Another Finished Packer's Hat

After I finished knitting the other Packers hat and cut all of the yarn to make the braids and edging (which I have yet to deal with) I still had a ton of the Team Spirit yarn left over. I wasn't sure what to do with it because I don't even like the Packers (I like the Lions) so I didn't want to buy more and knit more Packers things, but there wasn't enough for a scarf left, I was not going to make another pair of mittens, and I didn't really want to make a headband. That pretty much just left making another hat.

Well, I sat down a few days ago and cast on the hat that I decided would go to boyfriend's dad who also likes the Packers and started on it. I wanted to get through the first green band because I was doing a rib stitch for that to keep in more secure. (The pattern I improvised was to cast on 90 sts on those US 9 circular needles and rib until the first progression of green finished. Then I knitted for five inches which worked out to be just over five stripes. Then it was round 1- K8, k2tog, round 2 and all even rounds- k even, round 3- k7, k2tog, etc. Eventaully I switched to the magic loop again, which sucked less this time on the 16 inch needles, until the last round where you k2tog all the way around and then thread the tail through the remaining sts, weave in the ends and done.)

I was just sitting on the couch knitting and watching tv and all of a sudden I was at the decreasing rounds. Once I get to the decreases, I don't like to stop lest I get confused and muss it up, so I just finished it. Because I now have these circular needles, I didn't have to seam up the back at all, so all that was left was o weave in the ends, and I'd produced a hat in an afternoon. I made this 10 sts bigger than my gut told me to because boyfriend assured me that his dad has a big melon head and would need the space. (Melon head is my family's word for many of the guys because they all have huge bald heads like melons) I'm pleased with this hat, and I hope boyfriend's parents like the things I'm making for them!

Happy knitting!

Blue Leaf Headband

'Tis the season, and I've been trying to figure out what to knit everyone for Christmas. Some of them I have covered like the box-stitch scarf for my mom, and some I have projects that are in the works like my sister's mittens. However, every time I dare to think, "Okay, I at least know what I'm going to make for everyone," I realize I've forgotten someone. This time I remembered boyfriend's mom.

It's not that I never thought about her. A few months ago I had boyfriend ask her if she'd prefer a hat or headband, and she said headband. But the other day I was looking at my yarn stash, thinking of what I'm using/ going to use for what, and I was looking at this almost cerulean yarn and thinking how nice it would look for boyfriend's mom's headband. Boyfriend's mom's headband! I'd forgotten. 

I hit Ravelry looking for something I wanted to make. I found this Blue Leaf Headband by Adrienne Krey. I love it. The pattern is so cute, and not at all difficult. It gave me some good practice increasing (although this pattern had slight differences from the normal make 1) as well as more experience with knit 2 together (k2tog), slip slip knit (ssk), and yarn over or yarn forward (yo or yf).

The more I knit up the pattern, the more I like it. It is easy to work and remember, so I'm not staring at my pattern constantly the way I've had to with other lace patterns. The one thing I don't really understand about the pattern, is that in it there was a note that recommended slipping the first stitch of each row (slip 1) to create a selvage edge. I don't really understand selvage edges and why I would use one, for example, in this pattern. 

All told, this headband is coming along beautifully and as quickly as Krey promised!

Happy knitting!

Progress on My Shawl

I'm still so pleased with how my shawl is turning out. It's almost two feet long now, but that means that what I've been afraid of is going to be true: I'm going to need at least two more skeins of yarn to finish it. That's alright, I guess, but I don't have a lot of fun money to spend on yarn right now.

The inevitable has finally happened as well: I messed up a row somehow, though I'm not sure what I did exactly, so in the next row, I was one stitch short. Luckily, I noticed the stitch was missing in the repetition it was missing in, so the pattern across the rest of the row wasn't off. I looked down at the row below to see if I could find the stitch that I dropped because then I could just pull it back up and be on my way, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So rather than rip back to where I dropped the stitch and probably mess my shawl up more, I just left out the knit 2 together (k2tog) in that row and carried on. For as far as I am in this shawl, I'm surprised that's the only real mistake I've made. Well, once I think I kept using slip slip knit (ssk) after I was supposed to have switched back to k2tog, but when I looked back I couldn't tell, and I couldn't remember, so I just let it be.

I'm so excited about this shawl, and I'm definitely getting faster at the pattern which is nice. I am honestly a pretty slow knitter. Not because I can't go faster, but because I'm not trying to. However, all of this knitting I've been doing as of late has really been helping me to knit faster without really trying.

Happy knitting!

Lace Scarf

This is the scarf I'm making for my sister. I like this pattern a ton, and it's a lot easier than the one I'm making for my dad, but it's still pretty tricky. I'm using US 10 needles (6mm) for this. 19 stitches and the pattern repeats every 12 rows. I had to learn (or rather relearn what my grandma taught me years ago) how to knit two together (k2tog) and slip slip knit (ssk) for this pattern. That's how you get the neat lacy pattern. That was certainly interesting, and I had to restart more than once while I was figuring it out.

I made a headband first, (which can be seen on the right there under finished projects) with the same yarn and the same pattern, and it turned out really well, and I'm pleased with the way this scarf is looking. I like the variegated yarn a lot, but it's not very good for seeing these patterns I want to knit. Almost ironically, I'm using solid colored yarn for a lot of the pieces I'm not doing patterns in.

PS. I found this pattern on a knitting blog, but I can't remember for the life of me which one. If anyone out there recognizes this and knows which blog I'm talking about, I'd love to link to it. I don't feel comfortable giving the pattern myself because I didn't create it, but I'd love to share it.

Happy knitting!