Hats again! For June and beyond

I've let the blanket hibernate briefly, primarily because I can't decide if I want to include my green hemp yarn (Elann.com's Canapone, Green Tea). Since I only have 3 balls of this yarn, which is a bit thicker than my natural-colored hemp weaving yarn, I'm sure it won't be enough for the entire blanket... it was just supposed to be for a scarf. So.. the design challenge is how to incorporate the green hemp yarn, considering that I've started Strip 2 which, as I blogged earlier, is actually two strips (now called panels) knitted in one piece. If I decide to include the hemp yarn, for some color, I'll have to frog Strip 2 (I've got about 2-3 inches down).

So... I went back to hats, just hats, until I make up my mind about Strip 2 and the green hemp. The hats focus is kinda against my aim to knit from my stash and to just buy earth-friendly yarns, because for hats, the best yarn so far to use is acrylic, even if I have some wool yarn, and I have to buy more yarn for this project, since I don't have that enough acrylic for hats.

I would knit hats for Pinoys here in the Philippines who can use a beanie. For me, I'd probably use one when I go out in the rain, so my head remains protected when I have to open and close my umbrella... i guess those who work in air-conditioned offices, a beanie could be handy. And I promised to knit hats for some folks abroad too... that has to be a priority since next thing you know, time to send to abroad in a few months!

I'd probably use the wool yarn for hats I'd knit for charity, such as those for Mongolia or Afghanistan, since they specify wool for their projects, as it warms the best. But charity projects are now lain aside.

I was supposed to have a tarot client yesterday at 5:30 pm, in Megamall, when she asked me to move it to an hour or so later. I agreed, and decided to kill time not by going to the grocery as I had planned, but went to my favorite source of cheap acrylic yarn, Carolina's Lace Shoppe... and I was happy to find myself the only one there perusing the yarns. This is important since Carolina's is rather tightly-packed with all sorts of sewing stuff, and the yarns are tucked in a corner near the lace section...not conducive for choosing yarns leisurely, since people come and go around you, you have to keep moving about.

But last night, aha, I was all alone, and the other yarn shopper beside me was able to quickly come and go... I used up about half an hour just choosing various yarn combinations.

So... I've added to my stash, and not earth-friendly stuff at all. Guilt aside... I'm excited! In fact, I goofed off this afternoon and browsed for more hat patterns, happy to discover that over a few months, when I had last searched for hat patterns that are knit from the top-down, there weren't many choices. Today I think I added about four to five new patterns that were uploaded within the past few months! What a great response by the Universe, since I had forsworn knitting from the bottom up (well, maybe if I get bored with the top-down style).

Someday I'll post the links to all the top-down patterns. They're now all safely stored in my PC, ready for printout when I finish my "real" work (yeah...anyway, I just have about 10 to 12 items to do tonight).

Blog break

Sorry, won't be blogging much until next week, am swamped with errands, reunions and deadlines! I'll probably just be changing the videos and pics I post in my Multiply homepage, maybe every other day... otherwise, my wordiness is reserved for work these days :-)

World Knit in Public Day on June 14! Join me!

Click HERE to visit the official website :-)

I’m looking for someone to join me that day somewhere in Metro Manila… :-) it’s a Saturday! Payday weekend, so lots of folks in malls.

Possible venues, a bit halfway between people from North and South (and east) of Metro Manila, and they usually have a lot of traffic on weekends:

SM Mall of Asia
Greenbelt Mall, Makati
SM Megamall

Suggested time: it would be nice to do this almost all day, from 11 a.m. to 9 pm.

Or we could move from one venue to other, like maybe spend 2-3 hours in Mega, then another 2-3 hours in Makati, then 2-3 hours in SM Mall…

I’m open to suggestions :-)

Dreaming daily

I have been knitting daily for quite a number of weeks! Sure, some days I just knit only two to four rows, but otherwise... it's such a habit, to start my day's routine in the morning, while brewing my coffee in my French press, to knit a row or two, then letting the pressed coffee cool a bit...

Then after a hard day's work, while I run my anti-malware program on my PC, I knit again. Sometimes, when I have a hard time falling asleep, even if I'm already in bed, I get up and go downstairs to knit until I feel sleepy.

And on the days that I don't do any ESL writing work, that's when I have more time to knit, to clean up my knitting table, and to check all works in progress.

I can't imagine not letting a day go by without knitting. It relaxes me and it grounds me.

These days, when the rains bring thunder and lightning too, I turn off my PC right away and knit instead. This is primarily why I was able to finish the blanket's Pattern 5! Yup, as of midnight, I was able to start Pattern 6, which is Diagonal Seed Stitch (supposed to be Caterpillar Stitch but I liked how the pic for the Diag Seed St looked). Pics to follow soon :-)

Pattern pics

I felt like goofing off today because my period has just arrived, which makes me really lazy since all I wanna do is sleep. But if I were to sleep during the day, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night! So... with such bad concentration, I just chose to do stuff I had to do... like take progress pics of the blanket... which is all I've been knitting lately.

First, a close up of one of my favorite stitch patterns, Ripples (Pattern 4 of Strip 1)





Then, see how Ripples segues upward to Pattern 5, Woven Texture:



Here's Pattern 5, Woven Texture:

My nephew's hat

Photo-0107
Originally uploaded by Dreaming Knitter

Almost done... ready for binding off sometime today. Was able to use some leftover purple yarn for the accent... nice combo.

Pattern is a modified version of Pi Topper hat, will someday post the pattern which starts from the top down.

I'm still deciding if the last 2 rows will be done in 1x1 rib or also in garter

May is official HAT month

Last night, when the rains brought in thunder, I had to stop my writing job and switch off the PC. Sure, that kinda ruined my deadline-meeting plan, but it also gave me the excuse to knit instead.

What to knit... I went through all my WIPs and decided, nah, I gotta do what I promised to do. So I sat and started to knit a cute little hat for my godson Anthony, now in the Bahamas but maybe will winter at my sister's in Connecticut, if his family can afford the airfare. Still, I heard it can get cold in the Bahamas, so he could still use his cute blue-and-purple acrylic hat there.

I'm about 80 percent done with the hat. Then I'll make him another one in green. Then I'm gonna knit hats for the rest of his family... that would be a total of 5 hats to knit.

So yeah, for May, I think I'll just finish the hats even if they'll get to the intended recipients in December. At least they'll all be done and washed by then.

I love knitting hats from the top-down. I like experimenting with the design as I go along... do I make the hat just one solid color, or add stripes from some left-over yarn, for some color? Do I make it all stockinette, or make it ribbed?

After this batch, I also have one more hat to make, ordered by my friend Melis, for her niece in Indiana. Frankly I have no idea how cold it gets there, I'm still gonna make the hat. I already got the order, and the yarn.