Bucket of Lettuce
I used to work as a waitress at
Lo Cascio Italian Restaurant. The prep work included a task that was called "Doing the Lettuce." For the first 3 months I worked at Lo Cascio's I avoided "doing the lettuce" like it was "doing the plague." The reason was that I didn't know how and I was embarrassed to ask. What was I supposed to DO to the lettuce? I would get to work at EXACTLY 3 o'clock so that I was the first one there and I could "Do the Tomatoes and Onions" instead. Finally one day somebody thwarted my scheme by showing up at 2:45 and making ME do the lettuce. I found out that "Doing the Lettuce" meant breaking up the stalks of Romaine Lettuce and washing them, and putting them into buckets. It was easy and it became my favorite sidework. On weeknights I had to make 4 buckets of lettuce and on weekends I had to make 6 buckets of lettuce.
This hat is my ode to Buckets of Lettuce.
Pattern:
Better Bucket Hat by Amy Swenson
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted
Colorway:
LettuceButton and Yarn purchased at
Modern YarnGet it? Bucket Hat and Lettuce?
The button is very very very awesome. I don't know what it's made of, but it's exotic. It has little hairy fuzzy things on it, and it's made out of wood. It's really oily for some reason. In fact, it was sitting on the receipt when it was in the shopping bag when I bought it, and it made the receipt get that translucent oily quality. On the receipt, the button was called "Frog Tree Notions" or something like that, but it's not on the Frog Tree website. I like the button a lot.
I really love the hat pattern. It's so straight forward and it's so cute. HOWEVER, I am very reluctant to call it a "
Better Bucket Hat" and I'll tell you why. If you look at the hat that I designed on the cover of "
Pure Knits" you will see that I ALSO designed a cloche. I happen to think mine is better because I designed it. That's all.
Thank you for all the congratulatory comments on my last post! I MUST thank
E2K for convincing me to submit the pattern to
Yahaira. Yay!
Really Happy
My designs are on the cover of
Pure Knits! This is
Yahaira's second book and I know it's going to be great. I didn't know that my design was going to be on the cover until
Olgajazzy told me about it this afternoon. I designed and knit the hat and the sweater on the model. I am so flattered that my designs were chosen for the cover. I can't believe it.
Yahaira, thank you so much.
Here is a celebratory finished object photo:
Ravelled
here...but here is some info if you don't have
Ravelry,
Kiki.
Pattern: Megan's Ruffled Neck Scarf from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, 1 skein
Color: Magenta
It's time for me to go celebrate!
Project Spectrum Yarn!
I bought a little yarn recently, in honor of
Project Spectrum. I really am sticking with Project Spectrum this time around. I sort of like having constraints in a lot of ways. I am finishing old red projects and knitting with old red yarns. But, I also bought some yarn so I can't really stay I'm burning through my stash.
The yarn above is Malabrigo Merino Worsted in the color Rosa Flamingo. I bought it at
Modern Yarn in New Jersey last week. I also bought this Malabrigo in Pink Frost:
I really like knitting with Malabrigo. A LOT.
I also purchased yarn from
Mama Blue Knitting Goods. I really like her semi solid yarns. The quality is fantastic and Nikki is really nice! This yarn is a Seacell Merino blend. It's shiny:
Her tags are the best:
I already started thinking about the yarns I'll use for the next 2 months of Project Spectrum (Green, Brown, and Metallics). Green is my favorite color, so I'm very excited about adding some green sweaters to my wardrobe. I made a mosaic of most of my green and brown yarns:
I am still working on my pink Rusted Root sweater that I blogged about last week. I am just about finished. It's very different from the original because I added short rows and garter stitch and there's no lace motif. I have been trying it on along the way and I can already tell that I will be wearing this sweater all the time.
Finished Dragon Dance Socks!
I finished my Dragon Dance Socks and I am so happy with them! It was my first time knitting with
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Lightweight Socks that Rock and it was such a joy.
I knit these from the toe up, on size 2.25mm double pointed needles. I did a garter stitch cuff on top to show off the colors in a different way.
The colorway is an exclusive color right now for the Rockin' Sock Club. I was a member last year too and this color is my favorite yet. It's sort of retro 70's in a way. The striping was so lucky. I made sure to do a short row heel rather than a gusset heel to make sure not to break up the stripes.
People always used to ask me about my shoes so I'll say that they are Calvin Klein and you can get them online
here. They are comfortable and they show off my handknit socks! I bought them right before my knee surgery because I wanted cute flats that I can wear for a few months while I recover. They are sure doing their job!
...and so are these socks!
ETA: I wanted to add a photo of the awesome STR yarn I used for these socks:
Runway Update
In Paris Fashion Week over the weekend,
Galliano showed some great knit hats!
I love the mixed media in this one, it looks like wool, fiber, and sheer fabric. It looks like those slouchy berets people have been knitting, except that it stands straight up!
Mad Hatter! Even though the yarn looks sort of squeaky like acrylic, I love this hat. It's huge. It has feathers. It's garter stitch! I really like the brim. There must be something in there like a wire or rubber tubing. Great idea!
This one's not knit, but I bookmarked it because it looks like
Stephanie's Spritely Goods Batts. Did Galliano buy these from you? He must have.
Speaking of runways, don't forget to watch the Project Runway finale this week! I like Christian's attitude, Jillian's style, and Rami's Israeli-ness. For the first time I don't have a favorite, so we'll see what happens!
Magenta + Jitterbug = Majitterbug
For more Fiery Project Spectrum stashbusting deliciousness, I am making
Megan's Ruffled Neck Warmer from the book
101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. I really like this book. It has lots of cute small projects, especially some great ways to use up sock yarn.
The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug, in the Magenta colorway, held doubled. I really love this yarn, but I have had a problem with it in the past. I've made 3 pairs of socks with this yarn already, and in every skein there was a knot. Usually I understand knots and I am OK with them, but in the case of Jitterbug, the knot held together 2 different dyelots! The result in all 3 pairs of socks was that 1 sock looked great, and the other sock was half light and half dark.
I figured I would combat this problem by holding the yarn doubled in a project where something like dyelot shifts wouldn't really matter. OF COURSE, this is the first time that there is no knot in the yarn, and I could have made this yarn into some great socks. Oh well. I have 2 more skeins of Jitterbug (Copperbeach and Velvet Damson) so I'll make those into socks. Or gloves. Or another ruffled scarf.
The pattern itself is great. The only annoying part is all the increasing for the ruffle. It's not the pattern's fault, of course. You have to turn 25 stitches into 200 stitches very quickly over 6 rows, and the first 10 rows after all the increases are very hard on the hands. It was difficult to finagle the needles, even though I was using long 24" addi circular needles. Otherwise the project is super fun and relaxing. I'll make another one for sure.
I'm so mad that I didn't go to the yarn stores I had planned in the last post, including
Modern Yarn in Montclaire. My knee was just hurting too much after physical therapy and I didn't have the strength that day. I might still go tomorrow.
My modified Rusted Root is going great. I'm up to the bust and I'm going to add short row shaping, which means I have to stop being so lazy and try it on again. I'll post once I do, and maybe I'll even add instructions for adding shaping.
