not the baby blanket

Okay, so, for some reason, I really wanted to post on leap day. But I don't have time to take pictures of the previously-mentioned blanket. So here's a project made with some leftovers from the blanket: the Nanya Mittens.I learned from my sister-in-law that my nephew's obsession with the orange sweater I knit was real. Apparently, he will dig through the hamper and insist on wearing it, no matter how dirty. And then point at himself and say "nanya" (his word for orange). I thought she could use a little bait-and-switch routine, and had some of that same orange yarn leftover from the blanket, so I whipped these up. They were super quick. And would have been quicker if I hadn't accidently made the first one large enough to fit me. They knit up a lot faster once I got the size right. Unfortunately, they're cotton, so not the most practical for the Wisconsin weather that my nephew faces. But maybe he'll wear them around the house.

I ran out of orange for the cord, but luckily (as you'll hear when I finally do post about that blanket) I've got a boatload of green.

stuck in hartford hat

So, it turns out that it's not that easy to leave Hartford when it's snowing. I learned this the hard way last Friday. Trains are pretty infrequent and they sell out quick when the buses and planes shut down. Luckily for me, I had a small knitting project along to keep me company. Even more luckily, it was a hat, which was great because I had run out the door with only a scarf (ask me why I'm never ever ever counting on New Haven cabs ever again). It only could have been better had it been socks. (After trudging through about 4 inches of snow for about 4 miles in pantyhose and ballet flats, I really wished that I was sock knitter.)
The pattern is the Odessa hat, modified for thicker yarn (instead of 110 stitches, I cast on 70). I also omitted the beads, figuring that the many shades of pink were girly enough. I used this cashmere yarn from the Purl sale bin, and it is lovely. I've never knit with 100% cashmere and it's so soft that it almost made the Hartford train station seem cozy. And, at 40% off, I can almost convince myself that it was a worthy splurge. But what do we think about using cashmere for a hat? It seems a little wasteful to use the softness on something that will mostly only ever touch my hair.

I still haven't decided if I like the fit; the brim is a little floppy for my taste, so I might frog to reknit on smaller needles. But it does allow my ponytail to fit neatly under the hat, so I may leave it as is.

I have too many things on my needles right now and not enough time to finish any of them. Next up will probably be the baby blanket that has convinced me that I'm too stubborn for my own good...

hope yet

after the "boat" experiment below i gave up crocheting for a week and a half. however, to take my mind off being pepper sprayed and kill some time i picked up the needle and got a pointer from one of my classmates this past wednesday. anyways, you can see that it actually came out fairly rectangular and pretty decent. i gave it to this girl at church for a blanket for barbie or whatever.
2/24 update.
and this is what i came up with this past week. the first one is a big rectangle using single crochet, the smaller rectangle is my newly learned skill of double crochet. look for the obligatory scarf to be posted next (give me a month or so).

Magical Hat of My Dreams

When I went to the sale at that knitting store in Chicago, I knew I wanted to buy some Noro yarn, and I thought I might buy something matching so I could attempt to make this hat. I fully expected to fail completely. But I was looking forward to doing something else with the yarn.


Imagine my surprise when it turned out like so. I think I might have knit this in a little over a week. Granted, there were three full days of flying and lots of sitting around time in there, but STILL. Double stranded hat!!

I would like to thank those people in the world who received my first attempts at double stranded knitting last year around this time in such good humor. Those projects (no pictures, thank goodness) really did teach me about everything that could go wrong with this kind of knitting and pattern, and apparently the lessons stuck.

Pattern from knitty.com: http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTtam.html
Just a note: I never did stretch the hat out over a plate. Honestly, I kept expecting it to fall apart during the first couple days of its completion, and then the semester took over my life. But I like as it, quite a bit.