Lotus Hat

So I've been busy these last few days catching up on some knitting. I've made some good progress on the Little Minx socks and the zauberball is showing up the textured pattern very nicely but the horizontal stripes haven't made an appearance as yet. Hopefully a good night of knitting this evening will change that and I'll take some photos to show you the difference.

But I do have a finished hat to show you - the Lotus hat designed by uptownpurls. The pattern is free, knitted in aranweight and is a nice quick knit. It's charted rather than written but its very simple to follow.

The only thing to watch out for is when the decreases change slant - you can see the criss cross pattern in the picture? One ridge is created by a K2tog decrease shifting one stitch for about 4 rows or so, then it starts a new ridge in the opposite direction. You need to use an SSK decrease here to keep the new ridge definition. The chart is very clear and tells you this but I didn't notice at first and had to take back a few rows - which was a pain with all the lace YO's floating around. If you do make a mistake and have to rip back, check your needle count before carrying on;-)) It'll be a YO missed out somewhere along the row.

But if you are much more with it than me:-) then you will rattle through this lovely design. It's designed as a beanie but also has instructions to increase the length as well if you prefer a longer hat. When it says the beanie version will just touch the ears - it means exactly that! I was worried it was a little too neat for me but now I've blocked it and set it to dry on the dummy head, it's grown slightly - just enough to be a better fit. Some knitters on ravelry have said that the larger size is too big and have to turn the rib edging over to fit better so maybe 3 pattern repeats and blocking is the best answer for a small/medium sized head and 4 pattern repeats for a large?

Overall, I love the pattern - a simple lace knit with impressive results. The decreasing for the crown is very cleverly written and the pattern flows seamlessly. Well worth the effort this one:-)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas......

I'm sure something happens in December - normal time must get compressed  because I just don't seem to have as much knitting time in December compared to every other month:-)) I plan, I knit, I even work out 'realistically' just how long each item will take to make, faint, revise list, repeat....... until I have a manageable list, of sorts.

But this year, I actually put less on my making list and I foolishly considered myself ahead of the game this year - ha, ha, ha. The fates do have a way of coming back to bite you when you think these things:-)

I've even noticed how much faster I get at knitting in December. Last year I was churning out mittens, gloves and hats at a scary speed. ( I also wondered why there were very little knitting projects for the next fortnight and remembered the knitting cramp I got in my hands every time I even thought about picking up a pair of needles;-))

But this year, things have just gone pear shaped. I don't really know why. What should have been a few simple knits have somehow become huge never ending projects. Jinxed, every one!  Stitches slip off and run back, simple maths won't add up, patterns knit up super tight and not to gauge - sigh! The knitting fates have a few more spanners up there waiting, I'm sure, and being tired and out of love with knitting right now, I've decided to take heed and throw in the making towel this christmas.

But instead of feeling the accustomed guilt, I just feel relief! Whew! I didn't realise I was getting quite so stressed about the whole thing. And if I'm not happy then the knitting becomes a chore and these are gifts that should be made with love, not lots of curse words:-))

So, although I have actually got a few finished things, like this new pink 'turn a square' hat and even a half finished pair of matching mittens, I think either I can keep them for birthdays or if I'm really smart, get a head start on christmas for next year!! But just don't tell the fates quite yet ..........:-)

Turn a square... or two

It always happens at this time of the year - the knitting rush towards christmas is on and the gaps between posts gets longer! So much making going on that I can't show you quite yet but for now you can get a peek at the hat I finished last night. The weather is so dull today I had to use a lamp for photos but you can see it's a stripey blue beanie from Jared Flood's 'Turn a Square' pattern.

The pattern is super easy to knit up and I finished this in an afternoon/evening. It's worked in worsted weight using one solid and one tonal yarn. The lighter stripe is my tonal yarn but it is very subtle in these photos. I think the contrast between the two yarns may be too much - it gives really definite stripes but the tonal subtleties are a bit lost. Maybe having the lighter colour as the predominant one would help.

I used two DK yarns  - which didn't seem the same thickness, go figure! -  so I had to make some pattern alternations. The pattern calls for stripes in 2 rows, then 3 row thicknesses. My thinner yarn was for the three rows but didn't look much thicker than my chunkier two row yarn so I ended up knitting 4 instead. Now this is finished I'm thinking it is an excellent beanie but a bit neat to be flattering for the people I have it in mind for as presents so I'm going to cast on a few more stitches for the next one to give a slightly looser fit.

And I've even got the yarn all ready waiting to be cast on:-) It has a slight yellow tinge from the artificial light but this should knit up to be a lovely soft tonal pink and grey hat. I may change the solid colour to a grey tone but it depends if I have any in my stash! Mmmm, I think there is a little angora left from the soft grey cornflower cowl....... I'm thinking that would work better. Keep you posted on how this works out. If there is decent light tomorrow, you may even get some colour accurate photos!

Oh, and there are some snowflakes in the wind this week I have to show you - metaphorically speaking:-) Now back to some christmas speed knitting....... see you soon!