Contest Winner and A Knitting Diversion

Happy Thursday everyone!  The Darkside Hat has been doing far better than I even dreamed.  So far, 61 people have favorited the hat on Ravelry, 2 people are working on active projects and 10 others have queued the pattern.  I'm thrilled with all the interest and am hopeful that those first knitters enjoy the results as much as I do.  

My parents are in town for a visit this week and my Mom took one look at the white hat and packed it in her suitcase.  Little does she know that I made it from wool I had leftover from her scarf so she'll have a perfect matching set.  Maybe I'll try to squeeze in some mitts for her to match before the holidays.

I'm also finally getting around to announcing the winner of the Darkside Hat contest.  My apolgies for the delay but it's been a crazy week at our house and I'm just getting a chance to catch up in blog world.  The winner of my first ever contest is....DRUMROLL....Lisa.  One beautiful skein of Knit Picks DK Swish is on it's way to you as soon as I get an email from you with your address!  Unfortunately you didn't leave a way for me to get in touch.

In other news, I've had a bit of a knitting diversion this week.  With my Mom in town we decided to tackle making a quilted Christmas Tree Skirt for my new tree.  

Here's a photo of the finished product.  

I'm really pleased with the results but I have to tell you there are good solid reasons I'm a knitter and not a seamstress!  Luckily despite our pattern hiccups we managed to stay in good spirits and knock the project out in about 9 hours of work.  It could have been faster if we weren't so error prone and a pair of gigglers!

Here's a close up of my favorite fabric that was used in the project.  Aren't the reindeer just too cute???

I've got the second of our Christmas stockings on the needles right now and am hopeful that I'll have it finished by the end of the weekend or at least that is my goal.  My friend Ashley is coming over Sunday to take some photos of Sam and to spend some time teaching me how to knit using a chart.  Once that happens I'm itching to get started on a project I've had in my queue for Sam.  I'll share more details about that soon...

The Darkside Hat

The Darkside Hat pattern is finally complete!  Here is the pdf link.  I had a blast designing it and am hopeful that others will enjoy knitting it as much as I did.  It's based on Sarah Fama's Darkside Cowl and Sarah Hood has written up project notes for a matching set of mitts.  If you're looking for a great set to make for Christmas presents, this one could be a winner. 

Here are some pictures of the two versions I knit up while working out the design.  This one is made out of some gorgeous Trendsetter yarn.  I've already made the cowl to match and have some yarn left that will be made into mitts.

This second version I knit out of some white Paton's Classic Wool.  I like that the design stands out really well with a solid color of yarn but I do think that it's a bit stiff.  If I had it to do over again, I would use some of my Knit Picks Swish Worsted.

In honor of my first design, I'm hosting a contest.  Leave a comment by midnight 10/23/10 with your thoughts on the hat and you could win a skein of Knit Picks Swish DK.  Be sure to leave an email address so I can get in touch with you to let you know you've won.  Happy Knitting!

Christmas is Coming!

Is it just me or does it seem like Christmas is approaching at a rapid pace?  I can't believe that it's the middle of October already.  We spend our Sunday today out at the pumpkin patch picking out our annual pumpkins.  We'll be carving them up next weekend so they are all ready for the trick-or-treaters.  Sammy is going as a skeleton this year.  I'm sure I'll be unable to resist posting pictures of that!

In preparation for the holidays, I've been working on making some stockings for my expanded family.  Last year I was a bit of a humbug at the holidays due to the newborn exhaustion that was still running rampant in our household.  But this year, we'll be doing it up right which includes stocking stuffing.

I found a great pattern for felted stockings by Annie's Woolens on Ravelry of course! I was a little intimidated as I've never even knit a regular sized sock before but it was surprisingly simple and now I'm looking forward to trying my hand at socks after the holidays.  I've got one out of three completed.  I think I'll be keeping this gold one for myself.  

I've got yarn for a navy and a red one as well.  Once I have all three completed I'll do a felt along and share my results.  If all goes well, I'll be decorating them with our names and some cute holiday goodies.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the end product.


I've also been working away on my first pattern which I'll be posting shortly.  More on that soon.

Finished Object Friday

Happy Friday!  I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning to show you one of my new favorite hat patterns, the Hermione Hat.  It's a beautiful pattern that features a cable and eyelet design and has my first attempt at both of these techniques.  I've made three versions now and I love each one a little more.  The hat is an easy but interesting knit that I highly recommend.  


Here are some photos of version one.

This one will be a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law and I made a smaller matching version for my Niece.  I also made a lovely gray one for myself that I completed while I was home in Indiana a few weeks ago.  My Grandma loved it so much that I'll be making version number four for her as a Christmas gift.  I just can't get enough of this hat, can you tell? 


I tried to start my version of a Darkside Hat yesterday but was so jet lagged that I was having trouble counting...never a good sign.  I started over this morning and am continuing to have the same problem.  I'm not sure at this point I can blame my issues on jet lag and it may be that I just can't count.  But in any event I'll keep chugging along and hopefully will have another finished object and some pattern notes to share with you soon.

Adventures in Traveling

I am finally back from an absolutely crazy three weeks of traveling and training.  Some of my traveling was a trip to Indiana for my Niece's sixth birthday but the majority of it was work related.  I'm exhausted to say the least but happy that life is finally going to be getting back to normal and I'll be back to my part time schedule next week.

The sad news is that my knitting needles have been sitting empty for over a week.  I can't even remember the last time that happened.  It's a sad state of affairs when I'm too busy to knit.  I'm going to remedy that as soon as I complete this post.  

I've got an outline for a hat pattern I'm going to take a stab at designing.  I knit up the Darkside Cowl a few weeks ago and I've been looking for just the right hat to match with no luck.  So I'm going to take the advice of my fellow knitters and try to modify the cowl pattern into a hat.  I'm not sure this will really count as my first true design but I'm planning to write up the process to save others the trouble.  If I can get permission from the original designer, I'll post it on Ravelry.

That's all I've got time for right now.  Look for a Finished Object Friday post tomorrow.