Hats! With Submarines

I simply could not stop knitting the submarines.
This time, I had to make some hats.  Originally I wanted to use a longer cowl for a hat with a tie on the top.  I diid just that, but it came out slightly looser than I'd like.  So I made some real hats.

I did a little editing with the chart that was originally made for cowls. First, the stitch count of each repeat was modified to accommodate 2 different hat sizes. Then more bubbles were added at the top for an entire hat length.

Knowing skull caps always looked horrible on me, I made the hat a little bit longer for a very slight slouch. Very, very pleased here how the height and the fit turned out to be.

Yarns were naturally dyed by yours truly.  The Rabbit Rubberbrush that just passed its peak of growing around here was used for the yellow, and Logwood Gray ordered from Botanic Colors was used for the main gray color. At first the lower contrast of the Gray and Yellow did not impresse me, but little by little the subtlety grew on me.  I thought the lower contrast would make it a more wearable hat for daily wear.

When I was close to finishing the first hat, I wanted to make another one carrying the stripey waves I designed for the cowls. This time going for higher contrast in colors just to see how different the two hats would look. I ended up ordering a skein of Madeline Tosh sock from Jimmy Beans Wool. With a free shipping coupon it saved me a trip to Reno.  I'd love to go into the store, but I was afraid I'd end up with way more than 1 skein of yarn.  I'd promised myself to save money to learn how to spin. (Well, that's another story - when I saw this pair of mittens that Chris, aka Doodle on Ravelry, made, I became completely enamored with it.  I loved both the yarn she spinned and the mittens.  Something about the natural rustic wool Chris had spunned really spoke to me. It made me want to learn spinning,  And I have an old Ashford wheel with parts missing that Paul salvaged when his old landlord from 18 years ago abandoned it.)

Anyhow, back to the hats, (haha, totally typical of me and how I lectured in class, completely going off tangents from time to time just because I thought of something really exciting that I needed to share..) The yarn arrived the next day, just in time to start the second hat. The color was Baltic, it's rather too much saturation and varigation on the verge of garrish by itself for a large project.  I honestly would not have picked it had I seen it in person, But for a colorwork hat, it's rather distinct and kinda fun to be out of my ordinary pick of colors.  The yellow was Sanguine Grypon Little Traveller, color Mandalay, leftover from the small submarine cowl earlier.  I loved the color of Mandalay so I thought I'd use it again instead of a high key yellow to bring down the super saturation of the Baltic.

Can I just say I love the hats!?  I have a feeling Paul is going to steal one from me.  He had taken quite a few hats I knitted.  Of all things I'd made, the ones that were worn the most were hats either I made for Paul or that he had claimed. He's a hat person, brimmed sun hat for summer hiking and woolly cap for winter.

I'm finishing up the patterns for both the cowls and the hats.  I shall get them test knitted very soon, and hopefully publish them in time for winter. 

Yellow Submarine

I made two cowls just because I wanted to knit some yellow submarines.

The larger one has drawstring on top and measures 8" tall x 31" round.
Main color yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in "Blue Lobster", and contrast color is Colinette Jitterbug in "Wasabi "

The smaller one measures 7 1/4" tall x  22 1/2" round.
Main Color yarn is The Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering in "It Happened One Night," and contrast color is The Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller in "Mandalay."

Both were knitted with US #2 needles.

we all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine....

First Mittens of the Season

It snowed.  The  first snow of the season. Not a whole lot of accumulations but it definitely signified season changing. Where was autumn?  We went straight from 70 degrees in one day  to snow the next day.  That's Tahoe for ya.

I also finished the mittens, just in time for the snow.

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere 

(Main Color: Cashmere Blue, a little less than 2 balls ~ 210 yards. 

Contrast Color: Parchment, 1.5 balls ~160 yards.)  

Needles: US #2

Gauge 36 sts x 36 rows = 4"x4"

Pattern is Up and Alive

Finally, the Intrepid pattern is up and alive at my Ravelry shop.  Here is the pattern page.

I even made the third one to showcase the pattern as a non-dress, using winter yarn. 

 Yarn: Filtes King Australian Merino

Needles: US #4

This was done in Filtes King Australian Merino that I purchased from Elann ages ago. 
As you can see, the yarn had two tones, which added depth to the color, but minus the stripy, mottled look. 

I went with a pullover that ended 16.5" from the underarm with 3/4 style sleeves.  With this yarn, I did use needles one size larger, US #4, hence the slightly different gauge from the pattern (22 sts per 4" rather than 23 sts, also 28 rows rather than 32 rows.)  The sweater is just tiny bit looser, but not too much.  Difference in row gauge didn't affect the overall design, it only added about 3/4" to the armhole depth.  I did changed the decrease and increase of wasit shaping by one row less per repeat.

I love this new version.  It is very wearable.  I'd worn the first version dress few time this summer and loved the feel and the look of it,  but I see myself wearing this one even more often because it's a non-dress.  phew, what a relief and satisfaction after the not so ideal choice of yarn of the second version. 

First Snow

Snow is in the forecast this week.  First of the season.  I started the mittens two weeks ago, and it's going slow and steady.

 yarn: Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere

needles: US #2