Swedish Chef Hat

 The Swedish Chef is not just a Muppet, he's also the inspiration behind one of Another Crafty Girl's cuter colorways. She's got a whole series of Muppet-inspired yarn, in case you're curious.
But it was the wild colors (and fond memories) of Swedish Chef that spoke to me.
So much so that I custom ordered a skein to have it right NAO.

And it's adorable. Very Skittles in the sun, it's a pastelly yarn with tan to tame it a bit.
It had to be a hat.
I've made a hat from ACG's yarn before and loved how it turned out, but this time, I wanted to combine one of my favourite yarns with one of my favourite designers and some mods.
So I was going to take Stephen West's recently released Dustland Hat (originally written for worsted weight yarn) and modify it to work with fingering weight yarn for a lighter, slouchier transition weather hat.
After all, we still have quite a few warm days ahead of us, and hats are more fashion than function for a few months yet.

I cast on 120 stitches, going up from the largest size provided, but keeping my total divisible by 8, since that was relevant later in the pattern (well, ok it didn't really matter, but all the other sizes were divisible by 8, and I just wanted to belong).
After that, i did the ribbing to the same height as specified, then did each pattern repeat roughly 1.5 times to keep a similar height each time.
I did the crown decreases over two rounds to get me to the specified stitches, then worked the rest of the hat as written.

It turned out just like I thought it would. okay, it's a little bigger and slouchier than I expected, but it's all good. It works.
I couldn't quite decide whether I loved it or hated it at first, but I think it's a very fun, cheery hat, and I can't wait to wear it out and about.

Heartfelt Fail

 Sometimes, things knitted items look irresistably cute in the photo. So cute that you want to knit them, and knit them now.
Who cares if in the back of your mind, you know it's not really a brilliant idea? You *want* this latest thingamajig.

That's what it was like for me and the heartfelt rings. They're cute! They're small! They let me use up more of my feltable wool! You know, the one that I bought to make myself a felted bag.
Mhyeah...
These rings are quick to knit. Even though I had no idea what size I should be shooting for. So I made three, to see what would come out.
Then I tried felting them.
And felting them some more.
And boiling them, then dunking them in ice water.
Then tossing them in with the laundry.

I contemplated stomping on them, but let's face it, at the end of the day, they're still fat, squishy, kinda-felted tubes.
They sure look cute in photos though...

Is that a Green Lantern Lantern?

 This is my tiniest knit ever!
After the crochet disaster of the poor doomed penguin, I wasn't about to try another crochet pattern straight away.
Instead, I adapted a crochet pattern that fellow team mate dulcymh on Ravelry wrote up.
Hey, it's all stitches, right?
So I knitted the Green Lantern lantern.
I mainly followed dulcymh's pattern, but made a few modifications on the fly.

It worked out much better than I expected, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Look at Sheldon the cat with his fancy new lantern!
He's got accessories of nerddom, all thanks to Nerd Wars and the need for tiny projects.

This was fun.
Of course, now I want to knit more tiny things. Perhaps even develop some sort of skill in it...

Knit with DK yarn on size 2.25mm needles for a *very* tight fabric.

Nerd Wars Month 2 Summary - Geek Out!

Round Two: Fight!
I'm getting the hang of this Nerd Wars thing, and I'm getting more comfortable chatting in my team's thread, which is awesome.

Anyway, in November, I submitted:

Nerd Culture: Revenge of the Nerds: Bee Mine Mitts
Team Spirit: Winter is Coming: Fall Foliage Squared Hat
Intellectual: Periodically Scientific: mom's Frost Flower Cowl
Technical: From a different angle: Hexipuffs of Catan
Scientific: Anatomy of Nerddom: Movember socks
Giving Geeks: It's Hip to be Square: a cat blanket

Bee My Mitts (featuring a flower)

 I love fingerless gloves and sleeves.
I have a box full of various sleeves and mitts that I wear in winter, especially at the computer, or when writing longhand. I love to cozy up my wrists.
I got some Yarn Chef yarn in a Ravelry destash in colours that didn't quite work for me, so I overdyed them.
The pale yellow and eggplant-skin purple turned a rich warm yellow and a soft brown, perfect bumblebee colors.

I love stripes, and as evidenced earlier, I love the ridges of alternating purls and knits in the round. So when I found the Hive Mitts on Ravelry, how could I resist?

I made some modifications to keep the stripes in the self-striping yarn lined up.
I love how these turned out! The yarn is beautifully soft and luscious, and I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can enjoy my brand new mitts.
Given our Melbourne climate, I foresee getting a lot of use out of these babies.

I need to make myself more mitts and gloves and sleeves.

Sheldon and the Bozite hat

Look, Sheldon got a Bozite hat!

Nerd Wars Tournament 3, Round 1:
Nerd Culture: Best-dressed Nerd

The challenge was to create a costume piece inspired by our nerddom.
I foresee myself crafting more accessories for the squishy little cat who will now be known as Sheldon.

A well-mustachio'ed lady

Nerd Wars Tournament 3, Round 1:
Technical Challenge: Colortastic.

For our team unity challenge, we voted for finger mustaches. The perfect excuse to try some colorwork!
It came out rather nice, and it fits the cat nicely, doesn't it?

There is a real-life application here, but in the interest of preserving my friendship with an easily offended individual, here's only the photo of my cat modeling the 'stache.

Is it a hat? is it a tea cozy? It's pink!

 So I thought I was knitting a hat.
Out of some pretty, very variegated acrylic yarn.
The knitting was fun and went quickly enough.
Of course, I didn't swatch for gauge. Why would I?
It was going to be a slouchy hat, so it was going to be fine.
but I rushed, and I was kind of done with the project, so I finished it a bit faster than I should have.
The slouchy beret turned into a beanie. And on me, it looked a bit like a kid's hat. not a flattering style.
Not even my usual stand-in model, the feline overlord, was impressed. What to do?
I was seriously considering ripping back and redoing the crown for more slouch, when I noticed my teapot.
I'd been mentally queueing a couple of tea cozies. On a  whim, I dropped the small hat onto the tea pot.
It's perfect!

So while I thought I was knitting a hat for me, turns out I was knitting a cozy for my tea pot.
And we're both very pleased with the result.