Captain Shiney's New Hat

I had been promising Connor to take him to see the tall ships that some times visit nearby; specifically the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain. We had missed out the last time they were in town. By chance I looked to see where they currently were and it turned out I had looked just in time because we were able to go see them the last week that they were close by. So early on a Sunday, we headed to the nearby marina.

Does the ship look familiar? It played the Interceptor in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

My Mum had volunteered on the Lady Washington over a decade ago. Whenever the ships were in town, we would go and invite crew members to the house for a hot shower, dinner, and laundry. Life got in the way, people we knew moved to different places, and we slowly stopped visiting. When Connor and I headed out that Sunday, I wondered if we might bump into someone I knew. Luck was on our side and as it turned out, I knew the captain. Shiney (James' nickname) had started volunteering on the Lady Washington the at the same time my Mum had. We knew he had worked up to being a captain on other ships, but it was great fun to see him be the captain on the Lady Washington.

We had signed up to be part of a battle sail. On a battle sail, the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain go out and under sail power maneuver around and shoot off cannons (with blanks) at each other. The captains on each ship keep track to see who wiped the floor with who. (We totally won.)

Our gunner firing one of the swivel guns

There are different kinds of shots that can be taken. You can broadside a ship when it is alongside you. You can shoot through the whole ship when it is pointed directly at or away from you. Shiney's favorite, however, is to aim for the stern because that's where the other captain and his officers would have been.

The Hawaiian Chieftain had moved all of its cannons onto one side so it could get four shots in

While we took our time to line up shots and the strategy was discussed, if it were a true battle, the shots wouldn't have been lined up. The goal would have been to damage the other ship as much as possible as fast as possible.

Shiney is catching the other ship's cannonballs with his hat

While we were catching up, I learned that the hat I made Shiney years ago that had "Shiney" knitted into it had been lost to time. As a knitter, I had to ask, "Do you need a new one?" The giant smile on his face was all the answer I needed. I knit like the wind and on a different weekend, we drove to a port that was further away from us to deliver the hat. It was a big hit.

Shiney is much taller than me. He was obliging and leaned down so I wouldn't be so dwarfed.

If anyone is interested in visiting either tall ship, there is a schedule at historicalseaport.org . The ships sail up and down the west coast of the US regularly. Also, when we dropped off the hat, they were taking a wedding party out for a pirate-themed wedding on the bay. I didn't know that was possible, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

A Hat For You, A Hat For Me

I have good news! Connor and I both found our hats. Mine was at the bottom of a backpack I take to knit night and his was in a pocket of a coat he doesn't wear every often. Obviously our hats were too big for the gnomes. But Alicia asked a good question in the comments. What kind of knitter owns one hat? Well.... apparently me. But I'm working to fix that now. I had Connor dig around in the stash with me and we emerged with a skein of Crystal Palace Yarn's Sausalito in the Big Sur color way and Little Wool Co's 4-ply wool in the Chocolate color way.

Simultaneously, we looked at patterns and settled on Wei Siew's Slipped Hat. We both like the colors chosen and the pattern, so if one of us loses a hat again, we have a backup hat that both of us like.

So I had myself a little winding party yesterday. I have grand plans for all of this yarn. Socks, sweaters, cowls, you name it. I thought I would cast on all the things yesterday too!

But once I cast on for that hat, I just couldn't stop myself. So I knit and knit and knit. I just can't help but be a monogamous knitter. It feels like I finish things faster. I mean, I do finish things faster, but it feels faster too.

Newly Knitworthy

I'm sure many knitters have felt the strong urge to outfit loved ones in hand knits. It's a little hard to explain to a non knitter, but there is a tugging at the heart and an itchy feeling in the fingers to get the knits made. Many of my friends and family have hand knits, but to my disgrace, Connor was missing his.... until now.

It was a little difficult to figure out what should be knitted first, but we decided that a hat was needed. I used the Watch Cap pattern by Michele Rose Orne. This is the third time I've used this pattern and I still really like the look of this hat. The yarn is Mythral from Stansborough, but it is a prototype that they were working on when I bought in 2010. 

Connor is pleased and has been wearing the hat everywhere. He has proven himself knitworthy. I see a matching cowl in his future.

Has anyone else got a newly knitworthy person in their life?

From Pines To Pacific

I'm pleased to announce that I've released two new patterns: Pacific Blues and Pacific Ripples. The Pacific Blues hat is knit from the brim up. It has a slipped stitch chevron pattern all over that resembles the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Ripples mitts are knit from the cuff up. They also are inspired by the Pacific Ocean. The gusset shaping is cleverly worked in with the chevron patterning.

I decided to bundle up Pacific Blues, Pacific Ripples, and Beyond The Pines all together into a collection called From Pines To Pacific. All three look good using variegated yarn. But a solid or long color repeat will look just as nice.

Happy knitting!

Reading Is Key In Reading The Key

It's funny what a few days can do for a knitting basket. I finished knitting up all the blue yarns and now everything is going to be bright for a bit! The green and gold are the Anzula I bought two posts ago. All going well, I hope to have another sock design knitted up before the month is through.

The red is Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin in Hertzblut that Rachael got me when she went to Germany. It's becoming a pair of Woodpile Socks. So far so good. 

Although, I did get to do a little ripping. It was a little my fault, a little not. I didn't read the pattern key, I just knitted the cables like you do. I noticed pretty quick that it didn't look like the picture. Silly me, I knit the cables opposite of what the key said. In my defense, the symbols are the opposite direction of what cable symbols typically are. That being said, I have learned that I need to read symbol keys BEFORE knitting. It'll save time in the long run.

Most of what was in my knitting basket in the last post are designs that I can't show off just yet. But I did finish the Watch Cap for me. It's out of Knitwhits Freia Handpaints Ombre Worsted in the Denim color way. I am pleased. The brim can be folded up and probably will be when I wear it, but I wanted to show off the gradient.

In case anyone was wondering, I still haven't located my other hats.

Knitter's Logic

Today is rainy and all my projects feel rainy too. I'm sure you've all been there: every project seems to have stalled or become difficult for one reason or another. I'm trying to be disciplined because I have a deadline for one of the designs. But I have a whole cubby of sock yarn that says, "Knit me, knit me!" And the only thing stopping me is that the needles I'd like to use for new socks are being used for this rather stubborn design. (The design is a pair of mitts which you can see in the upper left of my knitting basket. And now that I've fixed my very silly mistake that I made in the pattern, it should knit up much faster. Bonus: The mitts have a companion hat that has been finished and is just about ready to be tested.)

Anyways... as I went out to take the picture, I noticed that I'm knitting all blue projects! The mitts, a pair of Police Box Sox (I'm on the foot of the second one!), and a Watch Cap for me that I started last night. I heard the siren's call and I gave in. Also, I can't seem to find any of my other hats, so I used knitter's logic: make a new one.

What colors are you guys all knitting at the moment? Do you have a predominate color ruling your knitting life?

Brinker

Today's featured pattern is Brinker. The hat was inspired by the book Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, which was published in 1865 by Mary Mapes Dodge. Brinker is the second pattern to show up in Lit Knits.

Much of the story features ice skates. The climax of the book centers in on a skating race, so it seemed especially important to have skating tracks on the hat. And just as the racers go off into the distance, the skate tracks on the hat also become smaller as they go toward the top of the crown. Although it is optional, I liked adding a big, fluffy snowball of a pom pom to the top of the hat.

When I started out designing the hat, I was a little stumped as to what color to make it. Brinker was the 4th design to be knit. At this point, I had to make a decision between choosing mostly neutral colored yarns for the book or to inject some color.

I even went so far as to make three samples. In the end, the blue one seemed like it fit the rest of the book the best. To me, the white edging was like a snow bank and the blue of the hat was like the thick ice covering the river. I imagined skaters jumping off of the snowbank and skating onto the frozen river and the ribbing reflects this thought. The ribbing on the edge of the hat connects to the cables just like the tracks skaters would leave from the snow to the river.

Mum and I drove 3.5 hours one way to get photos with snow in the background. The number of times I have been to the snow is extremely limited, which turned out to be a problem during this particular shoot.
At the end of the shoot, I had this great idea to make it look like it was snowing. I thought I would just throw some snow into the air and everything would look magical. And just to be sure we captured the magic, I set the camera to rapid shoot.

Well, we definitely captured some magic. It just wasn't the magic I was aiming for. I'm not well versed in snow physics, but that day I learned that if you throw chunks of snow into the air, they come back down as chunks of snow.

And that is how I got the picture for the errata page of my website.

Zissou

Revenge is mine. I finished a hat and taught my socks a lesson. The toe cooperated and I have started the second sock. This hat was a request by one of the guys that serves my knit night group. He wanted a Zissou hat with a yellow "Z" on the brim.

The hat is made of Plymouth Worsted Merino Superwash in color 3 and a little bit of Cascade Heritage in color 5644. The hat is just a simple 1x1 rib and the Z was crocheted on. I think there is a name for what I did. Maybe the crab stitch? I'm quite pleased with the corners of the Z. They pulled funny, so I added an extra slip stitch to help define the sharp corners of the Z.

Appalachia

The Appalachia hat has now been released!

And the Appalachia KAL (knit along) has started over at the 11 Hats in 2011 group. I'm pretty excited about it. There are 59 people signed up for it. Maybe I should make another so we have 60 people.

For anyone who is interested in buying the pattern, you can either get it on ravelry. For those who don't have a ravelry account, it also available on the bear-ears.com for $5.

And to add a little music inspiration, here is the song Appalachia by The Church. I absolutely love this song. It was one of the songs I played on the radio when I was a DJ. The video artwork is by David Duchow. (There is more of his artwork on dadaist654's youtube channel.)

Appalachia KAL

I just wanted to let everyone know that there is going to be a KAL (Knit along) for Appalachia. For those who join the KAL, the pattern will be free. You heard me correctly. FREE!

Here's what you have to do:

1) You will need to be a part of Ravelry, if you aren't already.

2) Join the group 11 Hats In 2011!

3) Say you'd like to make the hat on May KAL thread.

4) Cast on the hat May 1st.

The pattern will only be free to those who join the KAL by April 30th, 11:59PM PST. After that, the pattern will be for sale.

I will be sending the pattern out to those who join the KAL on May 1st. Probably around 1PM PST.

I'd love to have as many people as possible be a part of this KAL. The hat is made from a skein of Mini Mochi (Lake Trail) and a skein of Malabrigo Sock (Chocolate Amargo). But any sock weight yarn would do, preferably with a high wool content. The needle sizes needed are 2 (2.75mm) and 3 (3.25mm). I used small circulars, but dpns would be fine too.

Instant Oatmeal

I was in need of some instant knitting gratification recently. Something easy. Something that would use up part of my stash. After looking in the yarn cupboard, I settled on using some of my hand spun "Oatmeal" yarn.

Four hours later I had my very first project out of my own hand spun yarn. I wish it was cold so I could wear it without sweating.

A Study On Cat Behavior

I did a little photo shoot with Brennan and Justin in the Black Cat Hat the other day. Initially the boys had a bit of trouble doing cat activities. They both said it was because, "Cats don't do anything."

Alas, poor Yarnick. (Full credit goes to Brennan for that pun)

I did the shoots separately. What was so funny about it is that both Justin and Brennan did the same thing. Observe exhibit A. Cats make funny faces while playing yarn.

Exhibit B. Cats have mad faces.

Exhibit C. Cats lick stuff.

Scooter joined in on the fun. I think he might be part cat.

Suffolk Sheep Hat

It has been done for awhile, but I finally got around to taking pictures of... The Sheep Hat. It is a suffolk sheep.

Justin acting like a sheep. Eating. Because that is what sheep do.

This is the second time I've made a sheep hat. The first time didn't have the black brim. It was a gift for my Dad. My Mum suggested that I add a black brim. I think it makes the hat look much better.

I find it amusing that my models channel whatever animal the hat is. Brennan growled a bunch like a bear. Justin pretended to eat things.

I chained Scooter up while I was outside taking pictures. He was a little sad that he couldn't go around the garden to sniff.

I let him off leash earlier, but he ran away. Our backyard isn't fenced in, which makes his whole "Having an adventure" attitude a bit of a problem. I take him for nice long walks. He just has lots of energy for some reason. You would think a seven year old dog would have calmed down a bit.

Scooter decided to sit in the weeds for a bit.

I finished another bear hat last night. It has some pattern adjustments. I've done three now.

I have one more, but the ears aren't on just yet. I've got to finish before the farmer's market on Saturday.

On a side note, I noticed that one of our outdoor rugs has plants growing in it.

How odd.

Bear Hats Are Totally Awesome

I finished the bear hat (both versions) last night. After I finished, Justin and I went to the local dive bar to see our friends, the Magi-Kool Doods, play. I wore the dark brown bear hat. The bouncer complemented it.

The knitting champ

While I was at the pub, I delivered a hat made for C. A cute little black/ charcoal/ purple stripe hat.

Thanks to Brennan for modeling every single hat ever

This morning I brought the hats to the farmers market to show Jane. She tried on the bear hat right away.

Jane runs the Yolo Wool Mill. She spins all the yarn and the bear hats are made of. It only took two skeins to make the two hats. (I almost ran out of the dark brown, but made it with a few yards to spare.) Jane sells all sorts of neat fiber related things at her booth.

Some Merino sheepskins for sale

I love looking at (and touching) all the yarn. I couldn't help myself this week. I bought two more skeins to make more bear hats. You know... so I can check my pattern.

Yarn. My favorite.

Later on Brennan and I did a photo shoot with the bear hats.

I set up the tripod because we were losing light. As a result, when I flipped through the pictures, they started looking like an animation.

I couldn't help myself. I ended up making a few animation in photoshop. The images were too funny.

Plus Brennan is a funny guy. You should check him out at his blog, Skellington's Day Out.