northern skies

I am ridiculously excited this week, because this silly hat I made won the Purl City yarns design competition accessories category and customers' choice award!

It's called Northern Skies, with apologies to I am Kloot, it can't do much for your rock'n'roll street cred to have a song commemorated in knitwear. I designed and made it in January to enter the Purl City 'Inspired by Manchester' design compo. I couldn't think of anything more typically Manc than a row of terraced houses, and I liked the idea of having them go all the way round a hat in a continuous circle. I also liked the idea of having stars in the sky, people always say you can't see them in a city, but it's not truuuuue, I should know I spend a lot of time in the gutter looking up at them.

It was a little daunting to knit, the houses are all done in stranded colourwork so there's not a lot of stretch, but fortunately the fit around the head is pretty spot on. (Fits my head too, the model above has a pretty much adult sized head now!) The bit with the windows was fun, I just went for a random pattern with some lights on and some off. As a rule there aren't more than two windows next to each other in the same lighting state, as this makes for tricky long float/weaving in issues, which I prefer to avoid as much as possible. All my fingers were occupied by coping with three colours at once anyway. Yikes! Turns out it's quite doable, but a pretty immersive task. Good job I managed to get through those few rows without needing to answer the phone / scratch / point at anything.

The sky is Fyberspates Sparklesock in Midnight, which is dark blue with little silver spangles in, so it's just perfect. I embroidered a few extra stars on with this Drops Metallised silver thread, and also backstitched up and down between the houses in grey to outline them a bit. The grey is a slightly heavier weight, it's King Cole baby alpaca dk, and the brickwork is Lang Jawoll sock, but I quite like the way this gives the houses a strong, cartoonish outline. The roofs are purled to make them stand out a bit against the sky.

I might get round to writing up the pattern some time soon, but I am quite bad at finding the time to do this, and tbh I'm not sure anyone else would be daft enough to make such a thing anyway. Rubbishknitterjunior likes it a lot though.

Thanks everyone who voted for my hat, and Purl City for the awesomely generous prize! :)

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lots of tiny socks

I made these baby socks for a bring and buy sale today, to raise money for the premature baby unit at the local hospital.
I had a drawerful of tiny scrag-ends of left over sock yarn, so this seemed like a good opportunity to use it up. I quite like doing this sort of thing, you feel uberthrifty, and it gives you a chance to reminisce about Socks of Old.


The yarn line-up, from left to right in the picture above: Cygnet Wool Rich 4 ply (light brown), random nasty acrylic I scored in a bargain bin in Peru for about 1p (navy), Green eyed monsters supersock (pink/green stripy), Opal from the first ever pair of socks I made (green/pink/blue stripy), Violet Green supersock (purple). Apologies if you bought the navy pair, I'll admit you drew the short straw.
Pattern is my own.

I wanted to try and package them as appealingly as possible, using words like 'unique' and 'handcrafted' and not words like 'mindlessly churned out while watching Breaking Bad on the telly'. So I got these cute little handmade paper bags from Fred Aldous and labelled them up nicely.

I think most of them sold, i wasn't around at the end to check. It was fun to make them all, although I must admit it was getting a tad repetitive by the 5th pair - I was going to sleep counting turned heels instead of sheep. I think it's safe to say my next project will be bigger, and not socks :)

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cardie win

I almost forgot to post pictures of my finished cardigan! Probably because I did my usual trick of finishing a winter garment just in time for spring. I need to knit faster, or maybe just plan ahead a tad better. I had to go to Cumbria for the weekend to make sure extra sure I was somewhere cold enough to be able to wear it. Here I am, keeping warm while standing on an old midden. (This would have basically been a toilet for livestock in olden times - I know how to pick a glamorous spot for a picture.)



The pattern is Audrey in Unst from the Twist Collective, and the yarn is Austermann Alpaca silk, that I got from Purl City yarns on opening day. This is, like, megaluxury yarn, i love it! Putting it on is such a comforting treat, it's just so soft and warm, with that slight alpacay hairiness that makes it like a favourite pet.


I also think it's the best fitting thing I've managed to make myself so far, it's loose without being comically baggy, just really comfortable and wearable. Yay!

The only modification I made was to make it a bit longer. In the pattern it's quite cropped, but I like jeans and jumpers to safely overlap. Particularly as I cycle around a lot, I feel it's both more comfortable and more considerate to keep one's arsecrack under wraps. I basically cast on the 36.5" size and lengthened the twisted ribbing by an inch or two. Then carried on decreasing to the waist for the 34.5" size, then followed the pattern for the smaller size.

It was loads of fun to make, and really easy, all knitted seamlessly from the bottom up. The twisted rib / stocking stitch section was mindless enough for tv knitting, and the unst lace panel at the front was an interesting diversion before nice easy short row sleeves. The sleeves were super quick to knit, I've not done a short row sleeve cap before but it really was a lot less faff than a set-in one. (Once I'd worked out how to pick up stitches tidily). Another new thing for me was the i-cord cast off round the neck. I have totally and completely fallen in love with this cast off method. It just looks really solid and pleasing, I really don't mind that it takes loads longer.

The only slight downside is that one side of the lace panel was knitted on my bus commute to work, and the other side in Port Street Beer House. I didn't notice until blocking that this had affected my tension rather noticably - I was considerably more relaxed in the pub! I kind of like that though. One of my favourite things about knitting a big project like this is the way you can look at different bits of it and remember where you were when you were knitting it. I'm in no danger of forgetting with this one ;)


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japan love

If you were wondering, we raised over £400 at Purl City on Wednesday for the British Red Cross Japanese tsunami appeal!

And a jolly fine time was had by all. I did lots of knitting, chatting to friends, won some ace prezzies and had wasabi peas and sake for my tea. What more can one possibly want from an evening?

There was a raffle in which I won this ball of Noro Kureyon sock, in nice restful natural shades of green. And a book of amigurumi robots! How good is that? Such as this handsome devil. I'm going to be all over this just as soon as I've reminded myself how crochet patterns work.


There was also a closed bid auction, in which I managed to get my hands on this very lovely Noro hat knitted by Vikki. Beautiful sunsetty colours - rubbishknitterjunior is very taken with it.


Thanks to the organisers for the yarny treats and a fun night out!

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tsunami relief

Just a quick one to mention to any Manchester based people that tomorrow night at Purl City Yarns is Japanese Tsunami Fundraiser night.
Sounds like it will be fun, with lots of auctions and raffles for all kinds of goodies.

There will be exclusive hand dyed yarn from Wild Fire Fibres, and 50p from the sale of each ball of Noro goes to the Red Cross. That's right, you can actually really help people by buying yarn. This is all kinds of win in my book <enable, enable> :)

I've also donated this pattern for baby socks which you can buy for £1.50 on the night. If you're not in Manchester, you can buy it on Ravelry too and all the proceeds will go to the Red Cross. I wrote it ages ago but it has taken me rather a long time to get my act together and publish it. The cute baby foot in the above picture now belongs to a clodhopping two year old. I'll maybe get round to publishing the pattern for the jumper he was wearing today by the time he goes to university.

seeya there knitterfriends!

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buttons and blocking

Guess what I have just been pinning out?!

I'm very excited... the cardigan's all finiiiiiiiiished! Last night was spent weaving in ends and sewing on buttons. I've gone for these vintage buttons that I picked up from some random haberdashery stall at a local craft fair a while ago. I really love this kind of dead simple, super shiny, boiled sweet type buttons.



Even the retro button packaging I find really pleasing. I'm really glad I'm not expected to remove them all before washing. Can you imagine?! People must have had considerably more patience in the olden days.



Better photos will follow when it's dry. Can't wait!! If anyone needs me, I'll be impatiently wandering around the spare bed with a hairdryer... What? don't look at me like that, it's forecast to freeze tonight, tomorrow morning I want to be clad in snuggly alpacay goodness!

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wild fire fibres trunk show

There will follow a small and probably quite welcome interlude in The Saga of the Cardigan to show you some pretty pictures of the Wild Fire Fibres trunk show at Purl City Yarns!

Wild Fire Fibres is the yarny adventures of Salford's finest handspinner, indie dyer, designer, mindbogglingly intricate lacy shawl knitter, pompom lover and all round thoroughly bloody lovely lady Vikki. She's been rather busy of late preparing a selection of very beautiful handcrafted woolly treats for all our recreational delight. I wandered down to the welcoming glow of Purl City after work on Wednesday to squish them on your behalf.

There was a dizzying selection of colours, fibres and weights. Difficult to know where to begin really.

This picture shows the handspun at the front. Some breathtakingly gorgeous skeins, all so different in character. Some shiny, some sparkly, some fluffy, some glittery, prethreaded with beads. There is handdyed sock weight in the middle, and at the back, shawl lovers were in paradise with all the luxurious lacey goodness. I particularly love the Pegasus alpaca/silk blend, with its metallic shininess. And the Angora laceweight, which is spun tightly enough to minimise shedding whilst still obviously being as soft as the sneeze of a baby unicorn falling into thistledown.

Some colours were mouthwateringly sweet-shop bright, some were natural world inspired neutral shades. All were eminently squishable.



Some (mostly the pink ones) were snaffled by IDreamOfCrafts before anyone else turned up.



Being a bit of a Shetland fetishist (Shetishist?!) I knew immediately which of the handspun I was going to have trouble leaving without. Then there was also free wine, a very interesting talk from Vikki about her work, and a couple of hours of knitting and enjoyable banter with friends. I overrelaxed, and became powerless to resist. This is the sight greeting mr rubbishknitter as he caught me on the cctv trying to smuggle yarnz into the house. (joke (c) audreym, twitter, 2011 )

(there is a bonus terrible handknitted pegbag in the background of this photo from my very early days of knitting, definitely pre-ravelry, possibly even predating this blog!)

So in summary, both Vikki and her yarns are lovely and you should definitely buy them, either from her website or you can catch up with her at Wonderwool Wales this year.

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pickup fail

I've been steaming ahead with the Audrey in Unst cardie lately. Was feeling quite pleased at how well the sleeve was progressing. It's a short row sleeve cap, with the stitches picked up round the armhole, then shaped with short rows and knitted downwards in the round. I'd not done one like this before, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it had been. Why, I'd barely needed to give the thing my full attention! This knitting lark is easy!!11! I was at the edge of the precipice of Knitting Cockiness and poised for a great fall. And then, today the sun came out and I looked a little more closely at my recent handiwork. And realised I'd actually already stepped over the edge and been freefalling for some time, but been too dumb to notice :)


Can you see the problem?!

What about now?
Unfortunately, no amount of squinting and pretending will make it go away (I've tried!). I oh-so-cleverly made a nice slipped stitch edge at the front to facilitate picking up stitches, then oh-so-stupidly picked up stitches on the wrong side of it. So there is a plainly visible row of slipped stitches at the join. Doh! One of those late night sessions where you think, Awww just a little bit more... maybe I could actually finish this bit, wouldn't that be ace... Hmm, my vision might be a little blurred with sleepiness and/or gin but I'm having fun dammit... Then end up doing loads of damage and setting yourself back waaay further than if you'd just gone to bed at an appropriate hour. Be warned, knitterfolk!!

Weirdly, I did it right for the back half, then lost the plot at the shoulder seam. This is what it should have looked like!


I'm off to do some frogging and maybe also a sacrifice of cheap acrylic to appease the knittergods...

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bus knitting misadventures

My trusty bike has been suffering from an unfortunate spate of punctures recently. This is mostly due to me cycling round Manchester city centre a lot, where it seems drinkers actively seek out cycle lanes to smash their empty pint pots. So as Grandmaster Flash would probably point out, there is broken glass everywhere. With my bike out of action, I have been thrown back into the world of Bus Knitting.

I do enjoy my bus commute with my knitting on my lap. However, I've reached a stage in my Audrey in Unst cardie where it's becoming a little awkward to hoist around at the end of each row without stabbing adjacent commuters in the eye. I'm on the lace bit by the neck shaping, as you can see in the pic, and it's knitted in one piece so it's getting quite big. I've also had a couple of unfortunate bus knitting incidents recently. Once, when the driver braked suddenly, the ball of yarn on my knee flew forwards and rolled under about 5 rows of seats in front. Horrified, I wondered if it was possible to crawl forward and retrieve it. But fortunately, the jolt of setting off again sent it rolling back to my feet where I was able to swiftly scoop it up again and carry on nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened.

More alarmingly, I'm finding it harder and harder to put the knitting down in time to alight. My internal mantra of 'one more row..' gets louder as the bus approaches my destination, and my knitting gets faster and faster and more frenzied. The other day I'd cut it ridiculously fine. As the other passengers were getting off I was scrabbling around hastily to cram my knitting into my bag and leg it off the bus. I breathed a sigh of relief as I made it through the door and walked down the road towards work. After about 10 paces I noticed a teal-coloured woolly strand hanging out of my bag. It was attached to a ball of yarn. Which was still on my seat on the bus. Fortunately, I was able to retrace my steps before the bus departed, and a very amused passenger handed me the ball of yarn.



So I've downsized my bus knitting a bit, for health and safety reasons. This is a headband I made out of a teeny tiny bit of leftover Wollmeise from my Tempest cardie. I'm all about the woolly headbands right now. It's surprisingly warm because it covers your ears, it tames unruly hair, it fits under a bike helmet, and unlike a hat, nobody at work mithers you if you continue to wear it indoors. Pattern is Panta from this epic thread on craftster. I have one already that I made aaaages ago and I wear it all the time so I decided another was in order. I used 4 ply yarn though and I had to omit some of the central increases because of weirdass pooling, so the new one's a lot skinnier. Here is rubbishhound modelling the original back in 2006.



I'm also making Mr Rubbishknitter a tie. He has been dropping hints lately and I am unable to resist such things. I was going to make it a Valentine's day surprise but I thought perhaps I should consult him. I'm glad I did, because my first attempt was deemed Too Pointy, and I was advised to go and look at a tie. So the second attempt is less pointy. To get the acceptably sloped version, I started at the bottom and increased 1 stitch either side each row. The stitch pattern is from My So Called Scarf, and I think it is quite suitable for a tie, cos it makes quite a heavy, woven-looking fabric that doesn't roll at the edges. And the rows are short enough that there's always plenty of time to squeeze another one in before I get to my stop. Everyone's a winner!

pointy	nonpointy

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hatty gifts

So I finally got round to delivering all the Christmas gifts that I epically failed to finish and get to the correct recipients before they disappeared for the festive season. The prezzies sat under the Christmas tree for ages then, even more pathetically, just alone on the floor after the decorations had been taken down. Now, at last, I have managed to actually give them to the correct people! So I can put up some piccies.

The top picture is Koolhaas, made from random aran weight merino I picked up at woolfest. I am such a fan of this burnt orange colour. And it was a great pattern, I thought. Simple enough to memorise for bus knitting, but engaging enough to make the commute to work fly by. The resulting hat is pleasingly tactile, and it didn't take long at all.


Neither did this one - it's Into the Valley from Bobbins magazine, designed by the very clever and lovely audreym. It's for blokes, but I am modelling it here on my massive heid and it fits me quite nicely too. Also in some aran weight merino I picked up from the same stall at Woolfest, wound immediately and lost the label for, so I can't tell you where exactly. (Could have been the yarn yard, or the stall next to it!) The pattern is ace, the staghorn cable pattern has that elusive quality of looking quite complicated and skilful whilst actually being mega easy to do.

I do like a woolly hat. Was very difficult to give both of these away! But I feel there will be more hats in the not too distant future...

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happy new year

1. kid & grownup xmas stockings, 2. aestlight warmness, 3. festive socks, 4. chunkystripy hat front view, 5. ladybird mittens, 6. colourful pirate hat 2, 7. Newborn slip stitch hat, 8. dragon hunter, 9. jumper moth damage repair, 10. newborn slip stitch hat, 11. annis shawl nupp detail 3, 12. marina detail 3, 13. two hour toddler trousers, 14. tempest button detail, 15. stripy baby socks, 16. fruity sock toe wiggle, 17. handspun hat, 18. mmmm snug, 19. 'Hunter' baby tank top, 20. medusa side view, 21. bobbins, 22. deep v 3, 23. what's this white cold stuff

It's RubbishReview of the year time again! This is all the stuff I made in 2010. Well, ok, including some stuff for Bobbins that I made in 2009 but only photographed in 2010. And I cheekily put Bobbins in there too, cos I reckon a magazine sort of counts as handmade. Even if I didn't actually sit there writing out all the words with a pen and manually inserting staples, I did faff around in InDesign dragging text boxes around and moving images one pixel to the right for aaaages.

Difficult to summarize a whole year, but looking at the pictures all together I seem to have a bit of a penchant for stripes, lace and colourwork.



The first picture is something I failed to blog about in the slightly hectic run up to Christmas. I think it was Dec 23rd I found some cheap red fabric in the bargain bin of my local fabric shop and got the crazy idea to sew Christmas stockings for everyone. When I was a nipper, my mum, who was a much better seamstress than I, made stockings for all us kids out of fabric leftovers.



I still have mine with its pleasingly 70s patterns - it's the sort of stocking that makes you want to have a fondue party.

Anyway it struck me when I saw the cheap red fabric that Mr Rubbishknitter and Rubbishknitterjunior were stockingless, and this wouldn't do at all. So I bought it, took it home and started work. I bravely ignored the fact that the heating was broken in our kitchen whilst it was about -10 outside and warmed myself with sloe gin as I sewed. What could possibly go wrong?



Fortunately, it was a fairly easy project and I managed to get two stockings done while Mr Rubbish was out and Rubbishknitterjunior was asleep, so I could surprise them both on Christmas eve.



I just basically drew round mine in chalk to get the shape on two pieces of backing fabric (like this Paddington print - how cute is that? thanks to Kate from GreenEyedMonsters again, from her destash sesh!). Then selected some scraps of fabric which were big enough to piece into another stocking shape, and the colours went ok together. This was the bit that took the most time tbh, it's a difficult decision to make, and I changed my mind several times during sewing. I went for some sober, grown up type fabrics for Mr Rubbishknitter, with a little bit of red to cheer it up a little. And the boy got a sort of brown and green theme, with old shirts and fragments of pretty quilting fabric that was a present from audreym (thanks!).

I love the muted christmassyness of this fabric - 'A Partridge in a Pear Tree' from Abakhans bargain bin.

Once I'd pieced it all together, for each stocking, I sewed the two sides together. Then I made a lining out of the red fabric, which was basically just another identical stocking. I attached the lining by sewing around the top, with wrong sides facing outwards. I left a little gap then turned it inside out, pressing and topstitching around the leg opening. I also put in a little hanging loop cut from a ribbon, cos obviously that's a fairly necessary feature for a christmas stocking. I think the results were pretty good - both stocking recipients seemed pleased with my handiwork, for the whole 5 seconds they admired it before diving in for the presents inside.

Anyway, hope all my blog readers enjoyed the festive season. Happy New Year everyone!

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happy chrimbo

Hope you all had a good one! A bit late with my festive wishes, sorry. It's been a bit chaotic round here lately, mostly due to a lot of stupidly last minute christmas knitting. At least now most gifts have been given I can provide photographic evidence for this.


This shawl is another Aestlight. It's for my sister in law who lives in a mightily cold part of Cumbria and recently commented that she didn't have a scarf. Horrors! So I made this, because I already have one and knew it would be a useful neckwarming device. It's also a pretty speedy knit with that big garter stitch section.

The yarn is Posh Yarn Lucia, which has been lurking in my stash for ages, ever since I won it in a competition on Ravelry. It's a luxuriously soft merino/cashmere blend, but at 393m per skein a little low on yardage for a decent sized shawl. With this pattern it's very easy to switch colours for the edging if you run out of yarn. So that's what I did - I went for a King Cole Baby Alpaca DK edging in a solid blue-green shade ('Lichen') which almost perfectly matches one of the shades of the semi-solid sock yarn. Being very slightly heavier at the edge makes the shawl hang quite well I think, although the Posh Yarn was quite fat for sock yarn so there's surprisingly little weight difference. The King Cole was really amazingly nice. I have already made tonnes of things out of their budget merino, which is brilliant stuff. The baby alpaca is totally different and much more luxurious, so very impressive that they've got it so right here too, with the pretty spearmint colour and irresistable softness. *Rubs crystal ball* I can see more of this yarn in my future!

For sis#1 I made these simple stocking stitch toe up socks. She loves pink as much as I generally dislike it. You go into her kitchen to make yourself a cup of tea and fill up a pink kettle against a pink wall from a pink tap as pink-clad children play with pink toys on a pink floor. It's like sensory deprivation, you can't see the edges of things, and when you leave the house everything looks a bit greener than it should do because you have worn out all the pink-specific neurones in your retinas. (Cara - you would probably love my sister's house!)

So I thought she would appreciate this pink and green stripy yarn. Even I quite like pink when teamed with green, it's a classic combination, like gin and tonic or pop-tarts and crack cocaine. This is from my neverending skein of Green Eyed Monsters sock. It's the fourth project I have made from one skein. Seriously - it's like the magic porridge pot in yarn form! When I bought this skein, the lovely Kate from GEM said it was slight seconds and if I still wanted it she would wind me some extra to compensate for the knots. I think she may have been a little overgenerous, by about the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The best thing is, THERE IS STILL SOME LEFT! I might start a sock yarn cosy for my house.
Anyway, I tried to use up some scrap yarn christmas things up a bit with some dark green leftover regia for the toes, heels and cuffs. I wasn't sure about it at all to start with but I think the end result is actually quite festive. They ended up a tad on the large size, I think 62 stitches around is a bit much for plain stocking stitch on my sis's wee feet, but they might shrink a little bit in the wash, or I guess they could be bedsocks. Sis looked pleased anyway.

I finished my other sis's present on Christmas Eve, and I'm afraid I didn't manage to get a photo. So imagine a chunky hat made out of this lovely Misti Alpaca yarn, a bit like this one but with a stupidly large and fluffy pompom on top instead of a crochet flower. I was inspired by Vikki H's lovely Misti bobble hat and basically shamelessly copied it. It's a great quick-but-luxurious one skein project, and other sis was also pleased with her prezzie.

There are still a couple of things left under the tree that I rubbishly failed to finish in time to give to the correct people before they disappeared for the festive season, so the christmas present round up will be completed at a later date...

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chunkystripy hat

Unsurprisingly, around the time it got Really, Really cold, there was a bit of knitting queue reprioritisation - my Christmas present knitting stream was put on hold for some emergency warm stuff.

Now Mr Rubbishknitter never usually asks for knitted things. I'm always offering but he just says, I'm not that bothered, wouldn't you rather spend all that time knitting something for yourself? Which is entirely fair enough I think. I certainly don't like to foist unwanted knitted items on people; I dread falling into that stereotype of the homemade gift giver where the recipient opens it and smiles politely, then feels obliged to perpetually wear something they actually hate.

So I was quite surprised when out of the blue the other day, he asked for a hat. And not only that, he described what he wanted in incredible detail. The colour shades, the thickness of yarn, the shape of hat, and even knocked up a picture of the stripe pattern in photoshop!!1!!1eleventy!!1! I didn't want to put him off by being too eager and casting on before he'd finished the sentence, so I just nodded casually. But of course I was secretly really, really pleased about this! While I don't want to force people into unloved woollens, obviously I do get quite excited when people actually want me to make them something. So I extracted all the required information, then went to my LYS the next day, bought yarn and cast on before he could change his mind.

This is the result.


It's knitted out of King Cole merino blend chunky, in wine red, navy blue and cream. I really do love King Cole for their affordability and huge colour range. And the chunky weight is super warm, like a duvet for your head. Which comes in mighty useful right about now.

The design is basically Mr Rubbishknitter's, my only addition was the 2x2 garter rib stitch pattern. He wanted it quite baggy, so I thought ribbing might counteract that a bit. I cast on 68 stitches and carried on in garter rib and stripes till i got to the crown, where I decreased along four evenly spaced lines till I got to the top. It was unbelievably quick to make, and the result is so satisfying warm, I think I may have fallen back in love with chunky yarn. So fickle! A couple of snowflakes and the laceweight is left sitting forlornly at the back of the drawer waiting for me to call. (Sorry laceweight)

He wanted it really long so it could be pulled down over the eyes. I think he may have been subliminally influenced by Dr. Seuss.

the cat in the hat	mr rubbishknitter

Anyway, back on with the Christmas knitting now... mostly... honest. Ahem, apart from maybe these wafer thin robot mittens I appear to have just cast on for me. *whistles nonchalantly*

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