Slacker Rainbow

Sometimes, you just need a hat. When you're me, this need strikes often, and it strikes quickly.
I loved the Starving Artist hat I made back in April, so I felt it was time for another rainbow beret. Enter the Slacker Rainbow. It's a nice hat, and certainly very bright, but it's a great example of good, not great.

The yarn wasn't as wonderful either in color or texture. The pattern was pleasing, but not OMG-awesome.

The result is fine.

I still love my Starving Artist hat more.But don't tell this hat that. He might get sad. And sad rainbows just aren't right.

Feed Your Artists

We were going on a day trip to Geelong and I needed something new to cast on.
I'd bought a skein of Noro Kureyon while we were in Japan, and I knew it needed to be a hat.
A Starving Artist, to be precise. The pattern is by Laura Linneman, of Knit Girllls fame.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable knit. Quick, straight-forward and pretty. The yarn is interesting to work with, and the colours are just as magical as people say they are.
This may well become my new favourite hat, and that's saying a lot.

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.

Bulbasaur Vine Whip Beret

Okay, I'll admit it, often the name of a yarn will get me to look at it more favourably.
The first sock yarn I bought was Lorna's Laces Robot Overlord. No guessing what drew me to the yarn.
Fortunately, I love it (and the Monkey socks I made from it) very much.
So when I heard that Another Crafty Girl, an indie dyer on Etsy, had a series of yarn named after Pokemon, how could I resist?
I watched her shop for a few weeks, and when the Bulbasaur yarn came up, I grabbed it.
Not only did it really look like everyone's favourite grass-type monster, it is a gorgeously complex color in general!
I knew as soon as I unwrapped my parcel that this would have to be a hat.
But not just any hat.
This had to be a leaf-themed hat to complete the Pokemon picture.

I've been listening to Alana Dakos from the Never Not Knitting podcast for a few months now and I love her show.
She's also the co-author of the popular Coastal Knits, and she created this gorgeous hat pattern called the Vine Leaf Beret.
There's been buzz about this pattern around the blog and podcast world.
It was the perfect get-together of pattern and yarn.
This had to be it.

Neither the yarn nor the pattern disappointed. It was challenging for me, having never really done a lot of cables (or a hat that fit well, for that matter), but everything came out just the way I wanted to.
The yarn is gorgeous and squishy, the pattern clear and well written.
And the resulting hat?
Well, I couldn't be more pleased.
It's my new favourite hat (and I love hats!). If only the weather was cooler so I could wear it more often!
I still have some yarn left. Perhaps some mitts are in order. Or some Pokemon socks?
One thing is clear though. I'll be getting more of this fabulous yarn, and I'll be checking out Alana's other patterns in greater detail, too.

Fall Foliage Squared

Jared Flood's Turn a Square hat is one of those great classic patterns that will work on pretty much everyone.
I wanted to knit something for my dad that he would actually enjoy.
My dad is very fashion-conscious, and he doesn't use something out of politeness.
I wasn't sure how he'd feel about shawls, even bold, urbane ones like Stephen West's designs, so I figured I'd make him something small. A hat.
My dad and I both have a head for hats, and we have the same head size.
Easy, right?
I wanted something soft and non-scratchy. I wasn't sure how he'd feel about pure wool, so I went with this lovely brown tencel/acrylic blend and some baby-soft acrylic for the stripes.
I wanted autumnal colors to go with his coloring, something warm and bright but classy.
I couldn't be more pleased with the result.
You can see the jogless jog in the frontal picture. I think it's nice and subtle.
I hope dad likes his new little hat, because otherwise, I'll gladly take it back. ^_^

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.

Expansion started -- wait!

 This was an improvised pattern for Nerd Wars.
More precisely, for the Round One Scientific Challenge: Prehistorical.

The challenge:

Nerds have been around since the dawn of time. That guy who invented the wheel? Totally a nerd. I mean, come on. All the other cavemen are out doing manly things like killing saber toothed tigers and that one nerd decided to stay home and invent a wheel. Just because it was just about the most useful thing ever doesn’t mean that guy wasn’t a total nerd.

This month, take your inspiration from things from before anyone thought to write things down. Dinosaurs, cave people, prehistoric fauna and flora. Land your time machine in a puddle of primordial goop and find your inspiration!

My submission read:

This hat spirals outward from the crown, an ever expanding galaxy of endless possibility that eventually turns into… a human head! (human not included) 
Obviously, it doesn’t get much earlier in prehistory than the forming of the galaxy.

(from the opening song of Big Bang Theory)

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state, 
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait… 
… 
That all started with the big bang! 
… 
“Since the dawn of man” is really not that long, 
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song. 
A fraction of a second and the elements were made. 
… 
It’s expanding ever outward but one day 
It will cause the stars to go the other way, 
Collapsing ever inward, we won’t be here, it wont be hurt 
Our best and brightest figure that it’ll make an even bigger bang!

 It turned out a bit smaller than I thought (a common theme with my hats), but I like both the color and the spiralling pattern.

First attempts at hat making

I love hats. Always have.

They're such quick, easy things to make a drab t-shirt and pants combo a little fashion-fun.

I like to think I have what in French is called a tête à chapeaux, or a head made for hats. I get this from my dad.

Yet somehow, it never occurred to me to make my own hats until I came back to knitting just recently.
What better project to start with than a hat?


Since I figured pattern reading may be beyond me, I just cast on a random number of stitches on a circular needle and went round and round and round until I had a tube that would fit over my head. Bound off the top straight and voila. instant hat.

Then, just for the lols, I added tow teeny pompoms to it.


I love this hat. It's cottony and squishy and just the right amount of splashtacular colour.