Horseshoe Hat

Remember this?

You may also remember that I said I would write up a pattern once I figured out what I did...Well, I guess my mind hasn't been completely lost, because I found a piece of paper amongst my non-knitting things with notes about this hat!

Of course, I didn't write down what kind of yarn it was, but it was something bulky and a little hairy. It was 95% wool and 5% something else, if I recall. I'm not sure what this inability to save a ballband means, but I'm sure there's some kind of meme out there that would tell me. (What kind of knitter are you? Um...the non-swatching, distracted, ballband-loser kind, apparently.)

Here's what I did.

Gauge: 4 sts/inch

To start:

CO 80 sts & join for working in the round, being careful not to twist. Place marker to indicate beginning of round.

Make the brim:

Knit K2P2 rib for 4 inches.

Make the first Horseshoe:

Rnd 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (all rounds except round 2): *P8, K12. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 2: *P8, slip next 3 sts to cable needle and hold in back, K3, K3 from cable needle, slip next 3 sts to cable needle and hold in front, K3, K3 from cable needle. Repeat from * to end of round.

Second Horseshoe:

Repeat rounds 1 through 5 as above for first Horseshoe.

Rnd 6: Here you will decrease by 8 sts in the purl sections. *P2tog, P4, P2tog, K12. Repeat from * to end of round. You have 72 sts now.

Rnd 7,8: *P6, K12. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 9: You're going to decrease again, but in the knit sections this time, and by a total of 16 sts: *P6, K2tog, K2, K2tog, SSK, K2, SSK. Repeat from * to end of round. You have 56 sts.

Rnd 10: *P6, K8. Repeat from * to end of round.

Third Horseshoe:

Rnd 1: *P6, K8. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 2: *P6, slip next 2 sts to cable needle and hold in back, K2, K2 from cable needle, slip next 2 sts to cable needle and hold in front, K2, K2 from cable needle. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 3: *P6, K8. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 4: Decrease in the purl sections. *P2tog, P2, P2tog, K8. Repeat from * to end of round. You have 48 sts now.

Rnd 5: *P4, K8. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 6: Decrease in the knit sections. *P4, K2tog, K2tog, SSK, SSK. Repeat from * to end of round. You have 32 sts.

Rnd 7: *P4, K4. Repeat from * to end of round.

Rnd 8: Decrease in the purl sections: *P2tog, P2tog, K4. Repeat from * to end of round. You have 24 sts.

Rnd 9: Decrease in the knit sections: *P2, K2tog, SSK. Repeat from * to end of round. You have 16 sts.

Rnd 10: Deacrease all around: *P2tog, K2tog. You have 8 sts. Break yarn, draw the tail through the 8 sts, and draw them together. Pull the tail to the wrong side and weave in ends.



That was pretty much it - if you knit this hat, drop me a comment so I can see the final product - Love that. And if you find I wrote it down wrong, let me know!!

Copyright 2007 Lydia McNeil - You may not use this pattern for profit or reproduce it for profit; you may use it to knit hats for yourself, for others, or most certainly for charity, but not to sell.

Still Too Big

Even after the shrinkage, the shedir is a little too big. Maybe if it's worn with the brim folded up a little...maybe...it might work. And just look at it, lying there all innocent-like.

I did love, however, knitting with Calmer - it's awesome. The hat, even after washing & drying pretty roughly, feels like the knees of your favorite jeans. It's soft and velvety, and the yarn has a little elasticity, so it should knit to fit unless you're a gaugiot (that's gauge-idiot, i.e. someone like me).

Speaking of Calmer, I was down at The Grove last week, browsing (There isn't a ton of yarn there, but what they have is good quality and they have a multitude of cool stuff for ribbon embroidery, books, cards, and assorted other inspirations; plus it's across from Rebecca's) - they had an unbanded ball they let me have for practically free. It's sort of a light lavender so maybe it'll be a shedir for Mary. (Which will probably fit John if I haven't learned my lesson, and I guess he can wear it to the Gay Pride Parade and people will wonder just what kind of marriage we have, exactly. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

And today, even more Calmer. A brickish red, bought at Knitting in La Jolla (my LYS, lucky me) along with size 1 addi turbos to start that new shedir. I'm a little afraid of the addis for this yarn - it's kind of slippy. John suggested surfboard wax, or possibly a little steel wool action, to which I said, "Yeah, no." I'll just try to be a little more careful.



Clearly, Patty believes in being Calmer herself.

Ho Hum.

I've just finished a lace scarf that I knit mainly to be able to invoke the OO/OI rule. I'm not crazy about it - we'll have to see if it grows on me. Here it is pinned to my carpet. I used some yarn that was pretty in the ball but only so-so knit up - it can't decide if it's apricot or salmon, so instead it's just unappetizing.

In other breaking news, I finished my first shedir. Because I hate gauging (Dear baby knitters: Please knit a gauge swatch. You can be a better person than I am. But if you can't, take comfort from this ) I just launched into it, figuring the stretchiness of the yarn and stitch pattern would cover my usual multitude of sins (by which I mean the giganticness of my knitting).

Shedir is now in the drier, getting the bejesus shrunk out of it so it will fit, oh, ANYONE I know. Cross your fingers.

Alpaca Father/Daughter Hat

So, as a result of the chemo, which, by the way, rocks - I mean, it sucks to have to go through it, but thank God we have it - we are expecting my niece's hair to go on sabbatical. She has long dark hair, curlier than mine but just as plentiful.

This is a modified Father/Daughter Hat in a larger gauge than I normally knit it. It's Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, in the light denim colorway. This yarn is so wonderful to knit - it feels so good as you slide it through your fingers - but I will warn you that it pills. I made several pairs of fingerless mitts from Weekend Knitting out of this yarn, and a lot of little alpaca fibers knocked themselves out having a pill party. But I think a hat will be okay....

Anyway, I was thinking about how cold it would be without your hair, and how tender that skin is. If you've ever sunburned your part, you know what I'm talking about. And that's your part - not your whole head.

So this FDH has a longer ribby part (3"), to fold up a little and cover the neck a bit more. The gauge was 10 sts/3" on size 8 needles, and I cast on 80 sts to start. YMMV, so check your measurements and swatch (In other words, do as I say, and not as I do!).



PS Maybe this is a teenager thing, but notice how Fiona can manage to hide her entire body under a single hat. Or maybe she does have super powers.

Just in Time for Valentine's Day...

...something to love.

I am captivated by anything with depth, saturation of pigment, hidden meanings of color. Beet, garnet, crimson. Ocean, sapphire, indigo. Pine, lime, pea. And even the orange I've rhapsodized over before.

Rich colors tell a story. They draw the imagination in and take us far afield from home - to rows of poppies, the seashore, the forest.

Apparently I was feeling a need for reds: behold my first yarn purchase of 2007.



You are looking at two selections of Koigu: some Kersti in colorway 621 and KPPM in 602. And the Malabrigo, so soft and delectable, is appropriately named Amoroso. Just in time for Valentine's Day.

Cabling Along

First of all, thank you for all your good wishes towards my niece. (Who isn't pictured above.) She started chemo yesterday and is doing great - and I'm almost done with my first Picc cozy. I figure I can swatch my way into making a few; I also have a blue alpaca waiting to become a soft hat. And I think I have to make a shedir (pattern on page 3 here), too.

It's been so crazy around here that I've had a scarf soaking in the sink ready to be blocked for two nights! I'm thinking about taking it out but I haven't prepared a surface for blocking, so maybe tomorrow.

I do have a finished object though - I had a lonesome skein of some bulky wool kicking around the knitting corral for a while so I whipped out this cabled horseshoe hat (oy - enough western references already!). It's modeled by Anna, who hasn't been pictured for a while here except for her hands, which don't count. (By the way, she's standing in front of a painting by local artist Lisa Hill.)

Pattern to come when I go back and figure out exactly what I did - that's what I get while knitting while distracted!

PS I'm now down 6 skeins of yarn, closing in on 7, and there's a package on it's way with replacements!!

We could use some cupcakes around here.

We've had a pretty nonstop week here in Windanseaville. Fiona had the flu, everyone else had their regular crazy week, and - the scary major event - we found out my niece has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

FYI, if you have a lump on your neck, get it checked out. She went from having nothing to stage 2 in the space of two weeks or so - luckily, we found out that fast-growing cancer is also easier to cure, so her prognosis is very good. Plus, she's 31 and in amazing shape, so she's primed and ready to kick cancer ass. She starts chemo tomorrow (I'll be breaking out some super-soft yarn for a hat, and I also plan on making one or two of these).

Waiting around in doctor's offices the last few days gave me some time to knit, as I'm sure you could guess. I'm working on a lace scarf that I'll post as soon as it's done.



But in the meantime, we could all use something to cheer us up - and what could be better than cupcakes?



I'm working on an in-the-round bottom-up pattern, which should be done sometime soon. Every one I make is a little improvement from the previous one, and as soon as I get it down pat I'll post directions.



Mary loves them all.

No Knitting!

What a week - I had another bout of carpal tunnel/tennis elbow/whatever, so I've really been taking it easy on the arm. I'm beginning to think my mouse is the culprit, so I'm going to look into getting a trackball or something.

So no real knitting, between that, sick kiddos, life in general, and a trip to LA (that's Ellay, not Louisiana) which was really cool but ruined me for shopping because we went to the Gift Mart, where I saw:

a) really cool stuff to buy that never seems to make it down to the provincial backwater that is San Diego, dammit, and
b) the actual wholesale cost of things that do come to local stores so I will feel eternally ripped off by retail.

Anyway, my arm's better and I'm knitting away on various things, but I have no new knitting photos....you'll just have to look at the tidepools instead. Photo taken Jan. 14, 2007 - we may have bad shopping, but you've gotta love the scenery.

Cabbage Rose Scarf

Have you visited Drops Design? It's a goldmine of free patterns. I found this simple garter-stitch scarf there and decided to knit up yet another skein of leftovers (more of the Plymouth Encore Worsted - I have enough for a small army from all those washable things I had to make).

Believe it or not, I'm down 3 skeins and haven't even set foot in a yarn store yet. Bet you thought I'd be making a beeline to Knitting in La Jolla the minute I used up even one, right? I have been window shopping online, of course. And I've bought books. But no yarn yet! I'm saving my yarn for a rainy day.

Speaking of books, my friend g-girl tagged me with this meme (PS Scroll down and look at her adorable niece.). Usually, I'm a meme-breaker (I don't forward chain letters either, or anything with hugs, kisses, too much pink stuff, or angels.) but I kind of liked this one. I'll spare you from getting tagged, but anyone who wants to can take this meme and continue the play:

1. Grab the book closest to you.

Okay - check. Right here next to me.

2. Turn to page 123.

Check.

3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences.

"When the piece of stocking stitch is two inches high (or should I say deep?), or a little more for a thick foot, the knitting is finished. Cut wool and nylon, leaving a piece about 24" long. Draw the toe-stitches together, fasten them securely, and weave the two sides together."

4. Include the title and the author's name.

I almost feel like I shouldn't - you knitters out there can probably guess the author, at least! I think I'll make you guess for a couple of days.

5. Tag 5 people.

Consider yourself tagged if you'd like to play along!


Back to the scarf....The construction is fun - you increase from three stitches, knit some plain, knit some ribbing, go back and pick up stitches for a second layer of ribbing (to make a scarf sandwich, if you will), more plain knitting, more ribbing, and then decreasing back down to three stitches. All in garter stitch, so you can knit with your eyes closed, practically. Although - big warning here. I cast this scarf on at night, knitted for about an hour until my eyes were closing, went to put down the pattern, and realized I was knitting the HAT. If you go look at the hat, you'll see it isn't really my style, either. Rip.Rip.Rip.

The original pattern called for some crocheted flowers, but I opted to use up a little Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in the perfect pink for some cabbage roses from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers .

Winner Wine Cozies, and a Tale of Two Annas!

I'm so excited! My felted wine cozies won the whiplash competition at whipup! If you've never been, definitely check whipup! out - it's a showcase of some very amazing crafts, and I'm honored to be chosen!!

In other news, I'm working on starting a Fix-it Friday KAL, which will be at a separate blog. There was some interest from people who want to join and get their detail work done, so we'll see how that goes. As it was, this week I barely got to blog because I it seemed like I had to have several Fix-it Fridays in a row.

Last but not least, this week I gave my dear friend a pair of knucks for her daughter, who is in school in a wintry climate. My friend is a very accomplished hand quilter, so I passed the embroidery task on to her, and I'm sure they will be amazing. (Such a cool friend, with such a cool family.)



Her daughter's name is Anna, just like my Anna, and she fences, just like my Anna, and she's tall and thin, just like my Anna! And I started these knucks right after finishing my Anna's - except, I'm ashamed to say, my Anna's still need the ends of all those little fingers woven in, let alone the embroidery! See? This is why I need Fix-it Fridays.

This is the first time I've made a pair with the textured cuff, which is very pretty.

Orangina...

I've never liked orange, but have a look at this Malabrigo
worsted. It is a color I can't begin to describe except to
show you graphically (especially since they were a gift, and the tags
were not included so I can't tell you the colorway at all).



It is the color of the blood oranges on my trees, just now starting to turn darker as they ripen. Yellow, orange, tangerine, red - all at once.



After taking these pictures of the trees this morning, I saw this painting just inside my back door.



I painted it last year on a trip to Italy, and in the details I see these colors once again, deep and true.




Color you can't name because it is every shade at once...




I love orange.

Pompom Socks

Remember, back in the day, how you used to be able to buy peds with the pompoms on the back? Just thinking about them totally takes me back to junior high PE class - we all wore peds and Love's Fresh Lemon.....ahhh.

So I've been down with this cold for about a week now, and unable to do much of anything. Thinking too hard makes my head hurt, so even the knitting has to be mindless.

Plus - I've got to knit through my stash some so I can invoke the OO/OI rule (short for the one-out/one-in rule, pronounced "ooo....oy!" as in "Ooooo....I love that yarn! But Oy! I have so much!" Which reminds me - who else is bugged the sh!t out of when Rachael Ray says "ee vee oh oh"?)

So here are some pompom socks for Mary. I used the veriest of basic patterns from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, slapped a tiny cuff on them (including the stretchy cast-on cuff on the green ones that I learned about in the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook) followed by a couple of plain rounds before heading straight for heeltown.

The red socks used some sock yarn from Knitpicks in the geranium colorway, and the green socks are Plymouth Encore Worsted with blue toes (didn't have enough of the variegated).

Resolutions...

I thought I'd have a picture of an FO for today's post, some socks I'm working on for Mary. But no, I have the cold from hell, and I can barely knit - it feels like I'm underwater.

So instead, a picture from Christmas day of Fiona (knitter of Batman hats) and myself, wearing the very incredible wool wrap I'd just received from my sister not minutes before.

Also, some resolutions. We begin with the tried and true, and segue into the more knitterly:

1. Eat healthily, exercise, lose 20 (or grow three inches).

2. Say yes to things that bring joy, and no to anything soul-sucking.

3. Continue with all things creative, without guilt - remember that creativity breeds creativity, and that it spills over onto other areas of life.

And finally, my extremely liberal, forgiving, and, some may say, self-indulgent version of Knit from Your Stash:

1. No stash bloat - I will only buy a ball if I knit a ball out first.

2. Gifts of yarn are always okay - anything less would appear ungrateful and be less than gracious.

3. Books are okay.

4. Tools are okay.

5. Yarn for a project someone asks me for specifically is okay, as is yarn to finish a project, and I'd better buy an extra skein just in case.

6. Say I travel to a place I've never been, and there's yarn there...that's vacation yarn. It's like vacation dessert. It's allowed.

7. If I fall off the wagon, so what? It's knitting, for crying out loud. But I'm going to try to stick to the one-out, one-in rule.

Also, this isn't a resolution, as such, but I'm going to try to designate a day to work on UFOs and problem children: Fix-it Fridays - it could just as easily be Weave-in Wednesdays or Mend-it Mondays. The point is, not every day will be Start Something Saturday. What if there's nothing to fix or finish? HAHAHAHAhahahahahha.....oh. Sorry. Lost my head there.

Happy New Year to all.

Mittens for Me

The holiday knitting is done, and nothing's on the needles except a big project I can't face right now. What could be better than a little somethin-somethin for myself? I love these Kureyon mittens for their asymmetrical coloring!

These are a fingertip-to-cuff, afterthought thumb mitten inspired by this pattern at Just Jussi using a skein of Noro Kureyon in colorway 170, with a bit of a coordinating yarn for the cuff (Lamb's Pride Worsted in a charcoal gray, left over from a Felted Wine Cozy. ) I'd seen these a while back and forgotten where, so I reinvented the wheel from the top down, trying the mitten on as I went for a good fit. (PS I have to remember to bookmark more often.)

I used dpns in size 6 for the body and 5 for the cuff, with a gauge on the body of 4.5 sts/in.

Using a crocheted provisional cast-on (which I learned how to do just for this! See tutorial here.) cast on 16 sts and join for working in the round. Distribute needles like this: needle 1: 8 sts. needle 2: 4 sts. needle 3: 4 sts.

Knit one round plain.
Increase round:
Needle 1: k1, m1, knit to last st, m1, k1.
Needle 2: k1, m1, knit to end.
Needle 3: knit to last st, m1, k1. This increases 4 sts every time you do it.

Continue to repeat these last two rows (knit one round plain, then do an increase round) until your mitten is the proper width (you can try it on over your fingers to check!).
The mittens pictured here (I have small hands in length but not in width) went up to 32 sts.

Needle 1: has 16 sts
Needle 2: has 8 sts
Needle 3: has 8 sts

Or, you can place a marker at the beginning of the round and knit however many sts you'd like on each needle - whatever!

Knit until the piece fits you, from the top of your fingers to the inside "corner" of your thumb. This turned out to be 4.5" for me.

Left Mitten:
Using a contrasting scrap of waste yarn, knit the first 5 sts of the round.
Slip these sts back onto the left needle, and knit them again using the working yarn.

Right Mitten:
On the first needle, knit to the last five sts (you've just knit 11 sts of this round) and knit these five sts with a contrasting scrap of waste yarn.
Slip these sts back onto the left needle, and knit them again using the working yarn.


Continue to knit until the body of the mitten is long enough to reach your wrist nicely. For me, this turned out to be about 8".


If you've got small wrists, do a round of decreases, otherwise go straight to the cuff:

Needle 1: k1, k2tog, knit to last three sts on needle, SSK, k1
Needle 2: k1, k2 tog, knit to end of needle
Needle 3: knit to last three sts on needle, SSK, k1

Break the yarn, switch to the smaller needles and join your contrasting color for the cuff. If you don't want the contrasting color purl bumps to show, knit one round plain in the new color; I kind of liked the punctuation of the bumps so I went straight into the ribbing.

Knit k2 p2 ribbing, for as long as you want it. I didn't want mine folded over, so I stopped after 2 inches or so.

Bind off using the sewn bind-off method (pictures here ) or, in pattern, or however you'd like, keeping in mind you have to shove your hand through whatever opening you're left with, so make it stretchy!

Now for the thumbs!! Go back to the waste yarn and pick it out. You'll have nine live sts. Place them on the larger needles, and knit one round, picking up two sts at each end of the thumbhole. Knit until your thumb is the length you need it, trying your mitten on as you go.

Once you've got the length about where you want it, try on the thumb once more - where the pad of your thumb is, right in the middle, k2tog to shap the tip of the thumb a bit. This isn't necessary, but it'll look a little less cumbersome.

Knit one more round, break your yarn and draw it through the remaining sts. When you finish your ends off, you can use the tails to close up any gaps in the thumb's base or at the opening at the very tip.

For the fingertip edge, remove the crocheted waste yarn and kitchener stitch those 16 live sts together (tutorial here).

Weave in your ends, and there you go! Mittens for yourself - you deserve them.

Keep Your Wine Cozy

Here in this temperate clime, what better use for thick wool than a cozy that will keep your wine cool at the beach? These wine cozies turned out to be fast, fabulous gifts that'll keep your white wine cool and your red wine cozy.

You'll need some Lamb's Pride Bulky, or other wooly yarn that'll knit to the same approximate guage. This is a good project for using up scraps, too. The charcoal gray cozy pictured here is made with a double strand of Lamb's Pride Worsted, but it felted up to a thinner fabric in the end product than the bulky - still perfectly fine, though. Choose your own color scheme - I had in mind the balmy days of, oh, November of aught-six here in San Diego, but any others will be just lovely, I'm sure.



Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky - partial skeins in as many colors as you want.
Needles: Size 13 dp, or size to give you proper guage
Gauge: 2.5 sts/in (approximately - not critical!)

With your main color, cast on 8 sts and join for working in the round, being careful not to twist.

First, knit the base:
k 1 round.
*k1, m1, repeat from * to end. 16 sts.
k 1 round.
*k2, m1, repeat from * to end. 24 sts.
k 1 round.
*k3, m1, repeat from * to end. 32 sts.
k 1 round.
*k4, m1, repeat from * to end. 40 sts.
k 1 round.

Now turn the corner:
purl 2 rounds.

Now head up the sides:
knit, knit, knit, changing colors when the mood strikes you.
Continue until the sides measure about 10.5" from the purl ridge to the top, and bind off.

Weave in ends, and felt! Check your work from time to time, opening up the inside to keep it from fusing together and pulling it into the approximate shape you need. As you get closer, have a bottle of wine on hand to test the fit.

Once it's wine bottle size, pull it onto a bottle and yank it into shape (a little snug is good - it'll be perfect when done blocking). Leave it until the sides are dry, then remove the bottle and turn the cozy over to let the bottom finish drying.

Voila!



PS I'm entering these in the Whiplash competition for gifts! Update: I won!



Copyright 2006 Lydia McNeil - You may not use this pattern for profit or reproduce it for profit; you may use it to knit for yourself, for others, or most certainly for charity, but not to sell.

Christmas Knitting Frenzy!

Whew....I turned my computer on for the first time today in almost a week! The frenzied knitting is done, the gifts given, and new projects are on the horizon.

Santa brought me a beautiful wooden swift and some incredible Malabrigo wool (every bit as soft as everyone has said) in a burnt orange color - you can smell pumpkin pie and chestnuts roasting just looking at it. I also got a silk needle case for my circular needles, so no more tangles for me.

You can see above our manufactured white Christmas, La Jolla-style (note the felted wine cozy - pattern to be posted soon!), snow courtesy of batting and double-stick tape. It was downright hot yesterday, especially with the ovens going all day in preparation for Christmas dinner. The menu was heavenly - roast pork with pancetta, corn gratin, pureed carrots, haricots vertes with roasted fennel and shallots, and roasted potato fans on a bed of leeks and onions, proving once again that bacon and heavy cream are foods of the gods - and was topped off by the most unbelievable flourless chocolate cake (Warning: do not serve without easy access to lifesaving equipment - this cake almost put as all under the table. At the very least, proceed with caution after ingesting the aforementioned bacon and heavy cream.)

We are off to the movies today, but I will try to post the wine cozy pattern later! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Poinsettia Hot Mitt

Recipe for a Poinsettia Hot Mitt - Serves one.

Knit one gigantic mitten, pattern here.



Add one poinsettia with berries (I know it looks like a starfish with an anotomical anomaly, but it's a pre-felted poinsettia. Really. And I'm sorry I put that image into your head at this most joyous of seasons.)



Add hot water.
Add detergent.
Add jeans.

And like the song says, shake it like a polaroid picture.

I used Lamb's Pride worsted on all of it, on size 9 needles. For the poinsettia, here's what you do:

CO 3 sts.
Knit one row.
Purl one row.
k1, m1, k2
Purl
Continue like this, increasing after the first stitch on the knit rows, until it's as wide as you want it (8 - 11 sts). Knit for a while plain, until it's as long as you want (1.5 - 3").

Then reverse the whole process to decrease:
On the knit rows, k1, k2tog, k to end.
Purl the purl rows even.
Stop when you have three sts on the needle, break the yarn and draw through the three live sts to bind off.
Weave in ends. You can leave the tails from the cast-on edge out and use them later to sew the flower together, although you really only probably need one of them left out.

I made five of these, all the same.....you could make more, varying sizes and shades of red and all, but I was in a holiday hurry. Maybe you are Rudolph relaxed....but if so, keep it to yourself. Nobody likes a gloater.

Now you need the little balls.
CO one stitch, and make a bobble by knitting into the front and back of this stitch until you have five stitches altogether.
Purl across all five stitches.
On the next row, k2tog, k2tog, k1. You have 3 sts now.
Purl the three sts.
K3tog. You have 1 st.
Break the yarn and pass it through the one stitch, and then use this tail to make a little drawstring purse out of your bobble (i.e. weave the tail through your knitting around the edge and then pull it together to close the underneath side of the bobble.)
And you know that other tail, from the cast-on edge? Stuff it into the bobble for body.

Sew your poinsettia together, and felt it with the gigantic mitten.

This took three cycles of hot/cold through the wash; very little happened during the 2nd cycle, so all the shrinking really happened during cycles 1 and 3. I always have a moment of panic when I think I'm going to end up with, well, gigantic models of real-life items that I'm going to have to display as art because they will be entirely nonfunctional. But shrink they eventually will, and, hopefully, we end up with something like this:

Seeing Red!

I'm not a big sock knitter. I live in flip-flop country. But sometimes.....I get a hankering to knit socks. Plus I had to cast on a stranded project to stay involved with a KAL I belong to. (This was before I knitted the Christmas ball in yesterday's post, which I'm definitely counting - it's stranded, right?)

I had some Cascade superwash left over from the infamous off-center placket sweater and some random lighter-colored worsted in my stash. I cast on for a toe up sock (my favorite!) using the method where you knit into the backs of your cast-on sts to start. I fooled with graph paper until I came up with this scrolly pattern (don't ask me why it's showing up BLUE either - that's not how the image looks here!):



I knit in a tube until I got to the heel, and then - disaster. I had to put the whole thing down for two weeks to allow the swelling in my brain to subside, because figuring out how the !@#$ to put in a heel on a stranded project almost made it explode.

First I tried a heel flap, which I frogged no less than three times while I alternately figured out I'd wreck the instep pattern when doing the gusset decreases and then convinced myself it was all in my mind.

Then I decided to use waste yarn - I've seen it done - and an afterthough heel. But wouldn't that wreck the pattern on the back of the sock? Which I realize now is actually on the bottom of your foot, so who cares?

And finally I decided to do the unthinkable. For me, anyway:



SNIP! I cut the stitch you see above, right in the middle of the heel. I unraveled (or is it "raveled"? I can never decide....) to both sides. I figured out I had to cut the contrasting color. I unraveled that too. I picked up an appropriate number of sts, and knit a "toe" like Elizabeth Zimmerman told me to.

I weaved in, I blocked on a hanger (which was easier said than done, bending that hanger into a foot-like shape).



The heel looked pretty good while blocking!



I tried it on Mary's foot - cuz it's for her. My guage for some reason tightened up between the casting-on honeymoon phase and the heel phase (repressed heel rage, anyone?) so it was a little hard to get on, but once on it looked, well, custom-made for her!!

And then I saw this:



Yep, that's a renegade stitch, laddering away from the heel as fast as it can. I'm about ready to burn this sock. I don't know how Patty can sleep through it.

Purely Ornamental

I'm frantically trying to knit as many little gifts as possible while still keeping the plates spinning here. Everyone on my list is getting something handmade, whether they like it or not. The big girls have already gotten their fuzzyfeet, and they've been the recipients of a ton of wooly things all year.

DD#3 will get something....I'm working on a pair of socks for her but having finished one I'm waiting to see how it blocks out before getting too excited about the second one.

Other people will be getting ornaments. I took inspiration from Handknit Holidays, and knitted these balls up from scraps of yarn. The icy blue one (recognize the felted box yarn?) has a band of seed stitch around the middle - it's pretty subtle.

The deep red & white one is in my niece's school colors. With this one, I varied the recipe. I started with fewer sts on the needle, then took it up to a circumference of 60 sts, at which point I added the color work. I knitted one round plain before and after starting the pattern, and then used a charted snowflake that would yield a 12 st repetition around the middle and was about 9 sts tall - perfect for the guage.