So remember that orange stripe business from a few weeks ago?  The one with the pretty Manos yarn?  Uh huh, well it's apparently grabbed my attention and it's not letting go. Which really isn't a bad thing. But it does mean you're going to be seeing a fair bit of this for the foreseeable future. But again, there are worse fates!

The blue hat? The one I suspect I'm not alone in finding unreasonably amusing? Yeah, it's all done.  Now clearly I need to block it. And I need to get it a proper photo shoot.  (Can we talk about the snow? And how the snow is sort of messing with my plans in that regard? Could one of you maybe do something about that?  Think spring.  Think melt. You can do it!) But the knitting bit is done (and pretty...I really really like this one). And, happily enough, the pattern making bit is done too.  And that means it will [...]

The lovely Manos yarn from the other day? That orange and gray goodness? Yeah it's turning into swatches. Swatches that are sort of amusing on the back side (that orange stuff will totally unzip from the gray background if you tug the orange strand...which serves no function at all but still tickles me to no end). I need to tweak this a bit (I'm starting to feel like I need 3 columns of orange, not 2), but it's very promising so far! Yarns are from Manos (Alagria in Nickel, Clara in Miel).  And you will be seeing more of them [...]

The blue hat? The one that seems to be either seed pods or bug wings or fruit cross sections or about thirty other things depending on who you ask? Yeah, that's coming along nicely. The decreases are, as always, deeply satisfying. And the crown on this one is going to be a delight.  The plan is that it will come out in early April. And we're going to need to have a little chat at some point, because I'm starting to feel like there needs to be a little collection of all the hats that use this sort of stitch...because [...]

So sometimes I get an idea.  The sort of idea that demands to be swatched with the closest available yarn, even if that yarn is deeply unsuitable for the actual project. Now, those are both lovely yarns.  But they are not the yarns I want to do this project in.  But...they were close enough to tell me that I wanted to procure more suitable yarns and try again.  And, through the wonders of the internet, I did just that. That's Manos Del Uruguay's Alegria in Nickel (the gray one, but you could probably guess that) and Clara in Miel (the [...]

So the brim is a slog. It always is.  Every time.  And I'm totally upfront about how the last five inches of the five and a half inch brim are not my most fun bit of knitting ever.  But...if you put in your time and you put in your stitches and eventually you're done.  And then?  Then you get to do the fun bit! And here the fun bit is awfully fun.  That's just a really pretty little stitch. And every single row of the brim will be worth it when I love wearing it! Normal stuff applies...yes it will be [...]