Cold Snap

Earlier this month we had some COLD weather, so I took that as an opportunity to whip up a fun cold weather project.  I think that this just might be the first thing I’ve ever knit from Knitty while the issue is still current!

This is the Shroom hat knit in about 1.2 skeins of Rowan Big Wool.  I would love to try the Spud & Chloe Outer at some point, but I’ve had this yarn in my stash for years now and really wanted to use some of it!!  Also, brown is my favorite neutral.

The pattern author warns against substituting yarn, so I will add my 2 cents as well – My hat is not incredibly slouchy – first off – my head is big so I always have to make my hats longer than the pattern calls for – I didn’t do this for this particular hat, therefore the slouch is not as *slouchy*.  I am okay with this b/c I was not too sure how I would look in this particular style of hat since I typically knit beanie styles for myself.  Secondly, this fabric is stiff!! I like it b/c it is also very warm!!  However, getting that 1×1 ribbing to stretch over my head on the first try was an obstacle!   I put the hat on Jason and he stretched it out nicely for me and now it fits perfectly!

Christmas Morn 2009

While all of the other knit bloggers are doing their year end/Happy New Year reviews, I am still firmly planted in 2009!!!  I will get caught up eventually!

For Christmas this year I really had to scale back on what I could knit for gifts.  Every year previous to this one, almost everybody on both sides of the family got a knitted gift from me.  It would almost kill me trying to get everything finished so this year I just decided that I WAS NOT going to do that this year…It made for a much less stressful time!

Naturally, my mother is one of the few that ‘made the cut’ – so she was the lucky recipient of her much desired “Harry Potter Scarf” and some cabled footie socks from the book One Skein.

For the slipper socks I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Lilac from my stash and size 5 needles.  For me, these socks were a TOTAL SUCCESS!!!!  I have learned this year that my gauge is horribly loose so I am a bit unsure if I will ever be able to knit a normal pair of socks with sock yarn,  but I am a bit more confident that I can make a pair of socks that FIT with heavier yarn.  These socks fit great and I was really thrilled.  Jason was so impressed with them that he is actually wanting a pair!

The most anticipated knit item of the year was the gift that I am pretty sure she’d given up on ever getting- her Harry Potter scarf!!!

I had put off knitting this FOR SO LONG (about 4 years!), but once I started it I realized that it wasn’t so bad.  It only took me about 1 week of dutifully knitting on it!  And thanks to my pal, Maria, I had a handy-dandy pompom tree to help with the fringe!!

I chose to use sport weight yarn for this scarf – don’t ask me why!!-so it was knit in Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in the colors Sunburst Gold and Burgundy.  I used size 5 needles on this project as well.  To make up for my smaller gauge, I knit 27 rounds per color block instead of 22.

I don’t have a picture of Mother opening her scarf b/c I am notoriously BAD about surprises and I ended up giving her this early on Christmas Eve.  But she loved it and wore it on Christmas Day.