Winter is here :-(

Warning -- lots of pictures! It's snowing and blowing and generally being miserable outside, so what's a guy to do but stay inside and play with a camera? Right? RIGHT? Right. Sigh.

So, I am pleased to announce that I have finished a hat. Which to many of you, I realize, doesn't seem like a big deal, except that I started this hat a year ago. Yes, it sat on the needles for a whole year. But it's done now, and I love it. It's warm and cozy and it covers my ears, which is a good thing.

You can see exactly where I left off last year. I should have gone back and ripped out a round or two, but I didn't, and I'm not going to because I am embracing the rustic. Yes, rustic. That's what it is -- it's rustic, not sloppiness. Rustic, yes. The pattern is the very clever Thorpe, and the yarn is a bulky Alpaca labelled Vintage 2006 that I got from Bridget in the Knitters Tea Swap 4. Thanks again, Bridget! I left off the crochet edging and braidy-tie thingys -- not because I'm too lazy to figure out how to do them but because it's RUSTIC! Ahem.

I also knit up my handspun from the previous post -- and I know you don't want to be bothered with scrolling down so I'll throw in yet another picture --



-- into this ...

... which I admit looks kind of weird until you turn it upside down and roll it up a bit into this:


Which still looks kind of weird, but Yes! It's another hat! Just a basic top down toque, as we call it up here in Canada, although some people elsewhere might call it a watch cap. I made the turn-over especially long so it would fold over and cover my ears, which I think I mentioned is a good thing.

I tried to take some pics of this hat actually on my head, but all I got was something like this ...



... or this ...

So that's what you get too. Sigh.

I've also been spindling a bit.


It's a "mystery roving" that came with a spindle I purchased from Dragoncraft, and I thought it particularly fitting to the season because it reminded me of snow. It's a mixture of merino, bamboo, soysilk and angelina, and it came out very soft and shiny and, well, sparkly.


See? Sparkly. I didn't think I was an "art yarn" type of person, but I will admit it was fun to let it be what it wanted to be. I have no idea what to do with it, though. It's maybe DK weight, 150 yards.

More sparkles! I wish all sparkly white stuff was that much fun and didn't require shovelling. I also wish everyone out there a safe and happy holiday season!

Has it stopped snowing yet? Sigh.

Black and White

Ya know, I really didn't think I'd get it finished before the end of winter.


I was wrong.



Yup, a Koolhaas, with Kat hair, on a Kanister, by the Kerb.

Once I saw these start to appear in blogland in black, I was hooked, and I don't even wear black. I mean, I have some black pants, and some black shoes, but that's about it. For some reason, this resonated.

I made the larger size, so it would keep my ears and forehead covered when I'm using winter's other ultimate accessory.


Since we keep getting more and more of this stuff.

Les Victoires

Thank you all for your warm wishes on my blogiversary, and thank you, also, for playing along in my little give-a-way. The original intent behind starting this blog was to help keep me on track on my various projects. I'm not so sure it's been successful on that front, but it's certainly been a lot of fun. Now if you'd all stop posting your wonderful projects and patterns and beautiful new yarns in am effort to lead me astray, I'd appreciate it. (Kidding!)

Many of you were able to guess the correct landmark number of comments, but one of you was actually home sick in bed and rather than knit actually took the time to count them. That's dedication! I was glad to see that Mr. Random Number Generator thought that dedication should be rewarded. Earthchick, you won by guessing the correct number -- 1500. And Meg, you won by actually posting the 1500th comment. Congratulations to you both! Earthchick seems to be veering a little bit into the sewing side, so I'm hoping to tempt her back into knitting by sending her some yummy yarn. And Meg ... well, you see, Meg seems to have this awful fascination with, um, well, what can you say ... novelty yarn scarves. I'm sorely tempted to send her the most novelty-ish yarn I can find so she can make one for herself rather than just stalking other peoples'.

This week in knitting: I wasn't going to join this round, but one look at my sock yarn stash said I better keep going, so I clicked away and am now a member of Sock-a-Month 3. That meant, of course, that I had to get started on some socks. I managed to get two done past the heel turn. I didn't like the fit of one, so I ripped it. I decided on a different pattern for the other, so I ripped it too. Hence, no new knitting to show you. I think every post should have at least one picture, so I guess that means that I have to recycle some previous FOs. :-)

CarrieK asked to see the inside of my Fake Isle Hat. Her wish is my command:

Complete with darned in end up at the top.

I will admit that the colours are starting to grow on me .... a bit. I do wear it, and it helps that I can't actually see myself when I'm wearing it.

And I've been obsessing about that cat's eyes -- you know, like I really have nothing better to do. I found something else that I like a little better.

They're still kind of spooky, but hey, I'm calling him done. Does anyone else find it strange that I can obsess over what constitutes the eyes, but then can blithely just glue them on over top of the old eyes with nary a care?

Oh, and that's snow you see in the background, not lint. ;-)

The Cat 'n the Hat

I seem to have joined another knit-along - Cover Your Head



As you may guess, this KAL involves hats. As you may also guess, since I'm working on my stranding, I knit a stranded hat -- the Fake Isle hat from MagKnits.

Now, before I say anything else, I should indicate that there have been some wonderful examples of this hat posted about blog-ville. For example, look here and here, to point out just a couple of them. I warn you now that what follows is not what I would consider a wonderful example of what is really a wonderful pattern.

Before I show you my monstrosity, let me state here and now that I really don't like 16" circular needles. Yes, the stranding goes much smoother without the joins you get from DPNs, but I find knitting with that short a circ to be hard on the hands. However, since my head is nowhere near 24", I guess it's a "suck it up" type of situation.

Brace yourselves:



I attribute the lack of wonderfulness purely to my own poor choice of colour of Kureyon. I was trying to expand my colour horizons, and I think I went a bit too far. I am so not an orange, green and purple kind of guy. This is Kureyon No. 185, and pattern colour is Patons Classic in Dark Natural Mix. I originally tried to use a dark brown, and it worked at the beginning, but it kind of got lost and I had to rip back and go with something lighter.

As I was knitting along, I began to get concerned about the depth of the hat, as I wanted something that would cover my ears. Midway through, I switched to the row counts for the larger size, hence the three row stripe in the middle. I wish I would have thought of that sooner and made the lower one three rounds as well, because it looks weird with them different, but there was no way I was going back again.



On the plus side, I was able to practice catching floats, and I think I figured out what I was doing wrong before. And then I got cocky and played with the patterning on the top so I wouldn't have to catch them any more. I added that little dagger-type shape so it looked a little less like a flower.

Now, I'm really not into fashion that much, and I generally wear what I like and what feels comfortable. Yes, I am probably a prime candidate for What Not to Wear. Clinton and Stacy, come and get me any time. But, despite my lack of fashion sense and my need to keep my ever-increasing forehead warm, while I have worn, and will continue to wear, this hat, I admit that while doing so I feel kind of like this:



Turning now to more pleasant things, thank you for your suggestions for alternate cat eyes for my Fibre Trends Here Kitty Kitty kitty cat. I liked very much the idea of embroidering them on, and I tried. I really did. I will not tell you how many hours I spent trying. In the end, I had to cover them up with little bits of felt.



Kind of spooky looking, but better than what's underneath. Whiskers on kittens are a favourite thing, so I couldn't leave them out. Monofilament gives the right kind of translucent bristliness.

And just to prove that my toy cat is cooler than I, here he is, sitting in the snow.


In the Other News Department, when I switched over to the new Blogger, I noticed that I was coming up onto my first blogiversary, so I guess that means it's time for a contest!!! I liked the idea of a "500th comment" thingy, but after adding up my comments, I realized I missed that boat -- by a long shot. I had no idea you guys were so chatty! :-)

So here's the deal: I am coming up on a different and higher landmark type of number for comments. Email me what you think this number is (email addy is in the sidebar) and I'll put all correct answers in a hat (possibly the one above!) and pick a winner. In addition, the person who leaves that actual landmark comment will win. So two prizes, one for guessing the number and one for being the number. What will you win? I'm thinking ..... sock yarn. I'll pick something nice especially for the winners. Fair enough?