Purty Hat

There. My children are hatted and mittened for winter. If that doesn't make a knitting mommy proud. Also, who could ever be mad at a 9-year-old who loves his homemade knitwear so much he insists on wearing all of it – hat, mittens and Harry Potter scarf – for the five-minute trip to his friend's house this afternoon? (Well, I could, actually, but we shall not mention that here.) Of course, he then forgot to bring any of it home! but it has been retrieved and all is well.


Pattern: Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tiennie
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Needles: US 8 (and my wee US 6 short needles for the I-cord.)
Size: Adult
Modifications: I made a four-stitch I-cord.

What a lovely pattern! Very easy to follow, though you wouldn't know it from the umpteen false starts I made on this hat. I had many ideas, such as making it double-thick, and starting from the top down, and doing ribbing instead of earflaps ... but in the end Eli wanted earflaps, so he got them. It is a little big, but he has such a big head I was afraid the smaller size wouldn't be big enough. I want to block it and see if I can tame the rolling in front and back a little (Tiennie, if you read this, did you do this?) but he may not let go of it long enough for me to block it!

The kids and I are off to Maryland, but before I leave I have to post these pictures of our knitting family the other night; after a long day at the children's museum and swimming with friends (AND a pretend-Friendly's dinner at home), the next morning the children decided they wanted to knit! So they pulled out their knitting, which has sat untouched for months, and charged ahead. To my surprise, they both basically remembered what to do (I had taught them the Waldorf poem – "In through the window, out through the back, peek through the window and off pops Jack" – which seemed to help, and they are – for now – wrapping the yarn the way other people do, which seemed easier to learn than my way, though – *sniff* – less efficient!) They were both so darn cute about it all, and quite persistent. I did some cleaning up and salvaging of stitches now and then, but really they were both knitting! Auden even taught Eli how to do mushroom-knitting; I think he was impressed that she could do it so well. (I got him his own today so he can try left-handed.)


Auden helps her big brother.

Everyone knits.

Eli hard at work on his scarf.

And now, I'm off. Happy New Year everyone - see you in 2008!

Snow Day!

The huge blizzard we were supposed to get never came, but the kids ended up with the day off school anyway, which seemed only fair after all the hype. We did get more than a foot of snow over the weekend – we're moving up in the Great Snow Race, woo hoo! (Why does Buffalo get all the hype? They've got nuthin' on us. Of course, we've got nothing on Syracuse ...:) The kids spent half the day inside in their pajamas until I finally tossed them out into the snow.

Two happy children ...

and one VERY happy dog!

Some meager and belated updates ...

I finished (except for blocking) another "Scarf-as-a-Collar" for Auden's kindergarten teacher. It took less than a skein of Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn, with a bit left over, yay! (Adding in a second skein the last time I made it was a pain.) I hope it's long enough – the last one I made longer and then thought was too long; this one seems the bare minimum for length. Maybe blocking will help some.

And I'm mostly done with a pair of striped mittens for Eli, inspired by Loribird at From the Wool Room. Mine are in Cascade 220 superwash (I love the Heathers she used, but I have seen what my children do to their mittens!) also using the Ann Budd Book of Patterns from the library. (What a great book! I think I might need a copy of my own.) They're a very fast knit – I finished the first one in two afternoons of Munchkin-chaperoning – and quite adorable, I think. My only reservation is they're thin - I hadn't really thought about how much thickness the colorwork added to Auden's mittens.

And that's all at the moment, really. The Anniversary Socks are hibernating until I stop being too depressed to figure out what's wrong with them and how to fix it. I toyed with the idea of making another teacher gift by the end of the week but ... I don't think so. Wouldn't she really rather have a Target gift card anyway? I need to finish these mittens, make a hat, make myself a headband ('cause my ears are getting cold) and then get down to business on one of these many sweaters which I now own the yarn for. If they could just settle the television writer's strike, my knitting time would be all set. :)

In case I don't post again this month: Happy New Year everyone! and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. May your holidays be warm and safe.