Knitting WiPs for a Lazy Saturday

I'm not feeling that great, so a quiet night on the couch sounded like a fantastic idea!  I'd originally planned to sew this evening, and I'm sad to have skipped out, but it's also nice to sit and knit for a bit (haha).

Despite having grown my wip pile (again - ye gods, I think I have about 20 projects on the go), I started a new hat on Thursday.  AHA.  But it's for a good cause!  The community knitting group I'm involved with plans to hang up a bunch of warm stuff around downtown this winter, and I plan to knit a few hats for it.  And what better than another one of Kat Riddell's patterns from her Granite collection!  This time I'm knitting Portsmouth in Cascade 220 in a dark heather grey.  I'm loving how it's turning out!  The rippley pattern looks like it'll be really warm too, which is what I'm looking for in these hats.

The other project I'm working on (and that I think I mentioned in erm, my last post) is my Year in Temps scarf.  I'm itching to get caught up on this one, since I really do need a new warm scarf, and it's looking so good.  I changed the colour scheme from the suggestions in the pattern, since I'm not actually a big fan of the colours they used. Darryl won't stop bugging me about how purple this is.  Just reinforces the fact that I'm in love with purple.  :)  I'm up to the end of May.  Yes, I know, I'm way behind, especially since I'd hoped to do this in real time.  Oh well.  Hopefully I'll catch up by the end of the year!

Anywho, that's two of my (way too many) wips.  The ones I'm working on today anyways. 

Sadly, not my jacket wip, but oh well.

How's your wip pile doing?  Are you guys more disciplined than I am?  I seem to be seduced by every single pattern out there.

Hot Tub + Friends + a lot of Ciders =

a really hapy Heather!

HI GUYS.  I love you all, I have the best readers. :D  Also I love living in a place with a cold winter, especially when you get to star gaze from a hot tub, ESPECIALLY when friends come over and bring you lovely bevvies.

Haha I'm probbaly not going to be pleased about this post tomorrow but WHATEVER I don't tell you that I love you all so much enough.  :)  You guys are the bestest.

Also, this is apparently my 100th post on this blog so YAY!  I trhought about doig something special but I'm just happy to have som free time so YAY look I'm blogging!

Okay, gonna go dry off some more and work on my scarf.  I'M CATCHING UP!  it loosk asesome.  can I link to it?  MAYBE.  We'll see. 

Everyone os sit=ll in the hottub, so I'm gonnan relax a bit.  I think I spelled 'gonna' wrong.  wait, gona go fix it.

Hope you guys are doing aas awesome as I am right now. :)  <3

fo: Haines Hampton Hat

I LIIIIIIVE!  Aha it's been a crazy few weeks, but the final exams for the course I'm teaching has been submitted and I'm finally having a relaxing night off!  This post is going to be short because as soon as it's done, I'm putting on a girly movie and grabbing some knitting for a chill me-night!

So this toque has been done for a while, but I put off blocking it for ages.  Then winter arrived last Saturday and I needed a hat, so huzzah warm head!

Here's my Ravelry project page, if you want to take a peak.

Pattern: Hampton, from Granite: Four Hats for Any Adventure by Kat Riddell.  I actually won a copy of the ebook from her website.
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lana D'Ore, bought at the Dalton City Yarn Emporium in Haines, AK
Mods: NONE.  Although I did use the chart instead of the written instructions for the lace because of a mistake in the instructions.  I think they've been corrected though, so woo!

I have a habit of buying yarn and making myself a souvenir when I go places, and I had this planned out for my trip to Haines, Alaska last month...or uh actually, in September.  Oops, where did October go?!  Anyways, I love the little yarn shop in Haines, so of course I went down for a visit, and did approximately 1200 laps around the store and stared at the worsted weight yarn until I decided on this lovely grey.

Which is ridiculous because I knew going in that I wanted a light grey for this hat.  On top of the rock theme of the patterns, Haines has a bunch of pretty sculptures all over town carved out of local granite.  I knew they'd be my inspiration behind this project.  Never mind the foggy weather along the coast, which pushed me more toward a light grey over a medium or dark shade.

And then there were these beautiful old graves in a hidden little early 1900s graveyard I stumbled across on a walk along the shore.  There was less than 20 of them, but it was such a lovely, peaceful area, and I had a nice chat with them as I wandered through.  I love graveyards, especially old ones.  It was a lovely place, and I'm glad I came across it.

Anyways, the pattern was a fun knit.  The lace was enough of a challenge to keep my attention, but not too challenging that I was antisocial while hanging hanging out with friends.

I really liked how Kat designed the decreases at the top.  I wasn't sure about it at first, but the finished result looks awesome.  And I like how the top isn't smoothly rounded but a bit...gathered?  Not sure of the word, but I like it. 

Like the background here?  We stopped somewhere between Haines, Alaska and Haines Junction, Yukon, in the Haines range above the treeline.  I didn't even see the rainbow, but Darryl did and arranged me here for the photo.  There are times when I think he's completely oblivious, and then there are times like this when he proves me wrong.  :) 

It was really windy up there.  And probably a lot snowier now since Whitehorse is buried in a few inches already.


I'll definitely be knitting up more of Kat's hats (haha that rhymes!) in her ebook.  While I don't need more hats, our community knitting group is collecting hats, scarves, mitts, etc for a big donation thing next month, so it's a good opportunity.

Oh and the dreaded C word too.  ACK!

Are you guys all geared up and ready for winter?  Or uh, summer for those of you in the southern hemisphere?  Also, any idea where October went?  I think I misplaced it.