Black Sheep

Alpaca yarn

Yesterday I went out in search of some silk yarn to knit a shawl with. I didn’t find any that I liked. But I did find some exquisite Alpaca yarn:

It is soooo soft and cuddly. It is very thin, though. I don’t think I will make the Charlotte’s web shawl with it. Instead, I found a pattern for a bell shawl and I think I will try that instead.

Add comment July 26th, 2004

Black Bucket officially finished

Here is a pic of the black bucket hat on my head, officially blocked and finished. I wore it yesterday on our hike to my favorite hiking spot, Rancho Del Oso.

3 comments July 26th, 2004

Next Project: Silk Shawl

After reading the Knitty blog, I have become inspired to knit my own silk shawl. Isn’t that just gorgeous?!? And the thought of knitting with silk. Luscious, no? I think I will go to local yarn store today to see what they have in the silk yarn department.

Add comment July 25th, 2004

BBH done. That WAS fast

Okay, I finished it this morning. Here is a shot of me wearing before blocking it:

And here it is blocking on an old Trader Joe’s coffee can:

I can’t wait to start wearing it. I could have used it today. DH and I went for a little hike and I brushed a tick off my shoulder. I really need to start wearing a hat when I go out hiking!

1 comment July 24th, 2004

Black Bucket too big

Well, as I was working on the crown last night I had to come to terms with the fact that my black bucket hat is WAY too big. I mean, I don’t even think washing it will save it. I had my DH take a pic of it on my for posterity. It looks like a witches hat.

I am noticing that I have trouble with gauge. I learned to knit Elizabeth Zimmerman style, and never used a pattern until a few months ago. I am really having trouble matching the gauge on the pattern with reality-gauge. I am going to try figuring it out myself. I measured the circumfrance of my head, 22″. My yarn knits up at 4 stitches an inch. So the part of the hat that fits snugly around my head should be 88 stitches around. The brim is has about 25% more stitches than the “head”(according to the pattern). So I figure I should cast on 110 stitches.

I hope I am getting the math right. We’ll see what happens.

On another topic, you will notice that I changed my site a bit. I was too lazy to come up with my own style, so I based it on a stylesheet created for a Wordpress style competition.

Add comment July 23rd, 2004