How about a knitting post for a change?

It's been a while since I've posted one of those. But since the camera was out yesterday for the mug shots (ha!), I took pictures of my recent FOs and some WIPs as well. So, without further ado...we have HATS!


Eighteen hats to be exact. I made the nine on the left, and my good buddy Peggy (who is blogless) made the nine on the right. These hats were her brainchild. She suggested, early this year, that if we each knit one hat a month, by the end of the year we would have 24 hats that we could donate to a worthy cause. Now, clearly we missed the mark by three hats a piece (though, to be fair, it is only Dec. 2, so expecting a December hat already is a bit optimistic), but still...18 hats! I think that's pretty darned good!

They (along with two pairs of mitts I had leftover from last year's Christmas knitting) are now in a box making its way to Vermont to Norma where she will get them into the right hands, and they will be distributed to migrant farm workers through student efforts at UVM School of Medicine. Thank you, Norma, for being our liaison in this effort!

We fully intend to knit hats again in the coming year to give away next winter. Want to join in? It's a wonderful way to give back to the world, and you don't have to be a part of any big group or organized effort to do it. Just knit hats (or scarves or mitts or whatever) and when the time comes, look for a group that will distribute them to those in need. There is no shortage.

Ok...back to my FOs...

My October charity hat (which is in the box)...plain ol' ribbed border hat in Encore worsted...


A scarf...it's the Noro Striped Scarf (rav link) that Yarn Harlot was all over for a while recently. However, I made mine from Plymouth Boku, only because I had a lot of it in small quantities laying around. It seriously goes with everything! LOL I loves it!

I have a weird relationship with scarves usually...I love to start them and watch their patterns emerge, but I usually get bored with them easily and have a hard time finishing them (as the, hm...one, two...three...at least three unfinished scarves I can think of will attest). But this scarf never got boring. Never. The color changes are like magic. The fact that I finished over 70" of 1x1 rib in a week and a half really says something. (And while I have eschewed knitting Christmas gifts this year, I admit to starting a second of these with Silk Garden, only I'm doing it about half as wide so that I can get a whole scarf from just two balls, as that's all I have of the one color I'm using. If I get it done, it will be for my daughter, and a skinny scarf will work fine for her.)

Now for the WIPs. A basic recipe 3x1 ribbed sock...

I started it back on vacation and it is moving slowly. Very slowly. The yarn is Numma Numma Toasty in the Blackberry Jam colorway, which is incredibly beautiful and very soft, but it is so soft and fine that it takes a LOT of rows to get length. It remains my take-along project that I can throw in my purse.

I still have my Socktoberfest socks to finish, too. I didn't take their pictures, but they haven't changed since the latest shot on my Rav page was taken, so you can see them there. And I need to finish the second Heart Throb sock as well. :::sigh:::

And the project I'm most excited about right now...my Paley cardigan...


This is a Berroco pattern written for Peruvia, but being me, I'm substituting Queensland Kathmandu DK. (Yes, I know...totally different gauges between those two yarns, but again, being me, I'm tweaking and leaving it to fate and hoping it works...I think it will). Instead of using as many contrast colors for the neck as called for, I'm only using two (one of which is also Kathmandu DK, the other is Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed...green and cream respectively) along with the red. My hope is to have it done in time to wear over the holidays, though I fully intend to be able to wear it all winter, despite its Christmas-y color scheme.

Can I just say I love Kathmandu? Oh my...the subtle tweeding is amazingly gorgeous.

The silk and cashmere in it give it a luxurious feel. I've used it only once before, last year for a pair of mitts for Christmas for the aforementioned Peggy, but doing a large project with it is incredible! I so cannot wait to wear it!

On that note, I think I'm going to work on it for a while.

But just a P.S. first...thinking ahead...have you seen this sweater yet? OMG! How stunning is the back of that sweater?? It is so in my queue! Honestly...why make plain ol' cardigans when you can have beautiful masterpieces like that?