Posted: August 26th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: blue sky alpacas, hats, projects: urban whatever hat, self-designed, things i knit, yarn i use | Tags: alpaca, beret, crafty, diy, handmade, hats, knit, knitting, slouchy hat, stripes | 1 Comment »
The second iteration of my hat is done, and I am much happier with this version than the first one. It actually fits my head! The stripes turned out the way I wanted! It’s slouchy, but not comically so!
Pattern: my own (I’ve nicknamed it Urban Whatever on Ravelry)
Yarn: almost exactly two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Alpaca Sport
Needles: 3.0 mm dpns and a 3.25 mm circular needle
Despite the fact that this hat uses very small needles (those are US size 2 1/2 and 3), it actually went pretty quickly. I knit the hat itself in about three days (you could definitely pull it off in a weekend, if you weren’t doing much). The biggest delay was actually blocking – the hat took two full days to dry because of the summer humidity! I’m really glad that I did block this, though, because that was totally the key to getting the shape that I wanted out of this hat: I knit it a little too big and a little too short, and then blocked it taller.
I’d like to write this up as a pattern, I think, so stay tuned for that!
Posted: August 21st, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: blue sky alpacas, hats, projects: urban whatever hat, things i knit | Tags: alpaca, beret, craft, diy, handmade, hat, knit, knitting, slouchy hat, stripes | No Comments »
Those of you who read this by checking the main site may have noticed some very bizarre things happening a couple days ago – I apologize. I’ve been tooling around with the back end to get the blog properly set up on swayinglights.com, and it took a little bit of trial and error that meant doing some funny things to the main page for a while.
And hey, speaking of trial and error (see what I did there?), I’ve taken a short break from my sweaters and started working away at something old:
This is the first attempt at a hat I knit most of in the spring, before discovering that the end result was almost comically too large to fit any real person’s head – even as a slouchy beret, which is what I’m trying to make. I ripped back a couple of days ago (I’m on this kick where I’m cleaning out my ‘half-finished projects’ basket), and I’m hoping this one works.
Song of the Entry: Bright Eyes – Road to Joy (Listen)
Posted: May 2nd, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: berocco ultra alpaca, projects: ms marigold vest, things i knit, vests, yarn i use | Tags: alpaca, handknit, kittens, knitting, purple, sweater, sweater vest, yarn | No Comments »
I took a several-month vacation on this vest, and I won’t lie – the big stumbling block was that I hadn’t wound the last skein of yarn yet.
I finally got around to that this week, and my vest is finally almost-done. (Just in time for spring, of course, but that’s beside the point.) I still have to weave in all of the ends and block it, but I’m really, really excited about this. You have to picture it under a white button-down with some dress pants, but trust me, it’s going to be adorable and make me feel like a pretty, pretty princess.
And, because I can, a picture of my cat. The logic here was that if she tried to drag the yarn away very, very slowly, I wouldn’t see. (Unfortunately, I am not the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, so it didn’t go so well.)
Song of the Entry: Jack’s Mannequin – Spinning (feat. Stacy Clark) (Listen)
