Knitted Ribbed Hat

The women's ministry at my church is having a silent auction to raise money to help give Christmas to those less fortunate. I decided to knit a few things to donate to the auction. I had 2 balls of Lion Brand Hometown USA  in Houston Cream so I made a cowl with 1 skein and wanted to make a hat with the other. I needed something quick so checked all over Ravelry for a pattern. I found one that used English rib stitch, which I had never done before. I tried about 5 times and couldn't get the hang of it and my deadline was looming so I just adapted the pattern to have a regular rib stitch. This hat was super stretchy and warm, I can't wait to make it again. It took me 2 evenings, I think I may make it for some Christmas gifts!

Here's my pattern:

Used Lion Brand Hometown USA (super bulky)

Size 15 circular needle

Size 17 circular needle

Size 17 double pointed needles

With size 15 circular needle, cast on 42.

1^st 4 rows: K2, P1

Switch to size 17 circular needle.

P4, K2 repeat to end of row. Continue until hat is approximately 7 inches.

Start Decrease Rows:

1: P2tog, p2, k2, repeat to end of row.

2: P1, p2tog, k2, repeat to end of row.

3: P2tog, k2, repeat to end of row.

4: P1, ssk, repeat to end of row. Switch to double pointed needles.

5: K2tog til end of row.

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches, pull through the hole & tie off.

Recent Knit Projects

I've been knitting up a storm lately! Guess it's the cold weather that makes me just want to sit in my comfy chair by the fire & knit. I found a great pattern on http://www.ravelry.com/ for a cabled hat - the pattern was super easy. I made myself one and then my co-worker Erica loved it & asked me to knit her one. Here they are:

My hat in progress (I could wear it like that as a new style!) and completed:

Erica's Hat:
Two weeks ago I made this little ruff/scarflet out of some mohair yarn that I've had for 2 years and didn't know what to do with. I was making a longer scarf and messed up so I started taking it out & decided to just make a short scarf & added a row of buttons to dress it up. I used some buttons from my grandmother's button jar. I wanted a hat to match but couldn't find a pattern I liked. So when Erica asked for the knit hat, I asked her for a crocheted hat like one she had made for herself. I wanted a hat like that and couldn't really replicate it in knitting so it worked out - I love the one she made! Now all I need to do is learn how to knit gloves and I'll have a set. Don't hold your breath! Here's the set:


This week I also knit a baby hat for my friend Kim's new baby Andrew. I haven't taken a picture of it yet but it's really cute. I knitted myself a scarf out of some really colorful ribbon yarn, I love how it looks! I wore it to work Friday and one of my customers came in and said I needed to market it - not a bad idea! Here it is:

So today I'm looking at more patterns, trying to decide what to knit next! Guess I should knit something & see if I can sell it. It would be nice to make money on something that I love doing!

Slumdog Millionaire

We saw Slumdog Millionaire today. I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure that it is Oscar-worthy but does at least deserve to be nominated. It was really hard to see children living in poverty but it was so amazing to see how they overcame that on their own with no adults helping them along the way. It was a heartbreaking movie but uplifting too. And I loved the dance at the end!

In other news, I finished the hat I was knitting this weekend - it is really cute and I wore it all day today. I need to take some pictures of it and post them. I just started working on a baby hat for my friend Kim who gave birth to her 2nd son last week - welcome to the world Andrew Collins! I'm very proud of myself for learning to knit hats on multiple double-pointed needles - I was really scared of trying it but now think it's a snap after only a few days!

Knitting a Hat

So I've been busy knitting this week. Earlier in the week I finished a scarf I was making for myself - it is out of turquoise colored mohair. I started off making a longer scarf but messed up several times and it didn't look quite right so I started ripping the stitches out. I decided to instead make it into a short little scarf/neck-warmer. It just wraps around the neck and then has a row of buttons at the edge - I used some of the buttons from my grandmother's button jar. It looked pretty cute and all the girls at work loved it. I wore it over a black sweater & left it on all day - it makes a nice accessory.

Wednesday night I started making a hat. This is my first attempt at knitting something round - the pattern calls for using 5 double pointed needles plus cabling so at any given time I'm using 6 needles at once!! This was hard for me to get the courage up to attempt it, but after a couple of times around, it didn't really bother me. This is also my first attempt at reading a knitting chart. The first night I couldn't even figure it out but Friday I sat down to read it & figured it out pretty quickly. Friday it was cold, snowy and there was a season 4 of Battlestar Galactica marathon on so I sat on the couch & knitted all day! Pretty awesome day. Saturday evening I finished the hat only to find that it was too small!! I kind of had that feeling but was hoping it would stretch out enough after I got it off the needles. Alas, it wasn't so. And it had turned out so beautifully too! The cables were perfect, I couldn't believe it came out so pretty but too small! Oh well. I ripped it out & started over on larger needles. I will just have to check it sooner th

is time. I found the pattern on http://www.ravelry.com and looked through what others had done on this hat so hopefully I'm using a better size needle this time. If it comes out, I'll post a picture.

It's now Saturday night and I'm on my 3rd movie of the day. I watched Miss Potter this afternoon while Darin was watching KU basketball. It was a really good movie - I love Beatrix Potter's books and it was neat to see her story - sad & sweet at the same time. Then tonight we watched In Bruges. It was ok - parts of it were funny. Bruges looks like a beautiful town - I'm sure they have had a lot more tourists since the movie came out. It's very medieval looking, which I love. Maybe I'll get to see it one day. Now we are watching Army of Darkness. Darin really likes this movie & I've never seen it. We had it recorded on the DVR. I don't really know what's going on. Parts of it are funny - basically the parts I already knew about. We'll see. I'm halfway paying attention as I blog & knit.

I'm thinking of knitting something and seeing if I can sell it on www.etsy.com - I'm trying to watch some scarves on there to see how much they sell for. It would be nice to make a little money off of something I enjoy doing!

End of the Holidays

So I'm pretty glad the holidays are over even though I'm not looking forward to January & February - the 2 most depressing months of the year. Back in Memphis they didn't bother me so much since it started turning to spring in February and I had hockey to go to. Go figure, I move to an actual winter climate and there's no hockey team here! Not true, there is KU Jayhawks club hockey & they play just down the street but it's about 30 degrees in the building they play in so it's just about too cold to go to very often. I'm sure we'll go to at least one game though. I really wish KC would get an NHL team or at least a minor league hockey team. Independence is getting a CHL team which will be fun since the Riverkings are in that league. I can drag out my old gameworn R'king jersey with the puck marks all over it and wear it over there - I don't think they'll have a team for another year or 2 though. We did see the arena being built when we headed out of town for Christmas; at least it's next to the highway so it will be easy for us to get to albeit 45 minutes away!

I'm just not looking forward to the bitter cold & snow/ice of the Jan/Feb months - at least that's what we had the past 2 winters and it doesn't look like this year will be any different. And there's nothing to look forward to until March - my birthday and NCAA basketball tourney (praying Memphis & Kansas keep playing well & make tournament again but praying they don't play each other again - that was TOO much drama!). Oh well, it will be kind of nice to get back to the normal routine. Poor Darin though, he was on vacation for the last 3 weeks! I can't imagine how hard it will be for him to get up tomorrow!

We do have good tv to look forward to, as pathetic as that sounds. 24, Lost and Battlestar Galactica will all be back in the next few weeks - that will help get through the cold winter nights!!!

I also got some new books to read - my mother-in-law & sister-in-law each bought me a Philippa Gregory book - books 2 & 3 in the Wideacre series that I haven't read yet - and I used some of my Christmas money & Borders coupon to buy book 1. Too bad I had just started another book so they will have to wait a little while.

I also have several knitting projects that I'm working on - several upcoming birthdays and new babies so I need to figure out what I'm doing for those. I'll post more on knitting later - that's a whole post in and of itself!

I'm going to go make some macaroni & cheese from scratch for supper now - yummy! We deserve it after putting away all the Christmas decorations today. By the way, Darin made an inventory of all of our Christmas decorations when we got it all out and putting it away was so much faster & easier because of it! I highly recommend doing that, especially if you have a ton like we do (27 boxes including the trees, gift wrap & tins)!