Hedgehog Knits

Adventures in knitting from the eastern edge of Canada.

Monday, December 11, 2006

A Colourful Weekend

I started out this weekend with the goal of knitting an earflap hat for my brother-in-law. I had plenty of ends of worsted weight wool to do fun stranded patterns, so I decided I'd pretty much wing it. I figured that 100 stitches on a 4.5 mm circular would do the trick. Well, I got halfway done and realized that it was going to be too small (gauge swatch? Um yeah, about that.... I didn't do one). But luckily, at around the same time, I realized that I really liked the colours, and hey, I could use a warm winter hat. Besides, I had tons of wool. So I finished it off, added a double-crochet edge (I already have enough ear flaps!), and came up with my new favourite hat:

Did you recognize the Kool Aid colours? (Purple and chartreuse.) It's very warm and fits perfectly.

Now please don't think that hubby's brother has been forgotten in all of this. The first hat was finished on Saturday morning. On to another one, this time with 110 stitches and ear flaps:


I borrowed the ear flap part from Vinter Lue, though I up-sized them a little to account for the finer yarn. The rest I made up on the fly, with reference to the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules for sizing info. It took several iterations and much frogging to get the colour pattern just right. First I put purple in but it looked a little too girly. Then I re-knit it but the top shaping came out all funny. I worked on it through two movies on Saturday night, and this is the final version after blocking. I love the little point on top. I really hope he likes it - I find him a little hard to predict sometimes.

On Sunday, I decided I needed a little something to add to a Secret Santa gift for a party that evening. It's always the last minute with me. Anyway, I looked through my finer yarn stash and decided to do another mini-stocking ornament, but hey, why not try fair isle this time?!







Cute, no?

The colour's a bit off here, but you get the idea. The top is in Jo Sharp Rare comfort Kid Mohair (leftover scraps) in garter stitch, and the rest is sock wool in stockinette. It's a 28-st sock on 1 mm dpns, with a little heel flap and everything. The recipient seemed pleased, and now several people at the party (my Guiding friends) want me to teach them to knit in January. I've never taught an adult to knit before, much less a big group, so this could get interesting!

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