WIP: Irish Walking Hat

The cap fever continues! I started working on my first Irish Hiking Scarf for my grandmother earlier in the year; it's still on the shelf, because she doesn't want it until Christmas. When I found a pattern for an Irish Walking Hat, I was thrilled beyond belief - another hat/scarf combo I can knit! Even though I can now do more advanced cables, the two-twist cable will look awesome with the color I'm using. So far, I have just the 2x2 ribbed brim and a few rows of the background necessary for the cabling.




Yarn: Lamb's Pride
Type: Worsted
Color: Heathered steel blue

WIP: Stefan's iPod sock

While my youngest brother has been at his high school's marching band camp, I've been working on a small sock for his blue iPod mini. He picked out the yarn a couple months ago, which is 100% cotton. I've completed knitting the main sock, but I have to sew the sides together. The I-cord necklace portion still has about 10" left to go.





Yarn: Rowan Cotton natural
Type: fingering weight
Color: black

FO: Coronet Cabled Hat

School is in session, and I've been spending the gaps in between my classes working on small items, since they bring near-instant gratification. Knitting this cap went much faster than expected! I loathe picking up stitches, but doing so around the entire cabled braid made knitting in the round a snap. I went to my favorite LYS (Howard's Handwerk Haus) and picked up some more Lamb's Pride yarn to knit a heather grey/heather blue cap (and I'll add a pom pom to it!). Nothing beats the simplicity of a lovely cabled cap.



Yarn: Lamb's Pride
Type: Worsted
Color: Royal purple

As soon as I finished the purple cap, I started a second one, using the olive green (speckled with yellow and maroon) yarn I snagged at a more upscale LYS sale a few months back. I completed the Kitchener stitch correctly on the cabled braid, and the two ends seamed together magically. It was completely worth the ten minutes of concentration.

WIP: Coronet Cabled Hat

Lamb's Pride 85% wool/15% mohair yarn is currently on sale at the upscale LYS, so I scrounged up all my extra change and bought two skeins in a deep, rich royal purple. I was browsing patterns online for cabled hats, and found one on Knitty in the "tangy" category of difficulty. And so, I started yet another project. I'll be utilizing a nine-stitch braid cable instead of the simple two-strand (six stitch) cable that I used for Grandma Elena's grey Irish hiking scarf. I can't wait to make a matching Irish hiking scarf to match this new Coronet hat! Pictures of the WIP to come when I find my camera.

It's fun to lose count of how many projects I'm working on

Yes, yes it is! I've bagged up Liesel for awhile and have returned to the Monk's Travel Satchel, since I figured it was more logical to finish a messenger bag for my day-to-day college schedule than to finish a scarf that I won't be able to wear for at least another four months. I'm at approximately 50" on the strap, and I'll bind off at 60".

Every day, a new project tempts me. This one appears to be so simple, a child could knit it, and I've yet to tackle any kind of knit item that's wearable below my neck, so I'm quite intrigued.

Liesel redux

So, everything that I said in my last post - out the window. While the cross-stitch work is still my priority, I was determined to master at least one lace item before the end of summer, so I started the Liesel scarf again. I had done two "large swatches" - this is Ingrid-speak for "I didn't want to frog back to my mistake so I just bound the work off" - but now I'm finally in the perfect groove of the 10-row pattern. I refuse to mess up again. Now, I'm about 70 rows in!

Unfinished projects, new timelines

Well, I'm back from my summer abroad in Europe! I tried starting my two socks on two circs on the plane ride over, but I kept having to rearrange the stitches on each needle after every row completed, so I must not have placed the socks correctly on the needles to begin with. That, and I left my two nice stitch holders on the plane in Munich...argh! So far, I have two very nifty wrist warmers...but I want to wind up with socks. Eventually, I will.

There are many unfinished knitting projects I have in my stash (Monk's Travel Satchel, Stefan's iPod sock, Phi Beta Chi scarf, and a couple others) but I'll all have to give them a rest for awhile longer. My number one craft priority is finishing my parents' 25th wedding anniversary cross-stitch sampler. Of course, I started this project nine months ago, and their anniversary was back in January...*d'oh!* My mother said as long as she gets it before the 26th anniversary, she'll be thrilled.