Sunday, August 04, 2013

Not one,not two, but three FO's

This post is late, appears I didn't push the post button and the words sat unread in my ipad. Then discovering that i managed to delete the entire post, My apologies, and an rewrite. A long overdue update, today there are three finished objects, one startd in 2011 no less, one started last month ...truly the wip basket is feeling lighter.
First up a tam, or what I think of as The Tam, the only tammi have worked so far and most definitely not the last. I wish some one had told me how much fun it was to work the crown, how the decreases turn what is straight colour work into the most amazing kaleidoscope pattern, arrow heads become stars, angles become diamonds ... Things are mirrored and repeated to form patterns that look much more complex than they are to work. Truely the crown of a tam is exciting knitting, probably the most thrills for your yarn as could be achieved in any pattern.

Here is the pattern, a simple set of checkerboard triangles and mirrored angles with a stylized tree.

And look at the result - if I'd have known working the wrong was going to be so much fun I would have finished this ages ago. Although in truth what stopped me was making some decisions. I had workd my own pattern for the brim, based on a chart of dancing couples ... You might just see them holding hands paper doll style around the edge. on the top you can see their heads, torso and hands. They show up slightly clearer in the image above. And could't decide what to work on the crown. I headed of to ravelry and found Ruskins Notes Winter Forest Tam, which was already in my favorites and queue. I had a different stitch count but was blue to dither the crown chart and decreases to work by redrawing the chart slightly modified.
From one extreme to the other, this project was started and finished much quicker, a redux of Hope he never needs this. The first one was for elder cub, this one for Bear, made from the left overs. I like. Knowing that two skeins of sock yarn will make two revsible ribbed hats. Bear has a new job, one that involves more site work and more wearing of safety orange vests. I thought a hat that was orange on the inside, and more urban and dark grey on the outside was in order ... Besides knitting this helped to clear some of my stashed sock yarn left overs.
And last is a super quick and cute knitters study group project, colour work baby mitts. These used a knit up faced hem, with a purl turn row. I think these might become a wee addition to baby booties next time I knit some. Cute, quick and not to many of these out there ... Although I will add a cord to thread through a coat sleeve to prevent loss. The pattern called for the colour work to continue all over the mittens, in a diamond pattern. If I had been using sticky yarn I would have worked them that way, but I was using super wash sock yarn so worried the floats would be finger traps and more trouble than they were worth.
That almost brings me up to date with the missing post, just this weeks post to add ... But perhaps I'll leave that for another day. This week is hectic, little cub is choosing a high school, she is only year seven and still has a year and a half to go but ....we want the decision to be an informed one. There are four schools on the possible list, two more likely than the rest but we have to visit all. That means Sunday afternoon was gone visiting one, this evening, tomorrow and the day after all taken by more school visits and open days. Elder cub choose to look at boys only schools, younger cub seems to want co-ed or girls only schools, so none of the prep work we did for him helps us here. With all that out and about eah night there won't be much knitting here till at least Thursday.
Tak care,
Na Stella

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