Koolhaas Hat

I bought the Holiday 2007 edition of Interweave Knits back in November or December, I think, and I had plans to make this hat (pattern contained in aforementioned IK) since then. Many a blogging knitter has made this hat in worsted weight Malabrigo, and their praise for this yarn abounded. I had to try it. Unfortunately, at the time, no local yarn shops were selling this yarn, but I was able to find some on a trip out to CA in January.

Also, this hat got moved up on the project list after a conversation with my Grandpa. I had plans to make him a hat for his birthday (last week), but he recently informed me that winter had practically ended in California. Go ahead, rub it in. Winter is certainly not over here (see photo evidence below), so I put his project on hold and made myself this hat instead.

Here is a photo of the hat on my desk:


Here is a picture of me wearing the hat whilst preparing to walk the dog in a slush filled winter wonderland (don't I look happy?):


Pattern: Koolhaas hat by Jared Flood from Holiday 2007 IK
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted weight in color black forest
Needles: Size 6 Denise interchangeable circulars for the ribbing and size 7s for the body of the hat.
Comments: This was such a fun and clever pattern! I really enjoyed knitting it, and the yarn is absolutely luscious. I highly recommend both. I did an extra pattern repeat to make the hat long enough to cover my ears (a necessity in this cold climate!)

A comment on my rotations: I just finished 2 weeks of orthopedic surgery. I saw two knee replacements and one total hip. I have added a total joint replacement to my list of things that I never want to experience (stroke is still at the top.) Though I never want to have one done to me, these surgeries were very impressive to see and involved many power tools and much hammering and sawing of bone. And grunting. And wearing space suits. And med students (me!) holding legs. People, legs are heavy. Fortunately, as a psychiatrist, I really don't think I will have to hold many (any) legs. On Monday, I start 2 week of ophthamology. 10 weeks to go until I am totally done with my rotations (but who's counting?)

Maria's Hat

I was feeling ambitious a few weeks ago and decided to make matching mittens and a hat for a friend's daughter. The mittens did not happen, but the hat did!

Too cute for words:


View from the top:


Pattern: I cast on 80 stitches (I think) did about 8 rows of garter stitch and switched colors for random stripes. I stockinetted up about 6 inches, and then started decreasing for the crown. I finished off the top with a pompom.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in various colorways from my stash
Needles: Size 7 16" circulars
Fun, quick and easy! And it fits! And the pompom was made with a pompom maker - also fun, quick and easy!

iSew

My cousin gave me this chair four years ago. He was going to throw it away. I said that I could take it and recover it. Since that time, it has languished in my kitchen. It was the unfortunate victim of an explosion of a blenderful of Mexican hot chocolate, and it has been the beloved scratching post of my cat, Greta. This chair became very dirty and unkempt, yet I continued to display it in my kitchen. I realized the low to which I had sunk when the darling daughter of a friend was cooking macaroni and cheese with me in my kitchen. I placed this chair in front of the stove for her, so she could watch the bubbling noodles. She asked me if this was the chair the dog sat in because it was very dirty, and dirt and hair and things were sticking to the bottom of her bare feet. She asked if she could have another chair to stand on.

Raul and I talked about buying some new chairs (our other chair is one that my great aunt and I found by the side of the road, and she recovered if for me several years ago, and it is still is good shape.) But we are poor, and I decided that I could recover this chair. We purchased fabric, and today I made this in two hours:

(My humble kitchen, please ignore painters tape in windows, that is for next weekend's todo list.)




So, it was really easy. Some new batting was placed on the seat. I pinned the fabric to the chair, trimmed it, pinned it, wiggled it off and then sewed it. I did not get the stripes to line up exactly, but it's good enough. Raul tacked down the bottom with his nail gun, and I glued on the braid trim to cover the nails. I thought this would take forever - that's why I put off this project for four years. Kind of embarrassing.

BTW - it's still cold here. The high was zero degrees today. And our entire street is covered in ice. We've had the opportunity to get to know several of our neighbors as we have all had to help each other out with a push when our cars invariably get stuck on the ice or in the snow banks. Good times.

Toe Up Ankle Socks

I had the purple/blue/green variegated yarn leftover from a pair of socks I made for my grandma a couple years ago. I really like this yarn, and I seemed to have an ankle sock pair sized amount, and I really like ankle socks - my resources met my desires! I used this project as a template. A solid color green yarn from my stash was used for the heel and toe and ribbed cuff, and the body of the sock was knit in the previously mentioned variegated yarn. I cast on using this method, and I did a short row heel like so. My first attempt at a short row heel was a DISASTER! I was reading the instructions without really thinking about the actual construction and kind of made up my own thing when I came to a bit I did not understand, and well, it did not turn out well. Here is what became of my first heel:

I cut it out and reknit the heel after realizing what a craptastic job I had done.

In other news, yesterday was my birthday. And I spent it in bed with a horrible cold. No worries, I am now convalescing. This one was a doozy. Maybe it was that mutated rhinovirus that's all over the news. Bad rhinovirus.

Entrelac Socks

Finished!

Raul's self-portrait:


Specs:
Pattern - Annetrelac Socks from Interweave Knits 2007 Holiday issue
Yarn - Trekking XXL in brown/orange/cream varigated colorway (#163) purchased at Little Knits
Needles - Size 2 Addi Turbo circs (the pattern called for size 1s, but I used the larger needle to get a larger, manfoot-sized sock.)
Comments - The pattern calls for Schaeffer Anne yarn, but I had the Trekking in my stash and it had similar yardage (400+ yards). The entrelac cuff uses a significant amount of yarn, and I was worried about running out of yarn while knitting these socks. As a result, the foot of one of them turned out a little too short. It may stretch with wear, or I could always frog the toe and add some length with the little bit of yarn that I have leftover. I also goofed on the last round of the cuff, and it turned out a little bit wonky - apparently, I left out a row of blocks, though had I read the pattern correctly, I definitely would have run out of yarn. All in all, a fun pattern and an excellent introduction to entrelac! And the yarn was wonderful to work with - very soft, yet sturdy!