Deep Sea Diving

This weekend I got to work on a hat/cowl/harf or whatever you want to call it. I’ve been thinking about making it for a long time. It started with this hat (now in the collection of Mrs. Loveforever)  and continued in an uncompleted crochet form made from a less wooly yarn. I never finished it, because I wanted to knit it. It is cold here. Cold! Today the wind chill was 5 degrees and I’m the only one walking around in a knee length coat. In my defense, I walk to work while it’s still dark outside, and everyone else is crazy. It’s cold.

 

So here’s what I came up with. A funny looking little cowl. I think it looks completely silly and I love it! I was wishing I had a snorkel when I took these photos, so imagine a snorkel and some hand drawn bubbles for effect.

I took it for a test run this morning and it kept my ears and face so warm! In all honesty, 5 degrees isn’t even that bad, but when it gets into the negatives, it hurts to breathe. I think this will help. I am so proud of myself because I made up the pattern myself, which required casting off and casting on again. That part I totally winged, and it worked.

I’m actually jumping in to designing my first knit hat pattern soon. The one thing I still need to figure out is how not to make the stripes step (I have the same problem as Betz White, it appears). If any of you know of a good tutorial, or just want to explain it to me in the comments, it’d be much appreciated.

A New Hat

LuluBeans asked if I had a chance to make anything from the lovely yarn I ordered before the holidays. I started with this gorgeous stuff:

 
And ended up with this:

 

A super simple K1, P1 ribbed hat. The yarn was so pretty that  I didn’t want to do anything complicated, and I knew I’d get more mileage with knitting than crochet.  The project made a perfect plane-ride companion. I may end up adding some type of brim since it’s a little short for Montana winters (I ran out of yarn. Plus, it’s embarrassing to put hats on your head with needles sticking out of them on planes. Not that I didn’t do it anyway– but I find this method less reliable  for determining fit with knitting than crochet).

I love the way handspun yarn looks and feels (especially this, because the vintage fabric spun in keeps it from itching my sensitive skin).  The only hard part about working with handspun is running out, understandably. I think in the future I’ll do a mix of handspun and basic yarn to make it last. I could see it being really pretty as an accent row.  

I’ve been going to bed thinking about all of the things I still need to post. I haven’t even unpacked my suitcase yet, or fully dealt with this:

 

These are just the fun packages- not the bills. Thanks so much to everyone who sent me a card, a little christmas something, and my ornament swappers. There were a couple standouts that I’ll share…just as soon as I get around to it. 

My second knit hat!

Last night I started my second knitting class, which was knitting in the round. Very simple!  I don’t know why I waited this long to knit, but I am so excited about the stretchiness and non-bulkiness. And changing colors is so easy! It’s fun to be figuring things out again. Hooray. I always make a new year’s resolution to take a class, and I always follow through. There is nothing like learning, I tell you!

 

Next monday, we will learn how to use double pointed needles to decrease. While I’m sure I can figure it out, I’m going to let it sit and work on something else in the meantime. Like the baby quilt for my sis, the top of which is nearly done.

I can knit! + Anna Schuleit

I admit it: for the longest time, I thought that I would crochet everything. Knitting didn’t appeal to me: all of that swatching, counting, making sure things fit. But when I saw some beginner knitting classes at the local yarn shop, I decided it was time. After all, they were only $15/class. I knit this hat over the last two weeks, my first ever!

I added pom-poms instead of braids. It turned out a little large, but that’s actually a good thing because I hate too-tight hats.  Next week we are learning to knit in the round, which I’m excited about too. Don’t worry, I still love to crochet, but I thought the idea of crocheting an entire garment would just be too hot to wear (Unless I use tiny yarns. Which are not my favorite). I’m excited about the possibilities of combining them, too.

Things are going really well here in Bozeman. I now have hats and scarflets for sale at a local boutique called Tart (I put them in the shop last Friday and sold one already), met some cool local ladies (including Carrie, who found me via Alicia’s blog–thanks Alicia), and I’ve got some freelance work rolling in. I couldn’t ask for more!

I also had the pleasure of meeting MacArthur Genius Grant Award recipient Anna Schuleit this week via my day job. She does truly amazing work- she spent years funding a project wherein she made a dilapidated mental hospital sing, and recently wired an entire forest to receive phone calls. I just got back from hearing her talk about her work, and she’s an amazing and generous person. She is done with public art for the moment because she (understandably) needs to withdraw from people and paint in order to work with them again. But when asked how she could pull off these seemingly impossible public works, she said something to the effect of “It’s easy to have one clear idea and tell people what to do and make it happen. To paint is more challenging.” So true. I love meeting people like Anna- she has an idea, she makes it happen. What’s sad to me is that some people never realize that they are fully capable of the same things. Even Anna Schuleit has her doubts about whether her projects will succeeed- but she keeps on. To me, that’s what life’s about. Keeping on.