To distract you from the utter lack of finished Quant photos, here’s a new free pattern!
Check out the Tunisian Mini Hat Ornament over at Inner Child Crochet. It’s made in Tunisian crochet, and it’s such a small, simple project that I think it would be ideal for someone’s first foray into the technique. I made it with the 9 yards of Kureyon I had left over from my Quant (nope, I can’t throw anything away…) and it works up really, really fast.
Of course, I told Max it was a hat and he countered that it was a bell, and began running around the living room with it saying, “DING-ding.” Because that’s what bells say.
At any rate, we’ll see when we can get some pictures of that Quant up here! I really like it, although it’s a bit big for me. I could see myself making another one, tweaked a bit.
After our trip, I couldn’t convince myself to work on anything. I brought two (previously unblogged) projects with me on the trip to work on – a crocheted log cabin baby afghan, and my Cherie Amour, which I’m making from the remainder of the yarn used for Charlie’s hoodie. (I know what you’re thinking. Big remainder, right? It was on sale.) But I didn’t want to work on those. And my ‘working space’ stash had been packed up and shoved into the garage. For days, I did nothing yarny, just sluffed around doing things like ‘dishes’ and ‘vomiting’ – oh, right, we all had the flu, too – and sulked about how I wished I had something fun to work on.
If you haven’t seen it already, check out the pattern for this excellent intro to entrelac – Quant! This is my first time trying it, and the directions are clear enough that I didn’t have any many problems. It was the perfect use, too, for a stray ball of Noro Kureyon that I brought home from my local yarn store last month. There was only one knot in the skein, which obviously interrupted the color transition, but I’m pretending that it didn’t happen. I liked the Noro, otherwise, Vegetable Matter and all!
I’ve actually finished my Quant, but pictures must wait till tomorrow. It was cool and overcast today! I find the cooler weather inspires me to make warm things to wear, and we’re going to need it two months from now when we get to Japan! (That’s rather a lot of exclamation points.)
Good morning, everyone. First order of business – there was an error in the pattern for the Nottingham hat that has been corrected. If you’ve downloaded a copy of the pattern before today, please go download the new one for a more fun time when you’re trying to work the cable.
In other news, several hundred miles north of Texas it apparently gets quite cold in late November. Ha ha. I believe it was in the 60s when I was checking the weather there before our trip – I packed a few warm things I had made, more as an opportunity to wear them than because I thought I would need them. After our trip to Colorado, of course, I knew it would be chilly and made sure that all of us had long sleeves, long pants, and jackets. I really should have thought of gloves. And hats. And scarves. Oh, yes. Fortunately, I brought yarn and implements with me (of course) and was able to make myself a hat when the temperature dropped below freezing.
It’s a hybrid, a combination of knitting and crochet worked from the top down. I think it turned out pretty well, using up one skein of Bernat Felting that I picked up in a pretty color (the color is more accurate in the second photo). Since it’s intended for felting (loosely spun single ply bulky wool), I worked it more tightly than I would have a sturdier yarn. It’s nice! It’s fast!
Place live loop on needle, pick up 1 loop from each stitch around, distributing as follows across 4 needles: 17, 16, 16, 16 (65 sts)
Ribbing:
Rnd 1: (All stitches in this round should be worked through the back loop.) Knit across needles 1 and 2. K1, m1, then knit remaining sts on needle 3, k across needle 4. (66 sts)
Rnd 2: [k2, p1] around.
Rnd 3: [k2, purl into the front and back of the stitch to increase] around. (88 sts)
Rnd 4 – end: [k2, p2] around.
Work ribbing until about 4 yds remain, or desired length is reached. Bind off in rib for a neater edge, weave in ends. I blocked my hat lengthwise only to get a little more length. Apparently if you block ribbing horizontally it loses its ‘ribbiness’ and doesn’t hug as well. Made for my own adult sized head.
So there’s one thing I did on my Thanksgiving vacation. It’s December now! Ack! What will I do for Christmas?
To distract you from the utter lack of finished Quant photos, here’s a new free pattern!
It’s December now! Ack! What will I do for Christmas?