my friend jill made these adorable hats as a gift for a set of twins.
using the lollipop hat pattern from my book and rainbow chard. she did such a great job on the embroidery that i just had to show them off. i also love her color combo.

my friend jill made these adorable hats as a gift for a set of twins.
using the lollipop hat pattern from my book and rainbow chard. she did such a great job on the embroidery that i just had to show them off. i also love her color combo.

and the last of the christmas knitting… a beret for my mother.
wool makes her itch, so this one is alpaca, and as long as i can remember she has not worn hats on her forehead. enter the beret-ish shape. the perfect hat shape for my mama.
i’m going to write up the pattern for this one. now that i’m done with the last yarn show of the season, you may actually see some of these patterns come to fruition. that, or the baby will crawl and i’ll get nothing done. we’ll see.

baa baa black sheep
have you any wool?
yes sir, yes sir,
twelves bag full.
one for the baby
and one for his mom
ten for the yarn room
and now they’re all gone.
this is ben’s version. he not only has a horrible memory for lyrics, i don’t actually think he knows the real lyrics to this one :) and here’s a picture of the babe in his lovely baa baa black sheep shirt, gifted to him by a dear friend.
p.s. if you’re in the DC area, you should come to this show. it’s awesome… and it’s this weekend!

just three more simple hats. one for my brother.
one for a brother-in-law. i get bored with the tops of boy hats, so i try to do something different every time. this one got interesting ;)
and for my dad. this one is made out of my hand dyed lamb’s pride bulky.
luckily it’s still cold in montana and alaska so these are still useful… unlike if they lived here. geesh 80 degrees!!

now that it is 70 degrees outside, shall we get back to the christmas knitting? complete with pictures that include some of the very little snow we had this year? ahem. last year i made my brother a botanic by stephen west, and this year is made him a windschief.
i loved both of these patterns. not only are they interesting, they also provide me with men’s hat patterns that i can knit for nearly any of the men i know! (read: 1 brother, 1 father, 1 husband, and 3 brother-in-laws). genius.
made from my snapdragon worsted in this colorway. raveled here.
my brother is another good one to knit for… he loves the hats i make him and wears them to the point of losing them. which explains why he gets two every year ;)

i gifted two knits to a friend’s wee one… and these were the lovely photos i got back :)
the original belle sweater. raveled here.
and this pink hat that i kept until i had my little boy. i don’t like the knits to sit around too long, so waiting to see if i might have a girl some time in the future was not in the cards. raveled here.
thanks for the pics mama! and the modeling sweet little girl.

i love this.
i want one for myself.
so warm and squishy and seed stitch.
this pattern by ysolda. made for my mother-in-law. the yarn is 50% alpaca / 50% wool. i only got the one photo. raveled here.

this is a whopper of a festival this year… friday, saturday, and sunday. i’ll be there along with the 150 new skeins i’ve dyed up… and the baby. here’s a sneak peek.
hope to see you there!

elizabeth zimmermann pattern from the opinionated knitter. every year i challenge myself to make an even warmer hat for jeremiah. he’s a great person to knit for. he wears whatever i make him and currently has a hat for most temperatures in fairbanks. but 40 below, that’s a hard one.
so here’s an attempt. side one – colorwork. the orange is autumn house farms 50% wool/50% alpaca, dark blue is my hand dyed lamb’s pride, and lighter blue is snapdragon worsted.
side two – stripes. same blues as above and some commercial wool (maybe cascade 220?).
ben claims that this hat is super duper warm and, when you think about it, it should be. bulky yarns are warm because they only need to be loosely spun to be yarn and that leaves a lot of room for air in the yarn. this hat is warm because it’s a double layered hat with space in between the layers for air. i wonder if this style of hat would be warmer than a bulky hat? also, it has a bit of alpaca and mohair in it, so that helps. raveled here.
p.s. here’s this month’s newsletter!

ben’s eldest brother requested a jayne hat a while ago. i thought a while about how to make this, since animal fibers (all except qiviut) make him itchy. the yarn i decided on was blue sky worsted organic cotton. it is seriously yummy and some of the only cotton i want to knit with. also, it has an extensive pallet of colors to choose from.
the only really lame part about this is the pompom. cotton pompoms, not so good. but i guess the pompom on the original was a bit lame also ;) it just requires some fluffing.
i didn’t use a pattern for my version, just looked at the pictures and went for it. besides the original is bulky and this is aranish weight. now, of course, ben wants one too. i think i’ll do his out of lamb’s pride bulky. but in the meantime, this xmas gift is on its way! raveled here.