Christmas in Progress

I've finished another semester (yippee!) and now I have to focus on the Christmas knitting. Last summer I decided I wanted to try some new knitting techniques and Wade said, "Why not make a Christmas present at the same time?". So, I choose to make the "Letter Her Have It" bag from Stich 'n Bitch Nation for Kate, my sister-in-law. This bag has many parts and unfortunately I started with the most fun part to knit. The chart was very easy to follow. I've been distracted by school and other knitting so the less fun parts have slowly come along. Now I only have one i-chord to knit, lots of seeming, and felting to do by the 23rd. I'm thankful she is coming here for Christmas so I don't have to get this done early enough to ship...but I bought yarn to make 2 scarves for Wade's grandfathers for Christmas so I have to do those and ship them in the mean time. The picture is my progress on the bag. I will let you know how my first felting project goes!

Not so Cool Hat...

Last winter after I had finished my first two complete projects, a scarf for my mom and a scarf for my friend Courtney, I decided I should make winter hats for the guys. I thought it was lucky that I found an easy pattern in Better Homes and Gardens Knit It! for a "Cool" men's hat. I even bought my first addi-turbo circulars for this pattern. But after a year of anticipation the results were less than spectacular.

DISCLAIMER: When I started this hat last week I was sick.
BUT, that does not excuse this bad pattern or yarn.

I cast on all my stitches and was not sure what end to start knitting on. I've only knit in the round once before. So I knit a row or two and realized the bottom was uneven and I had picked the wrong end. I cast on again and this time was confused about the rib. The bottom of the hat is a k1,p1 rib but since it was in the round and I was sick, I wasn't sure what to knit and what to purl. After 4 rows, I had half rib and half seed stitch. So I cast on for a third time. Yes, it was a charm! The hat was so easy to knit and it took me less than a week! I didn't even do any knitting this weekend and I still finished tonight. I had my misgivings about this hat because I thought the guys in the pictures looked like dorks. But I thought surely my DH would make this hat look hot! But you see the result.

I frogged about a forth of the hat and am going to try again. I think if I take out some rows it might look normal. To my surprise, my husband is a yarn snob and did not like the Lion Brand Wool-Ease that he had suggested I use because of the price. Hurray! We are going to the LYS on Saturday and I'm going to get better yarn and try the pattern that Amy used for her DH. The project was not a total waste...and I improved my knitting skills too :)

Quiz: What Color is your Aura?

I plan on finishing my DH's hat tonight and I promise I will post a picture. But since I have a blog I decided to take this quiz, I figured that I might as well post the results...I guess it's pretty accurate and I'm working on my teaching certification so the career part sounds especially good to me!

Your Aura is Yellow Your Personality: Life's too short not to have fun. Your bright energy brings joy and laughter to those around you. You in Love: A total flirt, you need a lot of freedom to play. But you'll be loyal to that one man who makes you feel safe. Your Career: You love variety in a job, and you probably won't stick with one career. You would make a great professor, writer, or actress. What Color Is Your Aura? Take This Quiz :-)

I finally have a blog of my own!

I stepped out of the world of lurking and into the world of blogging. Now that I have my own account I'll actually leave comments on my friend's blog. I might even knit more now so I'll have pictures to post and people can leave me comments too. I promise to add knitting content to this blog very soon. Right now I'm just figuring out my set-up.