FO: Koolhaas hat

There were a couple birthdays last week.  My sister had a mini-milestone birthday, and the same day Lucas’s roommate had a birthday too.  I decided to make something for Sky because I felt like it, and it would be his first hand-knit gift.  I knew that he was super particular and was going to be hard to please.  But how can you go wrong with Malabrigo?

When I told Lucas that I was thinking of making this hat in navy blue, he worried that that would be too vibrant.  Navy blue = too vibrant?!?  I happened to have some leftover black Malabrigo worsted that would fit the bill.  I went for the Koolhaas hat since I have been meaning to make it for years.

My Rav page here.

Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Black, about half a skein?

Needles: US8 for the body, and US 6 for the ribbing

Start Date: March 2, 2014

Finish Date: March 5, 2014

I didn’t do a gauge swatch.  It is super stretchy, so I would maybe go down a needle size next time.  Even though it was for a guy, I did only 4 repeats instead of the 5.  I have a large head and it fit me perfectly, so I went with it.  I don’t have any pictures of Sky wearing it, I just got some iPhone photos of me.

The yarn is basically pitch black, so it is hard to see the pattern detailing on it.  Also, this black picks up tiny fuzz and hair like crazy!  If I were to make this hat again, I would probably use a crisper yarn for better stitch definition.

Oh, and the response?  Eh.  He was super appreciative to me, but Lucas suspected that when he was wearing it, it wasn’t quite the kind of hat that he would wear.  Oh well.  If it ends up at Goodwill, then hopefully someone will love it.  I probably should have made something for my sister instead because she is super knitworthy!

Oh, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I am currently knitting a green baby sweater.  And if you are looking for a kick-ass St. Patrick’s Day dessert, I would recommend the Irish Cream Bundt Cake from allrecipes.com.  I made it a couple years ago and it was a huge hit.  It is one of those cheater recipes that uses cake mix and pudding mix, but if you love Bailey’s, you will love this crazy moist cake.  I think I will make it for a potluck I am going to on Saturday.

Two years!

Hi all,

I’ve been really wanting to get back to blogging.  I thought about starting a new blog, since Jill P. is kind of off the grid, and Jill&Jill isn’t really fitting anymore.  But, I thought maybe I’d make sure I can get this guy going again, before I start a whole other blog.  I won’t do a recap of the last two years, because lordy that would be a lot of stuff.  It’s fun looking back to see where I was at a few years ago.  I’ve been knitting non-stop and spinning a bit too.  I became a Jazzercise instructor last fall, and am teaching a couple times a week.  (If anyone is looking to try out a class in the Culver City/LA area, let me know!)  It’s still a little stressful for me, but I’m having a lot of fun.  I wish I could say that I was getting in better shape because of it, but as long as it’s not getting any worse, I won’t worry about it too much!

I have been dating someone for a little over a year.  We’re not quite to the point where I make him a sweater, but maybe soon.  And that’s not to imply that there’s almost a ring on my finger.  I’ve recently made a few items for him.  Last winter he told me that he wanted a scarf.  He came up with several frames of color ideas.  They were pretty elaborate.   Here’s one:

Those are four different color schemes.  And that is the third page of those he sent me!  I made him one scarf and hat based on a color pattern in one of the other pages.  I found a nice BFL roving from Capistrano Fiber Arts .  I had four 2oz braids, and I spun them together.  I wanted really long color repeats.  I then navajo plied them to get a 3-ply retaining the color sequence.  Here is the chunky yarn that I got:

I knit it up in the Yarn Harlot‘s One Row Handspun Scarf pattern.  The scarf turned out really nicely, and I had enough yarn to make a matching hat.

Shared Ravelry page for the scarf

So fast forward to last month.  I still had it in my head that I wanted to make him a Malabrigo scarf.  Before I spun that yarn, I bought a bunch of Malabrigo Worsted in one of his color schemes.  It is the second one from the top, of the ones above.  I used a simple pennant stitch pattern with seed stitch on the borders.  The colors are a little crazy:

The colors are in straight blocks, the angles of the rippling scarf make them look a little crooked.  He took some ones of him wearing them, but I need to get them off of my phone.  I got the scarf done just in time for the summer!  It was my anniversary gift to him.  Shared Rav page here.

He also helped watch my cats while I was out of town a couple weeks ago.  I made him a knit gun as a thank you.  It is a pattern that I’ve had for a while, and finally got around to making.  It’s Luvgun by Anna Hrachovec.

I used Knit Picks Palette in Brindle Heather, Pumice Heather, and red (can’t remember which).  I knit the pieces while I was in the Grand Canyon with my parents.  Then I hand-felted them a bit.  And sewed them together.  The mattress stitch was a bit annoying since the pieces were slightly felted!  The hearts I ended up whipstitching together instead of mattress stitch.  They looked better that way.  He laughed quite a bit when I gave it to him.  I thought he would like it, since he’s a KISS fan and somewhat fascinated by guns. He said it was the most ridiculous thing that he’d ever seen.

I’m not sure what will be next in store for him.  He was pretty into some vintage sweater patterns in a Spinnerin book from the 60’s.

Lucas is an animator and story board artist working in TV.  He’s currently working on a really awesome prospective campaign video for Obama.  If anyone knows someone that could help with financing or animation interns for it, let me know.  I can’t wait to share it with you when he gets farther along on it!  This is the video he made in 2008 for the last election.

I’m excited to get back to blogging.  I’ve got lots to talk about!  Be on the lookout for more!

Jill B.

I want to go to there

Jill P.,

Have you checked out the Sock Summit teacher line-up?  I know it’s been kind of everywhere, but I think it deserves repeating.  I mean Meg Swansen and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Barbara Walker!  I have the feeling I won’t be able to go though.  I am going up to Tacoma in the beginning of June for the Northwest Regional Spinner’s Association retreat.  So a trip to the NW two months after that probably won’t work.  And maybe I’ll be in Virginia which would make it a lot harder to get there. 

We still have the ASCH Color Connects conference to look forward to next weekend.  Of course we’re not taking any classes and I’m not making purchases for Lent.  But it could still be fun. 

I had planned on just having a post of me jabbering about random stuff.  But wait I finished something!

Pattern: Prism by Caroline Bautista

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Brillante.  I used almost exactly 3 skeins.  It was another race against yarn supply.

I used US 8 needles and knit in between a S and a M.  It was hard to decide because the pattern doesn’t give schematics or approximate circumference or anything.  All I know is in real clothes I wear a medium, but often in knitting patterns I wear a small.  I tried it on while it was in progress and it was pretty tight.  But it relaxed a bit in blocking which was a good thing. 

This was the project I started because of all my hand-hurting cotton projects.  It was pretty fun to knit.  It’s made with modular triangles.  The sleeves are upside-down triangles. 

Because I was running low on yarn I decided to do the armhole ribbing and neck band before knitting the ribbing at the bottom.  I was trying to be conservative with the yarn.  The pattern calls for a 1″ band for the neck.  I followed this, but afterwards realized that the band in the pattern picture must be closer to 2″.  I think it would look better that way, but I was trying to eek out more length.  So my neck is a little wonky but I guess I could claim that I wanted it that way.  My button tabs on the sleeves go the opposite direction from the picture.  I blindy followed the directions for the first sleeve and then had to replicate it for the second sleeve.  I sewed the buttons on through both layers of fabric.  It didn’t seem worth the effort to make a buttonhole. 

I am definitely not crazy about the top as a whole.  I think the pattern is pretty cool and would like the finished item in a solid yarn.  It is quite busy.  Also the arm opening ended up huge.  It looks better in the picture because I am tucking extra fabric under my armpits!  I could have picked up fewer stitches for the ribbing or overlapped the button flap more.  I thought about it, but that makes an uber-puffy sleeve.  Maybe I could have seamed the triangles together a bit in the armpit and picked up fewer stitches for the ribbing.  Oh well.  Maybe it’s the perfect sweater for me to make out of Malabrigo.  Something that won’t get worn often!  No chance for pilling. 

I had some trouble finding the right outfit for it.  My favorite one at home involved gaucho pants and heels.  But I barely had the balls to wear just the sweater with black pants to work so anything over and beyond that is past me. 

I am close to finishing a couple of things so I’ll have something new to share soon.  And these ones I think I’m going to be super into. 

Oh, and I’ll bring it up again when the date is closer, but the UCLA Festival of Preservation is coming up in the middle of March.  It’ll go on for a couple of months.  I did some work on a lot of the films being shown and many of them are worth seeing.  We’ve been having some technical/logistical problems recently, much of it related to the state budget.  But I hope you guys can go and support the preservationists that I work with because they deserve it. 

That’s all for now!

Jill B.