The Finished Hat

Finished in plenty of time.  The Yarn Chase Hat.  Tah Dah.

This pattern requires lots of what I define as "fiddly bits," (def: stuff I don't like to do) and I won't make another....probably.

BUT, it is not going to fit any of my grandchildren.  I'm pretty sure it's way too big.

Did I make a gauge swatch? Well of course not. Stop asking! I once made gauge swatches for a sweater, and the swatches LIED and I had to frog the sweater. I have not bothered with gauge swatches since then. 

But actually, I don't think the problem is with the gauge; I think it's with the size I chose to make. This was my second attempt at making the hat because the first one was HUGE, and so I consulted head circumference charts on the internet and then chose the size based on the typical head size of a 14-year old. I think the charts were wrong.

I'll find out on Christmas morning. Just the thing: give a child a gift she can't use.  

Yay Gran!

What Have I Been Doing? you might ask. Or not.

But I'll tell you anyway.  

I have been busy!  Knitting away, cooking, having things done to the kitchen and generally jumping from project to project, with no organization in play.  

That's me.  OCD or something.

But here is my current project, which needs to be finished by Christmas, and since I just finished the chart this morning, I know I'll make it.

It will look like this

when I finish (with a turquoise pom pom on top) but as the Powers that Be are my witness, I will NEVER do intarsia or stranding again.  NEVER!!!

Because this is what is involved:

a tangle of yarns that keeps getting more tangly and annoying and time-consuming to untangle.  

So there, knitting.

To go back in time, I made this gorgeous pie for Thanksgiving:

It is from this Williams Sonoma recipe, and although I am not normally a fan of pumpkin pie, this tasted pretty good to me, and I overheard another guest tell the hostess that it was the best pumpkin pie she had ever had. (There is brandy in it, so there's that.) I just happened to have the leaf punches, from WS of course, so I could copy the top perfectly. And I've just realized that this is the photo from WS, and I wonder what happened to the photo of mine. hmmmm....  Anyway, mine looked like this.  

Another project:

I've been cooking in the dark since we moved in here 20+ years ago, and just the day before Daylight Savings Time went away, I had can lights installed.  Let there be light! said I. And now there is!  Doesn't mean I like cooking any better, but when I do cook, I can see what I'm doing.  As Martha says, It's a good thing.

But we lived with multiple holes in the ceiling until I finally found a painter willing to repair them and paint the ceiling. It was surprisingly difficult to find one and someone told me that lots of people have painting done before they entertain for Thanksgiving.  Really??? That's about the last thing I would think about if I were having a mob over for dinner, but ok. Anyway, I wasn't having anyone over; we went to our friend's home. So no hurry, but now the ceiling no longer looks like this:

Blurry photo......  I think there were about five holes in all, but they are all gone.

Since the weather has suddenly turned knitted-things cold, I can wear my hand knit socks, and I do!  In the house I wear them with my Birks, easy-on, easy-off.

Classy with a K, right?  (And no, H and S, I do NOT go out in public like this.)

BONUS!  I realized that I promised more photos from my trip in the fall, but instead I'll just post this one.  One of my favorites: 

A very relaxed Archbishop.  I think he is in the York Minster.  

Lily's skirt

I have finished Lily's skirt and it is currently blocking. I haven't put in the elastic yet either.

It is the Hip in Hemp pattern, made from five colors of CotLin yarn from Knit Picks. I am apparently bad at math: the pattern called for THREE contrasting colors and one main color. I bought FOUR contrasting colors. I don't know why.

And I bought THREE balls of each color. I have two left over of each of the contrasting colors, and one left over of the main color.

Again....poor math skills, although using too many colors does explain some of the leftover yarn, but not all of it.

Other Ravelry knitters used CotLin for their Hip in Hemp skirts and that's why I chose it, but I'm not altogether happy with it. It's a heavy cotton/linen blend. Perhaps when it is dry, it will drape nicely and the weight will help with that----I hope.

If

it's a poor workman who blames his tools, then I am a great and wonderful work.....woman? person? Whatever.

I started out knitting the waistband of the Hip in Hemp skirt on size 4 Addis, then switched to size 5 Addis to knit the skirt itself. Every fourth row is a pattern row, and part of the pattern contains M1L and M1R stitches.

Well, that was no easy trick with the dull points on the Addis. (The Knit Picks needles are on the left; the Addis on the right.) So I switched to the KnitPicks interchangeables, and that made all the difference in the world. I can just knit along, no struggling with the tricky stitches, thanks to the pointier tips, and off I go. So I am giving credit where credit is due---Knit Picks needles are fantastic!!! Signature needles are pointier still, but Boy George, they are forty dollars a pair!

The patterning created by the yarn and the stitches is starting to show up, and while it's a bit more obviously stripey than I had thought it would be, I still love it. This is not the Satan Sasha Skirt's sibling skirt. It's lovely and it is easy to knit. The chart was intimidating to look at but once I figured out what it all meant, I decided it was brilliant. Whoever put together the charts for it is a genius. (See? Giving credit where credit is due again.)
I'm no genius, however. As I was taking the picture of the chart, I noticed that the magnetic count guide has a gauge guide on it and I remembered that I had not measured for gauge. Uh oh. Too late now. But I have used this yarn before, and I was pretty close to gauge then, so I am assuming I am now. (Also I did sort of check after I took the picture, and I think I'm OK. )

Do You See What's Missing?

I packed so carefully for my trip to Mexico. And what better thing to do to relax but to sit at the beach and knit?

So I packed my sock pattern, two kinds of sock yarn, two row counters, my gauge, my tape measure, my sewing needles, my crochet hook for the inevitable dropped stitch, and my ......, my ......, where the $%^&* are my knitting needles????

And guess what they don't sell in Walmart, or Mega Mart or even in a craft shop in the Yucatan?

Yup. Knitting needles, that's what. Good grief.