Turn a Square hat

The other day, one of my coworkers asked me for a hat, and as he's one of my favourite people, I couldn't deny him such a simple gift. But what hat to make? I went through Brooklyntweed's patterns, since I have successfully gifted more than one of his designs to important men in my life, in the past. One of his newer designs is ridiculously simple but beautiful (oh, and free): Turn a Square.


So I made my way to the LYS yesterday and picked up some yarn. Choosing colours was not an easy task, for this one. It needed to be manly, and suit the recipient, but still be lovely and striking to behold. The Noro Silk Garden was the easy part: only two colourways there were the least bit manly, and one of those was just neutral browns. The blue/black/lime colourway clearly won out, there (even though, alas, the lime never quite made it into the hat.) Choosing the Cascade 220 was harder: do I go with a grey or a blue or a green or something more contrasting? I considered and rejected many before finally choosing this one, called Sparrow Heather -- it's a lovely shade of greyish greenish brown. I have never liked how it looked online, but seeing it in my hand was different. And the more I knit with it, the more I am convinced that the colour is just so delicious that I need something more: like a warm and cozy cabley cardigan.

Blogiversary

Believe it or not, today is my one-year blogiversary -- a year ago today I started this little collection of thoughts about and pictures of my various crafty efforts. It's something I've really come to love; the best part is getting feedback from people who have seen my meager though eager efforts and enjoyed them, in one way or another.

Here are a couple more little projects for you to peruse, recently completed:

As I mentioned a week or so ago, a Koolhaas hat for my HLM. He wanted a hat and I gave him a couple of options from brooklyntweed's catalogue of hats. He chose this one. I made it in a lovely grey, to compliment everything else he owns, which is primarily black. I had to upsize the pattern a bit, since he has a large head (much like myself.) He seems to like it.

Secondly, the completed Impulse-Buy Scarf.
I loooove this. I hardly even registered how tedious k1p1 ribbing is, since the changing colours were so engaging. My only frustration was that the balls of Noro Silk Garden had several knots. I wouldn't even care about that, except that the colours on either side of the knot were always disparate. Every knot meant that I had to find a part of the remaining ball of yarn that was the same colour as where I ended off, to keep the colour transitions smooth, and it was a bit of a chore to restart and reorganize several times. Oh well, it's all said and done, now, and I love it enough that any birthing pains were worthwhile.

Next up: the oft aforementioned Socks that Rock socks... I am well into the first leg and I am in love.

What Was I Thinking? a.k.a. What Happened to the Topographie Yoke?

So I found out yesterday that a new yarn store is opening just a few blocks from where I live (and also from where I work.) I was ridiculously overexcited about it, and today on my lunch I popped over (with a wonderful knitterly friend) to check it out. I knew in my soul that I wouldn't be able to resist buying some yarn (you know, to unselfishly show support for a fledgling business) so I went armed with cash and an open mind. The place is teeny weeny, but had a selection of nice yarns, a few needles and bags, and some pattern books. I thought about buying some of the delicious sock yarn (read: Noro Kureyon sock weight) but decided I have enough sock yarn in my stash (and I haven't even told you about my recently-acquired Socks that Rock, yet) so I grabbed a few balls of Noro Silk Garden, instead. See, Yarn Harlot spent a large part of November and December knitting up so many ribbed Noro scarves, and they were all pretty gorgeous. So I thought I'd take a crack at one. I picked up some Silk Garden in 205 (pinks/purples/browns) and 255 (purple/orange/the most luscious lime green you can imagine) and thought to myself: "After I finish my Topographie Yoke and my recently-acquired Socks that Rock socks, I will make a cute little scarf out of this lovely Silk Garden."

Later in the my work shift, I thought: "After I finish my Topographie Yoke, but before I make my recently-acquired Socks that Rock socks, I will make this cute little scarf that really can't wait, and besides, it's just a wee little scarf, so it will be quick."

By the time I got home from work, I thought: "I think I will just cast on for this cute little scarf and get a couple of rows of each colour done before I sit down to work on finishing my Topographie Yoke."

So I submit to you now the beginning of my cute little scarf, far past a couple of rows of each colour, which is so soft and gloriously shiny (I've never worked with Silk Garden before, so I really had no idea -- I am more used to the scratchy-and-not-shiny-but-also-pretty Noro Kureyon.)
So to the Yarn Harlot: I really understand now why you made so many of these. They are truly addictive and so so fabulous. And I haven't even gotten to the luscious lime green part yet.

Um... what Topographie Yoke??