Reasonable
Two things. One, this is just about ready for the decreases. Two, I am in no way ready to be done knitting on it. The only reasonable thing to do is knit another version. But first? First I have to finish this one and then break out the scale/raid the stash and do some yarn math. In other words, Finish One Project Before Starting The Next. And we all know how well that goes...
Worth waiting for
Ok now this? This was worth waiting for! The Constellate hat always wanted some mitts to go with it, but making a thumb grow nicely out of that stitch seemed hard back when that hat came out. But one of the cool things about coming back to favorite projects somewhere down the road is that, if you're very lucky, you got better at stuff over the intervening time. And now doing thumbs on these seemed easy and fun. And, well, I'm awfully pleased with them, even if it does feel a bit scandalous to just come right out and say [...]
July Housekeeping
July's housekeeping post is up! This month we're doing, well, I call it yard soda. I suppose if I were being more formal, I'd call it something like wild yeast fermented cold infused something or other. But really, it's yard soda. It's like your favorite herbs and the very best sugar cookie you've ever eaten had a baby, and that baby was kidnapped by the fairies, and they collected its tears in a beautiful crystal vial. Or it's sort of like what you always want flavored seltzer water to taste like (though it never ever ever does) plus just a [...]
Happy little surprise
Ever cleaned out your coat closet and found a nice surprise in a jacket pocket or the back compartment of that purse you never carry? Like a surprise $20 bill or the missing button you've been wanting to sew back on your favorite sweater or that awesome lip balm you thought you'd lost? Yeah, I'm experiencing the knitting version of that. I was tidying up my hard drive (Sisyphus for the modern age...) and found, um, a fully complete pattern? Like photos, charts, text, everything? It's cowl a pattern I contributed to a friend's book a few years ago, and [...]
Monthly Reminder
Every month I write a post saying "abortions are good" and send a donation to Aid Access. And this month, I actually have some good news to share! There's a new, faster way for folks in states with restrictive abortion bans to get abortion pills. Everyone, no matter what state they live in, can order abortion pills online (even if you're not currently pregnant, even if you just want to have them on hand just in case or because you're worried you won't be able to get them later if you need them). But until recently, if you lived in [...]
Roll call
Oh, let's talk about the yarns I used on this hat. You'll want three, one floofy, two smooth. I know mixing and matching yarn can be a tiiiiny bit scary, but it's actually sort of fun once you get the hang of it, and it's a fantastic way to use some of those partial balls left over from other projects! For the smooth yarns, you want them to both be about the same weight (here they're both La Bien Aimée's merino dk). The weight itself doesn't matter much. The pattern is written so you can work at 5, 5.5, 6, [...]
Continue down that path
Remember how we talked the other day about doodling out the important bits of a stitch on paper to help you understand it and how that can come in handy if you want to do things like scale a stitch up or down (or tile it...or mirror it...or offset it...or get it to flow smoothly into another pattern)? (It's back a few posts if you want to listen to me flop fabric around and point at things while talking about it.) Yeah, well this is what happens when you continue on down that path. The swatch is a scaled down [...]
Fluffy
Ever see a stitch you just want to burrow into and take a nap? Because I'm pretty sure this is about the closest I've ever seen a stitch get to 'fluffy duvet on a cold, rainy afternoon when you're exhausted and really really really need a nap.' Something about the structure of it just makes it feel so snuggly and welcoming. Especially when it's knit with a yarn combo like this, where it's fairly loosely knit, but the fuzzy yarn keeps it feeling solid. It manages that drapey-but-warm thing that is just pure magic.
Solved
Ooooh, you know how I said these needed a 'page' in the middle of them to feel even more bookish and to give you a place to pin things? Yeah, yeah well it turns out finding the correct yarn to go with sparkly pony glitter plastic extravaganza was more challenging than you might think, and my stash had absolutely nothing suitable. Luckily a trip to my delightful local yarn shop (waves at Cashmere Goat, if you're visiting midcoast Maine do yourself a favor and swing by) solved that problem.
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