Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Dude, seriously, this is awesome. Go to Knit Picks and check it out! I'm so keen on this idea I might even have to squeeze some new-yarn-purchasing money out of the budget (even though I have a fair amount of yarn I should use up first).

Holy nerdy knitting fun.

Here's another thing to make my heart hurt.

Project Linus (I love the name) donates handmade blankets to kids in hospitals, shelters, etc. I think it's a nice idea. While it may be a long time before I have the free time to knit for this or the Snuggles Project I'm spreading the word at least.

OK, in light of my recent crying jags about animals in shelters, anybody want to do something nice for them? That is, if you don't have a giant farmhouse that means you can adopt 50.

Thanks again for the crying gene, Mom.

So currently I'm trying to only work on one thing at a time. So while I have about 4 things on my mind to do next, I'm trying not to start any of them so I can finish Hester Willa's matchy pink hat to go with mine.

The story is, I had a couple of skeins of Lana Grossa Pashmina yarn that I bought before for a project which it turned out to be the wrong color for. So I thought to myself, this is really nice yarn, but it's really only enough to make a couple of hats, and who is going to wear an eye-searingly pink hat? Well, I decided I would, so I made myself a pretty little cabled hat. I love making cables though my impatient nature means this is really only the second project I've finished with cables, and the other was also a hat.

But, I am pretty happy with how it turned out:

The full hat

and a detail of the cables.

I decided that my niecey Hester would be the lucky recipient of hat #2! Because I love to be matchy matchy with my Hester.

As for Hester's hat, I have finished the ribbing and am just on my 3rd row of the cables portion. I twist the cables every 5th row...oops, or did I do every 4 rows on mine? But I started on the wrong side to do that... well I guess I have time to fix it.

Full hat so far

and a detail of the ribbing.

A few more details: I'm using size 6 wooden needles that Clementine and Hashbrown gave me years ago, 2x2 ribbing and the cables are 4 sts with 3 sts of purling in between each.

Pattern

This is barely a pattern, but it was requested so I'll explain the best I can. I just made it up after doing a small swatch to test my gauge.

Again, the specific yarn I used was Pashmina. I'm sure another similar weight yarn would work just as well, and of course you should always do a swatch. I used size 6 needles.

For my hat, I cast on 116 stitches and each of my cables was 7 stitches so purl 3 and cable 4. Of course this makes 112 stitches. The other 4 were supposed to be extra at the seam although that's probably excessive. Maybe one on each side, so a total of 114. This was all based on my head measurement and my swatch. You may need to adjust somewhat.

I cast on using the "long tail" method (see video here). I then k2 p2 for about 4-5 inches, then switched to my cable pattern.

Cables: row 1: k3, p4 16 times
row 2: p3, k4 16 times
row 3: k3, p4 16 times
row 4: p3, cable4 16 times (note: if you want the same twist direction as my cables, slip the 2 stitches behind with the cable needle while you knit the first two)

Again, this was all me feeling it out as I went. When the hat was tall enough for me to start decreasing I decreased every other row as follows:

row 1: p2 together, p1, k4 16x
row 2: k2, p4 16x
row 3: p2 together, k4 16x
row 4: k1, p4 16x
row 5: p2 together, k3 16x
row 6: knit all
row 7: p2 together, k2 16x
etc.
until you have decreased to very few stitches, then you cinch them together and sew up the seam and you're done!

For Hester's hat I cast on 93 sts, her head is 18" around. My pattern is 91 sts with 2 extra for the seam. I haven't finished it yet.

Good luck!

A yarn problem.

Rob and Heather might say it is already out of control as I have one giant box of yarns and knitting and crochet needles in the apartment right now, but if I could, I would fill a room. Really.

The only problem I see with it is that I don't have the room for such an obsession, nor do I have the time at the moment. I guess I'd better work on retiring early so I can sit in a rocking chair doing nothing but knitting all day as soon as possible.

But there are so many cool yarns and really nice patterns to make. For example, look at this new yarn, Bonsai from Berroco. It's so pretty. Also, Hip-Hop looks so cozy and bright, great for fall or winter.

And then heaven forbid I go to an actual yarn store. There are always all these really cool hand-dyed yarns and stuff, I want to get one of everything.

I would really be happy with the following:

1. a clean house
2. with a giant room filled with yarn
3. and another filled with books
4. and a big tv and endless movies to watch
5. and a rocking chair

Rob thinks I'm insane for loving knitting so much. I can't really explain it. I guess I like making things with my hands, it must be the art major in me. I like that I can, in theory, make a lot of useful things.... blankets, rugs, sweaters.... though all I've made so far technically are hats, scarves, and shawls.... but I'm almost done with my first sweater and no longer scared to follow a pattern.

Anyway, I'm admitting I have a problem and that's the first step, right?

Oh, baby. I was so sad last year when Rob and I left our house and walked past Knit Out 2005 and I was all, "Knit out!? What's that? I want to do Knit Out!" and Rob was all, "You can do it next year, we're going somewhere." because we were - lunch or a movie or something. But I was sad to miss knit out.

So now I'm such a spaz that I barely even read a word on their website, I have only noticed that it's in 2 days and so I better figure out what it's about if I want to go there.

Is there free stuff? Is there cheap yarn? Even if there is, I'm not allowed to buy it. SIGH. Still, free stuff - that's fine. Are you just supposed to sit there and knit? Because I have some knitting to do people. Holidays are coming and I have my own first sweater to finish.

I'm making this shawl for my aunt, who just had major surgery. I'm also going to make her a fancy scarf, but this will probably take longer so I started here first.

I think I already made a post about this. Anyway, I have most of it done, I just need to go around the edges and straighten them out with a row or two of crochet and then I'll probably do a shell stitch edging like I did with the pink scarf I made (in that same set of photos on Flickr).

I'm of course jealous now and want my own shawl. SIGH. Maybe I can use my pretty new yarn from Rebecca for that. Hmmm. I'd probably have to use a little larger hook.

My friend Rebecca gave me a gift certificate to the yarn store last Christmas (yes, 2004) and I finally used it today to buy this lovely yarn. It's soooooooo soft and lovely, I can't wait to make myself a pretty present. But I do need to wait until after I finish 2 gifts for my aunt who just had major surgery.

I'll post those when they're finished too. I'm using Gatsby in the red/orange color and for the second gift I'm using Ingenua in "teal" though it's really a dark greenish blue, not an obnoxious color, which the word teal might bring to mind if it reminds you of the 80's.

I've made enough scarves and hats that I could have made about 40 sweaters by now. I have to fight my own impatience and the fact that I get tired of a yarn and a project before I'm finished.

I want to make something sort of like this. Not yellow and not with a collar like that, but maybe a similar texture and just one big button or something easy to fasten it so I don't have to do a zipper or buttons with my first sweater.

I like cardigans so much more than pullovers because throughout my day, whether I'm at work or at home, I end up taking my sweater off and putting it back on so many times, it annoys me to have to pull it over my head.

I'm a temperature spaz, which is what causes the whole problem in the first place. But that's a whole other issue.

I finished Suzanne's scarf. Take a look.

Finished scarf

Scarf detail