Well, they're 3 babies of the feline persuasion. :-) Have you ever heard of such a thing? Cats who like to eat baby food? I couldn't believe it when she told me about that. I don't think the converse would apply, I just don't see M wanting to eat cat food. She is such a picky eater these days.

Well, I have been doing very little knitting, and spending too much time futzing with my "new" laptop computer, a Sony Vaio PCG-GRV680. It's actually a "pre-owned" laptop (to use Mercedes' marketing lingo). I "upgraded" to a big heavy brick... it's 8.1 lbs! The AC adapter is literally a big brick. I can't believe how big & heavy this laptop & AC adapter is, especially for something that is newer than my old laptop. It's larger than my old laptop, has a 16" LCD, has a 2.60 Ghz Pentium 4 processor, and 1 Gb of memory. It is much faster than the old laptop, yay! But it's certainly not a laptop. It's more like a small desktop that looks like a laptop. Anyways, it used to have the Sony OEM Windows software, then it had Ubuntu (linux), then the Sony software got slapped back on it (using the Sony provided Recovery CDs), then we installed Windows XP Pro (the regular store bought version). Installed some apps, migrated data (oh boy, now that's another story!), and now I'm tweaking it. I wanted to get the Fn key to work ... so I can press Fn + F5 to adjust the LCD brightness, but I apparently need to install the Hotkey Utility which is not available for download from the Sony website, did online chat with their Support staff where they said I could install the Sony Shared Library and Sony Notebook Utility from the Application Recovery CDs (which I have), but they were not on my CDs. Then he told me I would have to use the System Recovery CDs to slap on the Sony image (and basically wipe everything off my hard drive). Eeks! That was not quite what I wanted to do. He said that the Sony Shared Library and Sony Notebook Utility were not available for download from the Sony website. How frustrating. You'd think this would be a simple thing to do...

Teatime ... today I am drinking Pink Grapefruit Green Tea from The Republic of Tea.

I'm thinking of starting a cable scarf in red Highland Silk (which is shown above). I've got some ideas to try out. I've never knitted with this yarn before so I will have to play around with it to see how many stitches I would need to make get the right width. I guess I would also need to play around with needle sizes too. Good thing it probably won't need US7 or US8 needles cuz mine are all accounted for on WIPs or UFOs. I'm going to start with US6, and maybe try US5.

Someone had suggested that I enter the Lily Sugar & Cream design contest. I've known about this for quite a while, it was mentioned on the MDKAL. Call me weird, but I'm really not interested in it. I enjoy sharing my patterns free of charge and don't want people to have to buy them (which I'm assuming they would have to do for the published winning designs). I consider this my way of giving back to the "knitting community" which has helped me so much; I couldn't have gotten this far otherwise. Still have lots to learn though ...

Time to go make M some lunch, her Wiggles show is almost done and she will be wanting food afterwards...


.

Dabbling in crochet

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon at V's place where she gave a stamping class. We made four projects, a box and some cards. It was pretty fun. You might consider attending one of V's stamping classes if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area The box was really cool, but requires a bit of math to make. It's a good thing V was there to make it a whole lot easier, especially with marking the paper scorer so we didn't have to figure out where to score the paper. I'll have to add a photo later, can't go take a picture right now since M is napping in the same room where my completed projects are.

Afterwards, T taught me how to crochet. We made a chain and did single crochet. It looks so easy, and there is only one stitch to keep track of really, unlike knitting where you have a higher probability of losing many stitches. And you definitely get more mileage out of crocheting, so I see how it goes much faster than knitting. I will have to practice crocheting a bit and then try making a hat. Perhaps I'll get more "hat" shaped hats with crocheting than I do with knitting.

T is a very talented woman, she makes her own beads and jewelry! You can see one of her bead stitch markers in this post here. The picture doesn't really do it justice, the stitch marker is absolutely gorgeous when you see it in person. Here's a picture of one of the rings she made.

Not making much progress in knitting. I'm still working on a Garterlac dishcloth, it's been in the works for over a month now. I've made this cloth before and it wasn't that difficult to do, however I find it challenging to concentrate on it with all the short rows & turning involved. It's much faster to knit lace and cables, than to knit anything with short rows. I don't think I would ever manage to finish any entrelac style scarves or stoles (like the Lady Eleanor Stole).

Teatime ... I made a pot of Lupicia 5224 Lichee tea today. I always associate lichee black tea with the computer game The Sims because I used to drink a lot of lichee tea when I used to play the game, this was years ago, definitely before baby. I also associate Bath & Body Works White Tea & Ginger lotion with The Sims because I used that a lot back then too. That's the funny thing about scents & flavors..

.

Striped Slip Stitch Hat

Note:
1. More Free Patterns can be seen along the sidebar (on right side),
or you can use the Free Patterns label to view all posts.
2. Free Pseudo-Patterns or Pattern Outlines can be found using the Free Pseudo-Patterns label.

Here's my first attempt at knitting a hat using 2 colors. It was something I had been avoiding for the longest time. It turned out to be OK. The trick is trying to keep the two balls of yarn from getting tangled up. I haven't figured that out, especially when I have to put it down and then pick it up again later. It was for this reason that I didn't call this a "mindless knitting" hat, otherwise the pattern is pretty easy to memorize. This is my 9th hat for the Cap Karma Chemo Cap Project this year. This hat fits me perfectly, so that would make it a ladies xs/s size.

Stitches used in this hat include:
Ridge Check Pattern, BW2 pg 36
Stockinette Stitch, BW1 pg 10

Please email me if you would like your photo and a link to your blog (if you have one) to appear in My Readers' Gallery.

Striped Slip Stitch Hat pattern can be downloaded from here:
 https://app.box.com/shared/6xop1mvt6r . No registration required for this link.

.

Twin Leaf Lace Cloth

Note:
1. More Free Patterns can be seen along the sidebar (on right side),
or you can use the Free Patterns label to view all posts.
2. Free Pseudo-Patterns or Pattern Outlines can be found using the Free Pseudo-Patterns label.

I designed this Twin Leaf Lace Cloth for the MDKAL Q4 Exchange. Since the cloths are on the small side (about 6 1/2 inches square after blocking), I made two for Cheri (my exchange partner). This is my first time participating in the dishcloth exchange. Here is a photo of both cloths. I still can't get the colors to come out right in my photos. The picture above was taken during the day, and the pictures below were taken at night. The nighttime shots always look much darker/duller, but the blue cloth isn't quite as bright as the picture above. I usually take my photos at night, after M has gone to bed, it's just easier for me that way, otherwise she tries to grab my knitting before I take my photos, or she's leaning/pushing up against me and I get more unfocused/blurry pictures. I made one cloth in a solid blue, and I was aiming for a variegated to "go" with the solid one. The variegated one has some blue in it but I couldn't get an exact match.

Stitches used in this cloth include:
Garter Stitch, BW1 pg 10
Twin Leaf Panel, BW2 pg 235

If you can do my Vine Lace Cloth, then this one just requires a smidgen more concentration to knit up. If you're new to lace knitting, see my tips below.

Please email me if you would like your photo and a link to your blog (if you have one) to appear in My Readers' Gallery.



Twin Leaf Lace Cloth
© Designed by S.M. Kahn, October 2006
Smariek Knits -=<>=- http://smariek.blogspot.com

Please look at the Notes at the end of the pattern before starting.
Using WW cotton yarn and US7 (4.5mm) needles, cast on 32 stitches.

Knit 4 rows border.
Row 1 : B3, K2, P10, K2, P10, K2, B3
Row 2 : B3, P2, K6, /2, YO, K1, YO, P2, YO, K1, YO, 2\, K6, P2, B3
Row 3 : B3, K2, P10, K2, P10, K2, B3
Row 4 : B3, P2, K4, /2, K1, YO, K1, YO, K1, P2, K1, YO, K1, YO, K1, 2\, K4, P2, B3
Row 5 : B3, K2, P10, K2, P10, K2, B3
Row 6 : B3, P2, K2, /2, K2, YO, K1, YO, K2, P2, K2, YO, K1, YO, K2, 2\, K2, P2, B3
Row 7 : B3, K2, P10, K2, P10, K2, B3
Row 8 : B3, P2, /2, K3, YO, K1, YO, K3, P2, K3, YO, K1, YO, K3, 2\, P2, B3

Repeat Rows 1 through 8 three more times.

Work one more row : B3, K2, P10, K2, P10, K2, B3
Knit 4 rows border.
Bind off and weave in ends.

Notes:

B3 = 3 stitch side border of your choice (I used K3 for my border in both cloths above)

SSK = slip one stitch, slip another stitch, knit these two slipped stitches together

/2 = Right slanting (double) decrease as follows: SSK, then slip the NEXT stitch over the stitch just made by moving stitches from needle to needle. ----- Viz. Slip 1 stitch. Slip another stitch. Knit these 2 (slipped) stitches together. Move this resulting stitch to the left needle. Now use the right needle to pass the NEXT stitch over it (the stitch you just moved to the left needle). Now slip the stitch back to the right needle. ----- See below for further clarification & walk through if this still does not make sense.

2\ = Left slanting (double) decrease as follows: Slip 1 stitch, knit 2 stitches together, pass slipped stitch over. (This is exactly the same as the SK2TP notation I have used in my other patterns)



Tips:

Mind your yarn overs, especially the 2nd YO on Row 2 (the one just before P2). This is an easy one to screw up if you're not paying attention.

Get a feel for the 2 Purl stitches in the center of the pattern (which happen to be 2 Knit stitches in the center of the wrong side). While knitting across your row, make sure that your center 2 stitches are actually where they should be. If it seems off, stop and look back on your knitting to see where you went wrong. I have bold-ed the center 2 stitches in the pattern to help you see the two halves of the rows. I hope this helps. :-)

When doing odd rows (wrong side) :

- If you are working the P10 section and run into the center 2 Knit stitches before you have finished Purling 10 (in other words, you are short 1 or more stitches), you most likely missed one (or more) YOs from the previous even row. Figure out where that is, tink back to that section (still on the even side), and pick up a strand of yarn from the row below & wrap it around the left needle to insert that missing YO. If you don't feel comfortable picking up the strand to insert the YO, just tink back to the row before and do it the normal way.

- If you are working the P10 section past the 2 center stitches and run into the P2, B3 section before you are done Purling 10 stitches (in other words, you are short one or more stitches), then you most likely missed one (or more) YOs from the previous even row. You'll need to figure it out, see tip in paragraph above.

- If you seem to have 1 extra stitch before the 2 center stitches, then you might have forgotten the "pass over" part of the 2\ instruction from the previous row.

When doing even rows (right side) :

- If you seem to have 1 extra stitch before the 2 center stitches, then you might have forgetten the "pass NEXT stitch over" part of the /2 instruction from the previous row.

Gosh, I hope I covered most of the "pitfalls" of knitting this cloth.



Some additional notes added 11/20/06 to clarify the /2 and 2\ steps in the pattern:

I've discovered that some people are having difficulties with the /2 and 2\ notation I have used in this pattern. Where did that come from? Well, I adopted it from Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's Elegantly Simple Baby Blanket pattern (which I made a while back) where she used /3 and 3\ for her right & left triple decreases. The /2 and /3 are worked exactly the same, except that /2 is worked over 3 stitches, and /3 is worked over 4 stitches. Similarly with 2\ and 3\. I thought it would be easier to use her shorthand, rather than writing it all out. I guess choosing to adopt Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's abbreviation was not such a great idea, huh?

Let's walk through /2 together. You do the following for /2:

1. Slip 1 stitch knitwise from the left needle.

2. Slip 1 stitch knitwise from the left needle. (Now you have 2 slipped stitches on your right needle)

3. Knit these 2 slipped stitches together. (Steps 1 through 3 completes the "SSK" part. If you still don't understand how to do "SSK", you can go to KnittingHelp.Com and look at a video which will show you how to do this. Here's the link to their abbreviations page, scroll down to "ssk" on the right side column and click on the video icon.)

4. Move the resulting stitch from step 3 to the left needle.

5. Now use your right needle to pass the NEXT stitch (the one to the left of the stitch you created from step 3) on your left needle over the stitch you just moved to your left needle (the stitch you created from step 3).

6. Now slip the stitch from your left needle back to your right needle.

Voilà! You're done! Clear as mud?


Let's walk through 2\ together. You do the following for 2\:

1. Slip 1 stitch from your left needle to your right needle.

2. Knit 2 stitches together from your left needle.

3. Pass the slipped stitch (from step 1) over the stitch you created in step 2.

Voilà, c'est fini. I have since discovered that what I have been calling SK2TP is more commonly known as SK2P. Sorry about the confusion, I'm a newbie knitter and didn't know this. You can find a video here that will show you how to do this. Scroll down on the right side column until you find "SK2P" and then click on the video icon.

I hope this helps....

.

A little white box

Lookie what I got ... another little white box with just a few balls of Highland Silk yarn. The green one on the right side is the Super Tweed. The Highland Silk yarn is so nice, I'm thinking I need to trade in my Baby Silk and Baby Cashmere for Highland Silk instead. I guess I feel this way because I can see myself finishing something using Highland Silk. I just don't see myself getting much done with fingerling weight yarn at the rate I'm knitting these days. The red or green will become a cable scarf for T, and I need to make my mom something.

Teatime ... I made a pot of Teavana's 9 Treasures green tea, a "blend of green tea, white tea, and green Pu-erh Tuo Cha (Teacakes), with strawberries, pineapple and citrus fruit pieces." I think this would be good for iced tea, but I never make iced tea myself. I probably should have made a pot of black tea, cuz I could really use an extra boost in caffeine today. The alarm clock woke me up at 6:15am this morning because DH had to get to work by 8:30am for an allday class. It's gonna be a long day for me. DH won't get home until late cuz he also has a meeting after his allday class, so it's up to me to give M a bath by myself & try to get her to sleep. It's the sleep part than worries me because she goes to sleep faster/easier with DH than with me. Then we do it all over again tomorrow since DH's class is 2 consecutive days...

Trying to figure out how to finish off the pink & white hat I'm working on. I wasn't sure I would have enough pink yarn for the stripes at the top of the body, but I managed it. Now I'm thinking, could I manage to do a pink & white striped decrease at the top? Or not risk running out of yarn and do it all in white.

I received an email from my MDKAL exchange partner informing me that she received the Twin Leaf Cloths I sent her. Now that she has received them, I will post the pattern soon...

.

11/13/06 WIPs

I can't believe I have made little progress in the hat dept during the past few days. I frogged the blue hat I started last Thursday because I cast on the wrong number of stitches and didn't discover it until after knitting 8 rounds. I started a purple hat on Friday and cast on the wrong number of stitches, so I had to start that one over. Haven't made much progress on that one, I've knit about an inch of ribbing... it takes a lot longer to finish a round using DK weight yarn compared to WW weight yarn! Then I decided to give 2-color knitting a try, since I needed to do something with the odds & ends I had that weren't enough to make solid colored hats. I sat down with my Peaches & Creme yarn label and translated the "ballband" cloth pattern for kniting in the round, then started my ballband hat in pink and white yarn. I got about halfway up the boby of the hat and then decided that the hat was way too large. I didn't notice that before because I was too caught up with knitting the pattern. So I frogged the hat and started over with a different pattern. Yes, I could have started the ballband hat pattern again, but I got bored with it and wanted to do something else instead. You can see the latest incarnation above. I've already had to correct a booboo in this hat where I had to frog 4 rows. I'm normally a tinker, but this time, I actually removed the needles and pulled the yarn until I got to the row I needed to go back to, then picked up stitches with my knitting needles. It always makes me nervous doing this.

Other WIPs include 2 dishcloths, one which I started a few weeks ago, and the other I started 2 days ago. I know, it doesn't make much sense to start a second dishcloth when I haven't finished the first. And I still have a scarf in progress.

I spent a bit of time rewinding yarn into balls. I really don't like those burrito shaped skeins with the center pull skein. If I work from the pull skein, the yarn collapses on itself near the end and sometimes ends up in a big tangled mes. I also don't like working them from the outside because they "roll" funny. What I need to get a better feel for is how much yarn I need to finish a hat. I've got balls of different sizes from the odds & ends. Maybe I need to get one of those little kitchen scales so I can see how many ounces a ball of yarn contains. I think I can make a hat out of 3.5 ounces of yarn, definitely 4 ounces. I'm thinking that I should be OK if I combine two balls which are the size of a 10 ounce jar of Classico Sun Dried Tomato Pesto.

Teatime ... I made another pot of tea today, Lupicia's Ming Jian Jin Xuan Oolong tea. I love the flavor of Oolong teas. Since it is cold over here, I've been giving M some tea as well. I pour a bit in her sippy cup and then add some room temp water so she won't find it too hot. She loves tea, perhaps because it is something different from her usual milk or water.

I mentioned stains on my teapot in an earlier post and received some wonderful suggestions: white vinegar; oxyclean; chlorox bleach; coca cola. I'll have to try the vinegar method first. The inside of my teapot actually looks pretty good. Most of the tea stains are around the rim where the cover meets the pot, by & under the spout (where the tea dribbles down the outside), and underneath the teapot (I'm guessing from when the pot sits in a "puddle" of tea?). The stains aren't that noticeable because of the color & pattern of my teapot (you can see part of the teapot in a picture from this post here), but I would like to clean it up...


.

Numerically Challenged... still

Doh! I did it again. I decided to cast on for my 3AM Cable Hat, except this time I would need to cast on more stitches because I'm working it in DK weight yarn (the pattern was originally written for WW yarn. For whatever reason, I cast on 102 stitches when I was aiming for 108. Joined my round, did K2P2 ribbing until the end and then realized I was off. :-\ I'm just not having much luck here... Sigh...

.

Numerically Challenged

I can't believe what I did yesterday. M was having a fussy day, ever since early morning. I tried to get her to nap at home around 1pm, thought I'd have the same luck as on Tues & Wed. She normally doesn't settle on my shoulder for naptime (like she does with alacrity with DH's shoulder; is his shoulder more cushy?), I am seldom able to put her down (in crib or playpen) for her nap, and what usually happens is I hold her the entire time or we go for a car ride. Yesterday was one such day.... it wasn't until 3:30pm when I decided we had to go for a little drive, so that she can take her nap and not be as fussy when DH gets home. She was out in 10 minutes. Yay! That was quick; I've had times where I'd drive for an hour and she would still not fall asleep. So I went to the local mall, parked the car, and started a new hat. I knit 8 rows and then started the pattern I had worked out in my head. By the time I got to the end of the round, I realized that I was 6 stitches short. Doh! I had cast on 90 stitches instead of 96 stitches...

Sigh... what to do, what to do... Do I frog the whole thing and cast on again with 96 stitches? Or do I find make something else using 90 stitches? I decided not to frog ... I know, it was only 8 rows of stockinette, but the whole process of casting on, counting, dividing stitches, counting, then joining the round is just so tedious. So I'm working a different design for this hat. Not sure what I'll call it, maybe "The Accidental Hat", lol. This will be my second hat worked on that big ball of yarn I got from frogging a crochet lapghan I found.

Teatime... I made another pot of tea today. Jasmine Pearls from Imperial Tea Court. M knows I drink tea. She will point to my cup and say, "tay." I need to find a way to get rid of the dark tea stains on my teapot (and mug, for that matter).

Still waiting for my little white box from Elann. I know, it's still too early. Earlier this week I received a boring ubiquitous brown box containing 128 ounces of yarn for charity knitting. Yes, more hats! Oh btw, this last order from Elann is really going to be a "little" box, since I only ordered 25 balls of yarn. It's nothing like my order of 88 balls (84 balls of baby silk!), or 62 balls (60 balls of baby cashmere!). Most of my other Elann orders have been around 55 to 60 balls. What am I going to do with all this yarn, you must wonder. Well, much of it has been earmarked for projects which I intend to get to. I'm knitting as fast as I can... (I guess I shouldn't tell you guys how much kitchen cotton yarn I have...)

Ok, that's all I can type for now. M just woke up furious from her nap... gotta go get her...

.

Quinquevulnera MK Hat

Note:
1. More Free Patterns can be seen along the sidebar (on right side),
or you can use the Free Patterns label to view all posts.
2. Free Pseudo-Patterns or Pattern Outlines can be found using the Free Pseudo-Patterns label.

I'm doing a series of "Mindless Knitting" hats which are very easy and/or boring to knit. I wanted to make some hats that I could easily put down and then later pick up without scratching my head trying to figure out where I was in the pattern. And I wanted something that I could easily knit in dim lighting, or even while talking to DH without having to worry about losing count. Besides, V is always telling me that I should choose simpler patterns, or that things don't always need to be hard (actually this was in reference to learning Latin, but I'm sure it also applies to knitting, lol). So these Mindless Knitting hats so are easy/boring that you can basically do them without having to refer to the pattern. There's nothing fancy about them, mostly basic knit/purl, no cables, no yarn overs, twist stitches, etc. They're so simple that you don't even need a row counter to help you keep track of which round you're in.

Here is my Quinquevulnera MK Hat, the second hat in my "Mindless Knitting" series of hats. The first was the Sarawakense Hat. This is hat #8 for the Cap Karma Chemo Cap Project. Are you wondering how I came up with the names for these two hats? Well, I pulled them out of a hat! Ok, not really, but there is a theme to the names. Can you figure it out? Anyways, since the hats are pretty simple & plain, I thought it would be nice balance that out with an "interesting" sounding name. Silly, huh?

The hat is basically a simple checkerboard pattern of plain & seed stitch squares. The decrease at the top was done "in pattern"; I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture above. The picture below just shows you a closeup of the checkerboard pattern. I'm not sure you can see it very well with the variegated yarn. The pattern is very easy to memorize and figure out by reading your knitting as you go.

Stitches used in this hat include:
Seed Block Stitch, BW1 pg 20
Stockinette Stitch, BW1 pg 10

Please email me if you would like your photo and a link to your blog (if you have one) to appear in My Readers' Gallery.


Quinquevulnera "Mindless Knitting" Hat
© Designed by S.M. Kahn, November 2006
Smariek Knits -=<>=- http://smariek.blogspot.com

Using Worsted Weight yarn, US8 (5mm) needles, cast on 90 stitches.
Join in a round, careful not to twist the stitches.

Knit 8 rounds.

Round 1: * K5, (P1, K1)x2, P1 *
Round 2: * K6, (P1, K1)x2 *
Round 3: * K5, (P1, K1)x2, P1 *
Round 4: * K6, (P1, K1)x2 *
Round 5: * K5, (P1, K1)x2, P1 *
Round 6: * (P1, K1)x2, P1, K5 *
Round 7: * (K1, P1)x2, K6 *
Round 8: * (P1, K1)x2, P1, K5 *
Round 9: * (K1, P1)x2, K6 *
Round 10: * (P1, K1)x2, P1, K5 *

Repeat Rounds 1 to 10 three more times.

Decrease "in pattern", or just knit those stitches:

DRound 1: Work 13 stitches, K2tog
DRound 2: Work 12 stitches, K2tog
DRound 3: Work 11 stitches, K2tog
DRound 4: Work 10 stitches, K2tog
DRound 5: Work 9 stitches, K2tog
DRound 6: Work 8 stitches, K2tog
DRound 7: Work 7 stitches, K2tog
DRound 8: Work 6 stitches, K2tog
DRound 9: Work 5 stitches, K2tog
DRound 10: Work 4 stitches, K2tog
DRound 11: Work 3 stitches, K2tog
DRound 12: Work 2 stitches, K2tog
DRound 13: Work 1 stitch, K2tog
DRound 14: K2tog

Cut yarn & pull through remaining 6 stitches. Weave in ends.


Notes:

K2Tog = Knit 2 stitches together

Instructions in parentheses followed by x2 means you do what is in the paretheses twice. For example, (P1, K1)x2 means you do the following: P1, K1, P1, K1.


.

Travelling Vine Cloth

Note:
1. More Free Patterns can be seen along the sidebar (on right side),
or you can use the Free Patterns label to view all posts.
2. Free Pseudo-Patterns or Pattern Outlines can be found using the Free Pseudo-Patterns label.

This cloth is similar to the Travelling Vine Scarf I made a while back. The pattern really shows best after blocking. Not sure you can see the vine pattern in this picture, with the green baby blanket in the background ... look at the holes and you'll see the vine pattern travelling upwards. I'm surprised I even got such a focused picture. I put the cloth in my little girl's crib thinking it would enable me to take a picture of it without her grabbing it (which she does when I place my knitting on the coffee table), but she was fussing & leaning on me while I was trying to take photos so the camera was not very steady at all.

Stitches used in this cloth include:
Garter Stitch, BW1 pg 10
Traveling Vine, BW1 pg 219

-=<>=-

Please email me if you would like your photo and a link to your blog (if you have one) to appear in My Readers' Gallery.



Travelling Vine Cloth
© Designed by S.M. Kahn, November 2006
Smariek Knits -=<>=- http://smariek.blogspot.com

Using Worsted Weight cotton yarn and US7 (4.5mm) needles, cast on 34 stitches.

Knit 4 rows border.

Row 1 : B3, K2, (yo, K1-b, yo, ssk, K5)x3, K2, B3
Row 2 : B3, P6, (P2tog-b, P7)x2, P2tog-b, P5, B3
Row 3 : B3, K2, (yo, K1-b, yo, k2, ssk, k3)x3, k2, B3
Row 4 : B3, P4, (P2tog-b, P7)x3, B3
Row 5 : B3, K2, (K1-b, yo, K4, ssk, K1, yo)x3, K2, B3
Row 6 : B3, P3, (P2tog-b, P7)x3, P1, B3
Row 7 : B3, K2, (K5, K2tog, yo, K1-b, yo)x3, K2, B3
Row 8 : B3, P5, (P2tog, P7)x2, P2tog, P6, B3
Row 9 : B3, K2, (K3, K2tog, K2, yo, K1-b, yo)x3, K2, B3
Row 10 : B3, (P7, P2tog)x3, P4, B3
Row 11 : B3, K2, (yo, K1, K2tog, K4, yo, K1-b)x3, K2, B3
Row 12 : B3, P1, (P7, P2tog)x3, P3, B3

Repeat rows 1 to 12 two more times.

Knit 4 rows border.

Bind off. Weave in ends. Block cloth for best results.

Notes:

B3 = 3 stitch side border of your choice (I used K3 for my border in the cloth above)

K1-B = Knit 1 stitch through the back loop

K2TOG = knit 2 stitches together

P2TOG = Purl 2 stitches together

P2TOG-B = Purl 2 stitches together through the back loop
Similar to purling 1 stitch through back loop. Video to show you how to purl 1 stitch together is on Knitting Help, look under "p tbl" here:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/abbreviations_explained/

SSK = slip one stitch, slip another stitch, knit these two slipped stitches together

YO = Yarn Over

Instructions in parentheses followed by x2 or x3 means you do what is in the paretheses the number of times indicated after "x". For example, (yo, K1-b, yo, ssk, K5)x3 means you do the following: yo, K1-b, yo, ssk, K5, yo, K1-b, yo, ssk, K5, yo, K1-b, yo, ssk, K5.

.

A Knitter's Night Before Christmas

Someone posted this on the MDKAL group, thought I'd share it with you guys :

A Knitter's Night Before Christmas
~Author Unknown~
The Knitters' TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

'Twas the night before Christmas and all around me
Was unfinished knitting not under the tree.
The stockings weren't hung by the chimney with care
'cause the heels and the toes had not a stitch there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds
but I had not finished the caps for their heads.
Dad was asleep; he was no help at all,
And the sweater for him was six inches too small.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I put down my needles to see what was the matter.
Away to the window, I flew like a flash,
Tripped over my yarn and fell down with a crash.

The tangle of yarn that lay deep as the snow
Reminded me how much I still had to go.
Out on my lawn, I heard such a noise,
I thought it would wake both dad and the boys.

And though I was tired,my brain was a bit thick,
I knew in a moment,it must be Saint Nick.
But what I heard then left me perplexed-ed,
For not a name I heard was what I had expected
"move, Ashford; move, Lopi; move, Addie and Clover
Move, Reynolds; move, Starmore; move, Fraylic--move over"
"Paton, don't circle round; stand in line.

Come now, you sheep wool work just fine!
I know this is hard semi, it's just your first year,
I'd hate to go back to eight tiny reindeer."
I peered over the sill; what I saw was amazing,
Eight woolly sheep on my lawn all a'grazing.

And then,in a twinkle, I heard at the door
Santa's feet coming across the porch floor.
I rose from my knees and got back on my feet,
And as I turned round, Saint Nick, I did meet.

He was dressed all in wool from his head to his toe
And his clothes were handknit from above to below.
A bright Fairisle sweater he wore on his back,
and his toys were all stuffed in an Aran knit sack.
His cap was a wonder of bobbles and lace,
A beautiful frame for his rosy red face.

The scarf round his neck could have stretched for a mile,
And the socks peeking over his boots were Argyle.
The back of his mittens bore an intricate cable,
And suddenly on one I spied a small label.
SC was duplicate stitched on the cuff,
and I asked "Hey Nick, did you knit all this stuff?"

He proudly replied "Ho-ho-ho, yes I did,
I learned how to knit when I was a kid."
He was chubby and plump, a quite well-dressed old man,
And I laughed to myself for I'd thought up a plan.

I flashed him a grin and jumped up in the air,
And the next thing he knew he was tied to a chair.
He spoke not a word, but looked in his lap
Where I'd laid my needles and yarn for a cap.

He quickly began knitting, first one cap then two;
For the first time I thought I'd really get through.
He put heels on the stockings and toes in some socks
While I sat back drinking Scotch on the rocks!!

So quickly like magic, his needles they flew,
That he was all finished by quarter to two.
He sprang for his sleigh when I let him go free,
And over his shoulder he looked back at me.
And I heard him exclaim as he sailed past the moon
"Next year start your knitting sometime around June.

-Author Unknown

.

Ugh... P2Tog-tbl

Somebody shoot me if I ever start another pattern that has Purl 2 together through back loop. I am currently working on something that has P2tog-b on 3 rows, and that is just 3 rows too many. I am reminded of why it has been nearly 2 years since I last did a pattern with P2tog-b, and it was much easier back then when it was a woolly yarn. My current project uses 100% cotton, and it is quite a biscuit to do P2tog-b on cotton yarn. I feel like such a contortionist when I have to do P2tog-b. On the upside, I am 1/3 of the way through this project. :-)

Today, I am drinking Lupicia's 8516 Bravissimo tea, which is a delightful little green tea with flower petals & fruit. I don't think I can really go wrong with any of their teas, I like them all. Well, all except for the darjeeling I tried, but I think that has more to do with darjeeling not being my cup of tea rather than a negative comment about their tea. They really have high quality teas. Yes, I made a pot of tea today, even though it is a weekday. :-)

Let's see.... my other project is another "mindless knitting" hat which I am about halfway done with. Why does it seem so much easier to work on charity knitting than knitting for family & friends? Or even myself? Gosh, I can't remember the last time I knitted something for myself. When was the last time you knitted something for yourself?

I ordered yarn from Elann today. Highland Silk in Calypso Green, Ruby, Butter, and Dusky Lavender. Super Tweed in Herb Garden ... 5 balls in each color. I also threw in 2 books, row counters, sewing & cable needles. Can't wait for my little white box to arrive...

Blog entries are kinda boring without pictures, huh? I'm just too lazy to go dig out the camera right now. Maybe I'll take some pics later and add them to this post...

.

Knitting hats in the round

Someone left a comment on my 3AM Cable Hat post inquiring about whether this hat was "worked on straight needles, DPN's or circular needles" and I thought I'd answer the question here. Plus I've answered this question many times in email, well not this specific question, but questions about whether my other hats are knitted in the round or flat, how did I do it, etc.

All my hats, except for the Claudia Hat, are knitted in the round using the 2 circular needle technique. You can find step-by-step instructions here: http://www.az.com/~andrade/knit/twocirculars.html. I used to be intimidated by patterns which were knitted in the round until someone pointed out this technique. I gave it a try, and now I can't go back to flat knitting of round objects. The only reason the Claudia Hat is knitted flat is because I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to do it in the round; this hat is knitted flat and then seamed in the end (a major PITA!).

Going forward, when I post a new hat pattern, I will try to remember to explicitly state whether it is knitted in the round... :-)

My "flat" knitted hat patterns:
Claudia Hat

My hat patterns knitted in the round:
3AM Cable Hat
Asherton Hat (adult)
Asherton Hat (toddler)
Cap Karma Hat

.

Finished Objects so far

I found a need to enumerate all my finished objects after someone sent me email inquiring about something I made such a long time ago that I had to go figure out what exactly she was referring to. So here's a list of my finished objects so far. This list will make it easier for me to go back and find old blogger posts (I hope) . As I made this list, I couldn't believe how many dishcloths I've made this year.


2006 FINISHED OBJECTS


Squares Cloth (pattern)

Triangles Cloth (pattern)

Persephone Scarf (pattern)

3 Cable Hat

Swirl Hat (pattern)

Woozy Cloth (pattern)

3AM Cable Hat in purple (links to pattern) - for me!!! :-)

Striped Slip Stitch Hat (pattern)

Twin Leaf Lace Cloth (pattern)

Quinquevulnera Mindless Knitting Hat (pattern)

Travelling Vine Cloth (pattern)

Chemo hat #7 for Cap Karma Chemo Hat Project

Sarawakense Mindless Knitting Hat (pattern outline)

Claudia Hat (pattern)

Cap Karma Hat in wine

Diamond Lace cloth (pattern)

Cap Karma Hat in white (pattern)

Vine Lace cloth (pattern)

Asherton Hat for toddler (pattern)

Garterlac cloth

Asherton Hat in pink

Asherton Hat in red (pattern)

Asherton Reversible Scarf (pattern)

Small Arrow cloth (pattern)

Bonbons et Calissons dishcloth (pattern)

Fountain Lace cloth (pattern)

Horse cloth

Lacy Round cloth

Pig cloth

Paw & Bone cloths

Cat & Dog cloths

Intertwined dishcloth (pattern)

Oak Leaf dishcloth

Twist to the Left, Twist to the Right dishcloth (pattern)

Grapes dishcloth

Wine Bottle & Glass dishcloth

Christmas Tree dishcloth

Spring Butterflies dishcloth

Wave Pool dishcloth

Branching Out Scarf in pink

Pink Chemo Hat (chemo hat #9)

Blue 3AM Cable Hat (chemo hat #8) (pattern)

Pink Cable Hat (chemo hat #7)

Branching Out Scarf in blue Baby Silk

2005 FINISHED OBJECTS

Sue's Chemo Hat

Knitpicks Chemo Hat (chemo hat #6)

Pink cable brim hat (chemo hat #5)

Blue twist stitch hat (chemo hat #4)

Red Lacy Hat (chemo hat #3)

Baby Cable Rib Hat (chemo hat #2)

Nautilus Hat (chemo hat #1)

Roll Brim Hat

Branching Out Scarf (plum)

Marisa's Watch Cap

Grandmother's Favorite dishcloth

Marisa's Blanket

Besotted Scarf

Travelling Vine Scarf

Irish Hiking Scarf



.

Big ball of yarn

I finally sat down to frog that crocheted lapghan, and rewind it into a ball with a center pull skein. So I frogged and wound, and frogged and wound. The ball became grapefruit sized and I thought, "geez, I must be getting near the yarn end soon," but no, I kept frogging and winding, no end in sight. I thought the lapghan was made with at least 2 balls of yarn. But that was definitely not the case as my ball grew larger and larger. It was no longer a large grapefruit, it was becoming a small melon! Well, here's a picture of the ball after I finished winding it. The $20 bill is there for size comparison, just to give you a better idea of how large the ball is. I really don't think this is your average 3 ounce ball of yarn. I got sloppy near the end because I was tired of holding the ball (which got pretty heavy!) in one hand while winding with the other. I don't want to rewind a ball of this size again, it's really tiring! I'm thinking I should not use the center pull skein as I can just imagine what kind of mess I'll end up with when the other part collapses on itself. I think I will just pull from the outside working inwards. I'll be making lots of hats for the Cap Karma Chemo Cap Project with this yarn...

I finally finished my first I-Cord, and am making another one. They're both for my mom. I've found I-Cords to be the perfect car project when DH is driving. I used to think that I could knit while he's driving, but he tends to get drowsy while driving so I have to talk to him to keep him awake ... which mean I can't do any knitting that requires concentration or counting. Grrr. So working on I-Cords is perfect, don't need too much brain power to work on those. It's how I finished my first I-Cord, I worked on it in the car while we drove back from the inlaws last night. Yes, it was kinda dark in the car (it's that change to Standard Time) ... another reason why I-Cords are great for mindless knitting.

I mailed off my dishcloth to my MDKAL Q4 Dishcloth Exchange partner this morning. It is my first time participating in such an exchange, I hope I did everything right, and I hope my exchange partner likes what I knitted for her. I will post the dishcloth pattern here sometime after she receives it. I just don't want to post it beforehand, otherwise it might spoil the surprise. Well actually, I really have no idea whether she reads my blog, but just in case she does, I am not posting it until later. So you guys will just have to wait a week or so. Sorry...

Don't plan on doing much knitting today. I really need to do something I've been procrastinating on ... reading that voter pamphlet I received aeons ago. Tomorrow is election day, it looks like it won't be rainy (yay!), so M & I should be able to get to the polling place without too much trouble. My voting booklet says that there is a 0.4% slope to the polling place. I think they're smoking crack cuz it is more like a 40% slope uphill. And boy is it gonna be a doozy of a walk compared to last year, with M just over 20 lbs now. I'll wear her in the Ergo Baby Carrier. I can really feel the weight difference.

Today I am drinking Everyday Jasmine tea from one of my favorite tea vendor, Imperial Tea Court. I made a pot of it, because DH took today off. I usually do pots of tea on the weekends when I feel I can sit down & relax with my cup of tea (but in reality, I'm still running around doing chores around the house). On weekdays, I tend to do tea bags for their convenience.

.

Cap #7 for Cap Karma

Here's my 7th hat for the Cap Karma Chemo Cap Project.

.

Found Yarn

Woohoo! Was going into storage boxes and I found a box of yarn from aeons ago. Nothing fancy, mostly worsted weight Red Heart yarn. I guess I did play with yarn as a kid, I just don't remember it all that well... but then, it was a LONG time ago. I must have learned how to crochet at some point in time because there is a 40 inch x 40 inch (102 cm x 120 cm) granny square lapghan of some sort! I don't even remember working on that. Wish I remembered how I did this thing, I can't recall any crochet stitches. Boy is my memory wonky!

I suspect that I played with yarn as a kid and got most or all of this yarn from Glen's Five & Dime which was on 24th St; it's now the current location of the US Post Office (which used to be across the street). I don't know who Glen was, but I did know the ladies who worked there, and I "hung out" there often as a kid. Times have changed... "five & dime" stores are now called "dollar" stores. Lots has changed in the neighborhood. There's a Pasta Pomodoro on the corner of 24th St & Noe St, which used to be Panos Greek restaurant, and I remember at a much earlier time there used to be a small liquor store at that very same corner. I even vaguely recall taking a walk one night with my mom, passing by that liquor store, and seeing a guy (presumably the owner of the store) with a stab wound on his head! There is a yarn shop a half block from there called Noe Knits, which used to be Colorcrane (an art supplies type store) for the longest time. Two houses to the right of this, there is a 2 story building with a short fence in front... Barbara, who lived upstairs, used to set up her outdoor flower shop in front of this building. There used to be a Pharmacy at the corner of 24th St & Castro St, which is now occupied by Cotton Basics; this was way back before the ubiquitous chain drug stores like Walgreens and Rite Aid. There was a Buds ice cream shop across the street from the pharmacy. There used to be a donut shop at 24th St & Church St for the longest time. Not everything has changed. There's still Bank of America across the street from the pharmacy, and Bell Market is still located between Noe St & Sanchez St. And Willie, who worked at the supermarket in the 1970s is still working there. I stopped by Bell Market (which has actually been renamed to Cala Bell or something like that), directly across the street from Noe Knits, a few months ago and was surprised when he recognized me, and I hadn't been in there in many many years! They've remodelled the place and it looks much better than before. Tuggey's Hardware store and Haystacks Pizza are still on 24th St by Sanchez. Some stores have relocated... like Cover to Cover Bookstore which used to be down the street from Bell Market, and is now located on Castro St between 24th St & Jersey St. Ok, I just realized that I must be boring you guys! LOL...

Anyways, about this yarn ... I'm going to frog this granny square thing, and with this yarn and all the other yarn I found in this box, can you take a guess what it will be reincarnated into? ... come on, take a wild guess ... yes, HATS! What did you think I would say? ;-) I'm still knitting hats for the Cap Karma Chemo Cap Project, I've only managed to do 6 so far, and I want to make at least 3 more. More if I can, but my goal is at least 9. I'm currently working on hat #7, my Trilamellatum MK Hat. Yes, it'll be another "mindless knitting" hat. I think that's what I really need right now after spending so much time unsuccessfully trying to get the Claudia Hat knit in the round. Yay, I think I'm all set in the yarn dept. Besides this ancient yarn from decades ago, I also picked up some brand new yarn in a handful of colors, so you guys won't have to see too many more hats in that wine colored yarn. I stumbled upon that wine colored yarn in a different box a few weeks ago, it is probably as old as the yarn in the box I just found and I bet it came from Glen's Five & Dime. Now if only I could stumble upon a box with 1.5 million dollars in it so we could find a modest home in Cupertino, CA... (but that's a whole other story/rant for another prolix paragraph at some other time...)

.