After being out of town last weekend, I was pretty stoked for a weekend at home. I hit the cross stitch hard.
A little ode to the Grateful Dead.
Followed by the realization that it’s already Sunday night.
Where does the time go?
There was plenty of knitting too. It hasn’t been digitally immortalized yet though. I continue to think about Cat Sweater #2, but that’s it, just thinking about it. Marled Magic is too much fun to put down. Pics soon! Clue 3 is nearly finished!!!
This post is brought to you by Greenery, Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year! Finally, a color of the year I appreciate! I wear lots of greens but I especially love a pop of chartreuse so this is perfect for me! Perhaps you’ve noticed my latest sweater is green…
I didn’t get it done for NYE but there’s always next week!
Unfortunately, I green is also the color of frogs and I think I’ve got some frogging in my future. I did the color work around the yoke. It looks good. 
That’s a Dancing Bear, of Grateful Dead fame. It’s a free chart. But soon after, problems start to arise. I’m not out of the dark green yarn, which is naturally the color I want to continue with. It’s okay though, I’ve got plenty of the light green and since it’s now color of the year, I have to use it, don’t I?
I decided to incorporate a honeycomb sort of slip stitch pattern based on this pattern, Retro Lopapeysa. As an added bonus, it looks a bit like a turtle shell.
Bears and Terrapins are good friends if you’re a Deadhead. I didn’t plan it that way, but I’ll totally go with that story. I’m a fan of happy accidents. This is a very happy accident. I’ve been worried about the look being too disjointed, the color block body, the striped sleeves, the stranded yoke. It’s got a lot going on and it’s definitely teetering on the edge of chaos but it’s working for me.
The problem is the fit. The fit is a hot mess. Tight at the armpit and gaping in other parts. It’s so bad I couldn’t even bring myself to take a grainy, poorly lit selfie. I’m pretty sure I need to rip back to the sleeve join and do some reworking.
Which of course is going to be a problem because last week, I grafted my armpit holes. D’oh! That’s what I get for ‘helping’ myself and weaving the ends in early! Oh well…I’m soldiering on, the slip stitch pattern goes quickly, especially as I decrease. I’m secretly hoping the fit will improve as I get closer to the neck line. Maybe I won’t have to rip it out? (Maybe I’m delusional…stay tuned to find out!)
As I was recounting how incredibly busy my week was to a friend, he reminded me ‘but that’s all socializing.’
…
I will have you know, I did manage to fit a few other things in. Including, a tiny bit of knitting! Just enough to finish a few things up…
A Lebowski Hat! My second one, testing out the chicken scratch notes I’d made. Hopefully this means I’ll get my act together and get it in digital form, for all of you to test soon! I used Cascade’s Highland Duo, 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Merino Wool!! It’s so soft! Yes, I love this hat. And it’s so much easier than knitting the whole sweater. The Dude Abides, indeed.
FO #2 comes from yarn Mom & I collaborated on during the Rhinebeck Trip. Our Fall Foliage colorway is perfect knit up! I think it captured the Catskills perfectly! And it’s incredibly soft, 40% merino, 40% alpaca, 20% silk! YUMMY!
Both of these are coming to an Etsy Shop near YOU soon! :) Now…time to finish up my Halloween costume!! Have a great weekend!
Another weekend, another hat!
The yarn is Tosh Merino and two skeins is a lot of yardage when it comes to hats! This is my third hat from this yarn. I also got Heisenberg and my Greensky Bluegrass hat from the same two skeins!
And I’ve still got 45 g left! That should be enough for a kid hat. A dinosaur, I think!
Way back on Monday, which seems like a lifetime ago, I finished a hat. Another Grateful Dead hat. By pure coincidence, just down the street, most of the Grateful Dead were scheduled to perform a free concert that very same night! Add it all up, hometown crowd, historic venue, 50 years of music and it’s a free ticket…that means it’s a nearly impossible ticket!
I had to try though. You can’t ignore these things when they happen in your own zip code! I set off, to work the line that had been growing, in front of the venue since 6 am, maybe someone would love my handiwork and I could trade it for a ticket.
Actually, it worked out even better than that! Someone I knew had a pair of tickets and offered me his extra just as the doors were opening! Total Score! Except he’s the ‘not a hippie’ kind of hippie. No, Grateful Dead knits will not do in this case. And so, today’s work-in-progress was born!
It’s black! I never knit with black, this is a big deal. I’m bumping an idea to the top of the queue, something I’ve wanted to do for a while but never had the right home for it. Now I do! This is going to be the perfect! It’s a tidy little puzzle that is fitting together just right. I love when I remember the right idea at the right time!
Stay tuned for FO Friday, this promises to be a good one!
I said one thing about this weekend, I would definitely have enough time to finish my Hitchhiker. Naturally, that means I didn’t. That’s gotta be one of the corollaries to Murphy’s Law, declaring one’s intent is the quickest way to ensure something won’t happen.
I did get lots of other little tidbits done though. I added a cute little bill to my recent Grateful Dead hat. I wasn’t sure the colors I had left would work but turns out, it was meant to be! I love when stashbusting turns out like this! It’s for a friend who accidentally felted an alpaca hat I gave her years ago. I’m pretty sure she’ll agree, it was worth the wait!
I embellished the stupid black hat, as well. I love it now!
The idea of a bluegrass festival full of 70’s glam rock fans tickles me pink! And the pom-pom is the proverbial cherry on top, just in case anyone missed the humor of it before. I have no idea if this one will be well received, but as usual, I’ll be happy to keep it for myself!
After that, I got the crazy idea to cut up a dress my Mom tie dyed for me years ago. It’s been my staple lounge wear for a long time, to the point of decay. It developed a gaping armpit hole but I couldn’t just throw it away. I dismissed the idea of mending it, instantly. Clearly THAT was too much work. Cutting it up into ‘tarn’ struck me as brilliant though. I couldn’t get the scissors in my hands fast enough. Three hours later, I’m not even half done.
I think I’ll have enough for something garment like though! It’s a floor length, shift dress, so no seams to get in the way! Just a big flat piece of fabric to be cut up. I can’t wait to give it a new life! But first, I’m finishing that Hitchhiker! Maybe ;)
FO Friday has poor timing. It’s not my fault I can’t follow convention! If Friday had a different place on the calendar, FO Friday would totally be a thing around here. Instead, I’ve got FO Haturday! And, I’ve decided to not stop knitting hats!
I grabbed all the Highland Duo, Cascade’s 70 Alpaca/30 Merino blend, in the stash and this is what happened. I wasn’t sure the colors were going to work but I’m pleased. Along the way, I decided this hat should really have a little bill on it. I want it to be brown, which means that’s the color I’m out of, naturally. I’m gonna think on it for a bit.
Inspector Rocky thinks the choices are so egregious he refuses to participate in the discussion any longer. He’s never been that helpful, anyway.
The hat train waits for no feline! The next hat is already in progress and it’s gonna be good!!! It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years now! And the hat after that has been plucked from the stash as well. Stashbusting WOOOO!
My favorite ‘guy on top of a building’ William Penn wrote “Patience and diligence, like faith, move mountains.” With that in mind, I cast on two more projects yesterday! My queue is now full at 10! Now it’s time to patiently and diligently knit away. I have faith at the end of it, I will have a mountain of knitting!
It’s more of a mole hill right now, but have faith…I can knit it into a mountain! Patience and diligence are the cornerstones of knitting! This should be easy!
Both of these hats are repeats, they’re filler knitting, really. Another Tapehead hat, knit from an old cassette tape. Not just any old tape though, this one is special! A Grateful Dead bootleg I picked it because it says Set III!! That’s unheard of…who plays 3 set shows anymore?? Fillmore East, 1971, always worth a listen...This show eventually became the commercial release ‘Ladies and Gentlemen…’ Gonna be a fun show to wear.
The theme today is, apparently, pop culture because my second hat is another Dude hat. The first one was a hit (it really tied the outfit together), so time for another one! I’m just tweaking a few things and working on the pattern write up! Look for the pattern release soon!
There’s been fiber flying over here for several days now! I ignored the 10 project limit for a few days, I knit completely out of order…rules be damned! These things happen on the weekend. My days of beer binges have slowly been replaced by knitting binges. One might think the hangover would have improved, with the exception of the headache though, they’re quite similar. Waking up disoriented, strange articles of clothing strewn about, memories of where they came from lost to the haze of the wee hours. Finally, on Tuesday, recovered from the weekend, ready to address the issue and take stock.
This weekend brought me 3 new hats (if you count an orange kitty mohawk, which I definitely do!) and I’m within the 10 project limit! Phew! I thought the knitting police might haul me away at any moment.
The other two hats are Grateful Dead 13 point lightening bolts for my Etsy Shop. Just in time for Fare Thee Well, the band’s anniversary/reunion/retirement tour!
I really love the instant gratification of hats! I may even love wearing them, after this blue one! Maybe one of my favorite hats I’ve ever made. It was a no brainer where everything just fell into place perfectly, the perfect bits and bobs from the stash, just the right colors, perfect colorwork yarn, yummy soft to wear. Added a touch of elastic for the perfect fit…pretty much threw the kitchen sink at this one and it all worked just exactly how I wanted it too!
and now I’m going to sell it! I always say things like I can just make another…famous last words indeed! I should be making myself a cashmere cardigan! Wish me luck in re-focusing! (I pulled more scraps from the stash late last night…ooops! Hats are so hard to resist!)
I finished my custom Grateful Dead-SF Giants slouchy hat! I was motivated to get it to the customer ASAP so I didn’t even think about good photos when I finished it! Ooops…so no FO Friday fanfare this week. Just a quick nod to finishing on Tuesday!
I start with a plain black hat and then duplicate stitch the Steal Your Face onto it!
Like much of my knitting, it was done late at night…so these are the only photos I’ve got!
Luckily, it looked much better in the light of day! Another satisfied customer! Woot!
Now for a little shameless self-promotion:
Click here for your own custom order and the rest of my shop!
There’s even a couple patterns for the knitters in the group!
