Haunted nights! Boring days!

One word for the nights agenda:  Scarywood!

Our local theme park, Silverwood, has created for the last 2 years a wonderous scary theme park for the halloween season.  Every piece of horror film freak outs have been included.  All the way down to the murderous clowns.  Obviously they're not really murderous but they are scary!  There is a mutated maze (mutated things jump out at you from the shadows), blood bayou (FREAKY haunted house, which is even worse this year i hear), and people who follow you around and sniff you!  That in itself was creepy... This is an adult only evening, no one under 13 is allowed in the park when its Scarywood.  Thank goodness.  This is a birthday thing for my friend H.  We have been friends 4 years, and really this is only the second year we really celebrated her birthday with her.  That, and I wanted to go to Scarywood LOL


But that is not all i have been doing.  Just two days ago (Wed) Husband has mentioned to me that he needs a hat for tonight.  That he didn't have one.  I KNOW I bought him a hat 3 or so years ago when he was working the winter season as an ATM repair man.  He had a huge heavy coat, gloves and hat and scarf that i bought him so he wouldn't freeze.  But where the hat, scarf, gloves went we have no clue.  They are not in our closets, they are not in the cars, they are not in the garage unless they are flattened to the ground underneath the shelving units.  So I made the decision at 9 am to make him a hat.  I hopped online, to Ravelry.com my favorite pattern and public knitting site, and searched away for a hat that would match my idea.  I had to wing it.  Make my own pattern if you will.  So far so good, its a little large and a little too long, but thats what he asked for.  I will post pictures after I finish it.  But I will attempt to describe it here.


My man's hat is a double knit* hat.  It is a combination of green and midnight heather colors.  Midnight heather is a navy-black blend with blue/green tones in it.  Very pretty.  It is knit in the round, and has stripes on it.    I am currently decreasing the crown, and the pattern I've been loosely following has been decreasing every other round, however I find that this is making for a VERY long hat, so i stopped doing that a few rows in, and have been decreasing every round.  If I ever make this hat again, I will modify it so the stripes are more uniform rather than a random "I'll change colors here" type thing.  But I like it so far... I'm about to switch to double pointed needles because there are too few stitches to make knitting in the round a good option.  The cable needles are getting more in the way than they are helpful. 


So my Rough pattern:
Using 24" cable needles size 7 or 8
2 colors Fingering or Sport yarn


CO 110 stitches (118 for larger head) using both colors, long tail method.  Make sure colors are alternating during CO (this is what took the longest).


The first color stitch on your needle will be your Main Color (MC), the second stitch is your Contrast Color (CC).  Knit all MC, Purl all CC.  I discovered that to get the two sided type of hat, you need to carry both color yarns over to each side as you knit and purl.  You're only going to be picking up one of the yarns as you work, but the other color will be along the correct side when you're not working with it to give it a solid appearance, as well as double sided. 


Knit 6 rows with MC on the front side, CC on back side.
Row 7, Knit with CC, Purl with MC for 2 rows.
Row 9, Knit with MC, Purl with CC for 6 rows.
Row 15, Knit with CC, Purl with MC for 7 rows
Row 21, Knit with MC, Purl with CC for 2 rows
Row 23 Knit with CC Purl with MC for 7 rows
Row 30: Begin Decreases. Go back to Knitting with MC, purling with CC and  Work 11 pairs of stitches Knitting MC, Purling CC.  On 12th pair, slip MC to right hand needle, take CC onto a cable needle to the back, slip next MC to right hand needle.  Take CC on cable needle, slip back to left hand needle, slip both MC to left hand needle, k2MCtog, p2CCtog.  Place stitch marker.  Work 11 pairs of stitches, do the slipping MC/CC again, but with MC,  slip 1 knit wise, knit 1, pass slip stitch over, and purl both CC again.  Work in this pattern until you come to the beginning of the work.  Once you have worked 8-9 rows of the MC, swap again, and you can finish out with the CC, or work a small stripe and swap back to the MC.


Now, if you want a super long hat, feel free to knit 1 row in between decreases.  However, if the head you're fitting is not that long, feel free to decrease on every round.  Or you can do what I've been doing, and decrease/knit half of it, then just straight decrease the rest of it.  Now when you get down to the last bits, and its hard to knit on a cable needle, you will need to switch to double pointed needles.  Continuing the MC knit/CC purl.  I have always ALWAYS done the kitchener stitch (grafting) for the tops of hats.  The pattern I was modeling this after just cuts a long end, and threads it thru the stitches a few times and draws it tight.  What ever way you like, works.  I will let you know how the kitchener stitch works for the double sided hat.  Along with pictures.


That has been my 36 hours in a nutshell.

Edited to include pictures.

*double knit: Lovely thick knit to create a reversible pattern.

Unemployment makes time fly!

I swear, I try to come here more than once a week to post, but I somehow get lost along the way by either cleaning things, making things, or just doing things.  I will try to do better, I promise!  So what have I been doing this last week?  Helping my daughter with her reading.  She is now reading to me when I knit.  Like my very own live audio book!  Pretty cool, and its also helping her comprehension when she reads.  When she reads silently I couldn't ask her any questions about what happened, because "I don't know" became the standard answer.  So we started her reading out loud to me.  Now when she is asked what happened, she can tell you, and make a paragraph of what she read!

This last week was not as hectic as I make it sound.  Yes, I cleaned the house in 2 days, but other than that it was knitting and making a hat (or two) in a weeks time.  Also, listed on my Etsy shop are both those hats.  Hoping for good vibes to sell those items.  Hubby asks that I make 40k a year with my Etsy business.  I thought $15 in a month was awesome!  Guess he has higher expectations. 

Now off to do my first colorwork hat!  (Aka fair isle without the Scottish influence.)  I am working on a project for myself again.  First one was my neck warmer to go with my glovettes.  Now, its a Mickey Mouse hat!  Its really cute, and I might be able to make a scarf out of the pattern too... maybe.  Mind you this is only my second time doing stranded color work.  First time was a sweater for a child that didn't exist yet.  It got me a 2nd overall in the fair when I was 16.... I was so super duper proud of that!

 What a beautiful little model of that sweater!  This sweater is 12 years old and lives in my closet because the children in question are now too big for it.  Disappointing.  The Mickey Mouse hat is black/red/cream color, and today is measuring about 1 inch long.  I am so excited to see it take shape.  Of course my husband is not as thrilled about it as I am.  He'd prefer me to make other things.  I will let your imagination take shape with that phrase, I am sure you'll do just fine with filling in the blanks.    


One of my new favorite blogs, just from a knitting point of view is TECHknitting, who has some awesome tips, techniques, and illustrations on making things like color splicing, blocking, technical stuff about knitting easier to understand.  Quite awesome, and a lot of help!

Ok blogger world, I am off to knit some more, clean some more, and as a general rule, stay out of trouble... We all can dream can't we?

Rainy day Star Wars a thon!

Today was Star Wars-a-thon in our house.  Our precious T stayed home from kindergarten sick for the first time this school year!   T couldn't figure out why I was sad that he was staying home, because he was so excited!  Thankfully daddy had today off, so he stayed home with us.   T has a cough that is taking a lot out of him.  In the rush to get K ready for picture day at school, she forgot her lunch on the kitchen counter, so SuperMom saved the day by taking it to her at school and the snap decision of running errands while being out.  So while hubby stayed home with T, I went and got him medicine, as well as getting my grocery shopping done.  Nothing like having a rainy day to stay home to knit and watch gobs and gobs of Star Wars.   *twitch*

Today I finished a hat that I started on Monday after shipping out the hat that sold on Etsy.  I like this one.  Its also of lacy pattern origin, but its in this gorgeous wine-y purple color.  And its soooo squishingly soft.  Yes, I do happen to make up words to describe it.  I have made a last quarter of the year vow not to buy any more yarn.  I have tons of it now, I have to use it up before I get more!  Or so I keep saying to myself.  We all know how addictions can be.  Speaking of addictions, I stopped by JoAnn's fabric store last Saturday to pick up some thread and... well... more fabric.  That remnant fabric bin is dangerous!  I bought two things of Spiderman cloth, two pink fabrics, and one flannel fabric!  With the thread, the total came to $10 something.  I still had a gift card left over from one of my last birthdays with a whole $7 left on it, so after the gift card I wound up paying just a little over $2 for over 2 yards of fabric and some thread.  Great day after all!

As far as those mini-pumpkin pies I made for the party: They were a smashing success!  I love my little mini-muffin pan.  It is so versatile.  I never ever buy from people who push those Pampered Chef products, but I bought this from one of my former coworkers many many years back, and have only been using them for the occasional mini-banana chocolate chip muffin cravings I have.  Then last Thanksgiving, I made Paula Deen's pumpkin pie recipe, and out of ONE batch, had a full 2 pies from it, and LOTS of leftover batter.  So my brain cooked up those mini-pies/tartlet whatever you want to call them, and hubby and I pigged out on those all night before Thanksgiving.  Apparently I now have a following for those too!  It made me laugh because one of my (former) coworkers from Borders made a comment about how he hates making homemade pie crust, because it is too much work.  Mind you, he is an amazing chef.  He would bake us all sorts of goodies during holidays.  For him to make that comment just boggled my mind.  I taught myself how to do the pie crust.  And I don't think its too much work.   I am pretty sure I made one of these faces:  O.o   <--- Yup, I'm certain I did that face.  

T is also (finally) letting us read him bedtime stories.  In years prior, between the ages of 2.5 and 5.0, we have been told in no uncertain terms by him that he "hates our voice" when we try to read to him.  I don't know exactly what happened, but last night I invited him to sit between me and daddy so daddy could read the Star Wars Clone Wars book staring the Domino Squad and Captain Rex.  His most favorite characters EVER.  Daddy read the first chapter while I knitted, and somewhere in the last few paragraphs, T fell asleep.  It was adorable!  Tonight, they read two more chapters, and he stayed awake for them both.  He said I need to make him a Star Wars blankie to go with his Pooh blankie and Spongebob blankie.  Boy, that child has a lot of blankies.  I'm glad I have a blankie baby.  I always loved Linus in Peanuts.  T even had a few days this last month about wanting to take blankie with him to school.  He has even tried to sneak it into his back pack once.  Poor kid.

But first, I will make him an R2D2 hat.  Then I'll try and find a blankie for him.  Whether its just the taggy style blankie he already has (you know, 2 pieces of fleece cut and tied together) or actually sew one.  Tough decisions.  But R2D2 headwear first!

Goodnight crafties!  I must go and get some beauty rest sometime.  One of my friends pointed out today that knitters must never sleep.  Some nights I think thats true.  Till next time!

Oh the excitement!

Why the excitement you ask?

BECAUSE!!! I sold my first item on Etsy today!  So excited!  I sold my lacy hat that was part of my first posts!  I washed it today, it is laying out drying as we speak, and Monday I get to package it up and send it out!  Oh I'm so excited!  I was doing the happy dance all morning long.  And if you know me, you know its not a pretty sight LOL!


K is soaring along on her knitting.  We brought our knitting with us to T's swimming lesson this morning, and she worked on it for about half the lesson.  She even showed cousin A what she could do! Cousin A and her are only 1 month apart.  Cousin A asked if I could teach her too.  Rather exciting morning really!

I really should have updated last night as well as today.  My current project that took most of the day yesterday was making my own interchangeable/double pointed needle case.  The first one is a bit large for both sets of needles tho, and a little too short for regular needle :(  So I'm making a second one.  I think I'll "make" some needles for K.  AKA: get some longer DPN, Fimo clay, and "make" ends on the DPN.  Thanks to the designer Frankie Brown, without whom I'd not have that type of inspiration!  That, and I think that a lot of her patterns will be K's Christmas presents this year to various family members!  The needle inspiration came from the pattern for the needle roll.  She explains the "colorful needles" and how she makes them.

So with all that said and done, here's the pics of the finished roll:

Not bad all in all, just not finished as nice as I'd like.  I am going to make a second one, a little shorter in the white as the main color, blue as the binding/tie.  It works nicely for my circular needles and the stitch gauge.  But the DPN/ Interchangeables disappear in the pocket :(

Oh well.  Will be a nice present for K for Christmas? Maybe birthday?  Her birthday is in 2 weeks! Geez!  Ok, maybe Christmas.

Anyhow, everyone have a great day!  I need to finish making my goodies for the Borders employee party.  Mini Pumpkin Pies.  Can't beat them!