FO Friday: Hottie Cozy

So I was reading My Life In Stitches by Rachel Herron. I was toward the end, sitting in my bed and my toes were freezing. Lo! The final chapter was about such a problem, which was solved by a hot water bottle- known in the Herron household as a "hottie". There was even a Hottie Cozy pattern! And HEY! I have wool that I have no idea what to do with!! I bought a water bottle and I started knitting. It was a perfect project for long hours in the hospital waiting room while my aunt was in the ICU. Mostly mindless knitting in the round with just one little cable to keep you aware of what you're doing. Awesome.

Rav'd.

January 2012 Finished Objects

Well.

Thanks to the OKC Stash Down I have been a busy little knitter this month. Check it:

ELEVEN finished projects in one month! I'm pretty excited about that. Granted, one of them was a UFO from last year and most are small, but they're done and I pretty much love all of them!

Here's the run down:
Top Row:
Winter House Cloth- One of many I plan to make for Christmas gifts this year.
"Pebbles" Hat- The pattern name is actually "Republic Hat" but this was made to go with a Pebbles vest. It matches really well with the band of garter at the bottom & the little buttons. Perfect.
Dizzy Hat- A very sweet girl from the OKC sent me this Debbie Bliss Rialto from her stash. She apparently doesn't know I'm stashing DOWN this year. I felt a huge compulsion to use the yarn as soon as it got to me so it didn't go into my stash! Luckily, the yarn is AWESOME. Very springy, so it's super easy to knit with. I made this little hat for myself. It's tiny but I like the way it looks sitting on the back of my head :)
Insomnia Baby- Also thanks to the Stash Down I have a compulsion to use up every bit of a skein. So this little gnome was meant to take up some left over Malabrigo. I still have some though...

Middle Row:


Grandma's Favorite- An experiment for the Christmas cloths. I'm still not sure how I feel about this pattern but I have a TON of Dishie to use up, so I forsee another go at this one later in the year.
Elise Shawl- This was originally going to be for a swap but I was really unsure of the color for my partner. I like it but I'm not sure it looks good on me. This is sitting in the gift stash until I figure out what exactly to do with it.
Radicowl- I LOVED crocheting this and love wearing it even more. I get tons of compliments on it, too. I can totally see making more of these in the future. It's just SUCH a yarn eater, being crochet and all.

Bottom Row:


Pebble Vest- I've made this vest more than once. It's a great, quick baby knit but it is definitely newborn sized. Made this for a friend-of-a-friend who is always super excited to see me knitting & crocheting.
Zinnia Rialto- This is a baby hat that used up every last inch of the Debbie Bliss Rialto I was gifted. I LOVE the way it turned out. This is staying in my gift stash for a very special baby.
Hat Fit For A Best Friend- I've already blogged this. It served its purpose, keeping Clay nice and warm on his trip. :) I washed it for him to avoid accidental felting & it held up pretty well.
Another Zinnia- I frogged not one but TWO baby knits for my high school BFF's newest arrival. I gave up on cute sweaters as time was getting short and just went with this little hat. I'm pretty pleased with it. I kind of love that it's both knit & crochet. This may become my go-to girl gift.

I'm really loving how productive the Stash Down is encouraging me to be! I should have a LOT more finished projects this year and hopefully have some gifts ready for birthdays and Christmas without having to rush.


What have you worked on this year? Any accomplishments you'd like to share?

Slouchy Hat

I never wear hats. Ever. I have a huge head, for one, so it's hard to find a hat that will A) fit & B) not look comically tiny once on. But the other day I went to the store and my hair looks like a rats nest and I wished I had one of those oh-so-in-style-right-now slouchy hats that I could hide my hair under. Wouldn't you know it? Some girl with curly hair walked by and had one on and she looked awesome. Sigh. Major hat envy.

So last night I decided to make one. The boys brought me some bulky wool yarn from their trip to Iceland. It was a really thoughtful gift but... um... it's BULKY. And it's got little flecks of different colors in it. And it's NOT merino so my slight wool allergy goes crazy feeling it scratch me. So no making anything that's going to touch my skin. Oh... but it'll make a good hat!

So while watching reruns of friends I made a Gumdrop Slouchy Hat. It's a SERIOUSLY easy pattern by Julie from Gleeful Things (cute blog. check it out.). I decided to go with a crochet pattern because I wanted to be able to finish quickly (in case I hated the way it looked) and have more control over the size. I still have a fear of adjusting knitting patterns. That wound up being good because I did make a few small mods to fit my monster head better.

Here's me:

Here's the hat from the back:

Eagle eyes will be able to spot the "seam" pointing about 1o'clock on my head. I don't think it's THAT noticable, but I might make sure to have it run down the bottom in the future. 

Over all I'm really pleased. I think it's a style I can pull off. I might be trying a few fancier designs soon.

Oh, and of course it's been Rav'd. 

Recent Projects

I've been a bad blogger but a pretty good crafter. Life has been pretty busy, with the NET team coming next week, several baby showers, work being a little crazy & my own stuff going on. I hope to have time to go over all the fun things I've been making in detail soon... but in the meantime, here's a quick run down of the knitted & crocheted items I've completed recently:

Forest Vest

Made for Baby Flores. This is actually the first knit item I've ever cast off! I was pretty pleased to have completed it. There's some MAJOR flaws, but I still really like it. I've been on the hunt for good semi-solid/tonal yarns ever since this project. If you know of any good ones PLEASE let me know!

Granny Love

Made for Baby G. I took some grannies I've had for a while and put them together into a quick blanket. I love the retro feel.

Cuddly Sweater

Also for Baby G. Man... I love me some KnitPicks Comfy. It's so soft and has great stitch definition. This project was SUCH a learning experience. I had to rip back about 6 rows at one point!

Frilly Scarf

I just wanted something to throw on that would add some classy interest to my everyday wear. I've been wearing it pretty often and I love the femininity.

Rainbow Clutch

Remember when I talked about Knit Picks Chroma making me break my "no stash buying" rule? Well... this is what some of the Prism colorway ended up as. It's a pattern test for a gal on Ravelry. I'll go into detail on the project & include a link to the pattern once she's done with it.

What have you been working on?

Ugly Christmas Scarf

As promised, here's a picture of the Ugly Christmas Scarf. This baby got a lot of use in the two weeks leading up Christmas through New Year's Eve.

I'm wearing it here on Christmas Day, playing with the Bucky Balls I gave my cousin for Christmas. Well, I insisted I wasn't "playing" with them (because that would make me a nerd like her) but I was obsessed with getting them back into the cube shape they were packed in. It's really hard, but now that I figured it out I always have to "clean them up" if I see anyone put them down.

Divinity in Hat Form

I'm so ADD when it comes to projects. I'm allllllmost finished with the Cool Mama blanket. Good thing, too, since mama went into labor yesterday. No baby yet but I gotta get this gift in the mail pronto.

So... I'm house-sitting and normally I'd bring a good selection of stash yarn with me since I'll be here a few days. However, this time I decided to be "responsible" and bring only what I needed to finish the Cool Mama plus the black wool I bought to make an Army-appropriate scarf for the soldier. (Totally still crying about the knit one that's been shelved. *whimper*)

Do I stick to the plan, though? Nooooooo..... I come across a pattern for the "Divine Hat" and decide I neeeeeed to make it nooooooooow. Why? It's like 100 degrees here. There's no way I need this. But the pattern is so gorgeous and oh! look! I happen to still have the remnant I was using to make the afghan squares in my car. So, with Cool Mama just waiting for a few more shells to complete her border, I bust out some linen colored acrylic and start working on a hat I don't need!



It's lovely though. Just to spite me the yarn decided to run out right when I was almost done. The pattern said I needed less than 3 oz of worsted weight yarn. So I figured my about-half-a-skien would be enough. It probably would be for someone with a normal-sized head. My head, however, is ginormous. HUGE. Plus I have big thick curly hair so that adds like 2 inches to the diameter. Boo. So now this is a WIP* when it was supposed to be a FO*.

Back to Mama... hope to finish her up, do some "blocking"/"killing" to fix a gauge issue and tell you all about her. Oh and get her in the mail along with Hot Mama. So nice to be getting things done.

What Was I Thinking?

For the two readers out there who don't know me let me tell you something: I'm a big girl. AND I'm one of those big girls with a couple big girls sitting squarely on my chest. I "get away with" wearing full-coverage DDDs, but I really measure at a G.

So what on earth made me look at "Nell" and think I could make it for myself?



Seriously??? That maniquin doesn't have ANY boobs! I thought I could just increase the width, adding a couple motifs, and it would stretch across my chest. Well, yes, but that doesn't make it look like a bodice. It looks like a ribbon of crochet across my gigantic boobs!

GAH. I'm thinking about making it into a detail at the empire waist level of a dress perhaps? I don't know. Maybe I'll frog it altogether. Dammit! I was SO excited about making a shirt for myself!