Re-stitch 2010 ...

Just a wee bit early for me .. I was watching the mercury drop and drop and drop as it got colder and colder for that week before Christmas .. so i went digging for patterns .. found some beauties, then dove into my stash .. hmmmm - okay this isn't going to work .. i've stripes, marls, marbles - or black .. i do NOT want black .. grumbles ..what to do ... what to do ... AHA! I know it's only early December, but why can't I start my Recycle project a wee bit early .. find a sweater, frog it and then make a hat n scarf :D w00t w00t w00t .. i'm so clever!! heh

Let's take a few steps back here .. i've an issue with hats ... they look like garbage on me .. even ball hats look horrid .. so I don't wear them .. when we had a car, earwarmers were great .. but no car this year .. soooo - i have a choice .. freeze my kazots off, or buckle and find a hat .. what i decided on was a type of beret / slouch hat .. large enough to hold the rat's nest i call hair, and classy enough I might not look like a total git in it! Then I would make a scarf that matches .. found some really nice ones and added them to my scarf queue ..

So off to the local thrift shop .. I found 2 beauties to use .. and started with the plum coloured one since it matches the dark trim on my coat .. i've a lavender coat so this does look good .. only concern it's a fuzzy type yarn .. but that's cool .. makes life a wee bit tricky to knit with at times .. but I'll adapt :D First off I took off the collar and then started to work on the hood .. next victim was a sleeve ... Now I had more than enough to do a hat (I didn't frog the collar - just the hood and sleeve) at this point and that's all I needed to jump in both feet without looking.

I start working on a chunky cabled beret ... knitted up great .. now I did this double stranded and my cast on was too tight, so that made the ribbing band TIGHT .. easy enough to fix .. rung the needles thru the ribbing stitches, unravel it to the needles and do a ribbing w larger needles :D Awesome plan .. but for some reason it ended up small .. I put it on my husband goes .. you look like the Pope ... :O I put it on and show my friend helene and told her what reg said .. she laughed and said .. well you do! LMAO .. oi vay! I knit it to gauge CRAP!!!!! So froggy came visiting and took my Pope beanie away .. You do realize that's the second project that i've frogged at starbucks .. altho that would've been frogged regardless .. so while frogging I had my stitch dictionary with me and started to look thru the panels .. and then I had a nova thought ...

I decided that I would write my own pattern that would fit my rat's nest and go from there .. and it would have a matching scarf to go with it :D Since the yarn is fuzzy, I've opted to do test swatches of the panels I like the best and decide how they look in this yarn and see how they knit up with this weight yarn at this gauge ... So far - one is done .. the horseshoe panel - done over 2 panels and the pattern 3 times ..

Once I post this, I'll be starting on the next panel .. I hope to have even a quick pic and blurb to put up for both of them before the end of the week .. but please do not hold your breath .. time hits a warp around me lately and runs off at mach 9 .. seriously .. where does it bloody well go!?!?!

anywho .. wish me luck and I do plan to have fun on it .. we do have a community site ready to launch soon .. keep an eye on this page for future announcements ..

OMG .. I am such a freeeken twit! Yes I know .. you've heard this before .. well twit for brains here started to look at the yarn she was using .. now, while the swatch knitted up to gauge that was with me doing double stranded knitting for the first time AND my tension was rather wibbly .. so of course as I get used to it .. it evens out .. so of course the beret wouldn't fit .. i was using worsted and NOT bulky .. oi vay .. some days i should seriously lock myself away for sharp objects .. pfft