Are these The Weirdest Decreases I've ever put on a hat? Yup. Am I quite confident they'll be adorable when I'm done? Oh, like 95%? Which really, for something as low stakes as a hat, seems like a totally reasonable risk!

It seems I'm not the only one in need of a little love right now. Let's do a sale. Palpitation is 25% off with the code HEARTS for the next little while. It's on both ravelry and payhip. And, well, I'm going to spend a non-trivial part of this cold, snowy day (no really, actual blizzard, the sort where the only responsible thing to do is to stay home and burrow under blankets and hope the power doesn't go out) knitting these, and you are officially invited to do the same. I'll post some stuff on stories as the day [...]

Ok, we'll hit the highlights first, because I know we all have short attention spans these days. Stochastic is out on both ravelry and payhip (use the code RANDOM for 10% off for the first few days the pattern is out). The yarn is specially dyed just for this pattern from Gauge Dye Works, and they're totally doing a knit along for it (but read on for more yarn info, you can absolutely make this with just about any yarn). See? See I can be short and to the point. Occasionally.  If absolutely necessary.  Sort of.  But now that that [...]

Look, I was fairly direct about the 'huh, yeah, pretty much the same as last time, just maybe a bit taller' stage we were about to enter. So while I acknowledge that 'same, but an inch or two bigger' might not be the most scintillating content ever to cross your feed, you can't really say you were misled. Besides, you're mostly knitters. I suspect you all have a certain sympathy with the 'right, now do that for six more inches' phase of a project. And yes, yes the yarn is yummy. And so far I've *mostly* restrained the urge to [...]

Ok, good news bad news time. The good news is I do indeed seem to remember how to knit cables, and the speckles are indeed proving every bit as diverting as one might hope. The bad news is this is going to continue to look pretty much like this, just slightly taller, for the foreseeable future. Sorry, hats are often just sort of like that. But this is indeed doing all the things I wanted it to do (and just wait till you see what is going to happen at the top...either you'll love it or you'll conclude I've lost [...]

I believe my general position on ribbing is well known (namely 'fine, I suppose if I must I must, but I'm for sure going to pout about it at least a bit). But I will say that the yarn (La Bien Aimée's Corrie Confetti) is a delight. The speckles are every bit as distracting as I'd hoped (far more than they should be frankly, but wow am I not complaining about anything that makes my tired, gloomy brain happy right now, so I'm not questioning it too deeply). And very soon now we'll get to the cabled bit! At which [...]

Alrighty, back to the hat we were swatching for the other week. The yarn is all wound up and cast on (and yes, yes that branch DOES look rather like a turtle/dinosaur having a chomp on the yarn, you're totally right). As usual, I used a long tailed cast on and cast on over two needles. Someone somewhere is clutching their pearls and is about to send me a note telling me casting on over two needles is a scandal and doesn't really make your cast on stretchier. Which I know! Casting on over two needles doesn't make your cast [...]