Pattern #5

I'm working on a hat pattern at the moment. I started it over Christmas when I was 'confined to barracks' because of all the snow that we had. It was the ideal opportunity to pick up my needles and some yarn from the stash and just knit.

When I finished the piece though, I was so shocked by how good it looked that I decided I needed to be able to produce it again. This is proving more difficult than I thought it would. The combination of the stitch pattern, the sizing and those decreases for the crown, have led me now to prototype #3.

This could be the moment where boredom gets the better of me and I pick up my "Monkey" socks instead! The thing is, the hat looks so bloomin' good when it's finished. I'm determined to master the pattern writing issues simply because the hat deserves to see the light of day.

My first sample was made in Heirloom Merino Magic, a lovely 100% Australian wool. For the second though I switched to RY Cashsoft, a blend of 57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre and 10% cashmere. It felt a little strange to knit with at first, but now that I've got used to it, it's great. The stitch definition is amazing and perfect for this particular hat.

So I'm on to sample #3 and at this rate I'll have made a major contribution to my Christmas gift knitting! Guess what they'll all be getting?!

Excitement

I am hugely excited for a number of reasons. The Odessa hat is coming along wonderfully and I'm really pleased with the way the metallic beads look on it. I've just started the decreasing and as I'm using Peer Gynt as opposed to Rowan Cashsoft DK, I just had to join in the second ball of yarn. This necessitated re-threading the remainder of the beads on to the new ball before they all started spilling off the end of the first one. Good job I was awake enough to realise how far I'd come. You know how it is when you get into that pattern funk and everything's sailing along nicely. It would have been so easy to overlook the question of yarn supply and suddenly end up with a lap full of beads!
I was sitting outside at the time enjoying a few hours of sun yesterday morning. In fact I was hiding out in front of the shed by the vegetable patch, escaping from the family and enjoying some long awaited sun and a bit of peace and quiet. I was also pleased with myself for weaving in the ends of the two balls of yarn once I'd joined them. As I started the decreasing, I managed to weave those ends in along the back at the same time so I won't have to get out the needle and thread when the whole project is finished.

I'm also excited because my order from Knitpicks arrived on Saturday. This is the first time I've ordered yarn from them, in fact this whole thing is quite a journey for me as I'm getting to know a lot of new yarns. It would seem that different places have different yarns, so every time I move to a new country, I have a new lot of yarn to get to know. Things are changing though, thanks to the internet. With online purchasing, the market is becoming more global, which is wonderfully exciting as yarns become available to a wider audience.

To top off my weekend, I met up with fellow knitters on Saturday to mark World Wide Knit in Public day. The weather was kind to us and we had a great time chatting and knitting. On the strength of a tip, I then headed off to try to find a LYS that was closing and had a 45% sale on. Picked up some di.Ve and some Heirloom and some more beads. I could have stayed there all day.