November FO: Regular Guy Beanie

November 22, 2014 | Verónica

Finally, the Fall season begins with all of its colors and cooler weather. Between work and stressing over my son’s college applications (he’s a senior), it has been busy. After not getting any knitting done in October, a warm hat seemed just right for November.

For the yarn, I took this lovely variegated skein in Autumn colors out of my stash. I picked this up during a business trip to Nashville, Tennessee (Brentwood, actually). I made it to Bliss Yarns on the one day they are open late. It was a lovely little yarn shop with a large choice of colors and brands and a very helpful staff.

I wanted something local so they pointed out a bin of MissBabs Hand-dyed Yarns & Fibers out of Mountain City, Tennessee. I selected Yowza – Whatta Skein, approximately 560 yards of 100% Superwash Merino. This skein was “hand-painted” in luscious colors called Rumor Has It.

I used the Regular Guy Beanie pattern, a free Ravelry download. The one departure I made from the pattern is that I doubled up on the yarn to give the hat a cozy thickness. This one is for my middle brother who was just elected to my hometown’s school board. I am so proud of him!

September FO: Chunky Newborn Hats

September 6, 2014September 5, 2014 | Verónica

One of my very best friends in the whole world is having babies. Yes, plural, as in twins. Clearly, knitting was in order. She said she loved photographs of babies wearing those big chunky hats. Easy enough: two newborn knit hats with pompoms, for two boys. All I needed was the perfect yarn.

Luckily, The Tinsmith’s Wife had many gorgeous options. I present to you Slubby Blue by Fleece Artist in the Pansy colorway. Isn’t she beautiful?

As easy as these hats were to knit, the task still seemed daunting. I really wanted them to look just right.

I’m generally pleased with how they turned out but still have doubts. They just seem so tiny. What if they’re not chunky enough? Maybe I should have made the pompoms bigger?

The time for fretting is over. By now, my friend will be opening the package. I hope the little ones like them.

August FO: Purple Ribbed Hat

August 19, 2014 | Verónica

I had a knitting fail last month. This lovely Habu 100% linen yarn was to become a loosely knit flowing sort of scarf. I diligently knit and purled alternating rows. Simple, repetitious, relaxing. And then I dropped a stitch.

It unravelled two rows down. I carefully un-knit and un-purled a couple of rows. But the stitch kept dropping further. As I kept undoing rows, more stitches dropped, and dropped. It simply wasn’t meant to be. I ripped it all out, wound it back into a little ball, and put it away.

I still had a couple of balls of the purple gradient yarn leftover from the hand warmers. I wanted a ribbed, stay on my head kind of hat, so I knit one up. Very simple pattern – KKKPPP Repeat.

Now I have a nice set and continued using up the stash.

The next project is a big one, a blanket for the other son. No more purple for a while.

July FO: Purple Handwarmers

July 6, 2014 | Verónica

Knitting in the middle of a hot and humid Texas summer is not always pleasurable, but small projects make it tolerable and have allowed me to continue knitting through my stash.

I’ve been wanting to use a lovely merino yarn that I bought when visiting Germany. This yarn is enriched with aloe vera and jojoba. What could possibly be better?!

The yarn is by Zitrón. I had the pleasure of visiting with the owner of the company. Zitrón is a family-owned business dedicated to making yarn especially for hand knitting. You can read more about it here.

The pattern came from Purlbee with minor modifications for the right gauge.

I have enough of this purple-black-gray yarn for another small project. Perhaps a quick beanie to match?

June FO: Summerhouse Wristers

June 22, 2014 | Verónica

Finally got around to knitting the matching hand warmers for my mother. Here they are blocking.

They turned out okay. I wouldn’t say I’m crazy about them but Mom likes them. They match the hat from the Capitol Knits pattern book. Small project but continuing to work down my stash.