Oh dear

Poor neglected little blog.  Have you missed me?  I've missed you, though I haven't much to say.

I've been busy throwing my time away with swaps.  Stalking and crafting and brainstorming are just sucking my brain dry, and all the energy I have left is for work.  At work I create myriads of lists of swap-possibilities.  I just want to get some mail - is that so bad?

Before swaps, there were purple baby hats.

Those are the ten purple baby hats that I knitted and crocheted for the Period of Purple Crying Click-Along at the Rose Tree Fiber Shop in Ames.  I was a purple-hat-making machine!  Unfortunately, not a picture-taking machine, but there's only so much you can do with limited skills and bad lighting.

Hat the first:

The Little Knight Hat, right off the Click-Along website.  Twisted rib, somewhat absurdly tight gauge (fault mine), tiny hat.  Red Heart Super Saver, "Lavender" colorway.  Garnered lots of "Awwwww!"s.

Hat the second:

The plum or eggplant hat, better known as the Berry Baby Hat.  This one came out somewhat more on the oversized size.  I used RHSS, "Amethyst" and "Spring Green"

Hat the third:

Luuk hat the first.  Verrrry tiny.  Very mindless knitting.  RHSS "Lavender"

Hat the fourth:

 . . . had a model!  Gabriella Rose, daughter of good friends Carlin and Angel.  About six weeks old.  Ridiculous amount of hair.  Looked a bit like Miss Cleo in this wee little crocheted butterfly beanie - Olivia's Butterfly.  It's meant to be worn with the butterfly over one eyebrow for a jaunty, cloche-like look, but with the butterfly centered over the forehead, it looks like a wee turban, especially on a dark-haired little gypsy babe.  Red Heart Sport, "Purple."  I left off a few increases and rows to make it infant-sized, came out very tiny indeed.

Hat the fifth:

Rosa Villosa.  I went out on a limb for this one after all that easy crochet and used sock yarn for this one.  Lion Brand Sock-Ease, "Grape Soda" colorway, to be precise.  The stem is in Zitron Trekking XXL, "Wicked Green."  This hat was too adorable for words, and worked up much more quickly than I expected given the much finer yarn and tiny little needles.

Hat the sixth:

Luuk hat the second.  After a failed first attempt, finally managed to read the directions correctly and make the 0-3 month size instead of the newborn size (which on my needles turns out more of a preemie size).  RHSS, "Amethyst"


Hat the seventh:

Ashen hat.  Love the moss-stitch brim.  Another one in RHSS "Lavender."

Hat the eighth:

Otis Baby Hat.  RHSS "Lavender" again.  I had a lot of false starts with this one - I think ribbing would have worked better for the brim than the garter stitch did - even using smaller needles for the brim didn't solve the warping issue that you can kind of see here.  I love the big fat cables, though.

Hat the ninth:

One more quick crocheted hat, Flower Hat/Photo Prop, in Red Heart Sport, "Purple," and Caron Simply Soft Brites, "Limelight."  Very cute, came out enormous.

Hat the tenth:

Baby Tart.  This one took the longest - I started it shortly after I began the first hat, and finished it at the Click-Along.  The bobbles were murder - all that purling!  It went much more smoothly once I slowed down and concentrated on knitting loosely.  Unspeakably adorable result, sadly difficult to get a good picture of.  Caron Simply soft in "Plum Perfect" and "Bone."