Knit Night 1/29/09

Dana thoughtfully had us over for Knit Night last night, since no one needs to buy from our LYS. Addie didn't make it over until almost 8:30 because she was working and then, as usual, "stopping at home" became a 45 minute ordeal. Oh well - she's one of the busiest people I know, and I won't begrudge her any "home time." I brought some stash to give to each of them. Addie now has a great red and green (but not Christmas-y) 2x2 rib scarf going, as well as another 2x2 in pink baby yarn... for her dog. Why she thinks that her pit bull won't eat that scarf in about three seconds, I have no idea. She did manage to get a pretty cute picture of the other, bigger dog wearing her scarf, so I suppose the attraction lies there? Unknown.

Dana wanted to make baby booties in 24 hours. Since this is almost impossible for a beginner knitter, I had a hard enough time finding her a pattern for booties at her skill level. A free pattern, mind you, my library is too small for such a specific request (booties with no shaping? Don't hold your breath.) But I did find a crafty origami-like bootie that only required garter stitch squares be sewn together in a certain way. I gave here more Homespun, since she liked the dark blue-brown colorway that she received as a gift with her first needles. I am totally over Homespun, but see its appeal, and really like the simple bias-knit black blanket that I made with it. Dana finished a scarf for her mom for Valentine's day with the old Homespun just a couple days ago. The new skein was a green-grey-teal sort of colorway, and will become a similar scarf for her dad for Valentine's Day.

For dinner, Dana served us cheese ravioli with shrimp and caprese. I nommed on the mozzarella but not the tomato and balsamic. The ravioli were fantastic. Addie said her hours got cut at the shop, so she won't be working next Thursday and is going to take that opportunity to claim next week's Knit Night as well as dinner. I brought all of my magazines and books for everyone to look through, and as a confidence booster because they could make almost anything in there pretty soon. I think a cabled hat or scarf might be a good idea soon. Something added in.

Berets

Slouchy hats are really driving me crazy.

I have made about half a dozen in the past two months, and roughly half of them come out nicely.

1. The very first one was too stiff of a fabric and looks like a wierd Rastafarian hat. Fortunately, Cassie likes it, but dammit, it was supposed to be pretty and subtle, not acceptably bizarre.

2. The second was a fantastic beret (Kent's moss stitch beret), but I lost it. I wanted to give it to Liz, but couldn't because I lost it.

3. I made a replacement for that one next. The shape was modified just a bit to give a wider band and deeper hat. Also, the second moss stitch beret is a fantastic limey yellow and part wool, so a little warmer than the first one. The shape and drape worked out just right for this pattern - medium worsted weight yarn on 3s and 6s.

4. Next, I used a lighter worsted yarn (Nashua Worsted) to make a beret that was designed with this yarn in mind. This one had a loose band, but the shape is pretty great. I would use even smaller needles for the band if I were to make it again.

5. Vogue Knitting magazine had this phenomenal neon yellow bobbled and lace hat that I wanted to do. It sound ridiculous, I know, but really looked fantastic, if a little less slouchy than desired. The use of a different gauge yarn than recommended ended up in an extra-big hat. No head has been found to be big enough for this hat quite yet. It looked especially mushroom-like on Marilyn's petite head.

6. What looked great on her was the waffle-pattern beret made with the same Nashua alpaca-wool blend as the cabled beret. It was a bit small for my tastes, but blocked out a little bigger, and looked great on her. I used Kent's folded band but the top pattern and decreases from the Beret Gaufre on Ravelry. Yarn was in short supply during the decreases and I wish there had been about three yards more, but such is life. I improvised to close things up a little faster than expected.

Next, I have mittens to replace.