FO Friday – All The Hats

On December 14, 2018December 14, 2018 By FogKnitsIn FO Friday, Hat2 Comments

As I prepared for this week’s pop up event, I didn’t put all of my knitting aside. I kept up my on-the-go knitting and it turns out, I get a lot of knitting done when I’m out of the house. Four new hats, just in time for holiday gift giving and winter chill!

The first two are Wurm derivatives. It’s a great free pattern. There’s nearly 16K Wurm hats on Ravelry. I know I’ve knit probably two dozen of them. They’re great stash busters, if you go the striped route like I did and they knit up in no time! Perfect last minute holiday gifts!

Of course, I can’t follow a pattern. I change my version up at the brim. The pattern is written with a folded stockinette hem. I prefer to go the all purl ridge route. This originates from my early days knitting. The double roll brim was my favorite way to start a hat. You can see it here, on my third hat of the week.

All my early hats have a double roll brim. I never liked the look of classic ribbing, especially not with a knitted cast on, which was my go-to. The stockinette curl hides that cast on edge perfectly! No reason to fret over doing the long tail cast on, if your edge is hidden.

It certainly started out as a lazy decision but honestly, it’s also a super comfortable way to start a hat. It’s cozy and warm around the ears and it’s never too tight. I’m not sure why it fell out of favor but I’m officially bringing the double roll brim back.

You heard it here first…2019 is the year of the double roll brim! Try it out and you’ll see…it’s a lot of fun! You’ll be screaming it from the roof tops too! Double roll brims for everyone! It’s gonna be so good!

It’s simply 10 rows of stockinette followed by 4 rows of reverse stockinette. Easy peasy. Just remember if you want to go for the two-tone look, you knit 9 rows in color 1 and then knit 1 row of color 2 before purling 4 rows of color.

Now, off to finish some last minute christmas knits. Packages don’t have to be in the mail until Monday…I can get a lot done in 72 hours!

WIP It Wednesday

On December 5, 2018December 5, 2018 By FogKnitsIn Nephew, Shawl, Sweater, WIP3 Comments

I’m back in the swing of things with my knitting, which means a classic case of Cast on-itis has manifested.

It’s not enough to finish just finish my nephew’s super cute christmas sweater. No, I couldn’t just enjoy my beautiful seams. I had to start another sweater. Of course, that sweater can’t be knit in a dark movie theater so I had to cast on a movie theater project. I’m still working on my latest shawl too!

It’s all going well! Baby’s first ugly Christmas sweater is almost done. It’s acrylic and I’m thinking of ‘killing’ it. Not something I’ve ever done intentionally but I think it’ll take this sweater from stiff to drapey. That should up the cozy factor! I’m planning to wash and dry it in the machine. Then, hit it with the steam iron.

I’ll keep you posted! Hopefully it’ll be ready for a big FO Friday reveal! You aren’t gonna want to miss this one!

FO Friday – Christmas Knitting #1

On November 30, 2018November 30, 2018 By FogKnitsIn FO Friday, Hat, Toy5 Comments

Every year, I say no more Christmas knitting. I never mean it, this year especially. Obviously, with a new nephew, there will be Christmas knitting. His first holiday package went out today, the reversible hat (that you saw on Monday) and a new stuffed friend!

The little friend is not my favorite. He’s a Rebecca Danger creature using her Basic Uni-Body design. I meant to make a blue striped monkey but once I stuffed the body, I didn’t like it enough to do the monkey add ons. There would have been ears, a tail and a protruding snout piece.

The snout piece was just too much. It involves picking up a circle of stitches on the face, knitting outwards while shaping into a dome, stuffing it, closing it and then embroidering onto it. I was not in the mood, so he’s just a funny, stripey, blue thingamabob.

Of course, because I don’t like him, I expect this will be Marcus’s favorite. His floppy arms are perfect for grabbing and chewing! I think those little legs are likely to get chewed on too!

I’ll attempt the monkey again something but I’ll skip the stripes. Before that though, it’s time for Baby’s First Christmas Sweater. It won’t be ugly. It won’t even be tacky. It will be a little naughty though!

I’m halfway through the back and with a little determination, this could be done by next Friday! Three cheers for aran weight yarn and 4 stitches per inch! Wooooooo!

Christmas Surprises Revealed

On December 26, 2017December 26, 2017 By FogKnitsIn Cowl, FO Friday, Hat12 Comments

I knit less and less for Christmas as the years go by. While it was always hard to make it to the top of knit-worthy list, it’s become even more challenging! Not only do you have to appreciate what I do with genuine enthusiasm but the spirits have to move me. Still, it happens more often than planetary alignment. There’s always hope.

I managed a few Christmas gifts this year. It’s tough to have knitting secrets in the age of social media and Ravelry. A good detective will find parts of this years gifts in my digital wake but still, a few surprises were had! I’ll start with the easy one…

First is BB-8. You saw him a few weeks back but it turns out being a knit-worthy friend does not require one to read my blog! I don’t think he’s changed much. I added a few details. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I think I’d add a few more details. And I’d make his little eye blue. Seeing him in action gave good insight into which features read and which don’t. When he was zipping around and engaged, his little eye turned blue. Making it blue would set it apart from the big eye and give the details around it more depth. I have yarn for another. I suspect this is going to be a one-of-a-kind though.

Next up, an alpaca cowl in Mom colors. This was a travel project so you’ve seen this one before. I tried to camouflage it. You were supposed to be looking at the pagoda, not the knitting!

I used the sequence knitting technique for this one. I’m still a big fan of sequence knitting. It was super easy. I cast on ~150 and worked K5, P3 until I ran out of yarn. Complete no brainer. The real star here is the yarn.

It’s from Skacel and called Concentric. It’s a 4 ply yarn where the plies are just held together rather than plied. The gradient effect comes from one ply changing color at a time. 4 plies of cream becomes 3 plies cream plus 1 ply of beige. That become 2 plies of cream plus 2 plies of beige. Etc, etc. Super fun.

The other amazing thing about this yarn: 100% alpaca that did not shed all over my clothes! I think alpaca is lovely but I never seek out it out. Shedding stinks. This yarn drew me in with it’s pretty cake. I bought it without thinking of the consequences. I’m happy to report…there were no consequences. It was awesome. And Mom liked it too. Everybody wins!

And now, for the real star of the FogKnits Christmas Collection…

Mom is always asking for hats with big flowers. I’ve tried to be accommodating. It’s never enough. Way back in 2016, I starting knitting flowers, with this hat in mind.

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Things were going good. I had a biologically accurate garden developing. I started with a California poppy, an hibiscus, a daffodil and a Calla lily.

Then came the hat base. It’s actually from yarn Mom dyed herself. Nothing like making your own Christmas present!

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Just a plain stockinette fabric for the hat and around the bottom brim, this funny marshmallow yarn from a yarn swap. At the time, I thought I got the white elephant but it turned out to be the perfect cobblestone path into the garden. With those parts assembled, it was time to sew flowers.

I realized pretty quickly, I had no where near enough flowers.

I started making more. They became less likely to be found in nature though. A blue pansy. a fuschia water lily. a blue cherry blossom. a lavender rose.

and whatever this thing is…

I made a few leaves and even started adding a bit of fauna to the garden…a hedgehog, a lady bug and a couple dragonflies all joined the party.

And now, Mom can never ask for another flower hat again.

I can’t imagine why she’d need another one! This is, without a doubt, the warmest hat I’ve ever knit. It’s a fun blast of spring for those extra cold snow days! Mom is happy.

Tomorrow, I’ll share the hand dyed yarn she sent to me for Christmas. In the meantime…I’ll be knitting! The latest sweater is on the needles!! I’ll share pics soon!

Yarn Swap

On December 15, 2015December 15, 2015 By FogKnitsIn Hat4 Comments

I was merrily knitting along yesterday…

I got quite far before I realized, the simple mens hat I was knitting had turned into a beast of a different variety. Somewhere along the way, the hat became a hat-cowl combo garment, the manly colors became a bit more feminine and while a lovely piece of fabric, not really appropriate for my current needs.

Throw in a new shiny yarn and it’s into the time out corner for the hat cowl mashup already, less than 24 hours. That may be a new record!

Here’s the new toy…

It’s literally shiny!! Last night was the annual holiday yarn swap for my knitting group. I came home with some fluffy, shiny stuff and a pink & purple silk hankie. They seemed to like each other and who am I to argue?

This should theoretically be the end of the Christmas Knitting. Unfortunately, my plan to not plan is going exactly according to the not planned plan. That is to say, it’s going poorly. Good thing I don’t have a plan or it would be upsetting! Silk hankies are kinda fun though! That’s good enough for today! ;)

Panic Mode!

On December 14, 2015December 14, 2015 By FogKnitsIn Casting On, Hat4 Comments

I kept saying I wasn’t Christmas knitting this year. Of course, that’s not what I meant. I really meant I’m going to deny it until the last possible minute and then hopefully throw a few things together.

With Stash. ha! Because why do things the easy way! After wasting a few hours in the stash, I’ve made appropriate decisions. Hopefully. I think I chucked all the bad ideas!

Broken Rib. Malabrigo Rios. Easy! Now all I have to do is knit!