Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I'm having trouble believing that it's 2009 already.

I am a bit surprised that I haven't updated this for quite some time. I guess I've gotten sidetracked between knitting, uploading photos, etc. I finished quite a few projects in 2008, so I thought I'd share some of them from the second half of the year.



Twin Girs for the boy..... pattern here: http://www.johnnysstew.com/pattern/gir.html

I used some kind of Bernat worsted weight for the body and some aqua and hot pink scraps (again, some sort of acrylic worsted weight, probably RedHeart) for the accents. I used a much smaller needle than what was called for because I didn't want any of the stuffing to poke through the holes. It just seemed too loose when I started. I also made a few itty bitty changes in the pattern, but mainly I knit the eyes separately and then attached them. Since I was knitting it so tightly, it was very difficult to pick up stitches to do the eyes.

The blue one is the regular, non mad Gir and the hot pink one is the mad Gir. I tried to match the colors to a toy...er, I mean "action figure" found in the boy's room. I made these for his birthday and he seemed pleased! I'm seriously considering doing them again out of sock yard. Crazy? Yeah, probably. :P



Socks for the DH. Regia cotton blend. I have started a pair for myself, as this seems like it's very nice, wearable yarn.



Finally finished these "Online" that I started quite a few months ago. They didn't thrill me while I was working on them, but I actually like them quite a lot.



More Regia Cotton for me this time!



Lacy pattern from one of those "1001 Stitches" type books. The yarn is Sock-Ease and it was very nice to work with.

More in the next post!

The Jayne Cobb hat, Invader Zim style!

The Jayne Cobb hat, Invader Zim style!

A couple of months ago, Nathan and a couple of his friends and I went to see Serenity at a charity screening at Keller 8 theater. The original Jayne Cobb hat is gold, orange and rust, but Nathan wanted something a bit different.

It's a very easy hat pattern. I used Lion Brand Woolease Chunky in Grass, Orchid and Black. You'll need a 16" circular needle, I used size 10 1/2. CO 64 stitches, connect the stitches so you'll be knitting in the round (K every row), be careful not to twist the stitches. Then you'll do K1, P1 ribbing for three rows, then knit in stockinette stitich for about 3 1/2 inches, switch colors, knit in the round (which gives you the stockinette stitch when you knit every row) for about 3 1/2 inches, the start your decreases. K2tog all the way around, twice, until you have 8 stitches. Pull your yarn through the 8 stitches and close up the top. You'll do a 3 inch pompom for the top out of the three colors.

For the ear flaps, count 6 stitches from the back, pm, then count 20, pm, count 12, pm, then 20, pm. You'll be picking up 20 stitiches in black between those markers on either side. Knit in stockinette on straight needles for about 2 1/2 inches, then start your decreases. You'll leave those little dangling ends on the flaps to tie.