More Loot.

I got a package from my secret pal yesterday. It was perfect timing as I has just gotten home from vacation.

Some lovely chocolate, a couple of lovely balls of knit picks Wool of the Andes bulky in Cape Cod, and three little notebooks.
Also a very nice card, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Thanks Secret Pal.

Scarf finally done...

Just in time for X-mas.
I am not sure whether Amanda is happy or unhappy about it.

Travelling knitting group

Last week was AGU and in honor of the that our knitting group (don't call it a club) left the dive bar and headed into San Fran.
Fun times were had by all. Met at Citizen cupcake and except for a brief "Oh you guys aren't the people I am supposed to be meeting even though you are knitting" moment on B's part all went well I think. I liked the food and the drinks. Very very cute and taste cupcakes. Had a bit too much sugar though. I must say it was nice knitting in a well lit place.
There was some talk of making one night a month a travelling knitting night. Perhaps we will be coming a town near you.

I think I need to get out of the arthritis cream for my hand. Too much knitting.

I must say that save for one scarf the x-mas knitting was a bust.

Woohoo Secret Pal Loot!

I got a package from my secret pal yesterday. Very exciting stuff. Stuff to make a cool beaded scarf. Some chocolate and a really nice cloth. Even a little treat for el gato loco.















I will get knitting as soon as I am done with the Christmas knitting I have been neglecting.

Scarf update

So I am making a lot of my Christmas presents that I am going to give this year. The only thing I have started so far is this scarf for my sister. I think it is going to get up being a lot shorter than I thought it would be. I really like how it is coming along. I love the handpainted 6 ply merino. This color is paris night and since the two balls I have are slightly different colors I have been switching between the two. I have also woven in a bunch of the ends so I really can't rip it out and start over. Or rather I won't. Short fat scarf it is.

Woohoo... antique faire...

Karrie and I checked out The Alameda Point Antiques and Collectibles Faire which occurs the first Sunday of every month. For once, I think I beat Karrie out of bed as she has a wild party night, and I had a pretty early evening. The earlier you get there the more expensive it is to get into the fair so it was just fine that we didn't get there until 9ish as that is when it went down to $5. We were expecting clouds and wind, and we got sun and heat which would have been great had I had sunscreen, sunglass or a tee-shirt. Yes, I believe I was just complaining about a nice day.
There was so much stuff to check out, and I am not sure we saw even half of it before we had to throw in the towel due to sunshine and sleepiness. There was a ton of stuff I wanted but had absolutely no room to store any of them nor did I have enough dosh for most of the things I wanted. I ended up getting two cook books, two really nifty aprons, pair of knitting needles, and a sewing box. I am pretty happy with my purchases.
I got an older spiral folder version of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and The Wise Enclyopedia of Cookery (circa 1949). Thank god I avoid the unwise version. Arranged like a dictionary, there are convient finger notches for quick surfing and some lovely color photos every one and a while. It contains not only recipes but enclyopedic entries on various techniques and ingredients. Here is pictures some of the lovely plum pudding and fruit cakes to try for Christmas. I think it is worth the $5 I paid for the two books.












The aprons put me in the mood to throw a cocktail party. There were only $3 each. One has a simply pattern with some nice big pockets (it is more cream colored even though it photographed sort of bright white), and the other is this nice retro pattern. For some reason it has a metal half-ring on it. Karrie and I speculated as to what it could be for. She figures perhaps a towel or a spoon could be hung there. I think that perhaps that is where you could attach the leash your child should have on.
















My most expensive purchase was a little flip top sewing box. A simple wooden box with handle on it that has a little shelf for bobbins and such things. I thought it was pretty cute and was able to get the lady to knock a couple of bucks off of it. Here it is pictured with the knitting needles I picked up to work on my mother's Christmas scarf.


Afterwards, we thought we might check out the knitting store in Montclair, The Knitting Basket, which neither one of us had been to before. It turns out that it is not open on Sundays, and it is very difficult to get around Montclair because it is farmers' market day. I think perhaps the highlight of the day was seeing that really creepy "Ask me why I am a vegan" guy who sometimes hangs out at the Albany Bowl get in a fight with the guy who was running the chicken rotisserie stand. I loved seeing that creepy guy getting yelled at so I just had to buy some chicken. That is some tasty murdered animal there. Also got some lovely brussel sprouts, some some other fruits and veg.

All and all it was a pretty good day. I got a little sun burnt, and I am definitely ready for a nap, and I might have a sore shoulder for hauling around two heavy cookbooks for a few hours (not my brightest moment), but I would definitely go again. My mother was definitely envious of my antique fair time as she called me right when I was trying to juggle a couple of large books. I told her she would just have to visit on the first weekend of the month some time and we could go.

Why is el gato so angry?

I guess I must have woken him up or that damn flash has upset him.


Or perhaps he has heard I have been calling him el gato muy loco. Despite the look of the photo, he did not leap from his position and attack. All he did was lift his head up as he tends to sleep in that awkward knot.

Spur of the moment...

Have to get out of Berkeley. Going to Moscow for weekend. Want to see real wintery stuff.

Drunken online purchases...

So the weekend before last I got a little toasty at a friend's going away party. Karrie was kind enough to give me a ride home, but it was only 9 pm when we got home and that was way too early to go to bed. There were only two things to do: drink a lot of water, and shop online.


Here is what I ended up buying in my drunken state.

I bought the first and second Vogue Stitchonaries. I also ordered the third one as well, but according to Amazon, it isn't going to ship until December 11. I also ordered enough of the 6 ply merino for a sweater in the color lettuce and some in the color burgandy for a scarf from handpaintedyarn.com. I got that isn't this very much, but when you take it in conjugation with my trip to the outlet malls on Monday and my garage sale hopping on Saturday, it was quite an expensive week. You can also see some of the knitting needles I bought at the garage sale in the picture.

Just in case you were wondering, I did not have a hangover the next day, but I probably shouldn't have timed the long walk back to my car to coincide with the hottest part of the day.

New wardrobe...

So Karrie, Ingrid and I went to the outlet malls in Vacaville for the Columbus day sales last Monday. I sort of went a little crazy and bought most of a wardrobe. I got two skirts, two pairs of pants, one pair of pajama pants, a fleece, three dress shirts, two pairs of tights, a tank top, six long sleeve shirts, a short sleeve shirt, a pair of sunglasses, two shrugs, a blazer, a cardigan, a cashmere sweater, and a hoodie. The next day I got a bra and three pairs of underwear as well as a pair of sleeping socks. Add that to the three pairs of shoes I got on the Solano stroll a couple weeks, and I have a whole new wardrobe.

Garage Sale Loot.

Today was the awesome El Cerrito citywide garage sale so Karrie, Abby and I all headed off in Karrie's high trunk (and roof) capacity car.
I spent about $40 and got a ton of stuff. Karrie was even kind enough to stop off for coffee at Peet's on the way so I wasn't a total beast.

At the first stop (which happened to be at the crematorium), Abby and Karrie spotted the one item I really, really wanted, a French onion soup bowl, in just under a minute of us being at the sale, and they both simultaneously pounced on them in my behalf as a little old lady was also reaching for them. I must say they are pretty sweet: a 12 piece set complete with 4 bowls, 4 lids, and 4 little woven mats to protect the table from heat. Thanks for the fast reflexes ladies.

I scored a vintage version of the game Pit and some vintage yatzhee score cards. I think they are super cute.


I also found a bunch of old cookbooks, an old knitting book, and another vintage game called Tri-Ominos.

I got a lovely kitchen scale as well as some vintage fabric, more cookbooks, some knitting needles and an angel food pan.










Finally, I bought a hand loom, which came with some yarn, more cook books, a nice clear green vase, a green sealing jar, some embroidery thread, a lovely blue dish, an i-cord maker, one more vintage game called Perquackey, and a comfy burgandy chair which I am currently typing in and which the cat has already decided is a scratching post.

All and all, it was a very sucessful day. The weather was great, the sellers were all quite resonable and nice to us, and I had a couple of great people to hang out with. I think perhaps my favorite part was the 'should-we-or-shouldn't-we-buy-it.-is-it-going-to-fit?-nope-it-isn't.-well-let's-put-it-on-the-roof.-nah-forget-it.-we-are-leaving.-well-screw-them-I'll-get-it-anyway' part of the day. I was also big fan of the little old ladies being mean to other little old ladies that were just digging through their piles looking for things to buy. Thinking back, we really should have taken a picture of Karrie's car with all the stuff in/on it. Also we should have taken a picture of this house that was all decked out (excuse the pun) in sailing stuff: oars, fishing nets, anchors, and about twenty of those two pronged things that you tie the boats to when securing it to a dock.

Thanks for the great day ladies. Perhaps November 5th we can check out the Alameda antique fair.

Speaking of el gato loco, he had a lot of fun with the packing materials that got strewn across the floor with my purchases.

SP9

So this is my first secret pal experience. I think I might be just a bit behind the curve here.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I much prefer natural fibers like merino and alpaca. I have had a problem with some wool being too itching and my hands freaking out a little bit when I knit but it was rare. I am big fan a hand dyed yarn though too many colors tend to make me a little ill. Not knocking anyone here but I am not a fan of fun fur. Mostly I think a lot of it is too itchy and too big a hassle to knit with. Plus they tend to come in colors that I don't like. I also am not that big a fan of acrylic. I do however like bulky yarns. Was very very sad when handpaintedyarn.com got rid of their super bulky.
Really anything soft I tend to want to buy. That got me into such trouble at Stitches West last year.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Well my Boye's came in their own carrying case and I am still waiting for Karrie to make that straight needle case so as of now they are all stored in the tuperware box I keep part of my stash in.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I learned to knit in Feb/March of this year. I am not sure what the distinction is between beginner and intermediate, but I can increase, decrease, cable, knit in the round, purl, knit, cast on and cast off. I have not yet tackled two color knitting and my finishing skills perhaps aren't that great.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I do. I am a little embarrassed by what is on it right now though. :)

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Umm not sure. Have a problem with heavily scented products sometimes. I like lavendar, tea tree oil, mango mandrian, sometimes vanilla, raspberry. I hate patcholi and anything that makes me think of patcholi. I tend to not use scented lotions or bath products other than hand soap and I have a ton of that right now. I like candles though. Something about fire.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I do. I really like chocolate. White chocolate is NOT real chocolate.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I am not sure how crafty I am. I really like cooking and baking. I am planning on taking a spinning class in December but who knows if that will pan out.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I am not sure about MP3. I am sure it probably does. I haven't bought a CD in a while because of iTunes.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I like greens and blue though my aunt has been trying to convince me that I am a Spring and should not be wearing the colors I am used to wearing so much. I am not a fan of orange or yellow or anything neon.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Family situation? Not really sure what that means. I live in a studio apartment by myself. I currently have el gato loco, Pablo. Not sure how long he is going to be here as I was only supposed to be cat sitting for 4 weeks starting about 3 months ago. I do have pet allergies but for some reason he tends to not to affect them as much as most other cats I meet.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Scarves, hats and mittens yes. It is of my opinion that no one should ever wear a poncho unless you are following a llama through the Andes.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I like scarves and hats so far. Not a big fan of gauge. I have not yet attempted socks though I do have some Socks that Rock to knit up.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Umm three or four scarves, a couple hats and a sweater. I seems to have knitter ADD.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes but I am not going to send anything handmade (except for maybe cookies). My motto is simple is best. Buying stuff is simple. :)

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I am using primarily bamboo and aluminum. Seriously though I am probably all set for needles right now. Those sets from China on eBay rock btw. If anyone knows how to get more cords though for the Boye interchangeable needle set, I'd be interested in that.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have both. Thanks to Sarah for the gift and the store for the sale.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
My second or third project I started back in March still isn't done. No one explained to me that the smaller the yarn the longer it takes to make something out of it. Plus I got sick of pink yarn. (I dislike pink and it isn't for me). I do plan on having it done for Christmas though. Hopefully.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Not sure. I like Thanksgiving because there is a turkey. Not sure what the question is referring to but if it is supposed to be about decorations I can do without those. I like making Christmas cookies. Really any holiday centered about food I am all about. Unless it is holiday themed food I can do without it. And no halloween candy either. :) I am trying to cut out the overly refined sugar.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Umm not really. I seem to have way too many books so that could be called a collection. Really like fantasy novels, old cook books, and seem to be collecting a lot of knitting books as well.


20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I can't think of anything at the moment. I do have some on my amazon wishlist. Are we supposed to post those if we have them? I don't have any mag subscriptions but I am not sure that I want any.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Can't think of any at the moment.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I am not yet. I am not sure what foot measurements are. I wear size 9 shoes and have slight wide feet I think.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
July 31st. (this should be way over by then though:)

Paris Night Scarf.

This may look a little familiar. It may not. I have officially started my X-mas knitting. I am using 5.5 mm needles and am using a color of the 6 ply merino from handpaintedyarn.com called Paris Night.

Sweater update

So I have finished the back of my first sweater. It isn't blocked so it is rolling up a bit but all and all it looks pretty good I think.
I started the front but have stalled off by starting a couple of new scarves.

Brown lace... Check!

Finally finished a brown lace scarf I have been working on for months. Just didn't get into it. Only really knit on it when I was having a pedicure. Finally just sat down and completed it. Was going to add fringe but not I think perhaps not. The cat was way too interested in trying to eat the fringe.
I really should take better pictures but eh I don't have a model. Unfortunately, I already snagged it a bit. There goes giving it away. Even though it is lacy it is still really warm though because it is alpaca.

$4 Scarf...

So my aunt got me this yarn when I was visiting Redmond last from Ben Franklin crafts. It was on sale for $2 a skein. I used two skien, size 15 needles, 7 stitches and garter stitch to create it. Also added a little fringe. The yarn is 100% acrylic and is very fuzzy. Karrie said it looked blurry.

Two baby hats

Long time no post. Finally got a camera of my own thanks to Clara and Scott. (Thanks guys)
This is my Australian knitting project part of the blog. Did you know that the Australian government does not allow you to take knitting needles on the plane as carry on? What is a girl to do for 14 hours? Well I slept and read but I did get a bit of knitting done during the down time at the lake and conference.
My friend Katie asked me to knit something for her boys, 1 yr old and a not-quite-here-yet. I decided to teach myself to knit in the round and make some baby hats.

I decided to go with the Blue Sky Alpaca cotton, which is quite lovely yarn all and all and to use 4.5 mm double point needles. I used a slight modification of the umbilical cord hat from Stitch and Bitch Handbook. For both hats I simply decreased as the pattern recommends until I only hat four stitches left and tied the thing off.
For the smaller hat instead of using multiples of 8 stitches I used multiples of seven stitches.

I am planning another hat for another friends baby but I think i will try to make the colors spiral.

Sweater time.

Yes I went back to Skein Lane and about some more yarn. This time hopefully enough to buy a sweater. Sweet.
Here is my start to it. Now I am nearly ready to decrease.

Cascade 109 stripe scarf.

Another scarf I know. But I really like the yarn. Though looking at it now I think I will rip it out and make it diagonal stripes.
Note I rolled my own ball of yarn in the burgandy color. :)

Knitting Goodies

I have recently got all sorts of knitting goodies.
Sarah gave me a lovely ball winder for let her stay in my place while I was away.
I got myself a new basket (I now have way too many) and a swift and some yarn for a sweater for my b-day.
Very exciting.

Finally got the bee

I finally bought a Queen Bee creation, two in fact. I got the small Kyoto tote and the Cluster wonder wallet.




http://www.buyolympia.com/queenbee/Browse?category=new

Cat and the Hat

Pablo el gato attacks the hat my grandmother used to make me wear when I mowed the lawn. I can't see how it would taste good. I love how Pablo looks like he has egyptian make up on.


Thanks to Karrie for letting me borrow her camera yet again. :)

Three more hats. One for a friend, one for Cal, one for Clara

So here are the three more super bulkly hat. The first is mango for my friend Christi, the second is butter plus indigo trim, the final one is indigo. The indigo one Clara started while she was here for graduation, but I finished it as she ran out of yarn.




I finally found the yarn again as Malabrigo has it now. For $12.50 a skein on Webs. :( A $7 increase in price. Seems a little extreme.

Branching Out to complex lace

I started a new scarf, the Branching Out pattern by Susan Pierce Lawrence from knitty.com



I am sure you can't see the detail or where I screwed up. I like the pattern a lot though I am not sure it is really coming out very well in this yarn. I got a learn a few new stitches. I mutter the pattern the entire time I am knitting it for which the people around me mock me, but that is okay. This one is going to take a while though.

So I bought even more yarn...

Karrie and I went back to the sale at Skein Lane. I bought some yarn for a sweater this time. Not sure about my gauge swatch though. seems a little off, like an extra row and about 1/2 a stitch. Now what do I do?
Meaning to borrow a camera to post some pics.

Vacation Knitting

Damn somehow all my passwords on my computer were erased, and I had the damnedest time remembering what my username for this account was. No button to click to figure it out either.
But anyway, I did some knitting while I was away. This is a picture of the super bulky butter yarn that I knit into a hat for my friend Sarabeth. I made the cable be only two stitches this time and did a repeat where I would twist on the two consecutive right rows then skip the next one. Not sure if that comes out. It was probably a little too big for Sara but oh well.

I also made a mango hat and did some lace knitting but I will post that later as I don't have pictures at this time.
Glad to be back in Berkeley, but I don't have any food I would like to eat in the house at the moment so it is time to head to the Berkeley Bowl.

Clara learned to cable...

So when Clara was here for graduation, I taught her to cable. I gave her a ball of the superbulky yarn in indigo.
Here is what she did.

I think she did a pretty damn good job. I feel bad about the yarn though. It is much more thick thin than the other super bulky that I had and has a lot more color variation so it ended up making sort of odd patches. And the ball of yarn was too short so she ended up not having enough yarn to complete it. I will finish it was so as I can. Shouldn't take too long but I am being slow about it. :)
I have three more balls of this yarn and am not quite sure what to do with the rest of it. Any ideas?

Man how long is this going to take me....

The brown lace scarf is nearly done. Just a few more inches I think. Well maybe 8 more inches. Then fringe then good to go.












Speaking of lace last night at the Mel O Dee I started new project using my Brook's Farm Duet in blues.

I am doing the Branching Out Scarf by Susan Pierce Lawrence from knitty.com. I made it through one rep last night and sweared most of the way through it. It is a nice pattern in that every other row is almost all purls so in the 10 row repeat (which I have been told is relatively short for a lace pattern) there are only 5 complicated rows. I am learning all about some interesting increases and decreases. The yarn splits like a bitch though and I keep losing my row marker. Should be a fun project.

How many super bulky hat can I make?

A lot apparently.




This is gift. Superbulky yarn in burgandy with an olive stripe.

Butter and Mango

I bought a shitload of yarn. Yes a shit load. 4.5 pounds of superbulky yarn. Didn't quite mean to but well I was bidding on one color and Abby on the other and she had to go to a meeting 10 mins before the auction was over. She was outbid by like a $1 and I couldn't let that stand so I bought it. It just came in the mail a few days ago. It is the leftovers from handpaintedyarn.com superbulky line. The colors are mango and butter.



Most of the mango is going to Abby to make a sweater. I might make a hat or two and perhaps a beer cozy.



I have already started work on a butter hat for a friend. Just have the brim and am about to start the pattern. Still think I should try to vary a bit from the pattern I got from Abby but I like it so much.

Poor lonely blog...And muppet knitting.

My poor blog. Like all aspects of my life, my poor blog has taken a back seat to my continuing quest to catch up on sleep after my qualify exam (which I passed finally, but I think just about everyone I know already knows that). Here are some random knitting thoughts (and perhaps some non-knitting thoughts as well).

I have a few new projects that I started and a whole shitload of new yarn to play with. I am also getting ready to start a couple new projects as well.

I completely tore out blue scarf with cables that I started using the DiVe Teseo in denim blues. I never liked it. I think since the green one turned out so lovely that I might trying doing a thinner version of what I did for that one.

I need to come up with another beer cozy pattern and was thinking of trying it out of the yellow superbulky I just got from eBay. I think it might work quite nicely.

Abby and I were waiting for Nick's muppets cover band to set up for their gig last night in the Mission and headed down Valencia in to find a cafe in which to knit. Apparently if we had gone the other direction we would have found a nice one just a block away from the bar. Instead, we walked like a mile but found a nice place to hang out. I got a new bulky hat started for present for a friend who I will be visiting on my long trip. Abby nearly finished her world beer cozy. I think it looks pretty good. The band that played before Nick's band was from Japan and the one singer had this really ugly knitted hat on that I was completely fixated on. One too many gin and tonics I think.

I am all set to start a new lace project using some mohair/wool that I got from Brooks farms at stitches west.

Also from stitches, I wound my sock yarn into a ball to start those. Now I just need to find a pair a circular needles. The last store I went do didn't have nearly long enough ones.

I am nearly done with my brown lace scarf. I am not quite sure why it is taking so long but it should be completed before I head off on my road trip.

I am still waiting for Donna to go to Article Pract with me. I think this is the 3rd Sunday we have put it off. Oh well. I might have to head down there on my own because I want to see if they are going to get the new super bulky line.

I had a friend visiting this past couple days, and I made her help me wind I bunch of yarn mostly notably one of the cocoons that I got from Javeria. I am not sure if this stuff is really going to be useful for anything. I think it is just about to crumble into dust. Perhaps I will make a dog blanket or something with it.










My butt still hurts from my first bicycle ride in nearly 10 years. I decided that my friend would love renting bikes and biking over the Golden Gate and heading down to Sausalito. I was right but man did I neglect to think that my riding calluses would be completely gone. I really should go out and buy a cheap bike so that I can redevelop them.

I think the unprotected wireless network that I have been using many be over with. It seems to have disappeared just as all the students were moving away. I might have to break down and get internet myself because the couple days at home without it have been completely annoying.

Barbara wants me to move my office again. I told her no though I doubt she will take this as a final answer.

Ouch but barely...

So I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday. Lis came over and helped me walk around and make some mango lassi. Thanks Lis. And thanks for Karrie for bringing over the jello. I had some for dinner last night.
I have found out that tomato soup can be really good when not heated. Not hot food yesterday. Though I am today so I had scramble eggs that were french style along with some hashbrowns. All nice and soft and tasty.
I watched a little TV and finished up another hat yesterday. I will post a pic when I can borrow a camera.

Surprisingly it doesn't hurt hardly at all. I supposed that will change if I get this dry socket thing people keep talking about. Still have the pain pills if I need but not looking that way so far.
Had a very tough time trying to brush my teeth this morning. Woke up feeling not so well with drool on the pillow. Pity me.

But on the plus side, I am now a PhD candidate. Woohoo. Dance for joy. Got a pedicure to celebrate. Didn't remember how nice it was but it really is a nice thing.

Another super bulky hat...

So I was working on my third super bulky in the olive color when I realized that I didn't like it. I loved the yarn, but the pattern just wasn't nice. I missed the cable which I had omitted, and it had too many single knits. So I decided to interrupt half of them and see how that worked. I didn't like that either. It seemed it like it was time to unwind. I happen to glance at the basket next to me and like a beacon on top was this small ball of yarn left over form the damask rose hat. I decided to knit into the hat I was about to disassemble. Turns out there was just enough left for me to get two rows out of it and the colors were a dead set match (or at least I think so). So I ripped it all out. Started over just in the pattern Abby had given me but instead of knitting 4 rows to start with I cast on, knitted two in green, two in the rose, then one in green again so as not to mangle the rose in the pattern. To kind of switch it up a little I decided to make the cable go the opposite direction of the first two.

Here is the result.

I like it. I am going to keep this one. Just a hint of pink, but greens that I really like.
Here is a detail shot.

I kind of knit this in a frenzy. I think perhaps I cut the pink yarn a little too close, and it is going to unravel. This thought makes me unhappy.
My whole apartment smells like wet sheep. I decided to actually finish sewing up the hats I had made, and I finally got around to washing everything that I had finished, two hats, two scarves and a couple of odd-sized beer cozies. I knit this last hat up after I had washed everything and so felt I had to wash it too. Now everything is on its second day of drying. Still really damp despite the heat today.

Anyway final thought for the day. ta da.... Trio of hats...

The coaster beer cozy...two failures?

Well in honor of the beer cozy project, I thought I would try to come up with one that would fit a pint glass. The goal was to come up with one that would be for people that did not know how to knit in the round.
My first effort I started by measure the bottom of a standard pint glass about where I though the cozy should stop. My goal was to knit something that was bottom up, increases all the way. However I failed to account for the springiness of the yarn, Knitpicks sierra Cranberry, and it soon became clear that I should be doing a top down pattern, decreasing instead. I knit and knit and finally decided it was long enough. I sewed it up, and it looks pretty good I think. It is basket stitch and was knit on size 8 needles. However it was immediately clear that this did not fit a pint glass. Well it does but if you fill that pint glass the cozy creeps up over the edge.

Really this fits a quart size mason jar with fabric on the bottom of the glass. Karrie doesn't like that because it isn't as stable but well I think I have just eliminated the need to grab a coaster. Hence I give you a coaster beer cozy for a quart glass.

I also wasn't deterred and immediately started a new one. This time I knew it should be top down and that it should make it a bit smaller. I was counting in fours and instead of making basket stitch I ended up using the stitch that I used on my first scarf. I quite like it and it does fit a pint glass much in the same what the first fits a quart jar. I think though it should have made it an inch or two longer for a better grip.

So I have a Goldilocks situation, one too big, one too small, will the next be just right?