I’m not one to usually repeat knitting mistakes but when your mother asks for a log cabin blanket how can you possibly say no? I had previously knit a baby log cabin for my son. It was mind numbing, and it took forever it was no fun at all. I swore I would never knit another project entirely in garter stitch ever again.  I guess the whole never say never cliche would apply here. So here is my Moderne Log Cabin.

My mom wanted it in red, white and blue.  In my early days I had knit her a blanket entirely out of acrylic. She wanted the same type of yarn. I’m no yarn snob but I don’t have a ton of acrylic lying around either.  So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the yarn there. Their I Love This Yarn line is quite nice for the price. This was a 30 dollar blanket, the wools and other blends I was looking at would have put it in the 70 dollar range.

I’ve noticed that babies are like cats in that they are both highly attracted to knitted items. I don’t have any cats but I read enough blogs and posts on Ravelry to know that cats love to hop into the picture when you are taking one of your finished object. My kids do this all the time. Hey mom is that something you worked many long hours on there? Let me come walk and roll on it! They also wear my shawls. Im sure when they get older they will be repulsed by knitted items so I suppose I should enjoy it while I can.  I knit on this blanket only at night and it took exactly six months and one day to complete it. I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. My goal of finishing all my currently in progress items seems like a possibility now that this albatross has been removed.

Zappo’s has become the new Amazon for me. I used to order everything from Amazon but then my prime membership ran out (no more free two day shipping) and the passion kind of fizzled. Like they say, every cloud has a silver lining. As I was coming to grips with the end of my affair with Amazon, Zappos made me a vip member (free one day shipping), and I dont have to pay for the membership. So from despair came new love. I’ve ordered many pairs of shoes and articles of clothing from Zappo’s. The only thing I’ve had to return are shoes for the kids and the return was free and fast, but anyway I will get to my point. I ordered some Puma flats (who knew Puma made flats?) and they came in this nifty little bag.

Do you see what I’m seeing here? Its a project bag! I’m sure this wasn’t intentional on Puma’s part but here it is. The handle slides through a slot to close the bag and then you just slide it on your wrist.

It is a clever little bag indeed. In case anyone gives a whit about the shoes this is what they look like.

The shoes are comfy and I love them. The project bag was a great bonus.

I’ve always wished that people would request knitted items. Well like they say be careful what you wish for. My wonderful leisurely knitting was interrupted by people with cold heads. I accidentally felted a hat I had knit for my husband a few years ago. Its his fault for requesting that I wash off the stench of hunting.  So I had to rush and make a hat for him before his next hunting trip. The pattern I always use is Classic World War II Watch Cap. This hat is a great go to hat for guys. It’s plain and a quick knit. The great thing about this flurry of hat requests is that all the orders were filled with stash yarn. So far the yearly yarn diet is going great. The first cap was made out of Wool-Ease.

The second hat was made out of Filatura Di Crosa Wave.  I love this yarn, to bad its discontinued. It’s a silk and wool blend.

The first hat I did a knit 6 purl 2 rib past the brim. On the second hat I went with stockinette and the decrease pattern made it pointy. I hope my dad doesn’t mind. Both yarns are aran or worsted weight I think. It was a nice change from all the fingering yarn. I knit both hats in about 24 hours. Seeing as how I’ve never done that before I was pretty amazed with myself. Duty knitting stinks but  I do feel good knowing that all my families heads are warm this winter.

So for this year I’m in Plucky Classics (fingering) and the Twisted Sock Club. I received the first shipment from Twisted and I’m quite pleased with it. The yarn is Plucky Primo (what a coincidence) and the designer is Sivia Harding. I’ve never heard of her before, but looking over Ravelry page I certainly won’t forget her. Some of her designs are going into my que along with the fabulous socks she designed for the club. The name of the colorway is 1962. 

I’m not a green gal but I really do quite like this green. The kit also came with some cute stitch markers and a tin to store them in. I never made any cookies from the Cookie A. sock club but I will definitely use the stitch markers that came with this kit. I’m also liking receiving a printed pattern.

I think I have my first finished object of the year. (I’m to lazy to look back a few posts to verify this.) It’s the Chelsea Market Hat. This pattern is great because besides the cute hat I learned a new way to block my hats. Caryl gives you instructions on how to block your hat using a balloon. Luckily I happened to have a pack around the house. It wasn’t hard at all and the results, in my opinion, are fabulous. I was only aware of how to block a hat using a plate for a beret style hat and I did not want to do that for this hat.

Here is the blocking in progress. There are instructions to weave some thread throughout the ribbing of the hat and to tie it so the brim doesn’t stretch out to much.  I forgot to do that so I just tied the bottom of the hat with some string. I blocked it pretty aggressively and now the finished project can hold all my big hair. It came out just as I had hoped.

I love the crown of this hat. It’s very simple and neat.

In other news I accidentally felted my husbands hunting hat that I knit for him many years ago. I guess that was back when I was still buying non superwash wool at Hobby Lobby…oops. So now I have to find some black yarn to knit him and my father hats. Can you say boring?