fake isle recharted

I was recently asked to share the chart i made up for this hat. So here it is! It's a 12-stitch repeating pattern around the hat. When i reached the top of this chart I switched to fake isle chart 2 for the crown.

I cast on 120 stitches, so did this pattern 10 times around, but be warned - i have a freakily big head - under no circumstances attempt this hat without measuring your own and swatching first! You could easily miss out a row or two if the chart is too big. I think I actually did 5 rows of k2,p2 ribbing, then 2 knit rows one in each colour before i started the snowflake bit, so you could add/remove rows pretty easily here. The hat is quite big even on me, and very warm and snug because of the stranding and 100% woolliness of the Kureyon.

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starlet

I made this hat a while ago too. I think around February / March time, after I'd finished Zelda and emerged blinking from the lounge into daylight for the first time in a while. The yarn had that sort of spring sunset feel about it which I liked. It's from Natural Dye Studio on ebay - can you believe all those nice bright colours are sourced from plant extracts?!? It's just trinity stitch, knitted in the round, with a bit of ribbing at the bottom. I stole the idea off craftster. The yarn is DK weight so my nobbles are a bit smaller. It kind of looks like those old skool swimming caps, like on the cover of Leisure by Blur.
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calorimetry

So i've recently signed up to ravelry* and i'm taking the opportunity to catalogue my big pile of knitted tat. This is a Calorimetry i made on a boring train journey down to London last month. I forget what the yarn was now, but if my brain returns i'll make a note of it. It does kind of look like someone threw up on my head, but it a nice, earwarming sort of way. Even I had to make it a bit smaller - casting on 104 stitches instead of 120 - and i have a big freaky head (like an orange on a cocktail stick**) so I would definitely recommend getting out the measuring tape and swatching for this one. The button I think came off a dressing gown I had when I was about five. It upsets my biological sensibilities a little, as I don't believe any ladybird species currently known to science has six spots.


* don't do this if you want to have a tidy house or maintain friends and a social life - it is Knitters' Crack - teh_most_awesome knitting site ever!!1!!!1!one

** apologies if you haven't seen So I Married an Axe Murderer
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cardigan craziness

Yeah, i'm still alive, just a bit lazy. I've been mostly making this recently. It's the Elizabeth Bennet cardigan from Fitted Knits. Not really a fan of Pride and Prejudice I have to say - we did the book in school and it was alright but I generally prefer films with a lower bonnet count. However i do like this cardie very much.

A month or so ago, just after getting this book (Fitted
knits, not Pride and Prejudice) I came back from the pub and with drunken bravado ordered a load of Cascade cloud 9 from some American site where it was on spesh. The exchange rate made this sound like a not unridiculous purchase, however in the cold light of day a couple of weeks later I discovered that an extra 15 ding had been slapped on by customs and excise, and i had to settle up with the post office before they'd hand over the goods. Doh! It's soo soft and warm and snuggly though. And I love the cabley bits. I've made a couple of modifications - mostly due to some indecision on which size to make, it started off as a 36 then i decided it was too big, so it kind of morphed into a 34 after the raglan neck, then decided it was too tight, now adding a couple of extra rows into the button band :) i know, it would have been much more straightforward if i'd stuck to the pattern. But where's the fun in that?!
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