my sweet husband came home for lunch today, and brought me dessert.  normally, i start knitting 7:30 in the morning, forget lunch til 2-3, occasionally remember to take truck out, and then keep going til colin gets home at 6.  it’s nice to have the day broken up a little differently, and to have something tasty and sticky to munch on whilst blinding myself on this damned Malabrigo!

beard hat finished, and shipped off to mr. Terry Border!  he was gracious enough to take a self portrait for me to post.  i tried to model the hat on colin before i sent it off, but his rather wild and unruly beard made it look really silly.

the beard buttons on and off, and the buttons, at mr. border’s request, are a bit unorthodox. i made them from beer bottle caps, and they turned out quite charmingly.  i think i will certainly make beer cap buttons for many other projects.

thanks terry!

long time, no post!  i have finally gotten on top of all of the knitting i had sitting around.  here i am, finishing off a trade piece i made.  the talented terry border has graciously agreed to trade me one of his bent images for a hat.  no ordinary hat, a beard hat!  i knitted this particular hat up as a regular hat with buttons on the sides, so the beard is detachable.  pictures will follow, i hope!

this photo is me doing a little kitchen sink dying, of said beard hat.  i knitted it up in lovely natural white Berroco Peruvia Quick, and gave it a nearly fire-engine red hue.  super beard hat!

I have finally put my welt cowl pattern on paper.  er, PDF.  digital medium.  anyhoo, i’ve been wearing the hell out of this piece since i finished it, but i’ve been having quite a time just sitting down and writing it up.  Here it is!  available on ravelry for a paltry $4.50, this is a cool pattern for slinky yarns.  The Plucky Knitter that i used is a great luxe yarn, with super-duper drape.  perfect for an over-sized, slouchy-slinky cowl.

colin and i went home to atlanta for christmas this past year, and had a great family christmas for the first time in several years.  i decided(the week before christmas) to make hats for all four of my younger cousins.  they are: emma(in the white hat), jessie, helen, and j.j.(clay, teal, and stripes).  i love them dearly, and there aren’t cuter kids anywhere, i’m convinced.

a couple of years ago, i made a scarf for emma, and she emailed me recently to tell me how happy she was to have it.  thus, hats for everyone!  i was terrified that they wouldn’t like the hats, wouldn’t wear them, etc.  or even, that they would pretend to like them to spare my feelings, and the hats would live out their lives in a stuffy drawer somewhere.

this was not to be!  the instant the hats were unwrapped, they were on their cute blond heads.  i seriously looked away for a moment, and when i turned around, the were all wearing them.  they didn’t take them off the rest of the day, and my aunt told me she has to coax helen not to wear hers to bed.  i don’t know how i could possibly feel more appreciated!

lookit, lookit, new hair!  best part is, it combs down and looks totally normal.  that is, if i ever really wanted to do that. . .

colin cut it in for me yesterday, to pay homage to the mohawk i used to have.  i’ve been in the growing-it-all-out stage for such a long time, i was ready for a bit of a change.

yowza!

dawn, please don’t hate me!  remember, this is my first sized pattern!  the picture is of the tea i finally let myself make, when i had typed in the last set of numbers.  yum!

so, begin by knitting the required number of stitches, to where you’ll begin your welt.  flip your work over and look at the back side, to ascertain the point where you’ll pick up the first welt stitch.  the welt is constructed by slipping the first stitch of the welt on to the right hand needle, reaching down the required number of rows below that stitch, and picking up the purl bump of that row.  treat that purl bump that you just picked up as a stitch, and knit that and the slipped knit stitch together.  repeat this sequence for the required number of stitches, and a welt is accomplished.

step one

look at the back of your knitting, and visually check which purl bump you’ll be picking up.  in the second photo, i slid a metal knitting needle through the line of stitches you’ll look down to find the stitch several rows below to pick up.

step two

pick that purl bump up, and slide it up nice and cozy with the slipped knit stitch.

step three

knit the two stitches together, the slipped knit stitch, and the picked up purl bump.  the second photo shows the completed stitch, after the knit two together.

step four

slip the next knit stitch from the left needle to the right, same as in step two, and pick up your next purl bump that corresponds to the stitch you have slipped.  this photo shows you the relationship of that purl bump to the pick up you have already executed.  it’ll be directly next to the first purl bump you picked up.

continue this pick up and knit together for the required number of stitches to complete your welt.

these two photos show the completed welt, first from the front, then from the back.

it’s so easy!  perfect welts, nice and tidy.  it’s such a neat looking way to add visual interest and texture, or even shaping.  also, don’t be concerned if you accidentally pick up the wrong purl bump.  welts are very forgiving,visually, so your mistakes tend to hide themselves.

feel free to message with any questions.

when i was younger, i was an insatiable reader.  my desire to knit was slightly overshadowed by my desire to read, so i improvised.  i used to sit for hours, reading and knitting at the same time.  this was accomplished by the judicious placement of the toes, typically in a cross-legged position.  it’s true, ask my mom!

of late(the past couple of years), i have been working on more complicated, pattern-driven patterns.  as a result, netflix has become a key player in my knitting life, providing mental stimulation while i churn out row after row of cables, or endless rounds of lace.

today, i played it old school.  i made the rikke hat in madeline tosh, FOR MYSELF(novel, right?! no pun intended).  it’s a simple garter stitch hat, the simplest of the simple, but so effectively designed and constructed.   this hat gave me the luxury of turning off the tv and getting in some much-needed reading time.  thanks sarah!

 what to do on a beautiful saturday?  knit, you say?  nope!  we’re playing mechanic today, and changing the brakes on colin’s car.  it’s been down-and-out for a couple of weeks now, and i want my pickup truck all to myself again, so brakes it is.

truck got a wee bit too close, and we had to push him away with dirty brake dust hands, thus the new set of spots.  making him pose next to the tire we pulled off is his punishment.