Live and Let Knit

Hat’s have become my new mindless-knitting-without-a-pattern projects. I have a ton of sock yarn and these are great for using up some of the leftovers.

The first up is the hat I made for my friend Ken.

The yarn is Lorna’s Laces and elann.com essential sock yarn. I didn’t have a hat pattern so I just made this one up using the stitch pattern from Charlene Schurch’s book Sensational Knitted Socks.

This hat was a lot of fun to make. The pattern is a slip-stitch patter so I was only working with one color at a time. I’m going to have to make a second one to enter in the fair in September.

I made a second hat for me and this time I wanted to try the fair isle style. Again I didn’t have a pattern, but I used the stich pattern from Charlene Schurch’s book.

In this second hat I decided to do a provisional cast on to save time when it came to tucking under the head band part. In the blue hat it took me almost 2 hours to pick up all the stictches to make the band.

The fair isle pulled in a lot more than the slip stich pattern so the hat is a little bit too tight. Plus I think it’s a little bit too tall. I haven’t decided yet if I am going to rip back and make it shorter.

We’re heading off on our honeymoon so no blogging for a while.

I had a high stress day at work today… the type of stress that only something like this can cure:

From elann.com: Purple Endless Summer Collection Luna, Peach and Cranberry Endless Summer Collection Connemara, Lavender Peruvian Collection Uros Aran, Peach and Orange Peruvian Collection Highland Wool, Lavender Peruvian Collection Quechua, Almond Austermann Cleopatra, and blue Austermann Quattro

I’ve been on a yarn diet for a long time, but this was from the gift certificates I’ve received from fellow yarn-a-holics. Definitely a time for indulgence.

I missed the official Flash your stash day on April 1st, but the yarn was calling to me over the weekend to have it’s picture taken so here it is….

The wool sock yarn collection:

It’s mostly the solid colored sock yarn from elann.com, but a few balls of Wildfoote, Knit Picks, Lorna’s Laces and one skein of Cascade 220.

The cotton collection:

More sock yarn, some Elann.com Endless Summer Sonata, Elann.com Lara, and some Pima Tencel that I got for $1 a skein.

The wool-non-sock yarn collection:

Sapphire Peruvian Pure Alpaca from Elann.com, Classic Elite Paintbox, Naturespun for a pair of slippers, some handspun blue wool from the Tolland sheep and wool festival, Knitpicks Shimmer in deep woods, tan Alpaca from Twist of Fate Spinnery, and the Nutmeg Alpaca I bought in Tolland

The cones:

Wool on cones from Webs, and Silk City Bounce

And the rest:

Berroco Softwist for a second pillow, some wool-silk handspun from my sock swap partner, the Sari silk from Rhinebeck, and some pink stuff I won as a raffle prize.

That’s enough to make roughly 60 pairs of socks, 12 long sleeve sweaters, 2 shells, 6 scarves, a pair of slippers, and a pillow.

With all my leftover/partial skeins I could probably make another 12 pairs of socks but they’d be scary looking for sure! There’s also enough for a gigantic chenille blanket and tons of acrylic.

If I really really worked hard I could knit all that up in about 8 years. Not quite SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy), but certainly a need for a yarn diet.