Felt up

So, why am I wearing a bucket over my head? Actually, this is the pre-felted version of a hat. I decided I needed a warm hat that I could wear in the rain and I thought felting might make a thick, warm, water resistant fabric that might be perfect for my needs. Besides, I had a stash of Cascade 220 on hand. I used my Brother Home Knitter to cast on 120 stitches at a loose tension(9), and knit 45 rows, changing colors to include some black and some handdyed Cascade. I then put it onto size 10 needles, and knit in the round with a decrease every 15 sts X8, then knit plain, then decrease every 14 X8, then plain, etc until I had decreased to 8 stitches, whereupon I ran the yarn thru and pulled tight. Then I put the other side on circular needles and increased every 15 sts X8, knit one row plain, increase every 16 X8, etc. until I had about 10 rows of brim, then cast off. In retrospect I should have distributed the brim increases more randomly, as the result wasn't a circle but an octagon ( duh!), although a man on a runaway horse would never notice, as my mom says.
Now to throw it into the washing machine for a few cycles of hot/cold and keep my fingers crossed!
I also made a purse, as I had the knitting machine out, so here is the photo of that one ( pre felting)..

Keeping warm

True to the magical thinking philosphy, since I'm busy knitting warm stuff, it will be mild and balmy weather. I'm not complaining, but it figures!It has been in the 40s and 50s in New York,which is odd for this time of year. I do think Global Warming is real, and this chaotic and bizarre weather is one indicator that I can see. We're keeping the heat down to 68 degrees anyway, so the house feels cold.
Meanwhile, I've made 2 sets of fingerless knits, spurred on by wondering what to do with one skein of yarn. Perhaps I'll have to knit warm stuff every autumn? LOL.
This pair was done by Magic Loop with two leftover balls of yarn, and it was lots of fun to arrange the stitches and figure out casting on. I enjoyed it so much I made a second pair, but used one ball working inside and outside the ball. It was great to be able to work until I ran out of yarn on both simultaneously!

Sorry for the dark photo. Same pattern;celtic cable and ribbing; hand dyed alpaca yarn. These are appreciably warmer than the purple Merino ones. Lots of fun. This was my first try at doing two things on Magic Loop; I can see how easy it was to keep in the pattern, and to get both done at the same time was fabulous!

Thanksgiving

There is a lot to be thankful for in my world. Today I finished my blue alpaca sweater, and wore it to a Thanksgiving feast at my Mother-in-Law's house, where the Chicago branch of the family flies in every year for food and celebration of Hanukkah. It is a bit of a dash to get food and gifts ready, but we managed it all. I made some rattatouie, which turned out to be incredibly hot, thanks to the addition of one little pepper...and some sweet potato casserole which I loved, but didn't get eaten much. I'll be having that for a few weeks, I think! It was fun to see how all the kids have grown and to try out my new sweater. Alpaca is incredibly warm, but it was a rainy dreary cold night, so I was glad to have it. Hope your day was good, too.

Sushi Man

I've gotten off easy for Halloween over the last 7 years. Each of my kids wore the same costume for 7 years: one was a Beanie Baby Squirrel, and the other was a grey squirrel. This year, B. decided to surprise the other kids and wanted to be a sushi roll. This took a bit of engineering; my husband created an armature out of fiberglass, tiewraps and plastic sheets; covered with black plastic bags this looked a lot like nori.
The top was constructed with white felt and sewn onto the fiberglass ring. When we glued on styrofoam packing peanuts to look like rice, we had a Bobby Roll. Cute enough to eat! Won "Best Costume" at a party already!

Luminosity Blues Detail

Here's a detail for you, Emily! The quilting is functional, but not so beautiful. I'm lazy! LOL.
Thanks for the comments! I love working with Paula Nadelstern's fabric. The colors and textures are marvelous.

Here is the back of the blue quilt; I used a very busy stripe, so you can't really see the quilting, but I like the whole color scheme, so it works for me!

Luminosity Blues

My collection of blue fabrics begged to become another Luminosity quilt. I used as many of the Luminosity by Paula Nadelstern ( www.paulanadelstern.com ) fabrics as I could find, plus a few from my stash that seemed to work in the design. I quilted it basically the same as the original one; arcs in the "plain" diamonds, and outlining motifs in the star sections. A fun quilt to make! I enjoyed teaching a workshop on this design at Clamshell Quilters Guild in Waterford, Connecticut last month, and was thrilled to see how each person brought her own ideas to personalize her quilt.