Pointy Hat and Stash tidying

I had a to do list as long as my arm for today, but I had to put it on hold to do something about my stash, it was about to implode badly and I had visions of having to excavate the cat from underneath it. So, I spent the afternoon bagging, cataloguing and listing a lot of it on Ravelry. Have to confess I ground to a halt when I reached the coned yarn, I just couldnt face photogaphing and listing all of that, so that can wait for another day. This is just the start of it, at this moment I have 14 similar boxes stacked, and thats just the bit that lives in that room.

I also felted/fulled this pointy hat. We went to my parent's for Burns night so I needed something easy to knit in the van.

I intend to give this a hatband of oak leaves, which I think will look rather nice.

Despite the vast stash I had to order wool today, had a commission in and none of the right stuff in stock, typical!

Today's crop of hats

Finished the green pixie hats mentioned earlier, I think the one with the brim will take a hatband with daisies on it rather well.

I've also been working on some medieval style felted hats today, two bycockets and a sugarloaf hat. Quite pleased with these, they need a final steaming, but I don't think they'll need any extra stiffener, its a Gotland wool and has a lovely strong rustic texture to it.

Catching up on the week

Spent friday night catching up with old friends, and as we sat up most of the night talking I managed to get a whole hat knitted- pic to follow later, its a bright green 'flower fairy' sort of hat- its in the wash having a bit of a shrink right now. Also got most of a pixie hat finished the next day, so that counts as a good constructive session I think.

Last week I finished this hat, its some lovely silky superwash aran I bought in bulk last year, and dyed earlier in the week. I'm pleased with the button detail, and suspect I may wear this one myself. Will be putting the pattern up on Ravelry if anyone wants to try one similar.

I also found this picture of the wool winder Gareth made me a few years ago, and thought I'd share it. Its a real mix of woods, beech for the body, yew for the arms and reclaimed ebony for the flat bits the wool goes over, but I love it.

What else, oh yep, made another example of the'His n Hers' hats for a friend, this is in the most gorgeous Kerry Hill wool from the wonderful people at Rosewood Farms. Highly recommended yarn if you like to support small producers of ethical produce. Sorry the pic is so dark, flash made it white out completely

Russula Cap

This gorgeously soft yarn (Twilley's 'Freedom Spirit') came to me in a swap and I was reminded by it of the lovely warm shades found on the caps of Russula mushrooms. So, heres the Russula Cap, and there is once again, a free downloadable pdf of the pattern if you'd like to try it out . It only used one ball of yarn, so a good stash buster I thought.

Blodeuwedd Headover

In Welsh mythology, Blodeuwedd was a maiden created out of flowers. I received this vibrant green yarn (its some Rowan magpie tweed) flecked with jewel bright colours as part of a swap and it evokes for me that idea of a flowery, grassy meadow. The open topped slightly organic shaped headdress allows space for far more hair than usually looks good under such a fitted hat. The enclosed neckpiece gives an effect that reminds me very slightly of a medieval wimple, and seems just right for a cool spring morning walk.

I'm pleased with how this came out, very much a case of me making it up as I went along and the neck got rippedout and reworked before I was happy with the fit, but I like it now:)

This pattern is available as a downloadable pdf, I *think*it reads ok, but please do let me know if you find any errors.

Another Tudor Cap

I enjoy knitting these, I've done a fair few over the years now, and every one comes out a little bit differently. I particularly like this yarn, its a vintage undyed Welsh wool, no idea what mill it came from, but its a heavy two ply and really very similar to handspun in the way it behaves and appears. I think I have enough for one more hat on the cone after this one, will be sorry when it runs out.

Of course, the ideal is to spin my own yarn for these, but whilst I enjoy spinning I just haven't quite got enough hours in the day at the moment. Really want to improve on that this year if I can.

I think I've just started a steep learning curve

I'm a more than competent knitter, knitting doesn't scare me, I'll tackle most things. However, and its a big however, because most of my output is destined for the 'historic' market, almost everything I knit on a day to day basis is in plain stockinette, sometimes with a few purl stitches if its something really racy.

This means I'm rather behind the times when it comes to translating ideas I have for more modern pieces of knitwear into patterns that will be understood by other people. Right now, I have three designs whizzing round in my mind, and I lack the language to put them down competently on paper. Ideally, I'd have time to quietly knit them and do the notation as I go along, but I don't, so I should really be combining pattern notations with my scribbled sketches so that when I do get a chance to write them up, I won't have had all the detail leak out of my ears somewhere along the line.

The problem is though, I can see what I want the stitches to do in my head, but I don't know how to put that down on paper. One idea for example has a shoulder cape as part of it, the underlying sturcture is simple, its 8 increases on each second row, just like making a beret, but how do I write that out so it also includes cabling, lace and similar details, its not a regular stitch count so I can't use a graph as the design won't evolve properly on it.

There must be a way to do this, but my brain hurts.

Elvish Leaves Dishcloth

Downsizer has been having a dishcloth knitting challenge, so I decided to have a go at the Elvish Leaves cloth. I haven't done much lace knitting before so it was as much an excercise in familiarising myself with the basic technique as anything else. I really enjoyed knitting this, it was just challenging enough to be good fun, and easy enough to be a quick, relaxing knit. Highly recommended!

I think I'll do this again, maybe in a variagated green and brown yarn if I can find one with subtle enough colour variations.

Red and Blue Wizard Cap

I started this yesterday afternoon and finished it first thing this morning. It gave ne something unchallenging to knit whilst we saw in the New Year, and it came out rather well. Ran it through the washing machine with some laundry first thing to full it and now its drying quietly.

The photo makes it look a bit odd, but thats because the hatblock is curved so it looks lumpy, its really quite a nice shape on .