2 Hours Later....

So I got frustrated using those itty bitty knitting kneedles (IBKK)... imagine that huh? They were so tiny that it was hard to hold them and manipulate my yarn the way I'm used to. I can't just loop it over my right index finger & throw it over the needle & wa-la! Stitch made. Nope. Too tiny. Every time I flipped anything the whole thing went flying right across the room! Too much oomph in the flip!!
I did manage to keep going! AND to figure out how to hold the IBKK's and to knit with them... but then I discovered... dang... I made a big boo-boo! Drat it all anyway.
I finally went to bed at 11pm last night ~which is super late for me!! Only after ripping the baby hat out twice, re-starting it twice... ugh. I ended up making a wonderfully little baby boy mobius... or I would have if I didn't just walk away. So that's what I did. I just went to bed & said forget it. (Not really... that's probably not what I said... but I will let your imagine wander here!)
This morning I got up and saw the poor IBKK's just sitting there, tangled up in blue yarn.... ugh. No way am I going to try to make that hat again. It just was not going to happen!
So.... I started another one!! Using the IBKK's of course and doing (gasp!) cables! Yep! Go me!!

I found this pattern (right here)
 and thought Hey! I can make that one! It's got cables, it's a baby hat and I only have until Sunday to finish it! More specifically... has to be finished by Sunday at noon! That's my deadline!
It's a pretty easy pattern. You can either make a 5 cabled hat or a 10 cabled hat. I picked the 5! Didn't want to push my luck and not get this baby done!  I'm really amazed at how quick it knit up! The cables were super easy. C6F (cable six front) and you only do it a couple of time!
The coolest thing of course is that I did it using ONLY my IBKK's - I didn't even switch to dpn's at the very end!

I started this morning.... and almost 2 hours later.....
Ta~Da!!! 5 Cabled Baby Mo Hat!!
I say almost 2 hours, because I didn't really keep track... but total I think I spent just over two hours knitting this little hat! Love it! ~said of course in my best sing-songy voice!!
Now I'm all set for Sunday!
No deadlines to meet... nothing on the needles... oh no! Whatever shall I do....
let's make some more!!! I'm totally going for the ten cabled hat just to see how long it takes me!!

Pumpkin Hand Dyed Yarn

I love pumpkin!  Pumpkin is probably my favorite thing to eat! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin roasted, pumpkin coffee - okay so you don't eat that! I even bought a whole pound of pumpkin colored fleece to spin! That orangey yummy color of pumpkin and how smooth it is?!  What's not to love about pumpkin?
Oh man oh man!!
So imagine my delight when I found this chance to win two skeins of Blue Face Worsted Yarn in pumpkin king..... oh my.  It's a give away. They want to give this to someone... so why not me?
 I don't know why I'm sharing it with you because I so do not want you to win!! Nope! Selfish me wants this all for me! ME!!!
Oh all right... here is the link......but don't enter though... okay?  LOL go ahead... just remember... it's all mine! MINE I say!!!

Want to win some gorgeous, hand-painted yarn? Enter now for your chance to win two skeins of Blue Face Worsted Yarn in Pumpkin King!

We are giving away two skeins of Blue Face Worsted Yarn in Pumpkin King to one lucky winner. This gorgeous artisan yarn retails for $24 a hank, but it is so worth the money! Each 4 oz. hank features 200 yards of hand-painted yarn spun for its strength and durability. I'm making a nice autumn cowl out of my stash, but this yarn could easily be used for a fall sweater, mittens or a hat.

I May Need Glasses...

See why I'm going to need new glasses? Look how little those needles are! AND just look at how short that cable is. Um... what was I thinking?

It's a 9inch cable- the shortest I could find. What I didn't realize was that if the cable was short.... the needles would be too. LOL Duh.. that's what makes them so good for using on stuff like this...

Like Baby Hats & socks!!  You can work with a smaller amount of stitches than on a 16 inch cable.

I don't know about you, but I can't seem to get 16 inchers to work well unless I have around 90 stitches on them. So... I use dpn's...

to make stuff like hats. Like Mo's Hat I made last week......

 I like DPN's. I really do. They are nice to use and after I get used to the fiddling around and get into a rhythm... it goes pretty well.  Unless.... I'm not starting out a new needle with a purl stitch.  Ladders.  Ugh... 

See those ladders? Those funky stitches that look like a seam between those lovely cables... yeah those. Ugh. Hate those.

I get ladders because I can't tighten the stitches up really well on purl stitches like I can with knit stitches! I would much rather knit at the beginning of a new needle and avoid the whole ladder thing, but... with cables... and this pattern....

Ta-Da! That's why I bought these itty-bitty knitting kneedles (I had to add the k! Just had too!) I am bound and determined that I am going to make this hat pattern (HERE) for Mo's Mama's shower on Sunday.

Oh crud... Sunday. Yeah.

That's like 3 days from now. Yikes.

So off I go to test my sight and my cable ability on another Mo Hat!

Just make sure when you see me next you help me cross the street~

I'm sure with my vision being tested I will totally need the help!

My Favorite Yarn Becomes My New Hat!

Don't you just love it when you finish something and you like the results? Yeah... me too!

I finished my new hat yesterday while sitting at the pool waiting for my fish-child to swim his little heart out.   3 hours at the pool with nothing to do but swim or knit.  Hmmm... what to do, what to do? Guess what I did!  I knitted, swam, knitted some more, swam some more and wa-la! Finished my hat!

So now my new(est) favorite yarn- this stuff right there! That yummy kid mohair blend that I gushed about last week... that yummy stuff knitted with my other favorite, Cascade 220 Superwash, became this...

Yay! I like it!
 I only had to rip it out a billion times - I wasn't paying attention when I started decreasing to form the crown (ugh) and although it's a simple pattern, you kind of have to pay attention. Kind of.  The little windows where the mohair peeks out are just formed by slipping stitches of the main color and then knitting with the contrasting one.
To avoid having ladders (see the picture on the left?) I ordered some short (6inch) circular needles, but because I have no patience and didn't want to wait until later in the week..... I went ahead and bought a pair at the yarn shop in Woodbridge!  The little needles made it easier to decrease on the circulars and to work with a smaller amount of stitches in the round!  I ended up having to switch to dpn's anyway at the very end but the result is really worth it! NO ladders!! I can't wait to remake that baby hat I made last week!
I really like this hat!  It is super duper mega (enough adjectives for you?!) soft and I wish it was a tiny bit smaller ~ just so I could have the softness up closer to my head! LOL
It's a little bigger than I intended because I was a little worried about carrying my yarn around when I created those little windows! Just another reason color work makes me nervous!!!  I was worried that the yarn I carried around the slipped stitches would become too tight and then make the hat too small.   Guess I should have worried a little more about getting it just right huh? Oh well.. next time! This hat is just loose enough where it won't smoosh my hair anyway!
Obviously Boy doesn't think this hat is all that groovy....            But I sure do!

Ha! Thought I would let an opportunity to slip by without plugging a pic of the kid in here!~ LOL

Here's the link again if you want the pattern - http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/accessories/moonshinebejeweled-hat.html

Things That Make You Say Hmmm?!..........

Hmmm.... that's all I can say about knitted lampshade cozies.... hmmmm.... and maybe.
I like yarn. I like the textures of these cozies.  I like imagining how they would look interesting with light filtering through them. Hmmmm. I think I like them.... I think I do, maybe....
Not sure I'm ready to purchase a pattern for these yet. Hmm.... maybe I will work on designing a pattern of my own. Can't be that hard right?
AND what a way to use up some of that cheaper not so favorite yarn! Oh no! Here I go... off on another tangent...
Uh yeah. Have you met me? I'm a total paint by the numbers and a color in the line kind of girl. My imagination stretches, but how do I stretch it into designing.............Hmmm... you got any ideas?
Here's the link to where I found this
http://www.craftsy.com/workshop/Finocchiaro-Swirls-Lampshade-Cover/11;jsessionid=7E5B7D19FDB2DE3FA1EBBF9FD14C2AE5.rush

My New Favorite Yarn!

I admit it... I have a hard time picking just one favorite yarn. I mean really. Just one? Pick just one? Umm... yeah... pretty hard to do. I usually don't!
I really like Cascade 220 Superwash. That's my go to. The yarn I pick for hats for gifts and for stuff I make for Big. It's a washable wool and it's pretty soft. Not a lot of pilling so it's pretty smooth. I like it. But... my favorite... MOST favorite now has got to be Crystal Palace's Moonshine.

sigh...........................
Can't you just tell by the picture that it sooooooooper soft..............
It's a fun kid mohair blend that comes in fabulous rich colors run through with metallic highlights. It creates these lovely soft waves of color..................... (more sighing!) it's dreamy.  It's Super (dooooper) soft and those metallic highlights............ (insert sigh) dreamy, dreamy, dreamy!
I've often said... "when you knit something; make sure you like the yarn you are using"... that way you will finish it and you will probably like it when you are done! Um yeah. Dreamy kid mohair yarn spun with metallic highlights (yeah.. I keep saying it out loud... kid mohair, metallic highlights), what's not to love with this stuff?
I found it just before Christmas over at my favorite little yarn store in Fairfax, VA (www.naturesyarnsinc.com) and I had to have it.
 Oh I know. I know,  okay?  I have (have) to have yarn a lot but this stuff was just singing to me... take me home... take me home.... so I did. Just one. One small little ball and a pattern!
I actually bought something with a planned purpose. This stuff was going to be mixed with Cascade 220 Superwash (purple!) and made into a hat for me!   Usually I just buy it because I like it, hoping that some day I will have a purpose for it. Sigh.  Not this stuff! I knew exactly what I was going to make with it and even bought the main color and took it all home that day!
My original intention was to make this over Christmas break while at home in the woods. Ha! I spent too much time gallivanting around seeing my family and my new grandson that the dreamy kid mohair spun with metallic highlights (ha! say it again... do it!) just sat in my bag, waiting and waiting....
Today I started it! I'm between projects. Got nothing on needles anywhere so I went ahead and opened it up..... did I tell you how dreamy soft this stuff was? Yeah....

The hat is started out using the CC (contrast color), which in this case is the Moonshine. Then you rib for 1.5 inches in the MC (main color = 220 Superwash) and then you make little 'window's in the work by knitting with the CC and slipping the MC. You can't really tell yet... but here is a link to the pattern. Which, by the way is a FREE pattern! Woot!

The pattern says it's for an advanced beginner (me!!) to an intermediate knitter, but so far it's been pretty easy. Except that my first row of peek through with Moonshine, I only did 3 rows instead of 4. Aaaargh... I didn't take it out though... I'm hoping I won't mind later! AND nobody will ever notice... except I told you didn't I. Just pretend like you don't notice when you see me wearing this hat. Okay?
Thanks!
So I'm off to knit! It's Friday night..... Big's freezing his buns off over 'there' and Boy is starting his Friday night movie marathon........ so it's me & my new favorite yarn hanging out!

Mo's Hat

Boy oh Boy! The new Mr. Mo isn't even here yet and he's getting loaded up on presents! I just finished his little cabled hat and although I think I figured out that I can do cables, I'm just not real thrilled with this hat.
I need to figure out a way to not have ladders between the needles. You know those wonkity areas between your  dpn's when you're working in the round?  Those ladders. Ugh I hate those.
 Usually when I'm knitting with dpn's, I knit the first stitch, then right when I'm knitting the second, I pull it really really tight. I learned that in a sock class. Prevents ladders really nicely, but...... obviously.... with my little cabled hat here, not so much.

See that line running between the cables - the cable in the middle and then the cable to the left? It looks like a ridge? Yep. Those are ladders. Ugly. U G L Y ugly. Unfortunately there are 3 ridges on this hat - right where those bad boy dpn's were. Ugh.

I like how the hat looks from far away (ha!) like here on my rooster...oh nuts... the ridge is still there. I'm not going to point this one out... but I know you will see it.

I really do like this hat. Really. I especially like how the cables start in the ribbing and go all the way to the top.

I think I'm still going to give Mo his hat. I think.

Maybe I will just knit up another one and see how that one works. Hm mm....

One thing that I learned about this hat.. I CAN DO CABLES! Woohoo!

I know they aren't hard, I just kept thinking that there was more to them than basically twisting a stitch here and there, doing something different on the next row ~ that's where I got the glitch! Wait?! Do something different on the next row? Really? How does that make a cable. Duh.

Just follow the pattern like it says and very nicely, it cables all by itself. Well, with just a little t3f, t3b, c4f kind of stuff, but it really works!

I even tried Mo's hat on a boy who isn't Mo.  I'm not sure Boy even noticed, but I needed a model!!

Oh well.... maybe it will look better once it gets blocked and then stretched onto a cute baby head.

Here's hoping!

HERE is the link to the pattern for the Cabled Baby Hat aka Mo's Hat!