that reindeer hat

Is it still wip it Wednesday somewhere? Mid Pacific?  I'm posting this one  anyway.  Last month I was flapping my mouth offering to make handknits for family members .  Poking around on Ravely, as one does, I came across a hat , and was sitting there chortling when I saw that it had over 1000 versions. That drew my son's attention. He looked. He said he needed one.

 

Not want. Need. In orange and white.  

And so, I am knitting the Fornicating Reindeer Hat. (That a Ravelry link. Here's a particularly nice one on a blog. )It is mind boggling that there are 1028 different versions of this hat prancing around the world. Go look.  I know, it's a little tacky but it's also funny.  He may have been 5 years old and waiting for a sweater with penguins (who were not fornicating) the last time he was this excited about something I was knitting. Plus, I am enjoying the colorwork.

 

The yarn? it's from  Plymouth , superwash merino. Because I know my customers. . •••••••••••••• 

Need a new wip yourself?  I just saw this hat pattern, Empire. Cute. Fast. Not boring.

More WIP Wednesday posts listed here.

goods & curiousities

Around here, darkness is landing with a cold thud mid-afternoon. Even if you don't celebrate the major holiday happenings in all their green and red and santa clausness, it's pretty easy to be charmed by twinkly Essex CT. (Did I mention pubs?)

along Main Street Essex

 Even for someone like me, a reluctant shopper. So, this week's photo heavy Monday: a visit to the Goods & Curiousities Store at The Griswold Inn.

 

 

It's full of cool stuff. These things for example? They look like little sculpted/carved paperweights (what do we need to weigh down, anyway?) but they're made of graphite. You draw with them.

 

That's sister Lulu on the right, by day she's the Director of Retail operations at The Gris.*  And on the left, Ann Weaver of Weaverknits, indie designer and knitter, on day 3 of an intense east coast book tour. Which might be why she looks slightly crazed. She's really not. You can see my Craft Activism presence to the left.

 

Ann & I had a showroom upstairs from the shop for the day.She brought knit kits,and handknits, I brought photos and cards. We both had books, samples ,and a lot to say.

  

I know you want a closer look at these pieces from the shop. 

Made from vintage newspapers.

 

Nice way to pass a December Sunday. Plus, I got some knitting on a gift done. If you wish you hadn't missed us, Ann's knit kits (with indie yarns and patterns) and both our books remain at the shop, in a corner with some other woolly items, like fleece lined slipper boots from recycled wool clothes, and hats.

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* Consider that full disclosure, nepotism and all. But I wouldn't bother to blog about the joint if I truly didn't think it was special, and worth a look. I'm not that kind of blog.

another wednesday, another wip

Does it seem like I keep on showing new projects, but you never see anything finished? This month I have an excuse: gift knitting.  So this week for wip it Wednesday, a loop scarf, in green, as requested by my niece. (I don't think she reads here but just in case: Ariana? Look away!)

  

I'm making the pattern up, inspired by  scarves I've seen knit in changing stitches and weights so that when they're wrapped around your neck, it looks like you have two scarves on, with lots of texture. Kind of like this one. But mine's bulkier, and handknit.

 

Here's a less cluttered view. I started with a skein of Peruvia Quick .  I knit it up in Mistake Rib, an old favorite,  over 23 stitches on size US13 needles. It yielded about 30" of nice cushy warmth. Quick, just like it says on the label.

 

I continued with a skein of Peruvia,  a worsted weight single in the same color, over the same 23 stitches. But now in an  open  Lattice stitch (um, maybe its Reversing Lattice? Or maybe I have been calling it by the wrong name? I can't find it online to link to. It's easy though. ), on size 10 1/2 US needles.

 

Better view of the lacy work section, which is still cushy and squooshy but much less dense than the first section. The plan is to knit 30" of this and then close the loop. Whatd'you think? Will it work? I'm counting on it having lots of .....presence ..when it's done. 

Many more wips linked here for wip Wednesday.

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Speaking of presents and handmade: do you love this piece? I saw it at Goods & Curiousities Shop  at The Griswold Inn in Essex CT.  I'll be there this weekend for a special event showcasing handmade, Sunday December 11th, 11-4, in a showroom with knitwear designer Ann Weaver of WeaverKnits. I'll be chatting about Craft Activism at 11 and 3, and we'll both have all kinds of goodies to show & tell and sell. Stop by! More info on the Craft Activism blog.

you win some..etc

Ok, I am exhausted just reading the 136 descriptions of what you all are handmaking this season from my coffee giveaway comments. Exhausted! I random generated a winner, and she's been notified.  Thanks for entering. 

 

at the Fremont Fair in Seattle

No one mentioned that they have an art car they need to complete as a holiday gift. I adore art cars, don't you?  It'd take me a lot of coffee to get through this kind of brilliant crafting.

Joan & I originally had art cars and the art car community in Craft Activism, but we had to drop it due to space limitations and logistics. I'm still crazy about them, though.

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And because this is the perfect place  to kvetch, may I take a moment to acknowledge mercury in retrograde and its (predictable) effects in my personal orbit? As of noon today, the machines that have ceased working recently include: our clothes washer, the coffeemaker, the electronic throttle adjustment system in my car and the hard drive on my laptop. While I take the attitude that they're all, after all, just things not people, still.....ugh.