The Kim Hat

To celebrate the new year, the husband unit and I went up to Denver to our friend's brand spanky new loft apartment. It is super-swanky, all original 1940's pipes and molding and ceilings that go up for miles. It almost made me want to be a city girl, but I'm pretty sure the honking light rail at 3 am gets old fast.

So obviously this was a New Year's Eve Party, so naturally I spent it with my face in yarn. I believe there were salsa dancing lessons happening at one point, and I know there was Rock Band because I helped carry the drums, Xbox and other accoutrements up the parking garage stairs, which underlines the point somewhat.

But I worked on and finished a hat just minutes before midnight, because I promised this hat to my friend Kim at the Guy Fawkes Day party on the 5th of November, and it's been sitting neglected since then. Now it is on her head, and I have pictures, and a free pattern for you all!

There is a reason these pictures are all sepia'd up. They are unquestionably party pictures: you may rest assured there is somebody holding champagne, strawberry margaritas, and/or something my husband calls a "beer-garita" and I call "incredibly ill-advised" cropped out of every one of these. And party pictures always come out sickeningly dark or overexposed, which bugs me more than it used to.

Pictures now. This one here is of the one I made for myself first. I used Brown Sheep Bulky and Size 13 straights.

There you can see the color, which is one of my favorites and whose name I cannot recall. Grass Green, possibly.

Now here is Kim's version: She likes her hats slouchy and more loosely knit than I do, so I used double-stranded Red Heart Worsted in Tan and size 17 straights.



I love making things for these people. Their appreciation knows no bounds and I am always a little overwhelmed by it.

The Kim Hat

Materials:

• I use straight needles, but you could do this in the round with a nice 16" circular and some double points in the same size, which should complement a bulky yarn. I recommend anything in the 13-17 US size range.
  
• Bulky yarn or double-stranded worsted.
• Yarn needle or crochet hook for seaming
• pompom maker or your fingers for the making of pompom if desired.
  

How To Make It:
1.Figure out your gauge. Most heads are 21" around, and it's important with berets to have a good tight band fit so they don't fall off. I figured on a 20" band for Kim's hat, and my gauge with the double-stranded worsted and the 17 needles was 2 st/inch, so I cast on 40 stitches.
2. Knit in 1x1 rib (k1, p1) for about 5 rows or however long you like your hatbands to be.
3. (right side) Increase row: Increase every other stitch using your preferred method. I did this row: *K1, Kf&b* to end, turn.
4. Purl.
5. Knit.
5. Now, for me that would be slouchy enough, but Kim likes hers really poofy so I used my little ridge row I stuck in there to do another increase. You're going to knit a row here even though you're on a purl row. This creates the ridge on the other side. I did this as an increase: *K2, kf&b* to end, turn. If you don't want yours any more slouchy, just knit this row.
6. Knit.
7. Purl.
Continue in this manner, knitting a purl row every three rows for that little ridge, until your total knitted length measures 6 or 7 inches.
8. Start decreasing.I fudge this big time. Starting on the right side, *k3, k2tog*, then a purl row, then a row of *k2, k2tog*, then a purl row,then a row of *k2tog*, then a purl row.

9. Break your yarn with a looooong tail and thread that through a yarn needle. Use your yarn needle to gather up all the stitches you have left on your needle and pull them into a tight ring. Tie off and sew up your seam. Add pompom. You are done, and odds are it took you less than three hours. Hooray!

I'm Moving

to a new blog for a new start on crafting! Come have some tea and cupcakes with me at

my love as deep


Thanks for being here for the journey and I hope you'll join me for the new adventure; my free patterns will be joining us later, but will hold down the fort here for the time being.

A Brand New Beginning, Smelling of Mint

Welcome to my new blog! If you've followed me here from Lucky Wings, welcome and I'm glad you're here! If you're new, you can still get my free patterns at Lucky Wings until I get them all moved over.

Well, kids, it's been awhile. As I look back on this past year off from crafting, it is laid out like black ink on white canvas how the choices I made decided the course of my life...and yet, I didn't think those choices through particularly hard. I think a good list is in order to clarify.

Top Choices of 2008 and Their Results

• I stopped blogging. Reason: I got engaged and had someone to talk to who appreciates and admires my work, filling that attention hole I have in my chest. Result: Nobody checks the old blog anymore. It is on life support. Thus, my fresh start here.
  
• I stopped designing almost completely. Reason: I was BUSY planning a wedding (OMG the wedding, here are some pictures for you, and I would like to point out that my AMAZING mom and aunt made my dress by hand. Themselves. From a pattern. ) and that sort of took up all my time. Then I started teaching kindergarten. I know, right? Just what you do with a degree in English Education 7-12 and a longstanding feud with little kids. It has actually worked out really well, because through making all my classroom materials I've been inspired in ways I never would have been otherwise, and developed an appreciation for children's books.I guess that's the result for that one. Also I am married.

• I let my Etsy shop sit empty and stopped posting on Craftster. I fell out of the loop completely. Result: Every time I went to those sites, I felt guilty and strange watching the parade of craftiness move on and evolve without me. Then I wondered why I felt that way. Not too long ago I read an interview with Yokoo, who makes super-huge scarves that are like crack they are so awesome. Here is what punched me in the chest and made me GET IT.
  

"Artists are jealous enthusiasts. We are privately vain depressants. If we see something admirable, we feel rather overwhelmed to take some sort of action against it. Be it productive or barren."-Yokoo

Ohhhhhhhh....

Result: It's okay for me to feel mad that I didn't make the choice to keep crafting through my life changes. My frustration means that I am an artist, and watching other people fulfill their potential makes me want to take action. So what's stopping me now?

• Primarily, House. Like the show. And how I watched all the seasons. Oh, how I love House. But it ate up all my after work time and by the time Amber kicked the bucket I was so stunted creatively that I felt even worse. And then I read a list by blogger Anna Borstad (I don't know if you guys use StumbleUpon; it's how I found her blog, and while I'm happy about that, if you can't handle another thing in your life that eats time for breakfast, don't do it). Here is number 5:
  

"5. I have prioritized creativity in my life, and made time and space to honouring that pursuit, and I feel richer and clearer for it"-Anna Borstad

Result: I wanna do that. So I did. I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas, got one, battled that damn bobbin until I finally won, and started filling the Etsy again. Not with things I think will sell, but things I want to make, based on sketches I've done and daydreams I've had. I'm not underpricing and I'm going to advertise. I am making time every day to work on my designs and I am taking my time and working carefully.


Wanna see some pictures? I am so freaking proud of this:

For all the time I've stored up

Here it is.


See this? This is me, and my Cuyler, and the scarf I made him...and a very sparkly ring on my left hand.

I'M FREAKING GETTING MARRIED, KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. The cable on the scarf is from here.

I felt like that was all I wanted to say, it being the big event, the disco ball of life at the moment, so to speak.

But there's more, right? Never mind not blogging all this time, I haven't even journaled. It's been a really, really busy time...Mostly because I now work 40 hours a week and there's no such thing as Christmas break anymore.

But also I haven't felt it. I know there's a lot going on in my subconscious, but for some reason I don't feel inspired to lay it out in neat little rows. I'm sure it's coming..

Getting married means...wow. It means the rest of my life goes this way, and I have to get my shit together and quit wasting money, quit putting off the paperwork for certification, get some interviews and make my life really start. Maybe that's why 'm not thinking about it. I've always looked forward to the future after college, always knew it would be painful and hard but worth it.
Now that it's here I'm scared. So I'm plugging through it, even though this 22-page teaching application gives me an automatic stress headache just to think about. Not that it's that tricky. It just seems so intimidating. Why? I think it's my fear of failure, that I won't measure up. I won't get a job, I won't be able to teach effectively. I know the fear is separate from me, and I won't let it keep me from trying. I was really enjoying not thinking about it, though.

I went home to New York and visited my family a week ago. I saw my dearest Heather a few times and on the way home, I cried. It really struck home that I chose to move so many thosands of miles away..for good. Or at least for the future I can see from here. Instead of seeing her whenever I like, it will be twice a year if I'm lucky, and she is such a huge part of my soul.
I found my husband (it makes me shake inside just to say that) and he will be my best friend. He is like steel, like a rock, like everything safe and right for me. He loves me absolutely unconditionally and calls me on my shit unmercifully, which is exactly what I always wanted.

I will still miss my Heather. I hope life gives me a few new twists so that it doesn't turn out to be as hard as it feels right now.

It generally seems to turn out right. I don't underestimate how lucky I am.

And Carl says I'm introverted.

Check that off the list.

Well, last night I met my number-one hero. Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series and the world's greatest comic genius, and a damn fine human being. Of course, I was only able to get pictures on my camera phone, so until I figure out how the heck to upload those, you'll have to check him out at terrypratchettbooks.com. I was able to get my advance reader's copy signed, thus ensuring my retirement fund. Working at a bookstore is sweet.

Best quote of the night: "I read books that support my pre-existing view that the world is a very interesting place."

Also.."No-one seems to have caught on yet that in Wee Free Men, there is a toad. The toad is yellow. He says he is yellow because he has been ill, and for a lot of the time, the toad is leading Tiffany....and yet no one seems to bring up the phrase, "Follow the yellow sick toad"."

To my shame, I'd never caught that either.

Oh, what all is happening...all sorts of stuff. I guess in knitting news, I made my very first boyfriend scarf that was actually appreciated...and when I say appreciated, I mean I am blown away by this man's level of commitment to keeping the scarf within two feet of his body at all times, and it hasn't even snowed yet. I think I hit the jackpot, ladies and gentlemen. I will get pictures as soon as possible.

It provides such a contrast to every other knitting I've ever offered to an object of my affection. In fact, want to hear a story that will make blood come out your ears? I know you do. It's sort of funny in retrospect, it being such a fantastically yarn-based tale of betrayal.

I made a scarf, oh, two years ago for the fellow I'd been with for two years. It wasn't much, a simple 1x1 rib, but I picked those colors carefully and knitted it carefully out of beautiful brown Lamb's Pride and presented it with love, as we all do with our knitting. He liked it okay but my knitting was always sort of an object of resentment for him. I think it had something to do with his mother, or some such foolery. Anyway he wore it for awhile, and then he stopped, and then as we continued to fall apart it lay in the backseat of his car covered by Wendy's bags. I had a health scare one day and showed up on his doorstep for help because at the time he was the only one I could go to. He opened the door and THE BASTARD WAS WEARING A SCARF. Not MY scarf, no, but a badly-crocheted hunk of PURPLE ACRYLIC Lion Brand Homespun. I eyed that for a minute. Who made that for you? Carolyn! Oh, of course it was Carolyn! Naturally! How silly of me! I guess that settles the question of our future!

Now, in non-knitting circles this might seem sort of, well, not as bad as it could have been, but you all understand, I am sure, that to wear another girl's knitting (or crochet--even worse) is a slap in the face to everything you are, and rather worse than actually discovering him doing the dirty with the tramp in the living room. The fact that I did not come in the night and slash his tires was owed solely to the fact that it might jeopardize my student teaching.

The point of this story is that the fact that I have found a man who thinks my knitting is "bitchin' righteous" (direct quote) is enough to make me want to tie him to the couch to prevent him escaping. Did I say that? Woops! I mean...I feel lucky. Really lucky. I am.

NDK 2007

I made my Mononoke Hime costume totally all by myself, and I was not detected by anyone at the convention as the anime enthusiast poser that I am. My cousin decreed me a perfectly acceptable San. It was fantastic. And we are totally hot.