3 a.m. Cable Hat

I just finished the 3 a.m. Cable Hat, the dk weight version.

And I bought a head to show it off. May I present Jayne:



OK, so Jayne has a smallish head, and the hat's a little big. Which is good. At least Jayne can wear my Kittyville Hat and I can wear the cable hat.

See:



Sorry for the poor lighting and bad angle. That is indeed the same hat, NH was just too lazy to stand up when asked to take a picture.

The yarn was Alpaca with a Twist "Highlander" in color 0299, a deep gray with flecks of white and tan. It's warm, soft, and yummy-liscious, and it makes me want to move to a climate where I can wear alpaca on a regular basis. Speaking of which, I finished this hat at knitting group the day after our only coldsnap broke, when we went from a hard freeze to t-shirt weather in less than 48 hours, and it's stayed unseasonably warm.

During that cold snap, on the coldest day of the year, my husband turned to me and said "You know what would be good right now? Some hand knit socks." My husband, who only recently received a hand knit sweater from me. The one who watched me work feverishly to make hand knit socks for his parents' Christmas gifts. The one who I asked a had asked a week before the cold weather broke if he wanted socks and didn't seem too enthused about the idea. I love him, but seriously...

So he's getting a pair of Arrgyle socks to match the pair I'm making myself. The Yarn Harlot's post on her argyles has a lot of information and I'm just going to go for it.

As to whose socks are getting made first, I still haven't decided.

Yarn Store Review: Knit and Stitch, Cocoa FL

While visiting family for the holidays, I was lucky enough to get away from everything and meet up with a friend who lives in the area that was able to get away from everything too.

She suggested we meet at this wonderful shop, called Knit and Stitch in Cocoa Village.

This shop was great. It's biggest allure is that they are very customer-oriented. It may seem strange that a small business wouldn't focus on making customers feel welcome, but trust me, I've been there and it isn't pretty. But that was not the case at Knit and Stitch.

The setup of the store is very nice. There's a big table in the middle of the shop, with comfortable full backed desk chairs around it. There were other people sitting at the table when I arrived, and before I even sat down, one of the ladies offered me refreshments. It seems that the regulars help by welcoming newcomers, which is very nice.

Everyone was very helpful and friendly. Advice was offered in a positive way, as was encouragement and praise.

One product that stood out were afghan kits from Art Yarns. Sample afghans were hung from the display as well as on the chairs.

This store is crochet friendly, but I didn't see crochet specific products. There was also a good amount of cross stitch, but I avoided that side of the store because I don't have the time to get sucked into anything else.

I'm sure I'll go back when I get the chance, it was a really great experience.

Thanks for coming out and knitting with me Hannah, and for showing me this awesome store!

Full Disclosure

So, it's the new year and I'm starting a new tradition. As I generally have New Year's Day off, and I'm recovering from (read: trying to finish) frantic holiday knitting, January First will be my annual "evaluate the stash" day, where I'll empty out every single project bag or box with yarn in it, organize it all, and evaluate.

And take pictures.



There it is, every bit of yarn that isn't in a FO. It's embarrassingly small, but I almost always buy yarn for specific projects, then cast them on right away. Since I've been finishing up things, the yarn's been cleared out.

I've learned that I have way too much sock yarn, and found some partial balls to donate to someone in my Knitting group.

I also finally let go and ripped out a crocheted shrug that was looking absolutely ghastly, so that I can move on to cuter ones, namely MimiCat's Purple Shrug.

Podcast Update

We recorded a promo and a short intro segment at knitting group this Saturday. Squee.