Category Archives: WIPs

2024 Conference Knitting

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Conference knitting has arrived! This past week when my posts were auto-posting….the family and I snuck away to a conference in San Diego. And boy howdy, did I get a ton of knitting done (and work and family time).

I was in a room with 600+ ladies and I was one of two knitters. I very quickly became “orange hat lady” and had muggles approach me in the bathroom, lol. It was a 9 hour day so I made terrific progress on my Glazed Carrot hat.

Lots of people asked to touch it and were impressed with how soft the fabric is. That is the magic of a singles yarn with no plies, its soft! Stay tuned for the finished object shots…

Happy Knitting!!

Chiefs Decreases

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After a full day of football watching, my Chiefs Hat is ready for decreases. Duke and I took a moment to relax on the patio for some sunshine and fresh air.

This time he chose not to lay directly on top of my knitting, which is an improvement. I was happy to see that I will use each color twice. It’s just that the last yellow section will be teeny weenie. But it will be there!

So I do have 15 stripes of red, 15 stripes of yellow, 15 stripes of red and will finish with a few of yellow. I *think* I can knock this out yet tonight and show you all a hat tomorrow! My mojo is cranking on high!

Happy Knitting!!

Chiefs Or Winnie The Pooh

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Okay, this Chiefs Hat is my singular focus this weekend. My mojo is all centered here.

I do have one niggling thought….”is this a Chiefs hat or a Winnie the Pooh hat?” As this works up I think I would have been more successful starting with yellow so that the red was on the brim facing outward.

Again, not bothered enough to actually pull this out and redo. But I will have enough yarn from each skein to perhaps try switching colors on a second hat. Just have to finish this first one. Happy Knitting!!

A Chiefs Brim

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My Chiefs Hat has reached the brim stage!

Since this is my first non-solid color hat, I decided to use some math to keep stripes equal. I knit 20 rows (after cast on) in the red yarn. Then added 20 rows in the yellow before folding and attaching the brim. This makes a nice matching edge where the red and yellow meet at the “bottom” of the hat.

The stripes are fairly large. And I am starting with the next red section and I think I will make the hat body stipes 15 rows instead of 20. Rough math tells me that I will use each color twice in the hat body. (Tempting the match and knitting gods as I type)

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Glazed Carrot Hat

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I am gearing up for some travel and I needed a “safe” project to travel with. Something easy, on wooden needles and a project I wouldn’t mind if TSA made me pull the needles out.

I grabbed the skein of Malabrigo Worsted that I bought on my lunch walk. It’s a singles yarn, so no plies. It won’t be the hardest wearing hat but the softness is out of this world. It’s called Glazed Orange but my midwestern brain just reads “Blaze Orange” for hunting safety.

I pushed myself NOT to do a stockinette brim and work 2×2 rib for some variety. It’s my standard 88 stitch hat on US 8s. I will fold that 2×2 brim for extra warmth and for sure this one will go into my gift pile. Which is quite large by now!

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting Hats In The Wild

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I am calling this hat made from Whimzee Stitches yarn my 2024 Pigskin Party Hat. And I took it along with me to a recent sporting event.

Turns our professional soccer games are SUPER long. So by the time we made it to the car, I had an almost finished hat!

The spirals did take a jog when I folded and attached the cast on edge for a brim. Everything shifted almost a full color and a half. It does make the brim stand out distinctly from the hat body.

I am loving these spirals so wonderfully that I think I might do a 3-needle bind off and square this hat off. A la the Pussy Hat style top. That way these spirals are not being broken up by the decreases.

Happy Knitting!!

Jellybean Knits Now

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I may have lost my LSP Redo Hat to Jellybean. He got bored on a recent car trip to an event so I handed him my knitting and gave him like 10 minutes of instruction. Dang if that kid didn’t figure it out and just took off in stockinette in the round.

He knit through most of the event and would occasionally hand me the work to fix dropped stitches or double wraps. But this fingers and eyes were generally aware when he had a problem. I did have to fix roughly 10 additional dropped stitches when we got home that he didn’t catch.

Bonus? His gauge was not that far off from mine! So his stitches are going to stay in the hat and I don’t think any muggles will notice in the FO. I am being cautious to see if he is going to keep knitting, I might get him his own needles and ball of yarn and see what happens.

Happy Knitting!!

Uptown Decreases

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It’s now leggings and fire pit season! Fall has arrived even though we get a few hot flashes that make us feel second summer. I managed some toasty toes and hat knitting outdoors.

I have my Uptown Hat all the way to the decreases. I should have like 30/40 minutes of knitting left. I am finding this acrylic is easier to knit with grabbier wooden needles than the smooth metal. Probably should have figured that out sooner, but we still got here.

I find myself looking at the stitch definition on this and marveling. There is zero halo and all the little Vs just march right along. It looks and feels very orderly. And I think I am getting better at keeping gauge as I pick up and put down. I notice I get looser when I get sleepy or tired.

Does your gauge move around on you?

Knitting In The Park

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I borrowed Dad’s golf cart and took the hooligans to run out their sillies last night as we feel the last dregs of warm fall. My Uptown Hat came along for the ride.

In between “mom watch this” and “mom, come start my swing” I managed to get the brim finished, folded and attached. It was a little trickier picking up this dark yarn. I was happy for the daylight!

This acrylic is not wool but the fabric is still nice. Trying not to get so tight that there is zero air flow. I tend to pull acrylic harder. This will for sure go in our donation or “safe to take to school” bin for the kids. No harm or foul if it doesn’t come back, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Thanks, I Hate It

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I should have listened to my gut. Turns out I HATED how my LSP hat was knitting up. The fabric was dense and not forgiving at all. It was so stiff that it was barely curling. So to the frog pond it went!

The yarn is back to it’s natural state. I was using US 8 needles and I think I would be better suited to go up to US 10s and then reduce down in stitch count. Rough math makes me think I could go down to 80 instead of 88. The hat is basically a swatch so I think I will start with that and see what happens. I can always rip out again!

Happy Knitting!!