Thursday, May 15, 2008

Merrily We Roll Along

I’ve never made any claims to be a fast knitter. In fact, I’ve long-since come to terms with my status as a comparatively slow knitter. Nevertheless, I was reasonably confident I could meet my self-imposed goal of knitting a hat every day in May (and maybe June…but we’ll see about that). What I didn’t consider was that going to work, attending to normal life AND knitting a hat every day doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for blogging.

Rest assured, though, that I have not fallen into a hole again and I am not ignoring the blog.

I’m knitting hats. (And doing my damnedest to reply to comments. Carisa, I don't have an email address for you....but rats - I'm glad you like them as pets. I understand their are also people who keep tarantulas and pythons for pets. I am not one of those people.)


On a completely unrelated note, I am so jazzed that Whitney won America's Next Top Model.

(I think they should have left her hair alone - like in this picture. The blonde was somehow Dynasty-esque, I think.) Anyway, Anya was lovely and all that but I was a fan of Whitney from the very beginning. Hurray for her!

So far, we’ve got 31 hats. Here is a picture of the 14 hats I personally had knit as of last Wednesday. I’ll try to take another picture next week with everything I have so far.

When I first took on the task of knitting a hat a day, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to knit fast enough to keep that pace (as mentioned above) but it turns out that my hands are up to the task. My yarn budget, however, is not. My stash was good for a while but I’ve knitted up all of the hat-a-day appropriate yarn (i.e. any yarn that must be knit on needles smaller than a US 8 will not do) and now I’m buying yarn a couple of balls at a time at the yarn shop and cashing in a couple of gift certificates I’d been holding on to. Who knew I had so much sock yarn? Seriously – I love the stuff and it is beautiful but there is no way I can knit a hat from sock yarn. (At least not for this particularly project.) If you come across any good sales, please let me know. FYI....I heart Mission Falls 1824 Wool. I continue to be amazed at how much it softens up from the ball to the knitted product.

Did you see the Hat Counter in the sidebar? I know it is small. This is what it looks like up close.
I’ll update it periodically, probably once a week or so.

Are you on Ravelry? I am. (as okwhatnext) I haven’t posted any of my projects there yet but I am there and I am loving looking at everyone else’s fabulousness. Deb started a Ravelry group for the hat project (called Kristys Hat Quest) and I’ve heard from knitters in Maine and England that they will be making hats. Both of those knitters are knitters I had not previously encountered through this blog or elsewhere so I am doubly excited to meet new people.

Katy went with me to knitting again last night. Can you guess why?Because she had finished knitting a hat and needed help finishing it and adding the pom-pom. Kudos to Katy for knitting a hat for the children! (Also, just between us, she bought more yarn to make more hats. She even conceded that she kind of likes knitting. Who knew?)

Kaylee told me she received her first hat yarn order this week. Patricia in Montana, if you are reading this, THANK YOU!

RC posted about the contest. And she also submitted the details to WiKnit. How cool is that site, by the way?

I really did meet the Yarn Harlot at the Maker Faire but I haven’t managed(and probably am not going to manage) to write a post about it. For the record, here’s a picture of me looking like a big goober and Stephanie holding one of the first hats for the Hat Project. In addition to knitting hats this week, I’ve also managed to finalize my travel arrangements for September and I received my new passport back in the mail. It makes it more exciting and more real as the particulars come together. Hopefully, I won’t stoop to the level of stopping strangers on the street and telling them, “Hey! Guess what – I’m going to the Ukraine.” That would just be embarrassing.



Today’s Quote

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” -James A Michener

6 comments:

marit said...

Great hats! If you double or triple the sockyarn, wouldn't that be thick/heavy enough for hats?
So nice to finally put a face to the name:-)
Take care!

entoto said...

You hats look great! I have been using the Paton's SWS for the hats. That seems like a reasonable price for yarn.

I have two hats done. I might have had three, but Vivi wanted to keep it. She also wants to keep an orphan. I love that child.

Heidelweiss said...

Hey Kristy. I've knit two hats so far and 5 ladies in my knitting group are starting hats too! I'd be excited if I were going to Ukraine too-what an experience.

Tactless Wonder said...

Yey hats! But there has been zero progress on anything over on my end...I seem to barely be keeping my head above water and am cheering you and all the other hat knitters for now.

Anonymous said...

Hey Kristy,

I have hat worthy yarn, just not the time. Would you be interested in busting my stast?? I'd mail you lots.

I am finally starting my flame lorna laces socks. Using the magic loop. I'm kinda geeked up about that.

Dana

RuthieJ said...

Hi Kristy,
I finally printed out a bunch of hat patterns and started on my first one last night (half-done). Buying new yarn is also not in my budget, but fortunately my 6-ft high stash cupboard is still chock full! I'm sure I'll find some good surprises once I start digging in there. I'm new on Ravelry, so I'll have to check out what's going on there with your hat project.