Okay, so they are 50% merino, 50% Tencel so not too toasty warm. They feel nice & silky actually.

I (heart) them

I (heart) Commuter Socks

Started: March 26th

Completed: April 16th

Yarn: Seacoast Handpainted Yarns Merino/Tencel in Blueberries & Apricots

Pattern: (Black)hearted by my fellow MA sock knitter Stariel

Needles: Size 1US Harmony dpns

Notes: First of all, I wish I had chosen a different yarn for this pattern – I love both, but the stripes really obscure the cute little hearts. Sad because I had the bright idea to add the heart to the foot to show when I wear my Mary Janes – although I put it too far up on the foot, so only these shoes work. Which is fine, I love these shoes.

Also, note to self, when knitting stripey socks, use an afterthought heel. I’ve done them before, but didn’t think of it until I was doing the gusset on the the second socks (did both at once). Ah well, I actually didn’t know this yarn was going to stripe so nicely. The shoe straps obscure the odd pooling anyway. I think the only changes I made to the pattern was adding the little heart on the foot & made a plain cuff rather than the very pretty fancy ones – I try to make my commuter socks as simple as possible And I’m boring that way.

I broke these in in a big way – on Thursday I met my best friend for lunch at Faneuil Hall (extra fun since I’m addicted to John Adams on HBO- and I’m currently reading Founding Mothers. I love living in (ok, near) such an interesting historical city). Since it was so nice out, I walked. It was a very long walk & was in a hurry to get there, because I didn’t leave enough time. Boy I was sore (but feet were very comfy). But I am working on getting in shape because I’ve been so miserable this week, just hating myself when I look in the mirror – I tried to go shopping for some summery clothes & ended up buying nothing because I just couldn’t bear to try on anything. So I’ve joined up with some fellow knitters in the Fitness-A-Long!

Hopefully that will help my mood, poor CoffeeBoy has to put up with my dark self loathing mood all week.

One thing that did make me smile – I’m a knitting princess! Aww…And just in time for my next Commuter Socks. (that will make more sense when I unveil them on Monday)

Details

Sticks: 4.5mm and 5.5mm KnitPicks Harmony Options – I went up a stick size from those recommended – I do wonder if I should have done this, as the hat is marginally large for me. Not ridiculously large, but it possibly could be a tad smaller. In the end, I think it’s ok!

(why yes, I did take this picture of the top of my head. It only took me about 5 tries to get one of my head, not the wall of the house, the table, etc!) Love this hat!

I finished it – oh nearly 2 weeks ago – and I haven’t until now gotten a picture of it (and not really a great one either).  First, the ends curl – my fault because I put the lace on the bottom and on the arm cuffs but didn’t think about the curling (CB now knows what “curling” means as I ranted about it).  Then it took 2 days to dry – not unexpected – and I wore it, think I could maybe get a picture of it during the day.  I spilled hummus on it, right on the boob.  Not a good look.  So I rewashed it, waited for it to dry…and then the weather was pretty horrid all weekend so I decided to wait to take a picture.  Then I wore it yesterday…and I got really sick, I thought it was the flu, but since I feel better today, maybe not, but I felt awful.  Worse off it took me 3 hours to get home – when you have to rely on public transit & you live an hour away,  it sucks.  I came home and slept for something like 15 hours, in between trips to the bathroom.  I feel better today, but stayed home just in case.

Since it was a beautiful day, I figured I would take some pictures before the sweater killed me in my sleep or something.

Blue Gable

Started: February 17th

Finished: March 30th

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Lapis – 3.25

Pattern: Green Gable

Needles: Size 4US & 6US

Notes: I’ve had this pattern & yarn for nearly two years, seriously.  I’m glad I finally made it but I don’t feel it’s the most flattering sweater on me – or maybe I’m just cringing at the pictures because of my weight gain, (which I’m working on).  Anyway, I love the way the Zephyr Girl knits look, but they never seem to turn out right on my body shape.  I still have yarn & the pattern for Rusted Root but I think I’m going to stick to cardigans for awhile.  I did a couple of mods – decreased much lower for my long waist and increased a bit.  Then I added lace to the bottom a la Turtlegirl & to the sleeves – but as I mentioned before, I should have planned better and bound off differently.

In any case, while not my favourite knit, probably one I’ll wear (unlike Wicked) – I do like Cotton Fleece & I love the colour.

I’ve been reading quite a bit – which may explain my blog negelect. I bought 3 books this week – the new Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (I love her, but this isn’t anything different), the new Jennifer Weiner (who’s book & blog I adore, although this one made be bawl my eyes out), and today I got in the mail Clara Parkes’s The Knitter’s Book Of Yarn (we won’t mention the sock yarn I got as well), which I think will be very handy.  I don’t talk about books as much on here anymore – I still read, but not working in a bookstore makes a huge difference.  I work across the street from Borders but when I go in, none of the books seem to speak to me.  I’ve been on another one of my Jane Austen kicks until this week.  But I did read an excellent book a couple of weeks ago – The Monsters of Templeton.  I loved it – I don’t think I can even try to describe it with out it sounding ridiculous but it is fantastic.  I would say the best novel I’ve read in a very long time.  The author’s blog is pretty excellent too – I can’t wait until her next book.

Also, I’ve been annoyed by several threads on Ravelry lately.  I wish everyone there would read this before jumping in on things they don’t know anything about.  (If I can’t put this on my blog, where else can I?)

Pattern: Knitted Babes by Claire Garland. Both for the doll and for most of the outfits (except the Wednesday dress and the denim skirt, which I “designed” (iemade up)). I made lots of modifications to the patterns, mainly to knit them in the round where possible, rather than flat. Even the doll body is knitted flat in the book, which seemed crazy to me (the only reason it makes sense is that it makes it easier to sew on the facial features, but even so, it wasn’t that hard to do it after knitting in the round). For the arms and legs I did i-cord (my first time!) rather than knitting them flat (they are supposed to be done in stocking stitch, so they curl in anyway – why not use i-cord?) The gauge of the patterns seemed to be totally off as well, so I made the doll body first, and then made the clothes to fit.
Yarn: For the doll body, Rowan 4ply cotton. For the Wednesday dress, Rowan Cotton Glace. For the denim skirt, Rowan denim. For everything else, I used a bag of 4ply cottons given to me by Shazmina Bendi before her departure for colder climes! The clothes are a great way of using up scraps of leftover yarns!Sticks: For the doll, 3mm dpns. For the clothes, I ranged from 2.5mm sticks (leotard, undies, cream top) to 2.75mm dpns, 3mm dpns, 3.25mm dpns/sticks (party dress), and 4mm dpns (denim skirt, Wednesday dress). I also used a 2.5mm crochet hook for her bag and shoes (mary-janes, ballet slippers and slides)Time: I started Wednesday on 3 March 2008 and finished the last of her clothes the night before I posted out the package, 26 March 2008.

What I learnt: Making doll clothes is the best fun ever! And that a wrap-top for a doll has just as many ends to weave in as an adult garment!! Gurk! I hope you love Wednesday. A couple of my work colleagues didn’t want me to post her off as they wanted to keep her for themselves. Maybe, if they are good, I might make another one so we can play dress-ups at work. Except I’ll make lots more red clothes and far fewer pink ones!!

 

And also in an effort to branch out with my commuter sock kniting, I’m working 2 at a time.

And bringing on the lace:

My I (Heart) Commuters Socks, using the wonderful pattern from Stariel, though I just did a simple rib on the cuff.  I’m again mxing it up in my fiber choices – this is Merino Tencel blend I bought when I was visting MA all those months ago.  It’s nice, it took a bit to get used to the slippery yarn (had several dropped stitches) but now it’s coming along just fine)

See you all tomorrow for FYS 08!

CoffeeBoySocks (take 2)

Started: February 22nd

Completed: March 20th

Yarn: MC- KnitPicks Bare Superwash Merino & Nylon (Natural) and CC – Knitpicks Essentials (Dusk)

Pattern – Basic Sock  64 stitches, 2 inches of 2×2 ribbing, 7 inches total cuff, eye of partridge heel in contrast color, long ass men’s foot, basic toe in contrast colour.

Needles: size 2US Harmony dpns

Notes:  First off, I apologize for the lack of decent pictures – I took this one right after I finished it and like the good SO of a knitter CB now is, he is actually wearing them to his class today.  Anyway, I had a serious case of SSS on this pair – I usually do get tired of the socks by the second sock, but this one took me awhile to get over.  Doesn’t help that I only worked on these particular socks at home – on the train, I’m pretty much forced to only work on the second sock – and I got sad looks from CB if I worked on something else (or “you’re never going to make me socks are you?  What about that gray one…?”).  But I slogged through & I’m pretty happy with them.   I wish I had put a blue strip near the top (CB said he wouldn’t mind a colour in it after all AFTER I finished most of the cuff.  I was not going to rip back) but the contrast heels & toes look nice I think.  So CB finally gets some wool socks.  Maybe his feet won’t be so cold when he gets into bed at night!

I even put off trying out my Harmony Options until I finished these but now – oh my, I wish I had ordered these long ago.  Just like the Harmony dpns kick started my sock habbit, these will hopefully get back into knitting my UFOs.  I put them on my Blue Gable & it was such a joy to knit on.  I’ve got about 6 inches left on the body now – woohoo!  I might actually finish this fairly soon!  And do you remember this?

This is the lovely & gorgeous Cables & Os that I started, oh forever ago.  Now it will be my next big finish up project.

Tonight I’m attending my first hockey game – CB is a fan and his best friend bought us tickets for his birthday awhile back.  Should be, uh, interesting anyway.  Honestly, at least we’re getting out of the house, we’ve been such homebodies for weeks now, due to weather & lack of anything to do.

My feet look HUGE!  They’re not that big, seriously! 

Although I did finish the 2nd sock in just over a week – I guess you can tell I’m back on my commuter schedule!

I’m sure my fellow commuters were amused by me photographing socks but it was so nice today – I’ve been walking to work from North Station, it’s about 2 miles but a good way to start (and end) the day – plus I need the exercise!

Stripey Commuter Socks

Started: Feb 6th

Completed: March 5th

Yarn: KnitPicks Felici in Pebble, little less than 2 balls

Pattern: Basic sock, 7 inch cuff, eye of partridge heel, basic toe.

Needles: KnitPicks Harmony Dpns, 1.5

Notes: I loved this yarn (although I did get tired of knitting these socks, a month was a long to work on a single pair of commuter socks), it’s so soft and I do love the striping on it. I went with a longer cuff than usual (my average is 5 or 6 inches) so that contributed to the time. But look! The stripes match! Okay they are a tiny bit off, but hey, I’m not going to complain. Fraternal twin socks don’t really bother (good thing since all my socks are like that!) but it is deeply satisfying to have a matched striped pair.  Unfortunately my camera died while durring my photo shoot so I didn’t get one of the very fun heels, but here’s a reminder.

I love being able to see the stitches!

I thought about ordering more today – in fact I decided to finally place a KnitPicks order for the Harmony Options. I had some Felici as well as Risata (I decided I do need to get some cotton socks going for the warmer weather on the way) and enough CotLin for a sweater in my shopping cart. But believe it or not, I took it all out & just went with the Options. Am I sick? Or did I finally believe I have enough yarn & projects?

Or is it because Melissa keeps teasing me of new colours coming out?

Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock yarn, in SY-39 Master Grey, and SY-38 Forest Fog for the contrast toe – 2x50g balls of the grey, and a small amount of the green for the toe. The yarn is a little scratchy to knit with, but softened and bloomed beautifully after a good long soak in SOAK wool wash.Sticks: 2.5mm on the leg, changing half way down to 2.25mm, to allow for some calf-shaping. I started off with 2.5mm 30cm Addi circular, but couldn’t hack the teeny tiny circ, so magic looped instead, which I found much easier.
(here is the sock taking in the view from my desk at work)
Time: Sock 1 was done from 7 October 2007 – 6 November 2007, sock 2 from 12 November 2007 – 25 February 2008, with a fairly big break so I could do my Christmas knitting. What I learnt: That I love leaving myself plenty of time to do gift knits. I had to hurry myself along a little towards the end, but I really did have a good long time to do these, which was great, given that they are bigger than I usually make socks both in leg length and foot length.

You grab a skein of some handspun you bought in Eugene OR.

You grab a couple of sets of needles.

You put on a cute movie.

And you make a hat THAT FINALLY COVERS YOUR DAMN EARS.

Greeery

Started: February 22, 1pm

Completed: February 22, 8pm

Yarn: Freshwater Fibers Merino, Green Twist

Pattern: My own basic hat, cast on 76 stitches on smaller needles, 2×2 rib for awhile, then switch to larger needles and knit until it’s long enough for my GIANT head. Then decrease, bind off, sew on a goofy pompom for no good reason.

Needles: Size 8US & 9US 16inch circs, size 9US dpts for decreases.

Notes: Really, I love all my hats but there’s something wrong with each of them. Either they are too big on the brim so cold air gets at my poor ears (such as my new Cabled hat or my PDX hatter) or they are not long enough to cover my ears (such as the alpaca cabled hat and the Malabrigo hat). Or they itch. (several early attempts with Lamb’s Pride, until I realized that mohair really bothers my forehead). Finally I have one that actually is snug around the ears, long enough, and super soft. I had planned on adding earflaps just in case but I don’t need them so I just stuck a pompom on it & called it done. This yarn is fantastic – I randomly picked it up on my Christmas visit to my mom – and so soft & warm. Love it, I’m going to have to check them out when I’m back home again.

After all that, you then make goofy faces at the camera while wearing your new favourite hat.

First up, my FO from 2 weeks ago

Tweedy Commuter Socks

Started: January 18th

Completed: February 7th

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Tweed in Black

Pattern: Basic sock: 6 inch cuff, 7×1 knit/purl pattern, eye of partridge heel, basic toe

Needles: Size 1US

Notes: Not much to say, it’s a basic sock. Essential Tweed is a nice sturdy yarn, softer than the Opal I’ve used for my long wearing socks, but not as soft as say STR or Koigu. As I’ve said before I’m not sure how happy I am with the coloured bits – they look like lint to me – but they are a nice neutral sock to wear. I could have made the cuff much longer as I have tons left over – that’s one of the great things about Knit Picks sock yarn, lots of yardage.

Which brings me to the new commuter sock – Stripey!

Oh I love this yarn, it’s Felici from Knit Picks again. So soft (merino!) and so entertaining with the stripes. And the heel looks great!

I didn’t get a lot of knitting done on the trip (I left with about 2 inches of the heel done and only got past the heel flap) but once I start working again, these will go quickly I think.

I’m thinking about making a big Knit Picks purchase (Harmony Options…?) and throwing a few more balls of this in the order, I really love stripey socks and I love the longer colour repeats on these.

I’ve been working on my Grandma’s afghan & Green Gable this weekend, maybe I’ll try to get a WiP Wednesday post up too!

It was definitely an experience, I’ve never been to a major business conference so it was interesting to see how it all ran, I worked in the speaker room, we had about 180 speakers, so at least I got to sit down a good part of the time & meet a bunch of VIPs, not to mention all my contacts. I also discovered something – no matter how comfortable my shoes feel in the morning they will not feel that way by the end of the day. I was hobbling around the last couple of days. I don’t really dress up all that much – the office is pretty casuel, my basic wardrobe of cords or nice pants & sweaters and my clogs or Mary Janes usually suffices – so wearing skirts with heels about killed me. My poor feet are still swollen.

And while I’m not a shopper at all, I did get to explore the high end mall a bit. I don’t buy many designer items – honestly, my “nice” clothes come from Target, H&M and thrift shops. They did have 2 designers I love there – Kate Spade & Steve Madden – but I didn’t think spending $600 on a handbag when I already have a KS purse was really something I wanted to do. So I saved my splurge for Sephora – while my clothes might not be designer at least my make up looked nice! I happen to get my tax return the day I left so I felt I needed a little treat. I also made a running trip to Lush right before I left – I wanted to feel pretty.

Okay, on to knitting. I feel so behind, I didn’t take one picture in Houston & I barely had time to read any blogs. I did make one yarn purchase, via Ebay, so I’ll be showing that off soon. I pretty much only worked on my new commuter socks – and I just reaized that I never posted a FO for my previous Tweedy pair and they are now in the laundry. But I ‘m off until at least Wednesday, so Monday will be the sock day. But you may have guessed I finally got some decent pictures of Cozy today- the sun is shining for once when I have time to do it. So, presenting – Cozy!

Cozy

Started: January 6th

Completed: February 3rd

Pattern: Cozy VNeck Pullover by Stefanie Japal

Yarn: KnitPicks Shamrock in Doyle, little over 10 skeins

Needles: Size 9Us & 8US

Notes: While this isn’t the most flattering sweater on me, I do love it. It is super warm & I love the colours. Shamrock is a great yarn – it felt so nice in my hand, soft and durable. The pattern is great, although I should have added more length to the sleeves & maybe to the body – a common problem for me. I ended up just going down one needles size for the deep ribbing – I thought it would be a bit too fitted on my not flat stomach – but I wish I had because it’s a little too loose. Ah well. I think that was the only mod, although I did knit the sleeves in the round. So one sweater down for the year – I’m not participating in a sweater a month KAL or anything but I do want to make (and finish!) more sweaters this year.

Next up on the sweater front is Green Gable – a pattern and yarn I’ve had for 2 years! I brought it down to Houston with me, but I didn’t work on it at all – pretty much I only had energy to do a few rounds on my sock before passing out. But I plan on starting it today!

Before I left I started a project that is a long term one.

My grandmother makes me wonderful blankets & I thought I would return the favor this year & make her a log cabin afghan from Mason Dixon Knitting. I’m working with Cotton Ease for it – I thought that would be best, as I could just pick up balls as I need it and it would be washable. I need to go to Michaels today to pick up 2 other colours (I have 3 – black for the center and light grey & dark blue). It’s a good knit to space out too and since I don’t plan on giving it to her until the holidays, not one I have to hurry up on if I get too bored.

So it is good to be home, back to the land of snow.  It was a nice break to be in warm weather – it was near 80 degrees when I got in to Houston, so all us poor MA people were shedding clothing when we stepped off the plane!  Apparently we picked a good week to be out of MA, I guess it was pretty nasty here.  I also, of course, missed CoffeeBoy dearly, especially since VDay was this week.  Poor boy tried to actually send me flowers but I never got them – I’m not sure why; even though security was super high during the conference, a couple of girlfriends got theirs.  I just hope he can get his money back!  I wouldn’t know how I would get them home anyway.  Anyway, now it’s time to play catch up and hopefully I won’t go so long between posts next time!

Do yourself a favour and buy some!

Details: Pattern: My first toe-up sock! I used Judy’s Magic Cast On, Wendy’s Generic Toe Up Sock Pattern for the short row heel, with some help from Misocrafty’s short row heel tutorial and the sewn bind off from the IK which featured Ann Budd’s guide to toe up sock knitting. Basically, I wanted something simple and fool proof so I’d get these right first time!

Yarn: Lovely Koigu KPPPM, colour P803 – lovely summer fruits colours – plum, raspberry, strawberry, papaya, watermelon. Interestingly, the two skeins, although from the same dye lot, are slightly different in tone – one sock is paler (or more pink) than the other. But not hugely and definitely not in a way that bothers me one bit!Sticks: 2.5mm 60cm KP fixed circulars x 2 (bought from Donni!). These were also my first pair of socks knit using 2 circs! I don’t mind this method, although I think I like magic loop better. I did find that I have a “crease” up either side of the socks, where the needles joined. I think I was so conscious of avoiding ladders, and so pulled the yarn too tight on the first few stitches. Not sure how to get around that. Practice I guess…does anyone have any tips?

Time: 19 January 2008 – 4 February 2008. Not bad. Well, I guess it was a plain stocking stitch sock…which I very much enjoyed knitting!What I learnt: Well, quite a long list of firsts for these – first toe up, first short row heel, first time using two circs, first time using a different cast off method (well, for the second sock anyway…I learnt that my usual cast off is nowhere near stretchy enough for socks). Now, I just have to work up the courage and energy to find the already darned in end of sock 1, unravel the cast-off and redo it. Urk. But worth it, I know.

Stashbusting? Yes! Hurrah! 2x50g skeins

Wolle: Regia Trend Sockenwolle in kaffee (1098) und nougat (1096)
Nadeln: 2,5 + 3 + 3,5
Anleitung: “Laila’s socks” von Nancy Bush aus dem Buch “Folk knitting in Estonia“

Wolle: Regia Trend Sockenwolle in kaffee (1098) und nougat (1096)
Nadeln: 2,5 + 3 + 3,5
Anleitung: “Laila’s socks” von Nancy Bush aus dem Buch “Folk knitting in Estonia“

Wolle: Regia Trend Sockenwolle in kaffee (1098) und nougat (1096)
Nadeln: 2,5 + 3 + 3,5
Anleitung: “Laila’s socks” von Nancy Bush aus dem Buch “Folk knitting in Estonia“

Regardless, I present another Baby Bib o’ Love:

This one is for my nephew, upon my sister’s request. She saw the ones that Kristi knit for Em (I use them constantly for drool-catching) and requested one. Her little guy is just 12 weeks old, and not that into drooling just yet, but I suspect it is in his not-too-distant future.

More knits to come.

But the socks were finished during my stay, so Miss J is now the proud owner of the cheeky monkeys (which we steamed using her amazing new steam iron – it has a huge reservoir of water, and you just steam everything as you iron – omg I so want one! And I don’t even iron that much!!).

Yarn: Merino Cashmere Sock (old) from The Knittery, in Moonlight. I omitted a repeat on the legs because I was worried about yarn…I needn’t have worried, I’ve got at least 25g left! Wasn’t sure how I felt about the faux striping effect, I was hoping this yarn would be more subtle, but it works pretty well for this pattern.Sticks: 2.75mm KP Harmony dpns – my first time using these – love them! The colours don’t interfere with the knitting at all, and they have a lovely smooth but slightly grippy coating. And they are nice and pointy too.

Wish I’d learnt: That you can make Monkeys without purling – ie by knitting the purl stitch. If I make these again, I think that’s what I’d do. Purling just doesn’t float my boat!

It was really cold out so I moved inside to my cubical to take more pictures.

Oh you want to hear about the contest?  Well you get to see more sock info before that

More Commuter Train Socks

Started December 17th

Completed January 16th

Yarn:  Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in Spring Break

Pattern – it’s just a st stitch sock with a partridge eye heel, my usual commuter socks

Needles – my Knit Picks Harmony size 1US (what else?)

Note:  Oh I see why lots of people LOVE ths yarn (and Koigu as well – they are the same base, yes?) – so wonderful to knit with.  I did worry about the small yardage in each skein though, so I kept them kind of short – only 4 inches on the cuff – and although I could have done maybe another inch or two.  I love how the colours look too – and the darker colours are much better to wear to work than my usual brights.  I have the lucky/unlucky problem of having extra long legs – many of my nicer pants for work are a bit short so my really bright socks are really noticable.   So it’s nice to have some funky socks that aren’t so bright.

Now for the contest.  I really wanted to do this for a couple of reason.  Mostly because I appreciate all the people who read & comment – I read all my comments & subscribe to new blogs all the time – but sometimes I don’t have a chance to respond to all of them.  I’ve “met” some great people through this blog.

When going through my sock stash, I realized I had 2 skeins of Socks that Rock medium weight sock yarn that I hadn’t used yet.  I bought both at the Black Sheep Gathering last year, they’re mill ends so I don’t know the colour names.

I think one was going to be a gift but I think I ended up finding something better.  So the lucky winner of this contest shall get one of them, which ever they decide on.  I do love STR but I have so much other sock yarn I want to use first.

And to enter:  I just started a new pair of commuter socks.  Which yarn did I use?  Did I go with the fun, brightly coloured Opal Ladybug?  Did I go with the more softly subtle Essential Tweed?  Or did I throw caution to the wind & use a completly different one (you don’t have to guess which one)?  So leave an answer in the comments – Ladybug, Tweed, or Stash – and I’ll put all the correct answers in a virtual hat & draw a winner on my next Monday Socks post.  Good Luck & have fun!

(side note to the Lowell girls – one of the bah! things this week was the stupid train home on Thursday being delayed – so I wasn’t able to make it to the knitting group.  Sigh.  One day I will!)

Pattern: Calorimetry from Knitty

Yarn: Paton’s SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) in Natural Blue

Needles: size 8 cheap metal straights

Pattern modifications: Take a peek at the pattern on Ravelry and you’ll see 2605 Calorimetr’s made. Crazy, huh? There are almost as many complaints about size/gauge. I cast on 88 st, which resulted in a perfect fit for me. I was actually aiming for 100 st, but my long-tail cast on didn’t quite get me that room! The SWS is pretty stretchy, though, as the pattern calls for, which helps it keep it’s shape well.

Thoughts: The color striping both amused me and drove me nuts. I am a little annoyed that the color changes are not quite even. Maybe one more row and the perfect symmetry would have been pleasing. I keep telling myself it isn’t a big deal, and that no one will notice when it’s on my head. I do love the color, though. I’ll blushingly admit to trying to match my wardrobe to it yesterday so I can wear it.

Also, a knitter with a reasonable amount of time could finish one in a few hours. This one took me perhaps three days, or about four hours.