my little gold medal

St. Paddy's chunky roll brim topknot hat

So after all my fuss yesterday over how many WIPs I have going, I put them all aside to knit this little thing up. It took about an hour-and-a-half (have I ever finished anything that quickly? I don't think so. I see more of these hats in my future!). I came up with the pattern after looking at several different ones and making some calculations and adjustments (I haven't found much out there for baby hats in bulky/chunky yarns). I had never done an i-cord as part of a piece before (in fact, I've only done an i-cord once, as the tie that runs through the Children's Cotton Hat). The yarn is a baby alpaca, from Fabulous Yarn , color is Candy Stripe Fern.

Anyway, I was pleased with the results. It's for the four month-old baby of some friends of mine. I gave it to them last night, and he looked so cute in it!

[Now back to my previously scheduled programming, er, WIPs....]

And now for something completely different....

I'm knitting with "novelty yarn." I know, I know. It doesn't suit the fiber snob in me. But I really wanted to make this Elongated Stitch Scarf for a co-worker's birthday next week. In fact, it's been on my "to knit" list since about October (when I was going to do it for several Christmas presents and then didn't). I loved the way it looked in Numei's Stained Glass Yarn , as seen here . (Didn't schrodinger do a lovely job?)

So I cast on Thursday and have got about 3 feet done. I find ribbon yarn to be a bit tricky and slow to work with, but so far I am pleased with the results. It took me a few inches to get the hang of it, but I think I've got it now. The birthday is Thursday, and it should definitely be done by then.

Meanwhile, multiple projects are languishing:

• my Year of the Sweater KAL sweater for me - Stitch 'n Bitch To Dye For pattern. I finished the back but then got absorbed in the Anniversary Sweater and haven't done a thing since January 16.

• the Anniversary Sweater - did one underarm kitchener stitch seam, ended up with holes on either end. Still need to fix that, do the other underarm, and weave in multiple ends. Maybe I'll finish it while it's still cool enough to wear a sweater....

• my Anthropologie-inspired capelet - I'm maybe halfway done. I want to finish this in time for Easter, to wear with a dress I'm planning on sewing myself (yeah, when am I going to do that?)

• a baby blanket that was going to be for a baby who is now 4 months old and will probably be a toddler before I finish. It's a handwashable and I've decided I'm the only person I know who would willingly handwash a baby blanket, so I'm just going to keep it for one of my boys.

Even with all of these unfinished projects, my next priority really must be a pair of socks for my dad, whose birthday is March 15th. And I've been intending to knit the boys each a pair of the LTK Stripey Slippers (bought the pattern in December, already have the wool) and each a pair of LTK Picky Pants longies (bought the pattern and the wool in October). And I keep looking at spring sweaters and vests for them too. *Sigh* - sometimes I wish I could just knit all the time....

Why yes, officer. I was knitting at that traffic light.

So I didn't actually get pulled over, but I did knit furtively at every stoplight yesterday, frantically trying to get these organic cotton washcloths done for My Old Man's older son's birthday (tomorrow - not that he will get them then, since he lives in England!).

I love this Pakucho organic cotton - once it's knit. It looks great and feels great, and I really like the soft natural colors it comes in. But knitting with it was kind of a pain. A bit rough on the fingers.


I did three cloths - bamboo stitch (my first time with this stitch - I really like how it looks); Chinese Waves; and good ol' diagonal garter stitch. I added a couple of bars of Dr. Bronner's Hemp Pure-Castile organic soap, and I thought it made a nice little bath set.



Suki liked it too. :)

Just a sweet pic

It doesn't have anything to do with knitting, but it makes me smile. This is Little Buddha, seeking enlightenment - he's gone to sleep with a book in each hand.

In knitting news, I gave the Malabrigo socks to the Best Administrative Assistant today and she loved them. I was so pleased.

First socks - done!

Here they are, just in time to give them to the Best Administrative Assistant in the World, for her birthday. I'm really happy with how they turned out, though they are slouchier than I expected/wanted. They used less yarn than what the pattern indicated, which means I have Malabrigo to spare. Woohoo!

The Anniversary Sweater: now in post-production

I am so excited to report that I finished knitting the Anniversary Sweater for My Old Man tonight! I still have to kitchener the underarm seams (12 stitches under each arm) and weave in the ends (which will take awhile, I'm afraid), but otherwise it's an actual sweater. My Old Man hasn't tried it on yet, but I have, and I was delighted to discover that it looks pretty much like a normal sweater.

I started knitting it one month ago yesterday, ran into two glitches in the pattern (including one today), had to frog the sleeves b/c they were longer than I wanted (that set me back at least two days), messed up the decreases in one place b/c of a stitch marker that slipped off while Tiny Dancer distracted me (and I put it back in the wrong place and knit 4 more rounds before realizing - and I didn't frog, I just left the mistake, er, original design feature, in), and I started the Knitting Olympics 10 days ago leaving the sweater to mostly languish. Given all of that, I'm pretty darn impressed with myself for finishing my first sweater in about a month!

Will post pics once I'm through with the finishing details.