It is pretty, it looks fabulous on Abigail (even though it is mine), and it’s quite comfortable, which I wasn’t really expecting. Not that I though it would be uncomfortable, I just hadn’t anticipated not wanting to take it off.
So, without further ado….

and finally,

A big “thank you” to Dennis for the fab pictures, and to my husband for the commentary, making the above laugh possible.

What a fun hat. The brim is subtle, but I still like it. I really like how the stitch pattern makes the edge of the brim a little wavy. It adequately performs its function, which is to shield my eyes from the sun, while still being feminine and cute. I wish I would have pulled it down a little in the pictures, it looks better that way.

I took sketchy notes on what I did, and I’d be happy to share if anyone is interested. Considering that I haven’t read the pattern past the brim, and severely changed even that, I don’t feel bad. I would recommend purchasing the pattern anyway, considering I am no pattern writer, and using a legitimate pattern might help you improve what I did for yourself. Besides, I would guess that if you are using a different yarn than I am, you will need to use her numbers, or closer to them.

Please stop by the comments and tell me what you think! Also, let me know if there is a cotton yarn that would be good to try on a second hat. I’d like to make another, but not with Cotton Classic.

I’m almost done with the Mother’s Day Diagonal, I really am! I am decreasing at the top now. I haven’t even read the pattern from ChicKnits, mainly because my pattern is missing again. I have it printed up, and I keep putting it in my knitting basket, but it dissappears. My decreases are more influenced by the necessity of maintaining the diagonal pattern anyway, so I don’t really need it.

As much as I enjoy knitting hats, and I really do, I hate decreasing at the top. Probably because I never stay true to a pattern so I’m always winging it. Like right now, in fact. So many things can go wrong when you’re closing up a hat. If you wait too long, and then do it really fast, you get a flat top. If you drag the process out over too many rows, you get a conehead. How ’bout the one that has plagued me in the past, which is a combination of the two; I start working at one rate of decrease, realize it is either too fast, or too slow, and try to salvage my efforts by altering my method, part way through. The only way I can think to describe what results is to have you picture a conehead shaped object, (like say, a soft serve icecream cone), that was dropped on its point, and smooshed. Not pretty.

Finally, there is my most common error, which is to do a nice, perfeclty proportioned decrease at the top, but started a couple inches too soon, thus my really nice looking hat turns into a beanie.

For Christmas last year, I made Abigail’s kindergarten teacher a really cool hat. It was so cool, in fact, that I decided to make myself one immediately afterwards. (We’re at two hats now). With Christmas still being a few days away, and me really loving this cool hat I’d invented (or unvented, if you read Elizabeth Zimmerman), I decide to make one for each of the girls for a Christmas gift. One of the problems with being a stay home mom, and knitting gifts for your young children right before Christmas, is that you can only spend time knitting them while said children are asleep, when quite frankly, you should be asleep, too. Another, is not being able to try the gifty object on the intended recipient a hundred times during the shaping process. I spent hours and hours knitting my really cool hat five times in about as many days because, you know, there isn’t anything else to do right before Christmas. (That was sarcasm, in case it didn’t come through the screen and pinch you in the nose).

I ended up with three, really cute little beanies.

That last one is mine, modeled by Olivia. Veronica’s didn’t make it to the photo shoot, but hers is similar.

I love the stitch pattern. I love my hat. The hat for the teacher turned out really nice, too. But the hats for the little ones, I’m afraid, are beanies to an extent. Being the smart mommy that I am, I didn’t weave in the strings at the top so I could rip and redo if necessary, after trying them on the girls.

Yeah, six months later they are still beanies with stringies.

No progress yesterday. Today will be better. As promised, here are a couple pictures of the birthday girl.

Little Veronica is turning 3 today. I’ll post a birthday picture tomorrow, but here’s a shot of her modeling my Mother’s Day Diagonal (bottoms up bucket hat). Wow! what a title.

I’m liking it so far. The brim, where the yarn is doubled, is a little rough. I don’t know if I’m going to be satisfied with it that way. The body of the hat, which is single strand, is laying nice and smooth, and looks really good.

I have a new project on the horizon.

Is this not gorgeous? It’s in the current Knitter’s magazine. Nate came home with it a few days ago (I told you he’s one in a million). The stitch pattern is called Lily of the Valley, which happens to be my birthday flower.

I went to Skeins! on Saturday to look for suitable yarn. What a wonderful store! Aside from having beautiful yarn, they are friendly and interested in their customers’ work. I definitely felt doted on, and you should have seen the commotion they made over Olivia and her scarf.

I came home with a ball of this:

It’s Kid Seta, by Madil. It’s a beautiful mohair and silk blend. I plan to swatch it and see how I like it, as if the possibility exists that I won’t. The pattern calls for Karabella lace mohair, which is blended with merino wool and polyester. I haven’t seen it in person yet. In looking on the Internet, it appears that the Karabella would be about 30 – 40% less expensive, but Nate thinks he likes the mohair and silk better, and I already know where to get it. I’m open to any opinions.

Last night, Hubby, Abby and I went to see the Mariners game with some friends.

In the car, on the way to the game

Abigail in the stands

and the obligatory field shot

We lost, again. The sad part is that there was nothing interesting to watch, the whole game. Nate was actually bored. Used to be, even if we lost, there was something worth seeing. Nada. No spectacular fielding, no home runs, nothin’. Can I tell you how much I miss Mike Cameron out in center field? He has been my favorite Mariner (well, aside from Dan Wilson, who will always hold a special place) to watch for some years now. He’s amazing out there. (Sigh). Maybe they will put together a team next year. One can only hope.

So, I was really glad I brought something fun to do

Notice the bag? Blue Tote made her debut yesterday. She was received very well. I’m kind of liking the flare at the top. It makes the contents of the purse much more accessible, which was good last night in view of the fact that it was crammed full of stuff for the game. As for the Mother’s Day Diagonal: HA! I got the stinking thing right! Well, so far at least. See the stitch pattern? It’s so pretty!

Can I tell you that much of the entire row of seats we were sitting in were laughing at me? I slipped half the stitches onto another circular, put it on my head, and looked at myself in a compact mirror. In trying to decide if I was going to add the contrasting color, or knit it straight, I held different skeins of yarn on top of my head, and asked the general surrounds their opinion. They didn’t mind. They were bored too.

People that know me now don’t believe that I used to be painfully shy. I really was. I’m so glad that’s over.

Thus far, I’m really liking my hat. I cast on 108 stitches this time around, as opposed to the 144 the first time. A HUGE difference. Over 12 rounds, I’ve decreased to 72 and switched to one strand of yarn. I’ve worked about six rows from that point so far. Fingers are crossed.

PS- I followed advice from the peanut gallery at the game, and am knitting the whole thing red. Also, I don’t think I’ve said yet, but the yarn is Cotton Classic by Tahki.

Why, it’s a red frog!

The faith I talked about yesterday has evaporated. My brim is still huge, despite numerous additional decreases. I’m about 20 or so stitches away from this thing staying on my head, and I’ve already got ruffle action going on. SO, I am going to frog and try again. But before I do…..

I took a picture.

This is my attempt at a self portrait, in the mirror, without a flash. (Hence, I’m yellow). Notice the camera? I will once again thank cousin Elisa for donating it to the Poor Miss FInch cause. THANKS!

It is difficult to see the diagonal pattern on the top here, but you can see it on the left, underneath. Please note that the hat is going all the way around my head and still being stretched out like that.

To recap: this is the Bottom’s Up pattern, downloaded from ChicKnits, that I am knitting with the yarn I received for Mother’s Day. I am foolishly messing with the pattern on my first attempt by adding a diagonal stitch. I swatched, it was the correct gauge, and now I have a bucket hat brim for an elephant. Aside from the size issue, I’m loving the way this looks. Today is going to be insane, so I think that tomorrow I’m going to head to a LYS (Skeins! in Bellevue in fact) and pick up a good contrasting color. I want a stripe right above the brim on trial #2. I think it will look better that way, and if not, I’ll frog again. I really don’t mind. Yet. This is constructive frogging. Constructive frogging means that I have learned something. For instance, I have learned that I want the brim 12 rows tall. I have learned that I prefer the look of K2tog decreases before knitting the purls over P2tog decreases at the end of the purls. I have additionally come to the conclusion that my swatch lied to me!!!!!

Question for those of you experienced with cotton yarns: Does blocking cotton have the same effect as blocking wool? Looking at what I’ve got, I’d like it to lay a little smoother.

I have begun the diagonal Bottoms Up, and so far, it is going well. I like the diagonal pattern and it is fun to do. I am at the stage in the pattern, where I’m making the brim longer, before the final decrease to start the head bit, and I’m not sure how this is going to work. It is HUGE! I don’t think that decreasing 10 more stitches and switching to one strand of yarn is going to make this thing fit my head. My gauge swatch was correct, so I’m continuing on faith. If it doesn’t work, I’ll try more decreases. I am having a lot of fun with it.

Here’s a close up. I hope you can see the pattern.

I’m not sure how I feel about the sheen on this yarn. It’s kind of weird.

And now, since I have quite the back up of photos, and no gallery to put them in, here’s another hat photo. I made two and sent one to my sister.

This was one of my first attempts at breaking out and creating something unique.

Part 1

It is done! It is beautiful! The washing machine beckons!

Measurements before felting:

Bag- side panel is 15 inches tall, bag is 16 inches wide.
Pouch- 7 inches tall, 5 1/2 inches wide
I cord- 20 inches long

It is difficult to measure the total height, due to the handles being so easily stretchable, and the bottom sagging, so I just measured from the beginning of the cable pattern on the bottom, to the top of the side panel. The width is the entire flat measurement.

Ooo, the sweet anticipation!

Part 2

Sniff, Pout, Stomp, Curse, Cry.

OK, maybe it’s not that bad. It’s just not exactly what I wanted.

There are two main problems with it. First of all, I over felted. The cables are smaller on the bag than on my swatch, and they don’t have the depth of the swatch. Secondly, it flares at the top a little too much. Now, I know the politically correct term for this is “design element”, but I’m still dissapointed. In a few days, I will have gotten used to it, and will like it. The initial shock just hasn’t worn off yet.

Finished Measurements:

bag- side panel is 11 inches tall, bag is 12 inches wide, total height is 17 inches, including everything.
pouch- 5 inches tall, 4 inches wide
I cord- still 20 inches long.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to try again. I think it only flares by about 4-8 stitches too much, so that is easy enough to fix. Also, I think that the brown on this bag would look completely delicious with the right rosy pink. Reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream. Mmmmm. What do you think? Should I make it again? I’ll definitely take a break, and knit some other things first. Like the Bottoms Up Diagonal Hat, and something completely gorgeous that I’ll show you once I figure out our scanner.