it's the same old circle going round, but

This hat is an amalgam of the Turn-A-Square pattern, which I've greatly enjoyed knitting before, the Purl Soho Simple Pleasures brim, and the Dessine-Moi Un Mouton sleeve stripe pattern.  I was concerned with fit, and my diagonally-upstairs neighbor suggested that I could knit in some flexibility by giving the recipient an option to wear the hat slouchy or to fold the brim and have a more fitted look.  She recommended a Purl Bee pattern with a long stretch of ribbing to start, which led me to the Simple Pleasures.

Because I was using fingering weight yarn (Plucky Knitter Bello in Pollen with stripes of Heartstrings, Old Copper, Fisherman's Wharf and Bastille), I cast on 140 stitches and then did almost three inches of 2 by 2 rib.  After that, I pretty much followed the Turn-a-Square pattern exactly, except that I used an idea for striping from the Dessine-Moi Un Mouton Pattern.  I'm in the midst of knitting a Dessine-Moi sweater and have loved the combo of stripes with blocks of the main color.  (I actually meant to follow the Dessine-Moi stripe pattern more closely, with some sections of 5 stripes and some sections of 3 stripes, but I forgot to switch to 3 when I started my second group of stripes and decided there were too few stripe sections to make it look intentional if I switched for the third group.)

All together, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out and the recipient seems to enjoy it as well, so I'll call the amalgam a success!

 To slouch or not to slouch?

Slouchy back view

and I made a promise to California

So it turns out that the Bay Area might be the perfect knitting climate.  I wouldn't have imagined that I could wear a wool-and-cashmere sweater in August anywhere but, delightfully, I have been proven wrong.

(photo credit: Wamps)

This is another iteration of the Paulie cardigan although this one managed to go much faster than the last.  It's again in Plucky Primo Fingering, colors Childhood Memories (teal); Thornfield Hall (gray); The Hills are Alive (green); and Dandy Lion (yellow).  I'm especially thrilled to get to wear something with Dandy Lion since I've loved knitting gifts out of this color but it's not one that usually works for me.  More details are on Ravelry.

Now if I could only figure out a ribbon backing for the button band.  Anyone have any pointers for that?

until I'm proven wrong

So I have one Christmas gift (yes, 2011) that's ready to be shared with you all. It's a Paulie with a few mods, which I made for my mother.

I made the sleeves long instead of three-quarters length. Of course, I ended up making them a little too long so perhaps I should have stuck with three-quarters....

I left off the shawl color because I thought my mother would find it fiddly.

And I added a second color to the stripes, knitting it with Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering in Flying Monkeys with stripes of Dandy Lion and Faded Grandeur. In the skein, these colors were much more distinct, but I enjoyed how they blended together once knit. Flying Monkeys is an incredibly interesting gray-brown and I may have mentioned before that I think Dandy Lion is the perfect yellow.

I really enjoyed this knit and my only complaint is that I started it in September with the expectation of being able to finish it for her birthday in October. When that failed, I still thought that I'd easily finish it for Christmas. Well, at least she was able to wear it as driving me to the airport after Easter.

PS: Thanks for the advice on continental knitting! After taking a look at my sister-in-law's hands during knitting, I've concluded that I was wrapping the yarn around my fingers too much. It's been easier going since I cut out a few wraps, but it's still pretty sloppy.