i
will be here
with these freshly finished knits
and appearantly i’ll be in Schenley Park tomorrow. let the craft fair season begin!
hope you have a great autumnal weekend!
cheers,
cosy
Archive for September, 2007
today…
September 29, 2007which of these is not like the other?
September 28, 2007notably, there are at least five more hats that did not get finished or are lost in the yarn room that will not make this craft fair. they hope to make a showing at Handmade Arcade though.
that said, this morning’s job was to finish off the last two hats that i blocked earlier this week. lanyard braids and tassels on the porch. can i tell you how much i love lanyard braids? i never made them at camp (although this is a very funny poem about that) and so i have come to appreciate them late in life. i actually learned how to make them for the sole purpose to tasselage – from the brilliant book Hats On! by Charlene Schurch, which i still refer to every time i make one. oh lanyard, how i do love thee
anyhow, on to the hats
warm cityscape hat
more of the obsession with colorwork squares and rectangles
ingredients:
recycled calvin klein sweater wool
my hand dyed thrifted wool
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
thrifted wool
adult medium
blue tooth hat
ingredients:
donegal tweed homespun
mountain colors mill end
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
adult medium – i think it will look nice as a bit over sized on adult small also.
and lastly and a bit out of place
sweet grass hat
ingredients:
recycled calvin klein sweater wool
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
recycled j crew sweater wool
18 mo. to 4 yrs.
and a brief confession. although i am looking forward to the craft fair season, i do not look forward to people ogling my table and then saying ‘hats really don’t look good on me.’ this has only been a pet peeve since i started selling my hats and since i’ve found out that there are so many shapes and ways that a hat might fit. i don’t even respond anymore except to give them a small smile, because even if i try to talk, they tend to wander off muttering about how they look horrid in hats. all that to say… these two hats today – i do not look good in. even the hatter has a particular head size and shape.
any idea what hat shape looks good on you? unfortunately i think it is often hard to say until you try them on. i can’t even give you a generic ‘looks good on me’ formula. heads are strange strange things.
triple header
September 27, 2007midnight train hat
another inspired by the trip across the country
made when i was fairly stashless and living at my friend carrie’s house
ingredients:
mountain colors mill end wool
0-3 mo. – probably the smallest hat i’ve ever made
and these next two i’m thinking of offering as patterns for sale. i still have to hammer out some other sizes, re-knit them at least once more, and figure out how to make the charts – as in on the computer or however. it might be some time. but i’m percolating :) right now i feel that i won’t be getting any new patterns into the world until i’m done with the craft fair season.
blue angora sweet potato hat
ingredients:
mountain colors mill end
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool/angora
size 18 mo-4 yr.
and my obsession of the last few days
green squared hat
ingredients:
thrifted wool
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
size 18 mo.-4 yr.
the plan for today is to find the paper from which i make my tags… hmmm. i think it may be in the yarn room which is a disaster. i’ve also been busting out some headbands for i made it on saturday. i’ll arrange them in a rainbow and take a picture tomorrow. first craft fair of the season and first craft fair in a new city coming up fast. yikes!
and i leave you with the foliage shot of the day
p.s. i just noticed that my blog got a hit from a baby name site. ha! you think they think cosy is my real name? do you think cosy is my real name? tee hee.
if the poison fits… watch knitty gritty
September 26, 2007today’s guest photographer was ben, since my hands were occupied by the
the poison ivy mittens
i always thought that green looked a bit poisonous anyway
ingredients:
recycled calvin klein sweater wool
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
fitted medium, i’m guessing they’d be fine on small too.
and
the appaloosa mitts
named for a memory of poisonous pods from my husband’s alaska childhood
(ben likes getting my feet in the photos)
ingredients:
recycled sweater wool – similar to shetland
handspun by daniela of felt studio uk
women’s small.
do any of you watch knitty gritty? up until our move, i had only heard of it because ben and i generally don’t watch t.v. anyhow, our roommates have tivo and so maggie has been tivoing knitty gritty for me. i watched two episodes, one on mobeius and one on a really really ugly scarf and cuffs. i also deleted one which had to do with making dog sweaters and matching hats without even opening it up. the reason i mention this is that i must say that i find it near miraculous that i actually learn things from this show. in fact, i learned two new things from the ugly scarf episode in between fast forwardings. who knew.
p.s. and what is with the people knitting in the back ground? talk about awkward.
p.p.s. the only thing that i might find fun about this show is seeing designers whose blogs i read or whose projects i have made. that and learning random new things.
two in the size of small
September 25, 2007my morning routine is to get up, eat some breakfast, check on-line stuffs, go out on the porch and take pictures, come in and blog, add things to the shop etc…
so the last two mornings, while out taking photos of various fibery things, there have been construction workers two row houses down. i think they’re confused about what i’m doing, but they’re always friendly. today one of them yells over ‘that’s a red hot chili pepper hat. he wants his picture taken wearing that hat.’ the other one grins. i think he would have had i said okay :)
so, the red hot chili pepper hat it is
ingredients:
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
mountain colors mill end
size adult small.
this one got less yelling about – i was thinking because maybe it was more girlie, but naw… cause peach isn’t girlie or anything. maybe it was the lack of earflaps.
nautical striped tulip bulb hat
this one was knit while we were homeless, you might could guess the ingredients:
mountain colors mill ends
size adult small.
back in the land of the living
September 24, 2007i’m feeling much better today, thanks for all of your well wishes. being sick also means that i’m behind though – so today you get two little stripy baby hats instead of just one. i embroidered both of these last night.
dragonfly baby hat
it seemed that there were tons of dragonflies in vancouver right before we left. and it wasn’t just me who noticed, my friend susan did too. so this hat is (although much later) inspired by those sightings.
ingredients:
my hand dyed thrifted wool
lamb’s pride for the embroidery
0-6 mo.
i dream of playgrounds hat
this one makes me kind of dizzy in the photos :)
but i suppose that playgrounds and dizziness go hand in hand. bars similar to the ones at my elementary school near my parent’s house.
ingredients:
hand dyed wool (not by me)
thrifted wool
0-6 mo. – running a bit on the smaller side.
have a great week!
sickly work, in which i admit that i’m a vampire
September 23, 2007i’ve been absent because i’ve been sick. is it just me, or do colds hit you much harder as you get older? it probably doesn’t help that i don’t have a job to distract me from the fact that all i wanted to do was lie still and fall asleep. anyhow, all of the work that has been going on over here has been surfing the net type and simple can lie in one place and not think type.
i got done 50 granny squares done as for promos for the shop to turn in at my first craft mafia meeting on the 30th. here they are where i left them, in waterfall form:
i also read – finished one book, started and finished another, and proceeded to start a third in between the napping
when i started feeling a bit better after being in bed most all day friday with serious sinus pressure, i wanted to knit. however, i had just ransacked the still not completely organized yarn room to mail stuff to my publisher and certainly didn’t have the motivation to find yarn or patterns or creativity. what’s there to do? grab the first ball of yarn you see and go to the ravelry queue, of course!
Urchin from knitty
first tried in some of my handspun, but i quickly realized that i wouldn’t have enough. fortunatly, by that time i had the pattern memorized so it was nothing to bust out this one.
size 10.5 US needles
ingredients:
malabrigo chunky
for carrie on her birthday (a bit late)
knit in size large, but not very big at all. on the other hand, i don’t think it’s meant to be a very big hat and of course, i didn’t exactly do a gauge swatch. it’s fortunate that carrie’s head is a bit smaller than mine because it looked horrid on me but quite cute on her. look:
and that’s the only time i’ve been outside in a few days. i liked this pattern – it’s fun and funky. the first time i’d grafted garter stitch and the first time i’d done the wrapping version of short rows. some day i will understand them :) if i were to make one for myself, i’d make it much longer and bigger like this one. although, i think i’d stay with the bulky wool for shape.
as to the web surfing aspects… they all revolved around whether the train tam has been working for people. and despite someone accidentally ranking it as one star on ravelry, (i assume it was an accident because everyone who has made it has put a smiley face as their rank and mentioned that they like their knit in the text) it has been successful (YAY!). and not only is it working, it appears to be a hat that is addictive. this blogger made four! and the other four that are in process on ravelry are the same two people working on their second ones. nobody has posted a picture yet though – so i guess i’ll continue to stalk. it’s funny how nervous i am about my first hat pattern. i guess it may have something to do with the fact that a whole slew of them are coming out in may and i hadn’t tested the waters at all until now.
in the meantime, it has been beautiful outside here in pittsburgh and i’ve been avoiding it like the plague, or, if you’d rather, like a vampire. ugh light. the urchin is also good for wearing over your face when you’re trying to avoid the light. it even makes a pretty pattern.
transitional yarnings
September 20, 2007from this roving, to this yarn, and now to this hat
truly a transitional hat. this one has been with me in various forms since my last dye session in vancouver all the way until tuesday’s knitting group at knit one. have i mentioned that i like having stability and routine? in fact, i have a theory that we all do, we’re all still 3 years old inside :) i love that knitting can be a part of my stability even when everything else is up in the air. it calms, allows me to create, and gives me time to think/pray. poor benjamin is not so lucky in his chosen outlet. he couldn’t wait to get on an organ when we finally got to pittsburgh and into our new house. he did some composing along the way, but it’s just not the same thing. wish organs were as transportable.
thinking about this topic makes me remember all of the women through the centuries who built knitting into their everyday lives. those who knit for and through wars, those who finally got their relaxing moment when they picked up their knitting at the end of the day. as maxine, the professor who over-looked my thesis pointed out, it very well may have been a way of creating a life, transforming what the day is. pulling oneself up by the yarnings, so to speak, and, from my perspective an activity that interacts with oneself, other humans, and creation and through that brings life back into focus. it, of course, doesn’t do that every day… but i am thankful when it does provide.
and with that last thought, i present the
star topped handspun hat
ingredients:
my hand dyed handspun wool
with a little border of some recycled sweater wool from my friend laurie
size 6-18 mo, but i think it errs on the smaller a bit
speaking of up in the air and transitions – three new things to me that completely blow my mind: cicadas, cardinals, and glow bugs. and not so new, but handspun tassels also blow my mind. anything new to you right now?
motivation
September 19, 2007i am currently motivated to make green circles
green bubble chaser hat
ingredients:
two mountain colors mill ends
middle – my hand dyed recycled sweater wool
color assistance by my friend sarah
size itty bitty
and more green circles (the other side)
ben and i have actually started writing down how much time i work a day like a real job and it has been very motivational the last two days. the nice thing is that i can take time off when i need it to run errands and do other things (like hang out with ben), then i can make it up in the evenings. self-employment doing something you love is a harsh mistress, but i sure do enjoy that green circle embroidery. maybe i’ll do that for 7-8 hours today :)
just kidding.
lollipop forest hat
September 18, 2007started in this picture. finished on sunday with the embellishments. for some reason, i was really digging circles… as you’ll see them in tomorrow’s hat too. yes, i’m a bit behind – or maybe i’m ahead?
ingredients:
my hand dyed recycled sweater wools
the middle color is cascade 220
size 6-18 mo.
and the obligatory sunshine shot. better get them while they last!
p.s. although i’m sick of talking about my shop, i must tell you that i lied. i’ve been putting more than a couple of a hats a week up and i’m even putting some of the new stuff up. i had no idea it would feel so good to have the shop open again.
