Homework update (FO)

It has been a wild wild day here, with snow and rain and howling winds. We are all safe (so far).

While little bean and I were inside keeping cosy by the stove, I managed to finish off the last few rows of his hat. I still need to make a pompom and sew in the ends, but I'm ticking this one off the list. Done.

Baby hat, knitted in 4 ply oddment (grey ribbed brim) and variegated sock yarn (Regia I think). No pattern. I just winged it based on 100 stitches on 2.25mm needles, with a few stitches added after the ribbing to make it comfy.

As if babies were not charming enough, they are so amenable to modelling knits even at the dinner table. Cute huh?

Christmas 2013 in numbers:
cards received: 2
cards written: 12
cards posted: 0

Stripey hat #1 (FO)

The autumnal weather has brought a few mornings cool enough for a woolly hat. I've been wearing this one which I finished a couple of weeks ago. 

It's not too thick, and squishes easily into a pocket - but, best of all it works perfectly with my purple rain jacket. I don't quite know how I ended up making a tam - there was no pattern involved, just instinct! 

The yarn was a gift, a ball of Lang Jawoll magic degrade, in a fabulous self-striping purple, pink and red. I think my mother in law gave it to me two or three years ago.

As soon as I finished the man socks the other day I cast on for the hat I promised the jelly bean. I hope to get the sizing right this time...

Beanies (FO)

Life here is proceeding very slowly: the wheezing and coughing enforcing a glacial pace of life. An hour or two of activity - and then rest.

Evenings seem to be best for doing anything - and last night I finished the second baby beanie for 2013.

The multi-coloured one matches my fingerless gloves, so I think I'll hang on to this one ready for the arrival of bean no. 3....

FOs reporting for duty.

Deli is done - finished on Sunday evening while watching the color purple. (We have a Love Film subscription, and I'm trying to fill a few holes in my (our) cinematic education). Here is a bad phone photo of it in action on Monday.

Today I was in Glasgow at a conference. I took some small knitting with me and polished off baby beanie no. 10 before lunch. Then I accidently cast on a sock in the afternoon plenary. All I can say in my defence is: there was yarn, needles and a requirement for me to sit and listen to some people talking for an hour or two.

I'd show you the hat - which is super scrummy, using some Kaffe Fasset striping sock yarn in hot pink - but it has escaped somehow. I suspect it jumped out of my bag at the conference...  If you are in Glasgow and find it wandering about, do send it home!

Hats off... (FO)

I like to knit hats. It's one of the things that I have made consistently over the years. Jumpers, cardigans and socks all come and go, but hats just keep on.

A few years ago I devised a hat recipe which I have reknit many times. I've lost count now, but I think there are at least a dozen of these 'scrap' hats as I call them, wandering the hills and streets and places of this fair isle, and beyond (one lives in the US).

Occasionally a friend will place a kindly request for such a hat, and they will lodge in an ethereal queue until the urge to make a hat comes upon me. I was met with such an urge in the summer some time, and I made this lovely thing, with yarns carefully selected to complement the hair and beard of the intended recipient.

Unfortunately, for some unfathomable reason it came out too small for a large manly head.

Fortunately for the bean it was just right for him; so, it's now tucked neatly into one of our cupboards, waiting for the snow and ice to come...

I'll post the recipe some time, and you can make your own.