Once Per Year

For the most part, I've given up on knitting for my husband. He used to wear the socks I knit for him, but over time the allure of handknit socks faded and he rarely seemed to wear them anymore. No point in knitting them if he won't wear them. I've knit him two sweaters, but he rarely wears those either. He's just not a sweater guy.

But hats. Hats he wears.

And so each year I knit him at least one new hat. I can count on him to either lose one or destroy one each year, so there is always room for a new one in the lineup.

This year's hat is Anne Hanson's Hot Waffles pattern. I knit him one of this pattern a couple of years back and it's his first go-to in the hat lineup, so I thought he'd like another.

I used FF Superwash Merino Wool Sportweight Yarn in the Metaphor colorway. The pattern calls for a heavier weight yarn, but it's an easy pattern to adjust with a few added repeats.



So darn cute that I've got to get another shot:



I couldn't resist. Much as Bruce likes his new hat, the pup is still much cuter!

Everyone have a great evening (or day or night as the case may be)!

Mmmmmm ... Yarn



It's been quite some time since I've done a batch update of yarn to my shop, but I'll be rectifying that soon.



The update will include a bit of this and that, with some Tight Twist Superwash Merino Sock Yarn, some much-needed replenishing of Laceweight Merino, a sampling of a few colors on the BFL Superwash Sock Yarn that I've offered only once in the past, as well as likely a few items added to the shop's Sale Section.

I have no firm date yet for the update, but it's coming soon. I'm just waiting on a few more things to dry in my workshop, then I've got some photos to take, listing descriptions to write, labels to put on, and other such minor details before we're off to the races.



Mmmmmm .... yarn :)

Knit, Sweat or Sleep?

I still haven't found my missing knitting motivation. From time to time, I pick up the sticks and fiddle around for a while, but the end result these days is usually just a few minutes of swatching followed by some frogging. Occasionally, I get a small burst of knitting inspiration and finish a quick project, like the Ivy Vines Neckwarmer I showed you in my last post. (And to answer the question posed by a couple of people, the yarn in the project is my FF Sportweight Cashmere. The cashmere is pretty much sold out right now, except a few odds and ends, but will eventually return for another appearance.)

My spare time these days has been spent - now steady yourselves here, for if you know me at all this will come as something of a shock - at the gym. Yes, that's right. The gym!

My husband talked me into joining a gym a month or so ago. Perhaps "talked me into" isn't the right phrase. "Guilted me into" might be more appropriate. He basically told me that it will all be downhill for him from here forward, he is rapidly ageing and becoming increasingly decrepit. It will be one quick downslide toward death if he doesn't do something soon. All of this comes from him, mind you! This is the same man who is only 42, plays softball and bowls, works in the yard and on the house constantly, and - although admittedly overweight - is as strong as an ox. (I can't tell you how much I appreciated hearing about his inevitable and accelerating slide into death's door, given that I'm three years older than he is and in worse physical condition as well despite his being more overweight than I.)

Anyhow, the guilt got to me and I reluctantly agreed to join a gym with him. Reluctant is an understatement actually. It was more of a dragged kicking and screaming and whining sort of a thing. I've never gone to a gym and the whole thing was so foreign to me that I had it worked up in my mind to be some sort of torture chamber. Oh my, that first week or so was so awful!

Now that I'm getting used to the drill of going to the dreaded gym, I'm finding I rather enjoy it. Well, again I think perhaps I've chosen the wrong word. "Enjoy" isn't really right. But I don't hate it anymore and I am feeling pretty motivated to try to get into better physical condition.

And so now when I have free time, I'm off to the gym rather than to my recliner for a bit of knitting. Even in the house, I find myself flicking on the TV for an On Demand Exercise TV workout when I've got a half hour to spare.

According to this website, I could burn off around 90 calories an hour knitting. Then again, it also says I burn off around 55 calories an hour when sleeping. I guess I better stick to sweating it out at the gym.

Perhaps I can learn to knit while on the treadmill or stationary bike?

A Quickie

As soon as I saw Anne Hanson's finished Ivy Vines Neckwarmer, I knew I had to knit one. And knit one I did . . .



This was just what the knitting doctor ordered. A quick, but satisfying knit. It only took perhaps three hours of knitting or somewhere thereabouts (that excludes the hour of rummaging around my house in search of needles that I know I have in duplicate or perhaps triplicate, muttering under my breath about how on earth the exact needles I need always manage to hatch a plan and execute a great escape right when I need them, and finally finding the needles hiding in plain sight).

I haven't blocked it yet, but I still think it's oh so pretty just as it is.

This was such an enjoyable knit that I might just have to make another or two!

Read Any Good Books Lately?

I haven't purchased any new knitting books in a while and I'm starting to get the itch! One that I know I'll want to buy is the soon-to-be-released Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott.

The topic in general, of course, interests me but regardless of that fact I simply have to own a copy just the for the fun of seeing my yarn in print :)

Remember the Acorn Sock from my first sock club, The Seven Deadly Sins?



This sock pattern, knit in the colorway called "Greed" and designed by Anne Hanson, is one of those included in the book!

Very exciting to see my humble little yarn in print (and in a book by such luminaries of our industry!). I brought the Greed colorway back into the lineup in honor of the upcoming book.

As always, I HUGE thank you to Anne for gracing my yarn with her immense talent!

Sometimes You've Just Got to Laugh

Before I dive into today's post, a huge Thank You to all of the kind folks who welcomed me back from my blogging hiatus! You truly have no idea how good it made me feel. After suffering such pangs of guilt for my long silence, I feared I would be met with stony silence upon my return. You are all too kind to forgive me :)

Now on to my laugh of the day. Have a look at this.

Now, don't think me cruel. I'm truly not poking fun at anyone's choice of what they knit (or in this case crochet). Nor am I poking fun at the designer. I just have a thing about these snuggies. If ever I'm feeling blue, all I need to do is picture a snuggie and I'm all smiles again.

In reality, a snuggie is quite practical. I'm always chilly and am often wrapped in a blanket curled up in my favorite chair. Getting up for a trip to the kitchen involves a whole production of flipping and flinging the blanket around, walking with it flung around me cape-style, often tripping on edges along the way. Knitting while wrapped in a blanket is another challenge and certainly not ideal. And so I truly don't mean to diss the snuggie.

But it's funny. It just is.

Have you seen the commercials that introduce the fashionable snuggies in animal prints and such? They kill me. The best commercial, however, I've only caught once. If you've not seen it, you simply must stay glued to your television until you do. It includes video snippets of people enjoying their snuggies in public places. There's one shot of a group of people all wrapped in snuggies at the bleachers of a ballgame. Again, I entirely understand the practicality of this. Being a frequent attendee at my husband's softball games, I can vouch for the fact that half the people there are wrapped in blankets. The vision of a group of people all wrapped in snuggies though just tickles me to death. I think I've embellished this memorable commercial in my mind a bit. I see them not only in the bleachers, but also doing the wave, rising from their seats in a row, snuggie-covered arms rising to the heavens. Oh my.

And then there's the absolute best part of the commercial. An older couple sits all snuggled up in their snuggies in the midst of a crowded movie theater. Again, my mind may be embellishing here, but I believe they are snacking on a bucket of popcorn. Oh my. Just thinking of that picture of them sitting in the movie theater crowd all wrapped up in their snuggies just kills me. I get tears in my eyes just thinking of it. Do they go to the snack bar or restroom in their snuggies?

Again, I shouldn't laugh. It's really not funny at all. Many of us knit or crochet blankets (myself included), so why not a more practical snuggie? I suppose as a yarnie I should hope that the knitting world collectively decides that nothing would be better than a snuggie made of luxurious hand dyed yarn. Forget the Red Heart! A hand dyed snuggie craze could lift our little industry out of the dumps.

Who needs another poncho craze to ignite a knitting frenzy when there's the snuggie?

Great day to all!

Going Dark

If anyone is still around, lurking in this corner of the cyber world to read this, my apologies for going dark for such a long time! It started innocently enough with a Monday that slipped away from me. Although I had no regular schedule for blog posting, Monday was the one day that I tried never to miss, but one Monday slipped past me and it was several days before I realized it!

I had every intention of returning to blogging soon thereafter, but time slipped away from me, the sunny days of summer called out to me, and personal affairs drew me away. Before I knew it, I had officially gone dark (you know, like a spy who is suddenly incommunicado).

I'm back now and trying to get myself geared up for regular posting again. I must say, it isn't easy though. I've had little time for knitting lately and my personal life is far from the stuff of fascinating reading. With so much time since I last posted though, I do have a bit of knitting to share and will do that in the coming days and weeks.

Anyone else a Seinfeld fan? Remember the episode in which George pretends to be a tourist in NY while dating a gal who works for a visitors' association of some kind? He eventually pretends he's moving to NY and tells the gal that he got an apartment and a job in a day or two. In telling Jerry about it, he says something about how if you take all of his accomplishments in his life and boil them down to one day, "it looks decent." That's how I feel about my summer knitting. Along the way through the course of the summer it was far from an impressive amount of knitting, but looking at it now all at once, it looks a bit better.

Again, my apologies for my silence. I've had bouts of guilt about it on and off all summer. It's given me that squishy feeling I get when I haven't written to my mother recently.

After a summer of crazy work on my never-ending project house, along with minor but quite annoying illnesses and injuries, I am at last back now and will do my best to get back on track with my sadly neglected blog.

I hope everyone has had a glorious and happy summer (or winter, as the case may be in your locale)!