Cast On: A Hat For Jenn

I have my second worsted skein from Thelittlewolfknits in my stash. That dyer is a Pigskin Party KAL sponsor so this yarn gets me extra points in the game. I also had this thought that my friend Jenn would love this yarn. She is ALL things teal.

Over a cup of yummy coffee, I started a basic beanie. My typical 88 stitches on a US 8 needle. I do NOT feel like ribbing this hat so stockinette it is. Jenn also has a March birthday so I could make this an early birthday present. She doesn’t know about this plan and I kind of like the idea of a random surprise gift in the mail!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: 2025 Chiefs Beanie

I have a few days left of the 2024 Pigskin Party KAL and I decided to cast on another football themed hat. This is some malabrigo singles I got last fall.

I am going to make my normal beanie recipe. I am starting with 88 stitches and the yellow. The base is Malabrigo Worsted in 022 Sauterne and then the red is 102 Sealing Wax. I also still have some Chiefs logo patches that I can sew on as well.

This base is a singles and I’m not wild at the moment of how I am struggling with snagging. I think my needles are too blunt. I need to switch to my Chia Goo needles? I do love the hand of the finished fabric as it is very very soft. Therefore I will persevere!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Scandia Hat

After finishing my Flats Hat, I needed another easy project on the needles. So I cast on a hat called the Scandia Hat.

This was the DK yarn that Santa put in my stocking from KnitCircus. It is their Divine DK in the color Pet Rock Speckle. Since this is a plump DK, I moved down to a US 7 but did cast on up to 100 stitches.

These hats are so forgiving that they will always fit someone. I am ribbing this hat brim with a 2×2 rib. It will still be my basic beanie recipe with a folded brim. Those just feel automatic to my hands while I am watching or talking with people.

Happy Hat Knitting!!

Cast On: 2024 Advent Socks Take Two

I have been watching The Cozy Knitter make her advent socks and she does this cool feature of adding blips of the contrast yarn as she changes stripes. I have always meant to try it but then the holidays hit and I can only manage stockinette. After finishing a vanilla version, I am committing to trying this out!

I had to dig through my scraps to find some toe yarn. It’s a light grey from Red Door Fibers and should blend well with this mix of colors. I then used the scraps of the white contrast yarn from The Cozy Knitter to start my blips every 4th st.

This is my normal recipe for a 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock. I will do afterthought heels and this time inside a stripe to not mess up my colorwork. I am trying to work hard to make my floats stretchy and not pull them tight. It would be nice if these socks fits at the end!

So far I am happy with the look of these and I am learning a lot about managing the white yarn to avoid 1,000 ends on the inside. Should be interesting!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Chiefs Touchdown Beanie

I have officially wound up the hat kit I purchased from TreasureGoddess yarns. I am going to start my Chiefs Beanie and really lean in to doing actual colorwork.

This is a great yarn dyer but I still took the precaution of pre-washing the red yarn and doing a citric acid soak on the red yarn. I would hat to ruin my FO with bleeding dye. Great news, I didn’t see a drop of dye come out in either back it took!

This hat does work at a smaller gauge that I have historically been doing. I am torn between a swatch or just starting the brim and using that to gauge. Knowing myself, it will probably be door #2.

I have the needles prepped and a project bag lined up. I just need to start! Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Flats Hat

After finishing the Fairy Tale Beanie, I decided to get yarn right back on my needles to kick off 2025. I pulled the worsted skein called “Flats for Drums” from Thelittlewolfknits haul.

Back to my comfort zone of my basic beanie recipe with 88 sts on US 8 needles. I named this hat the Flats Hat as I prefer my chicken wings to be flats and not drums. I thought that was cute, lol. I also totally picked a project bag that fit in with the yarn color scheme. I couldn’t help myself.

I need to also finish this hat by the Superbowl as this is a sponsor product for the KAL. I think this will become my purse and work knitting for my month of upcoming meetings!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Meaningful Handspun Hat

Santa comes tonight and I’m in need of plain autopilot knitting. I gifted almost ALL of the hats I knit this year and it felt so good. And now I have a little urge to refill that bin!

So I decided to grab a skein from my bag of hat yarn and start. This one is a little special as it’s handspun. This was my Deep & Meaningful 2ply from this summer. It’s heavy DK to worsted and it should make a lovely squishy hat.

I am working on my US 10.5 needles and 72 stitches. Totally have not swatched and not sure this gauge will work. And I can always rip out and start over. And I may find that I don’t have enough yardage as well. I really feel like living dangerously at the end of 2024!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Frankenstein Hat #2

My scrap bag wouldn’t close again so I decided to start a second Frankenstein Hat. I culled my leftovers and found a nice fall color scheme.

I decided to start with the orange color since it was the boldest color in the bunch and I will work through the browns and end with the green. Why….it sounds good to my brain.

Happy Knitting!!

Casting On Two More Hats

I am filling up my empty needles early this morning before work. I have a tote bag full of the hat yarn I intend to use and I did random dip to pull my next two projects.

On the right is a Bluestem Beanie that I cast on with some Potions Yarn Dryad DK in Fairy Tale and more of the Stranded Dyeworks Mohair silk in the Patisserie colorway. This one starts on US 7s and I’ll move to 8s after the brim.

On the left is just a basic worsted beanie in the last skein of worsted acrylic I have kicking around in my stash. I made a HS friend a Baby Sophisticate out of this back in 2017 and I had almost a full skein left after. This will be another vanilla hat as the yarn is slippery and I just wanted to crank it out and get it used up.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Chiefs Hat #6

My hat needles were naked I decided to cast on another hat. I had all the right color scraps to make a scrappy Chiefs hat.

All these scraps are Malabrigo Rios in the colors Pearl Ten (grey), Freza (red), and Sunset (gold). I worked the brim lining in the gold and moved to the dark grey for the public side of the brim. I think after weighing my scraps that I need to start some skinny stripes of all three colors in order to get to a finished hat. I don’t have enough to do the big chunkier stripes in my previous versions.

This hat has been my hyper focus as I try to keep up my points tally for the Pigskin Party KAL. Football themed items earn bonus points! Happy Knitting!!