clearing the needles

so, before leaving for nyc, i was determined to clear up some needles, which meant i needed to finish the projects that were on said needles.

nice thought, but...

i did finish two hats though. one i took to nyc and one i did not.

the one i took was jo sharps urban ribbed beanie which is designed to be knit out of jo sharp silkroad ultra. this is what i made my post surgery shawl out of. had i known i would turn my shawl into a poncho, i would have knit the hat to match it, but so it goes. instead i supplamented the "lake" blue colorway i had leftover from the shawl with an "elm" green colorway. the hat is knit flat then seamed together. since the smallness of the finished circumference worried me a bit, i added 10 stitches to the original pattern and it fits perfectly.

this is the first hat i ever made. on the whole i like it but the stitch decreases at the top look a bit messy and uneven to me. it may be because i was in a hurry to finish it or because i added ten stitches to the pattern or because the yarn is real chunky so the stitches show more. who knows. the bottom line is it kept my head warm in nyc when it was 42 degrees outside with a wind chill factor. and for that i was thankful.

the second hat was the bell from pick up sticks. this is a felted hat which i made from left over cascade 220 yarn. i like the way it came out; even my sweet friend commented on how cute the hat was. it would not felt at first so i added some towels along with a full teakettle of boiling water to the washer, set it to agitate a second time and the hat came along nicely. once the hat was at the size it needed to be, i actually followed the directions and removed it from the washer, rinsed it in cold water and squeezed the excess water out it with a towel. and though i knitted the flower, i did have thoughts of leaving it off, but found it added just the little something the hat needed to be kept from being boring.

i would definitely make this hat again. next time i would look for a different flower(s) to knit up for adornment.

so i cleared out two sets of needles. now on to the pink skirt so i can clear up those size 9's!