I made a hat!

I finished some things! Yes, more than one thing! What a joyous occasion this is! Here's one of the things!

Right, so. I've been knitting tons of winter stuff. Because winters in Tucson are bitterly cold (obviously) and I just won't survive unless I'm covered head to toe in hand knits. Or I'm crazy and belong somewhere with a colder climate. That could be it, too.

Crazy is probably a good description.

The pattern is the Capucine Hat and you may notice if you click through that link that my hat doesn't exactly look like hers. Well, let me tell you what happened.. This hat is written for both bulky and super bulky yarn. My yarn was bulky and I somehow misread the directions, which clearly state that the bulky directions are in [square brackets]. Ahem. So this was knit with the instruction intended for super bulky yarn, which means my hat ended up not so slouchy...

At first I was sad. But then I realized when I put it on that what I had really just done was made myself a PONYTAIL BEANIE. Yes folks, that's right. I can wear my head up all winter and still keep my ears warm! What a revelation! So then I went from disappointed in myself for failing at instructions to EXCITED!

So while the pattern didn't turn out as planned, it is still awesome and nice and toasty. Which may come in handy if I go anywhere cold this winter ;)

Isn't it nice when a mistake turns out to be just fine?

Knitting, knitting, knitting...

Craft-wise, that's all I've been doing lately. But I've also been reading a lot of books. And thinking about trying to find balance between all the things I like to do instead of obsessively doing just one and neglecting all the others for large chunks of time. Not that I've actually figured out how to do that, but I've been thinking about it...

I'm making a sweater for Mario. I don't know if he'll like it or wear it, but he picked out the pattern and the color. I chose an acrylic yarn to make him more likely to wear it. Things I know about Mario: (1) if an article of clothing is too expensive, he won't want to wear it for fear of ruining it and (2) if he has to hand wash it, it won't get washed. So acrylic seemed the best way to go. If anyone is curious, it's Lion Brand Heartland in Black Canyon. The pictures aren't great (it's really hard to photograph black, I'm finding). It's really just black with some gray flecks in it. It looks much better in person, trust me!

The pattern is from Knits Men Want. I think the title of the book is cheesey, but it was one of the few patterns I found that he actually liked. I showed him so many pictures of Ravelry! But this was THE ONE. So I bought the book and went to work.

I'm just about to put split the sleeves off on some scrap yarn and continue the torso. Exciting! The miles and miles of stockinette may not be incredibly entertaining, but it is meditative. Very enjoyable at the end of a long day. And it's helping me get faster with my continental knitting.

Other things that are difficult about sweater photography... I can't spread it out because my cable is too short :(

My goal is to have this be a wearable sweater by the end of the summer. The end of the summer in Tucson, of course, is pretty much mid-October, though, so I have plenty of time. I've made really good progress so far, so I'm very optimistic!

I'm also knitting a shawl, which is more interesting to look at. But I'll save that for another post :)

Recent Acquisitions

I had plans last week.I had blog posts all planned out and even took some photos. But let me tell you, last week was the week from Hell at work for both me and Mario. It felt like an endless barrage of nonsense and by the time I got home every night, I just wanted to curl up with a book and forget the rest of the world.

But that's okay. Sometimes there are just weeks like that when everything goes wrong and it's out of your control and you just have to do what you can to make it through the week. And I did. And I had a pretty great weekend, too. So now here are some photos of things I have recently acquired and plan to put to good use.

First up, FABRIC.

I got these pretties at a quilt and craft show in town. It was a seriously awesome day. Just me and 4 friends (including Gwen of The Rainbow Revolts!) who all love crafting to some extent. Everyone left with a little something and then we went and had coffee. GREAT day.

There were actually a few more fabrics, too, but I already cut them up for inclusion in my scrappy chevron quilt. Details on my progress with that later this week!

Also, in honor of Selfish Sewing Week, I have big plans for this piece of awesomeness:

Yeah. Crazy owl flannel! Isn't it awesome?? It was 50% off at Joann, so how could I resist?

Owl close up! This is going to become the most awesome pajama pants in the world. Just you wait.

Next: YARN.

This little ball of deliciousness came from my local yarn store: Kiwi Knitting Co. Highly recommend if you're local! Gwen and I have started a weekly knitting date and we needed some supplies. Well. She needed supplies. I just had a little shopping accident...

But seriously, isn't it pretty?? This is going to make the BEST socks.

But of course, I didn't stop there. At the quilt/craft show, I found the one booth that was selling yarn. And I got into another little accident... I really must stop buying sock yarn! At least until I finish another pair of socks. But with weekly time now set aside just for knitting, maybe they'll come off the needles a little faster!

So that's what I've bought lately. And I have big plans for it all! I better go get started so I have more things to show you soon!

Have a great week :)