Hi again

Two weeks ago Tuesday, two of my friends asked me about my nonexistent blog. A planned attack? I was at Borealis when the first asked and then later in the evening at a second knitting event, when another friend asked if I had given up on the whole thing completely. After all this pressure, I felt an update was needed. Ok, the pressure was totally imaginary, but I did feel a sense of responsibility to my fans. HA!

So the latest endeavor was a knit hat for my niece's first birthday. A few months ago, my brother gave me a photo of a Panda hat from a magazine and asked, "Can you make this for Alice?" My first response (in my head with all the other voices) was "RRRRIIIIIIGHT! Intarsia, I think not! How much does it cost? I'll just buy the dang thing!" But my uncrafty brother had faith in me so the challenge began. If he wanted Alice to have a hat, well then by golly she'll have a hat!

The first step? A gauge swatch, I know, I know. I hat those annoying little steps but I really wanted her to be to use the hat if I was going to take all that time to make it. I used the gauge swatch and went here to get the proper size graph paper for my design. I drew the pattern right on the graph paper and then knit the hat following the color changes on the graph. Not to difficult to knit but a pain in the heiney to weave in all those ends.

A request from my brother that at first appeared to be overwhelming and terribly difficult, turned into a great simple knit for my lovely niece. She really liked the mittens I made from the leftover yarn to match from a pattern that I modified from Kitten Mittens by Noelle Dempsey. If you're a member of Ravelry, you can check out the other great pics of Alice's special day.