Tag Archives: beanie

Oct9

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m grateful that we are all over the worst of the covid and life is getting back to normal. I was back to work Friday, worked yesterday, will be there again today, and then I have three days off.

I don’t think it’s worth cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow because some of us are still tasting things weirdly, if at all. But I will sit down with pen and paper tonight and make a meal plan for the coming week in case I need to shop for ingredients.

This is what I made with the T shirt yarn that I showed you last time. I saved the prettier colours for the walls of the basket because that navy and tan is kind of ugly.

The handle is braided from the T shirt hems.

I will definitely cut the strips thinner next time for easier crocheting and a less chunky result.

And the swatch cap is finished and I’m happy with the gauge so I can cast on the sweater.

The sweater is Sporto https://knitty.com/ISSUEwbis11/KSPATTsporto.php and is a free pattern from knitty.com. It’s a top down seamless design, interestingly started from the top of the hood. It’s written for lots of options, either homespun or commercial yarn, a specific gauge or a recipe into which you plug your own gauge.

If you’re in Canada, I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving, appreciating all the joys of fall, family and food.

Oct6

The plague has hit!

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The family was taken down this week. Oldest son was spared, maybe because he has his bedroom and bathroom downstairs. But Mr Fixit and the two younger sons and I all succumbed to covid so there has been a lot of sleeping, nose-blowing, coughing, etc happening.

Now that the headache has gone, and the cold-like symptoms mostly gone, the things I’m having the hardest time with are the sore mouth (a dry mouth and braces do not mix – I hate waking up to find my braces sticking to the inside of my mouth) and the loss of smell and taste. Sweet stuff started to taste bitter a couple of days ago, but now I really can’t taste anything. That’s a kick in the teeth!

We have all been doing what we can to rest and recuperate and after a couple of days of doing nothing I did manage to put some meals together, do some laundry, and knit a bit.

This is what Elizabeth Zimmermann would have called a swatch cap. I have a sweater in mind that I want to knit so I checked how many stitches were in the body for the 42″ finished size and it was 160. So I cast on 80 and am knitting a beanie which will turn out exactly half the circumference of the sweater. A useful and accurate way to check gauge! That EZ was a genius!

Please note I did not pay full price for that yarn. It was vastly overpriced until it went on clearance at 70% off.

The cowl I was crocheting in the last blog post has been finished for a while. I used up every scrap and it is the perfect length to double up around the neck. I think I may have to get more of this yarn (Lion Brand Mandala Ombre).

So far, three scrubby dishcloths have been made with the other clearance yarn I picked up recently. These are going to be made in between other projects, or if I need something portable.

I have made notes, and will write up the pattern one of these days.

Today I dug out some T shirts I was saving for T shirt yarn. I cut off the bottom hems and cut from bottom to armpits in a spiral to make long strips. I was pretty slapdash as usual and made the strips wider than intended but I think my crochet hook is big enough to accommodate the thickness.

I intend to make a crocheted basket and possibly braid the hems for handles. Not sure how to use up the rest of the pieces but I’d like to keep most of it out of the landfill.

I will show you the result later.

Happy pumpkin season!

Sep24

I love fall!

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I love fall!

Reasons to love autumn/fall:

Not so bloody hot.

Nights are cool.

Evenings are drawing in.

Socks and sweaters.

Friends can come over and not die of heat exhaustion.

Rain (hopefully).

Long walks outdoors without burning up.

Fleece pajamas.

I could go on. I think September might be my favourite month.

I’ve made a few things in the last week. Some have been for work. I brought home a preprinted cotton  panel and sewed up these trick or treat bags. After I hung them up at work, the fabric sold in a flash.

Today I sewed these stockings from another panel and will take them to the store tomorrow for display.

The sewing pattern I mentioned last time has now been transformed into this:

It looks a bit disproportionate because it’s on a decorative mannequin which is way smaller than I am. But this one will return to me for keepsies once it’s hung at the store for a month.

From the pile of yarn I showed you in my last post, I made these:

A beanie of my own design and a teeny elephant  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amigurumi-elephant-25

To accompany these little gifts all the way over the Atlantic I cross-stitched another elephant and glued it to a card.

And from a <ahem> yarn purchase at work because it went on clearance, I have started crocheting dishcloths with a scrubby centre like the ones I made a while back. They are great in the kitchen.

I hope you too are enjoying the season you’re in and finding ways to get out of your head and into your hands, as Kate from The Last Homely House says!

Sep12

Hats!

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Since getting back from holiday, there hasn’t been a huge amount of crafty activity. I did enjoy a day of blitzing my sewing room which I love to do periodically. It reminds me of what I have in the way of fabric and yarn. It makes me look critically at things I’ve hung on to for months or even years and so by the end of the day I had tossed a lot of stuff in the recycling or trash or thrift store pile.

I went through the fabric and yarn, rearranged things more logically, vacuumed into the corners, and now the room is ready for a new project.

The beanie above was made with a 10mm hook and three strands of the same Lion Brand Mandala Ombre that I used for the shawl. I made it up as I went along. I’ve made a tonne of hats in my time and the bill/peak was just a case of experimenting with what looked right.

When I was at work yesterday, business was a little slow in the pm, and my brain turned to things that could go on display. I checked with the boss and she was OK with me crocheting a beanie with store yarn.

Today being a day off, I had some quality sofa time and I had this made in an hour and a half.

It’s crocheted with a bulky chenille yarn and an 8mm hook and the pattern off the ball band.

Next up will be a sewing project. I have the pattern and flannelette fabric ready to make a knee length robe. The fabric is so cute.

The contrast is a solid blue. It’s still drying at the moment.

I just pulled out my Knit Picks Brava oddments from last year.

I’m wondering about some sort of scrap project or perhaps some amigurumi. You may notice my new knitting mug – it says “If I can’t take my knitting, I’m not going!” And the black blocky thing is my new Anker Bluetooth speaker. I wanted one for my phone but had no idea which one to get so took the recommendation of my eldest son who also has one.

I’m currently playing some awesome 80s music via YouTube music (free, so I have to put up with the ads)!

So that, plus work, is the last two weeks. Oh yeah, and I had a very fun meal out with friends for a belated birthday celebration.

Feb3

Two FOs and a WIP

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Hello! I hope everything is well in your world.

I’m very pleased that this beanie is finished. The moose and trees look a bit lumpy – not my best colourwork ever – but I like the way the text and snowflakes showed up.

You may recall that this was a free pattern on Ravelry. And the name of it is obvious: it’s called Fuck the Cold hat. I knitted it with 3.75mm needles using Lion Brand Mandala for the background and Stylecraft Special DK for the contrast.

If I made this exact hat again, I would use 4mm needles. And I’d start the Mandala yarn at a different place in the cake so it didn’t jump from turquoise ribbing to the dark shades and back to turquoise at the top. I used the colours as they came, but I did trim some yardage in places so that I’d see as many of the colour changes as possible.

The granny throw is still growing and it’s my favourite project for these winter evenings. It’s about 56″ square now. I still have quite a lot of grey and black yarn left, and a basket of colours, but my choices are getting more limited. I know this is a stashbuster but I may need to supplement with a few new skeins!

Finally, a sewing FO. This took a couple of hours this afternoon. One of the ladies at work has an 80th birthday coming up so I made her a bag. This fabric is heavier than the usual quilt cotton and I liked it so much I bought a metre to add to the stash. Now I’m getting to use it along with a piece of vinyl that was damaged at one end.

I thought she’d use a tote rather than a zippered pouch or drawstring bag, and I added a magnetic clasp and a D ring on the inside. Next I think it would be nice to get some chocolates to put in it.

Tonight I’ve had my bean burrito and salad and now I’m cosied up for some crochet time. Heaven!

Jan22

Weekend WIPs update

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I seem to be falling into a weekly blog habit. I don’t have a schedule but when a week has gone by without a post I get a niggling reminder in the back of my brain that it’s time to write something.

Do you like the heart? My sister’s stepson makes these, back in Blighty. She sent it to me for Christmas. They are sold to raise funds for Healing Waves in the island of Jersey, which is a charity that takes people with different challenges out into the chilly Atlantic Ocean to surf.

So what are the WIPs this week, I hear you ask!

Version 2 of the Fuck the Cold Beanie. I’m using Lion Brand Mandala for the background and cutting out some of the yarn to make the colours change a little quicker. The gold for the tree and moose is Stylecraft Special DK. Needles are 3.75mm/US5. The gauge is tighter, the stranded colourwork is neater and I’m much happier.

Granny is nearly four feet square. Still lots of yarn left in the bags!

A taster of the sashiko stitching on my denim vest. This has a long way to go but that’s OK.

A small side project inspired by the upcoming Valentine’s Day and gnomie love quilt cotton! Upcycled denim hearts which I am embellishing with fabric, ribbon, buttons etc. I spent a couple of hours faffing about in my sewing room this evening and I intend to complete all six of these before Tuesday.

We had a potluck lunch with friends today and as usual we ate enough that I didn’t need any dinner. So we just wound up our day with a turmeric tea.

I hope your weekend is going well and that you’re making time to be crafty and creative.

Jan15

Galloping grannies

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The giant granny blanket continues to grow. It’s not much of a giant yet – about 37″ across – but I’m hoping it will be huge. I’m prepared to buy more black and grey if it means finishing up my random colours.

Sadly the beanie has had to be frogged.

At the end of the moose/tree section I knew it was likely to be too big. I forged ahead anyway and completed the text part.

Then, I had to be honest with myself. The circumference was 24 inches, bigger than my head, and with the snowflakes and the crown decreases the total height would have been 12 inches. The design wouldn’t have been visible with so much slouch so I made the decision to frog.

I still want this hat so I’ll look at the DK yarn that I have and use some smaller needles and start again.

After seeing a knitted bumwarmer on Ravelry, I picked up a small piece of jersey knit fabric and sewed a tube. It can be worn around the hips for extra warmth, or even the torso Japanese-style or just as a cowl.

Since the big freeze, we’ve had milder temperatures. Minus 3 feels very comfortable now. So the roads are clear of ice again and there’s been lots of melting, though the piles were so deep they haven’t disappeared yet.

I’m working this weekend so I will wrap this up and take myself off to bed. See you soon

Jan4

Happy New Year

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Hello 2022. My brain is having a hard time catching up to the fact that it’s two years since we first heard about The Disease That Shall Not Be Named. It wasn’t last year that my workplace was shut down for 7 weeks, it was two years ago. I feel like 2020 and 2021 have just blended into one long year. A VERY long year!

Anyway let’s focus on the here and now.

Shall we talk about the fact that our winter has been bitterly cold in recent weeks? I think the lowest was -30°C but mostly it was around -17 for quite some time. When it warmed up to -5 the last couple of days it was quite pleasant!

We’ve had lots of snow that’s not had a chance to melt between falls so the roads have been icy and the piles along the sides of the roads and driveways have just got higher.

Mr Fixit is back at work after his week off. Oldest son has had a month off due to his workplace accident but should be back at work tomorrow. Youngest had two weeks off and returned yesterday.

I just had a bonus 4 day stretch – my first New Year’s Day off in 7 years!

Last night three friends came over to knit and drink tea and generally be loud and funny.

The ‘Fuck the Cold’ hat is coming along (pattern is a free download on Ravelry). I cast on on the 1st and I’m halfway through the trees/moose section. Some of my friends are also making this – we are having a knitted colourwork makealong.

And my stashbusting worsted weight granny blanket has grown to 23 inches across in just a few days. My colour order is black/colour/grey/colour. I’m expecting to use up all my random medium weight yarn and hopefully end up with a king size blanket.

As I sit here on the couch writing this before heading down to my sewing room I see snow falling again, the neighbour clearing his drive again, and I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere today.

Be careful out there!

Dec22

Blogmas Day 22

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It’s going to be a short one today. It’s only about 9pm and I am ready to crash.

Day 22 and today’s yarn is Blush, along with two great beads.

I finished the beanie. It took about 80 grams of the O’Go so that means I have a good chunk of it left to make something else.

I had no plan for this, apart from wanting to have embroidery on it. So the stripes went in, then the cross stitch diamonds in the lilac, then the little yellow stars, and finally the random snowflakes near the top.

Work was good today. Not too busy. All three managers were in so we got stuff (bags and knitting notions) received, priced and on display. I had the chance to weed out some older fabric again, a job I need to continue with tomorrow.

I wore my polar bear vest and my Christmas gnome mask. Tomorrow I may have to wear the fuzzy vest and red-nosed reindeer mask.

I’m off to get the kitchen cleaned up before I fall asleep. Talk to you tomorrow.

Dec21

Blogmas Day 21

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Happy Winter Solstice!

This is the longest night of the year. A night to light candles or switch on your strings of fairy lights, enjoy a fire or turn up the thermostat to keep the chill at bay, drink warm comforting beverages and be thankful for food and shelter to see us through the cold winter months ahead.

I made fruit cake today. Three, in fact. One with wholewheat flour, two gluten-free. One GF cake was requested by a person who used to work with me. She bought a couple of cakes from me last year and asked me for another this year. The other GF one was sent home with my friend who came for tea today.

The wheat one has been partially devoured already. Oh man, it’s good!

My 21st ball of yarn is a lovely festive red.

I have two sewing projects to show you, one completed yesterday evening and the other this afternoon.

I made a tool roll! The wrenches are for display purposes only as they were sitting around in my sewing room (ds1 was going to sew himself a tool roll for his new wrench set but hasn’t got around to it yet).

All the materials were from stash. The plaid was cut from the back of a shirt that belonged to one of the boys when he was a teen. The denim was a free piece from work. The little bit of red vinyl is a swatch that comes in with the rolls of vinyl at work. The D rings and webbing were on hand. I made this up as I went along and the size was decided by the rectangle I was able to cut from the back of the shirt.

My other sewing FO is this fuzzy vest. I used the same pattern as the other vest I completed recently but because it was chenille I didn’t bother with facings. I just used two pattern pieces (front and back) and sewed them together at the shoulders and sides, then hemmed all the raw edges. Easy peasy!

And finally, the beanie. Last night I stayed up far too late crocheting and watching The Witcher. Hmm, if knitting and Netflix is Knitflix what’s crochet and Netflix? Cronet? Croflix? Netrochet?

The hat isn’t finished yet. It has a lot of ends dangling inside from the embroidery. And I’m waiting for it to tell me whether it needs more embellishment. Something in the band above the yellow stripe, perhaps.

Three more work shifts to go before Christmas Day. I finish at 3pm on Christmas Eve, which is a pain because we have our big dinner and gift exchange on that day rather than on the 25th.

Wishing you a restful, peaceful longest night.