another finished object and a new beginning

another finished object

since my back has been hurting me for the last few days I've been spending more time in my recliner with either ice or heat on it

which means more knitting time!

this is the alpaca hat

the band (which is a strip of ribbing that runs around the head) is the hand spun alpaca

the top (which is created by picking up stitches along the band and worked in moss stitch) is a commercially spun alpaca yarn

the buttons are a pair of vintage shank buttons that I picked up at Lambspun when I was in there back in January

when I make this hat again (I'm thinking positive that this one will sell) I'm going to make one little change to the pattern -- instead of picking up an even number of stitches for the top, I'm going to pick up an odd number -- just one little stitch more or less would make for less "tinking" along the way
and as I said, as soon as one project is done another one comes in to take its place

I had dyed this yarn about a year ago and then spent a whole year working on other projects!

and I was a little nervous about this pattern as I've not done a whole lot of lace knitting

but I was really happy about how quickly I was able to go from 10 stitches at the cast on to the 143 stitches this is right now

(also really happy that I had that really long cable for my Denise needles!)


I'm hoping to be able to do fabric auditioning for the Hawaii quilt sometime this week -- it just feels like its time to get that project out of the "thinking" stage and into the "stitching" stage

I was chugging right along on the Hoffman piece until I decided on Saturday morning that I just don't like the look of the fabric I was going to use as the table cloth that the hat stands are on -- the black is just too stark, and takes away from my whole plan for the black and white look to be beyond the window while the things inside are color (think about the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door for the first time after the house lands in Oz -- only in reverse!).

so maybe today I'll get over to the fabric store and pick up something else to use for the table cloth (there is a Hoffman co-ordinate that is sort of purple that might work) then I can get back to working on this piece!