Ribbon Candy Hat

Ribbon Candy Hat
People have been requesting a hat pattern that matches the Ribbon Candy Stocking. If you decide to make this hat in other than holiday colors (think brights, pastels or earth tones), it can be worn all winter long. With four sizes offered here, you can make one for everyone!

Pattern Price: $4.50

RCHATall

RCHATpinkpurple

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Thank you for purchasing my pattern. After your payment is processed, the pattern will be sent to you via email attachment within 24 hours, and most likely lots sooner. If for any reason you find an error (horrors!!) or have a question about it, please leave me a comment or hit the contact button up there on the right and I'll help. Happy Holidays!
If you're on Ravelry, you can get this even sooner by buying this pattern in my Ravelry shop. Just click the "Ravelry Designer" thingie up near the top right of this page and get the immediate .pdf download through Ravelry :)


Despite the fact that I have comments enabled, in order to comment you need to actually click on the title of this (or any other) post. Sorry!

The Violet Dahlia

True to my promise to myself, I made a popular knitting design that I found on Ravelry. I'm actually going to make two of these, and this is the first one. The pattern is called Dahlia. The coolest part about this pattern is that the designer is a teenage girl. Isn't that incredible? This is one of the first times in my life that I made the garment in a color similar to the original, but that's just because it's the color my daughter chose for it. This was some of the yarn I bought from Knitting Warehouse during my most recent online S.E.X. (get your mind out of the gutter; that means Stash Enhancement Expedition!!!) session.

Dahliasmile

I know that using Caron Simply Soft for a major garment may seem cheap and ridiculous to some people, but you have to keep in mind that this is for a teenager who may someday move out (one can hope, right??) and who may one day do her own laundry (I'm a hell of a daydreamer) without my supervision. Whatever I make for other people must be washable, dryable and affordable for a prolific knitter such as myself to make for him/her. Once again, my aspirations to ever become a yarn snob are taking a back seat to my inherent thrift. The Violet Dahlia was finished when my daughter got home from school yesterday, and she squealed and put it on immediately. She could not have been any happier had I made it out of 100% cashmere.
...

Okay, that might be a lie. She might have been happier in that case.

If you're looking at the original pattern and then at my version, you'll see that at the request of my daughter I "depoofed" the sleeves and replaced the picot edging with four rows of 1 x 1 ribbing:

Dahliasleeveneck

The next one is going to be magenta :))

The next project I'm going to complete will be the Ribbed Lace Bolero, of which I will also be making two, if not three. This is going to be in black. I've started the first one and am using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn. This is the first time I've ever tried this yarn. For an acrylic, it's not bad. No squeaking to speak of (okay, I do realize that my low threshold for yarny goodness is showing again). I'm a little put off by the fatness of this supposed worsted-weight yarn. It seems more like an aran weight to me. Never in a million years would I substitute this for a worsted weight yarn in a pattern in which gauge is terribly crucial without making a very careful gauge swatch. I'm not a big huge fan of swatching (who is???) but diving into any project with this yarn without making one is a prescription for disappointment and possible impulsive impaling of someone/something with a knitting needle when you begin to seethe with rage. This bolero will be for my other daughter. The Violet Dahlia daughter also wants the exact same thing in the same color, depending on her critique of how Ribbed Lace Bolero #1 comes out.

A while back I made a black Scrunchable Scarf. The other day when the temperature plummeted to 60 degrees one of my kids wore it to school. This prompted a request for one exactly like it from one of her friends, and that scarf will be next in the queue. You know, that's one dark purple top followed by three black things. I better intersperse that lineup with something made with some yarn in a lighter color. Most of my knitting is done in the evening, and my aging eyes and black yarn don't get along so well under those circumstances. I find myself more and more often needing to knit with dark yarns in natural daylight. Hmmm. Hmmm. My friend just started a new job, and her office is chilly. She has asked if I would make her some fingerless gloves, so I'll make a pair of those. I have two skeins of ONline Supersocke Beach Colors that I don't want to really use to make socks because there is a high cotton content. I didn't realize that when I bought it, and I think that yarn would be perfect for some stripy fingerless gloves to wear in Florida, don't you? Not too hot, and the cotton content is less dangerous when you don't have to worry about socks falling down, right?

That's a lot of knitting projects lined up, isn't it? I'm hoping to write and post another pattern this month, as well. Bring on the Red Bull.

Despite the fact that I have comments enabled, in order to comment you need to actually click on the title of this (or any other) post. Sorry!

Purdy Purdy Socks

So, I did finish those socks, and here's the proof:

Onlinecitysocks1

Wonderful, mindless, self-striping, socky goodness. These are mental health socks. Knitting these was like going on vacation. Who invented self-striping sock yarn? It's done with computers, right? Whatever...it's genius. It makes me grateful to be living in this day and age. We've come so far since we bought yarn in the grocery store. Don't believe me? It's true--it was right next to the sneakers in the olden days. Yes--you could buy SNEAKERS (not skateboard shoes, not running shoes, not tennis shoes, not basketball shoes, sigh) the same place you could buy food, including white sugar. We didn't even wear bike helmets to ride there, either, and lived to tell about it and grow up to knit purdy socks with super-cool-computer-generated-self-striping-superwash-even-though-it's-actual-wool yarn.

Oh, I almost forgot; they match:

Onlinecitysocksmatching

They aren't different lengths; that's a positional thing or a camera thing or the person wearing them didn't pull them on evenly. You know why these pictures were taken indoors instead of out in the yard in the light of the lovely Florida sun like some of my other stuff? Because I think the neighbors are starting to talk. I might be turning into the neighborhood Crazy Lady. Well...they do see me out in the yard taking photographs of socks and stuff; for instance, Christmas stockings stuck to the sides of palm trees. Then they catch glimpses of me walking around the neighborhood with my mp3 player, giggling to myself as I listen to my podcasts. Oh my God--what if they can't see that I'm using earbuds??? What if all they see is this nutty chick walking along in the wrong sneakers not intended for walking but for maybe jogging or running (God forbid!), laughing her head off all alone walking around the streets? Could this be the reason I never get trick-or-treaters???? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaah... ;))


Despite the fact that I have comments enabled, in order to comment you need to actually click on the title of this (or any other) post. Sorry!

Ribbon Candy Stocking

RIBBON CANDY STOCKING

Pattern Price: $5.00

Swirling stripes of red, green and cream reminiscent of festive holiday candy adorn this stocking. The hanging loop is knit in.


RCS2RCstockoutside

RCScloseupRCSribloop

Thank you for purchasing my pattern. After your payment is processed, the pattern will be sent to you via email attachment within 24 hours, and most likely lots sooner. If for any reason you find an error (horrors!!) or have a question about it, please leave me a comment or hit the contact button up there on the right and I'll help. Happy Holidays!

If you're on Ravelry, you can get this even sooner by buying this pattern in my Ravelry shop. Just click the "Ravelry Designer" thingie up near the top right of this page and get the immediate .pdf download through Ravelry :)


Despite the fact that I have comments enabled, in order to comment you need to actually click on the title of this (or any other) post. Sorry!