Still Alive...

... and still knitting.

Summer was just hectic and full of stuff like moving (twice!), working and pretending my Dad's Vest didn't exist. It's now 3 days past his birthday and the f***** still isn't done. I was on the home stretch, did the neck band, did one armhole band... and realised that there is no way in hell either of those fits. Way too large even though I measured the length with a piece of yarn and picked up stitches exactly according to my swatch. I still gave it to my dad, just took it back with me so I can finally get it done (hopefully before Christmas -- also, my parents are so not getting anything knitted for Christmus -- nu uh, no way). Also, no photo, because really depressing.

In better news, I'm finally on Ravelry (Honey) and I'm absolutely orgasmic about all the organising options. Still have a way to go with my stash and projects, but I'm getting there. :D

I have also joined the SSEC and hope to finally get control of my sock stash. Because this was one thing I realised while putting up yarns on Ravelry - I have a hell of a lot of single skeins of sock yarn.

So I'm currently working on two pairs, one is almost done, the other about half-way. First the Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks in Regia Bamboo.



I'm absolutely in love with the pattern. It's incredibly easy and intuitive and once I did a few rounds it was easy to see which stitch had to come next without consulting the pattern. Of course, now I've been stuck just before the second cuff for weeks, but I'm still hopeful to get this done before Christmas.

Then there is my TV/DVD/car knitting in the form of simply stockinette socks in Regia Color.



My standard 2.5mm needles, but a bit of a deviation for me. I am actually using 2 circs. I usually hate them, but I got the new Addi Lace from Get Knitted and am just so happy with them. The join is incredibly smooth compared to the Inox circs I'm using as my second pair and the tip is verrrry nice. :) Already got some more in 3mm and 3.25mmm.

And then I also found some yarn, whose colours simply took my breath away: Lang Yarns Mille Colori. This is a mix of pink, orange and purple and I'm looking forward to every colour change.

What I'm knitting with it?



Finally something to fill my craving for entrelac: Danica. Only in one colour and with a very different yarn. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out so far.



And I think I bought enough yarn to knit a hat in entrelac as well. So no matter how bad the weather gets here, I'll always have something bright to look forward to wearing.

Birthday Girl

So, my lovely Mum turned 60 on Wednesday and in celebration of that day, I had been working on a load of knitted stuff. Some of it she knew about, some of it she even knew it was for her and one was an absolute surprise.

And I did indeed get everything finished, even the scarf of doom and successfully beat the Second Sock Syndrome - twice. Not to mention I resisted the pull of my log cabin afghan.



The first one to be finished, well in advance, were the Opal Sideways socks. I have mentioned that the pattern is an absolute joke before and I didn't use it as more than a rough guideline. While I had already cast on for the second time, this time with the modifications to fit my Mum's feet, I found Nona's Sidewinders pattern and have been itching since then to try this pattern. But I have to admit, once I figured out how to make the socks fit my Mum's feet, I did not feel like messing with the gauge and so stuck to my modifications. I'll be on the lookout for a yarn with the required gauge though and try it then. Knitting the socks sideways was fun and challenging and it gives a completely different look to yarn that I'm usually not too fond of (I'm more for rather random, short colour stripes, usually only a few stitches long).

And my Mum loved those. In fact, she's that in love with the yarn that she's thinking about knitting a cardigan for herself in that. And considering she's usually very thrifty in her yarn buys and this is Opal at 8,95€/100g skein, that's saying a lot. I forgot the exact name of the yarn, but it's from Opal's Hundertwasser collection, something with Ultramarin III in the title of the picture, I believe, and it's knitted with 2.5mm needles.



Next to be finished were the Elfine socks (PDF). I've been in love with this pattern since I saw it for the first time, but had to find out that it wasn't meant for me and frogged the half sock I had in Koigu.



The structure the pattern creates is simply fantastic and I think, unusual for lace, that they look as good off the foot as they look when being worn. My Mum loves lace knitting, but is firm in her belief that she can't do it (no matter how often I tell her that she knows all the stitches and I'll explain it to her - for her knitting is about speed and relaxation, so ribbing is as adventurous as she gets), so she was very exited about getting these socks and being able to finally wear them when the weather gets cooler.



The only things I changed were the toe and cuff. My Mum didn't know these were supposed to be for her even though she saw me knitting on them plenty of times (and I still can't believe she bought it when I told her socks in this colour were for me) and so I even followed the exact instructions for the foot and lef length, since my Mum's feet are pretty much the average for women. Makes it easy to knit for her without her ever trying them on.

The change to the toe consisted of using a short row tow with a crochet chain cast on, my standard for toe up socks, since the recommended Figure Eight cast on just drives me absolutely batty. And instead of four rows of garter stitch as a cuff, I did a picot edge, and bound off very loosely. The socks were still a bit tight, but the cause of that was the crochet I used to keep the cuff folded over, so after my Mum received them, I just undid the crocheting and instead sewed the top of the cuff to the inside. It's much stretchier and looks just a nice.



Finally, the much bemoaned and sworn at Lead of Follow lace scarf. I love how it turned out, but boy was the way a long one. It's knitted in Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-Ply in seagreen and I used 5 skeins to complete 19 pattern repeats plus the border. I could still have squeezed out another repeat, but my Mum is a small person and so I didn't want the scarf to be too long (it's just perfect in fact), not to mention that I couldn't face knitting another repeat after I was already so happy about finally reaching the end.



The scarf did indeed dry in one day, so I didn't have to sleep on the floor or the living room couch, and for blocking I tried a new (to me) method of putting nylon string through the edge stitches and then putting the blocking pins inside the quadrangle created by the string. I usually always have problems (especially in lace) with pointy bits in the supposedly straight edges, but with the string it worked perfectly. I put the pins in just like I normally would and then pulled on the string on one corner of the scarf and so created enough tension that the string pulled all the edges straight. Very simple solution and blocking lace now holds much less of a dread for me.

Again, my Mum loved that I knit lace for her, when she doesn't want to do it herself and she also loved that she can wear this scarf for warmth, wound around her neck, or just as an accessoire, loosely draped over her shoulders.



Finally, all the pieces came together and only had to undergo one more little test. Idiot me had forgotten to buy wrapping paper, so I improvised a little. A small box some yarn from Wolhalla had been in, a bit of printer paper and a slightly modified picture from the Windows example images... et voilà...



... the present for the best mother in the world.

The Irrationality of Startitis

It's not like I don't have enough to do with my Dad's vest (going okay, even though I had to rip back the whole front – 40,555 stitches gone *weeps*, but still manageable at 833 stitches per day to go), my Mum's Lead or Follow scarf (getting more exhausting by the stitch and I have 3,685 of those to go in the next week and a half and then still the blocking, where I can just hope that it's done in a day, because otherwise I'll be sleeping on the floor... the wooden floor), or my Mum's Elfine socks (977 stitches per day, again manageable, but now that the first one is finished, kinda boring. I know that pattern by heart now, though, so it makes good TV knitting).

But no. I have to start something completely unrelated. Not enough that I had a little incident with the Koigu and the new entrelac pattern during the holidays, or that when I first got here, I was so enamoured with the rests of all my projects that I started a left-overs afghan, noooo. Now I had to start yet another afghan.

The yarn is Schachenmayr's Extra, 100% wool, 125m/50g in the colours white (3524), burgundy (3535) and jaspé wine (3533) so far. I ordered it when it was on sale at an online shop for one (read that again, ONE) Euro a skein, when it normally retails for 3 or 3.30€ and got thirty skeins, five in white, fifteen in burgundy and ten in the jaspé wine. Very pretty, they work well together, but then I started thinking and planning and walking slowly but steadily into my downfall.

The first clue was that I started looking at other colours that would go well with the ones I already had. I finally decided on a lavender (krokus, 3651) and grey tone (email meliert, 3550). Now, of course, I needed to know how much to order of each of these. So I started knitting.

7,200 stitches later, I knew that each block would take about 57g of yarn and I would be just fine if I had 10 skeins of each main colour (burgundy, wine, lavender and grey) and the five skeins of white for the centre. The other five skeins of wine are now reserved for the crocheting (probably crocheting, I'm not sure about that yet) together of the blocks and the border for the whole afghan. So I ordered the lavender when I found it pretty cheap on ebay (1.55€ a skein, still a good price), but haven't had any luck with the grey yet. But I have time.

Then I started playing around with the possibilities these amounts of yarn give me in terms of pattern combinations. I already know that I want the blocks to be log cabin squares, but with five colours there are still incredible amounts of possibilities, but I think I've found a few that will combine nicely and work out as a whole.





And those I then combined to get this overall pattern. Size should be around 1.94m x 1.40m (~ 6'6'' x 4'8'') and it 'only' has a staggering 252,000 stitches.



Of course this isn't the first try at those diagrams. I already tried a practise square, but I don't like the same colour meeting in adjacent rows, so I changed that. Which also means that I have to rip back the square. I'm consoling myself with the fact that some parts of it weren't perfect anyway and that it was more like a very big swatch.



Things I'm going to change are:

1.the cast on was a long tail cast on, but it bunches unattractively with the picked up stitches and separates too much from the rest of the white square, so now I use a crochet provisional cast on instead, then pick up the stitches and bind them off with the same bind off I use on the other ends (k2togs all the way)

2.the line between the white centre and first block of red is blurred unattractively on the left side where one of the white stitches goes up into the red area. The pattern I used said to simply continue knitting the white stitches, without binding off, so I did that. Not so pretty. So I'll definitely bind off there as well and pick up the stitches in red again.

3.One of the picked up stitches goes to far into the white block. I still was training how to pick up stitches along a garter stitch edge.

4.Unattractive picking up of the bind off edge. I tried picking up only one of the strands of the bound off stitches, but found that I like it much better the way I did it with the next block: picking up the whole stitch. Although that creates a slight ridge on the back, it looks much neater in the front and doesn't interrupt the pattern the way the other pick up does.

5.And finally, of course, the colour combinations, which will hopefully make this look more like a log square, rather than some random blurbs of colour. It will also make the weaving in much less of a core, because it'll reduce the number of ends to weave in from 18 to eight. Still angst inducing considering I'm planing on knitting 26 small squares, but better.

And now, off to some birthday knitting.

When It Doesn't Quack Like a Duck...

... it can still be a sock.





Even though this doesn't look like it, that sock actually fits a human foot. Look, it even has all the necessary parts of a sock.

The Toe

The Heel

The Cuff

The pattern is very loosely based on the Opal Sideways pattern. Very, very loosely. The pattern from Opal is absolute crap, so I tidied it up, changed the numbers to fit my Mum's feet and just twisted it around until my Mum liked the result. She only wears socks in the evenings or during the night, so she wants comfy, slightly big socks and these are just perfect for that.


The heel is made with slip stitches, just like a normal heel flap for cuff down socks. And the cuff has one garter stitch row every 4 rows, so it'll hopefully stay up well. All in all, I knit 111 rows, then grafted them together and picked up 60 stitches to start the toe decreases.

And I'm already well into the second one, actually much further along than in this photo.




But look at my new stitch markers! From Aija at Zer0. Very pretty and make knitting even more fun. :)

On the Needles

During the Easter holidays I had been planning to finally finish all of my sock WIPs, some of which have been WIPs for over a year. (I now realise that this might have been a tad ambitious for two weeks, but one can dream, right?) Then the idiot that is me forgot her knitting notebook with all the pattern modifications in Aberdeen and I only finished the Mata Hari socks. No photo of the finished project, because I suck that way, but... I have planned some changes to this blog layout (and have actually been futzing around with it already, learning some basic CSS in the process) and that includes a better way to keep track of my stash and a finished projects page.

So I will have photos then. Let me just tell you, they are gorgeous. Simple as it is, I'm absolutely in love with this pattern, especially since it works so well with varigated yarns and is much more interesting to knit than pure stockinette. It also goes incredible fast and I think my next Lorna's Laces Socks (in Amethyst Stripe) will be done with the same pattern. I also started to plan a pattern with a similar premise but more random lines of yarn overs. Unfortunately I'm a bit out of sock yarn for testing (and can't justify buying more and having it delivered here since my suitcase will already be bursting at the seams and I have less thn four weeks left here), so it'll have to wait until I get back to my parents.

Anyway, back to Aberdeen after Easter, I started with some presents for my parents. They are both turning 60 this year and especially my father is incredibly hard to buy or knit for, but I finally settled on a sleeveless sweater in a dark gray, knit from sock yarn (yes, I am officially nuts). I saw a pullover made out of it at my LYS and really liked that, so I modified the pattern a bit, based it on a sleeveless sweater my dad already has and am currently a bit less than half-way through.

(Klick images for larger pictures)

I would be much further along, but I only took 3 skeins of yarn back with me and left the rest at my parents because I figured it would take me a while to knit up those 3. And then it didn't. If I had those skeins with me, I think I would be as good as finished already. The knitting just flies even though it's fingering weight yarn at 165 sts per row and it's not even pure stockinette, but a small pattern of vertical stripes made by slip stitches and garter stitch. I'm so looking forward to finally getting back home and finishing this.

Then there is the present for my mother (which needs to be finished much sooner, but isn't nearly as entertaining). It's the Lead or Follow Lace Scarf from Heart String Fibre Arts in Rowan's Scottish Tweed 4-Ply in Sea Green.

(Klick images for larger pictures)

Very pretty yarn, a bit rough to work with, but I'm at that point where the scarf just doesn't get any longer and I still have 3 balls of yarn to go, so I work a few rows here and there and instead I had an itch for socks that needed to be scratched. Badly.

I still had some Koigu with me here that used to be the Elfine Socks (PDF). Again the pattern was very pretty even with this very varigated yarn (I have colourway P609), but it's only knit over 65 sts and despite the lace that was too small around the heel for me. If I understood the pattern right (I decided this a few months after I had last worked on the sock, so don't quote me on it), I can only increase by increments of 13 sts to keep the pattern right and 78 is a bit much, even for me. So that sock went to the frog pond.

Since then the Koigu has been sitting there, teasing me. From time to time I would try out a new pattern (pure stockinette and one with little daisies), but both just didn't look right. And then while paging through my sock books I had en epiphany: Entrelac. I love entrelac, the way it's knit and the way it looks and I tried it out with different numbers of stitches on the needles and for the squares (let's not talk about the Giant Sock of Doom at 72 sts / 9 sts per square) and finally settled on 56 sts and 4 sts per square, which is pretty close to the pattern in Socks, Socks, Socks. The pattern was the inspiration for me, but I couldn't make head or tails of it, so I simply made a short row toe, started with entrelac triangles (according to the directions on this site) and frogged a few rounds later.

Giant Sock of Doom (72 sts round, 9 sts per square)

56 sts round, 4 sts per square

(Klich images for larger pictures)

It was still too large, the fabric was very stff because the sqaures were so small and I noticed the pattern ate up yarn like nothing (and Koigu is only 160m per 50g), so instead I started one with 48 sts round and 8 sts per square. That worked quite well and I even finished the heel and started on the leg, when I decided to frog again.

Only this far up the leg and I was almost out of yarn; also very, very short toe

Stretched too tightly over the heel

(Klick images for larger pictures)
The captions say it all, really. I have a plan, though. I wrote down the pattern so I won't forget and when I get back home I can buy a skein of contrasting yarn (already have some in mind, I just hope my LYS still has it), knit longer toes with it, make a longer short row heel with it, so I a) won't use as much of the Koigu for those parts and maybe the pattern in between, and b) have bigger and better fitting sock. I also still have to figure out how to do the cuff, because I want to keep the lines made by the interlocking entrelac squares, so I'll have to see what to come up with for that. Perhaps something similar as I'm planning for the neck and armhole bands for my dad's sleeveless sweater.

But despite the very frustrating frogging, I did really enjoy this experience and learned something very neat. In order to not go insane with the constant turning, I remembered a Knitty article on backwards knitting, which I dug out and once I finally focused on it, managed to learn pretty quickly. And I mean really, really quickly. Perhaps 5 minutes to understand and work the first few sts and then an hour or so of working on my sock and I knit backwards almost as fast as forwards. I can only recommend that technique. Very neat.

And then, of course, my newest obsession has helped with the knitting time (and the fact that classes are over for the year and I only have some studying left to do – about which I'm not thinking yet): Podcasts. At first I was a bit iffy about the whole idea, because one of the things I love most about knitting blogs are the pictures. And obviously podcast = no pictures. That was until I was bored and started listening to the first episode of Lime'n'Violet. Let's just say I've now (4 days later) listened to all 35 of them and leave it at that. And I'm already sure I will be branching out into other Podcasts. I have a very addictive personality, so I know I'm doomed, the same way I'm doomed with all the new links to to yarn shops I'd never heard of (I might have ordered some Toefutsies and Cherry Tree Hill in an absolutely gorgeous and incredible colourway (Earth 2), but more about that when they arrive - once more at my parent's place).

And I started one other project, but I'm not that far yet and I think it deserves it's own post, so more about that later.

Socks and Picot Edges

This hat? Makes Sabrina unhappy. The ribbing is folding in on itself, the Noro is scratchy against my forehead, it feels very insubstantial and it's not warm enough around the ears.

Now, this hat? Makes Sabrina happy.

Making the changes was fiddly, but in my opinion well worth it. First I tried to rip it from the bottom, but Noro Kureyon made that impossible. The yarn is simply too uneven and easily pulled apart. Then I cut it right over the ribbing and fiddled with it until I detached the ribbing. Getting the whole thing apart was still difficult enough, because the Noro sticks to itself like velcro, but I managed. And then I simply knit a few reounds, added the picot à la Claudia (although I changed the instructions to work for a bind-off instead of cast-on) and

knit the inside with the left-over Debbie Bliss Merino Aran. Much softer than the Noro. Bound of with backstitch and attacked it with chain stitch to the back of the hat. The chain stitch is a bit uneven, but a) nobody is going to see it, b) the Noro is difficult to crochet with because of it's unevenness and c) I'm a knitter not crocheter, so I don't care. :)

Et voilà, the hat makes me happy with it's non-scratchy inside, snugness and warmth around the ears and non-folding edge.

Then we have an actual FO:

Simple stockinette socks in Regia Cotton, with a fold-over ribbed cuff. Took me exactly two skeins of yarn as I wanted to see how far two skeins would get me. Short-row toe and heel, 76 stitches all around. I'm a bit confused by the spiraling pooling, since it's completely even on the left sock, but on the right, the spirals slowly get wider before the heel.

But since I was on a roll with varigated yarn, I started another pair in Lorna's Laces Sock in Flames, the Mata Hari socks.

Do excuse my stubbly legs, I've been pretty busy in the last few days.

Anyway, those socks are also knit toe-up with 72 stitches, again with short-row toe and heel. But my current obsession with picot edges can also be seen here.

I'm not a big fan of ribbing, especially not in a pattern like this, where it's not used anywhere else and the picot edge is very comfortable. If (When) I use this edge again, I'll probably make it a bit longer, though. In this sock it's 7 rows and I think 10 or 12 might look even better.

I absolutely adore the colours and the pooling is very even (and seems to be the same in the second sock, which I just started and which I'm making spiral in the other direction), and I've realised that I absolutely adore the yarn (one of the reasons for ordering more for two other pairs of socks).

And here the inside even turned out better than in the Noro hat.

Purty, eh?

YarnPron

Even though I haven't been blogging about it, there has been quite a bit of knitting going on here. Not to mention the acquisition of yarns and other paraphernalia.

Let's start with the money-spending part.

This is Scarf Style, which I started coveting when I saw Midwest Moonlight for the first time. Now, after thumbing through it several times, there are at least 10 patterns I'd like to knit and possibly about half of these that I'd actually wear. But since the scarf season is soon going to end, I put that on the backburner for now.

Well, not all scarves really. The two skeins of yarn in the picture are Rowan's Scottish Tweed 4-Ply (which I simply couldn't resist, with me being in Scotland and all), in a great turquoise colour. At first I though this would be just right for me, but now I'm more thinking my mother. I can't quite get over my fixation with all kinds of red yet.

Of course, I only have 2 skeins, so that won't be enough for anything proper and the shop where I bought it doesn't have any more of that colour. That didn't stop me from starting a project in that yarn.

The Lead or Follow Lace Scarf, the pattern for which I bought at www.knittingzone.com. I'm quite happy with how it's turning out and I'm planning to buy more of that yarn when I'm in London at the end of the month. Even if it's not the same dyelot, I doubt it'll be a big problem if I use the two skeins I have at the moment as the first and last skein.

Then I couldn't keep my hands off of some other Rowan yarn: Tapestry. The colour changes are absolutely stunning and I started working the same pattern as above in it.

It does look good once it's blocked, but the yarn itself is bothersome to work with. Very, very splitty and doesn't withstand frogging very well. It's a 70% wool/30% soybean protein fibre and just incredibly soft and a bit shiny, but I'm not sure I'll buy more to finish the scarf. (Only bought one because I wanted to try it out first and see if the colour changes were too distractng for the patterns. Since they're pretty long, I don't think they are, btw.)

Okay, one more money-spending part, and then I think I'll wait with the rest for the next post (hopefully before London). I've been trying to find a lace-weight yarn for ages, because the lace bug has bitten me and I just want to finally knit a proper lace shawl. As I'm not the shawl type, my mum's 60^th birthday this year seems like the perfect opportunity for one.

This is a 100% merino wool yarn from Lane Borgosesia and it's just so soft, it's incredible. A 100g hank of 1350m that I can't wait to try out. But that'll have to wait until I get to my parents for Easter since my swift and ballwinder are there and I certainly don't want to risk tangling this hank. The colour is a bit darker than I expected, but after looking at it for a bit. I really fell in love with the berry quality of this.

And in this pic you can even see a bit of the plying with a darker colour. Very subtle and very pretty.

And more yarn is on the way. Along with the yarn above, I also ordered a skein of Fiddlesticks Zephyr in ebony (yeah, I know. Knitting in black laceweight is nuts), two skeins each of Lorna's Laces Sock in Black Purl and Cranberry, one skein of Schaefer Anne Nr 166, and two skeins of sockyarn from Wollmeise, one in Poison Nr. 5 and one in Wilder Mohn (Wild Poppy). I'm going to be very poor and very happy soon.

Okay, that's it for today. Next time: Socks and picot edges.

Wavy Scarves

It's bloody freezing here in Aberdeen, so I'm busy knitting scarves. In fact I'm knitting the same pattern for the second time now. Not that you could see it when you compare the two.



The darker, (almost finished one), is Knitty's Wavy in Debbis Bliss' Cashmerino Aran, in a lovely dark magenta/pink/purple that is incredibly hard to photograph in the cold light I have here at the moment.

The second one is Wavy as well, but in Rowan Kidsilk Spray, colour 576, a mix of lighter and darker pinks. In this pic, you can actually see that it is Wavy:



The scarf is knit over 30 stitches, on 5mm needles and it's so fluffy, I just keep petting it all the time instead of knitting. Makes progress a bit slower than the Cashmerino one. :)



This was knit accoring to pattern, over 42 stitches, no mods at all, except that I added 10 rows at the end, because I still had some yarn left over.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, in colour 330013, lot 44, 4 50g skeins
Needles: 4.5mm straights
Started: January 26, 2007
Finished (kinda): Fabruary 3, 2007 (just need to weave in the ends, but my tapestry needle disappeared, so I'm buying a new one today)

I'm not sure yet, what will come after these scarves. Probably some simple toe-up, stockinette stitch socks. I also have my eyes on Knitty's Lucie, but am not sure about a substitute yarn yet. The original is definitely out of the question, but I have my eyes on Regia Silk in maroon. Still have to actually find a ball of that yarn and do a swatch with it (there are apparently no yarn shops in Aberdeen, very disappointing, the only place to find yarn is John Lewis). But especially the neck has me totally in love with the pattern.

Long Time, No See

Knitting time has been very sparse lately. Since I moved to Scotland I actually have started to work for university and (against expectations) acquired a social life, so knitting has been very sporadic.

I did start a sock during the first days I was here, but am still stuck after the heel.

The pattern are the Elfine Socks (sorry, no link), in Koigu P609, a wonderfully coloured yarn. Problem is that the heel part is a bit too tight and I'm going to have to rip it. This has taken all steam out of my desire to knit them as I'm not sure how to go about it exactly yet without having to rip the whole sock (or rather, it seems like too much work). Backburner.

On a more successful not, I did finish the Noro Hat from this month's MagKnits issue.

Started: Nov 7, 2006
Finished: Nov 17, 2006
Note: This hat would've taken me only a day or two if I hadn't knit it about 3 times in total.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in #124 (1 skein) and Debbie Bliss Merino Aran in black (1 skein)
Needles: 4mm Addi Turbo 40cm circulars, 5 4mm DPNs
Comments: The pattern is lovely and my apparent inability to get it right has absolutely nothing to do with it. I consider it a very quick knit and the resulting pattern is great.

I also really enjoyed knitting with both yarns. The Debbie Bliss is very similar to my favourite yarn from my LYS at home and even though the Kureyon is a bit scratchy to knit with, I'm thinking it will soften once I actually wash the hat (no time for blocking, because I wore it the day I finished it). The yarn is perfect for spit splicing which was helpful when I had already cut the end, but then needed more yarn after I had ripped back. It also is a lot more sturdy than it looks and held up wonderfully to the repeated ripping. And not to forget the great colour changes that just kept me glued to the hat while working on it and make me put it on my head ever so often, just to look at it in the mirror.

Mods: I started this hat without a gauge swatch, as for once I'm actually using the yarn recommended in the pattern and, of course, fell flat on my face with it. :)

In the end I increased to 120 stitches for the first stranded part and did 10 pattern repeats. I also added an additional 10 rows after the first stranded part and then decided to leave out the second stranded pattern altogether as I though the striping from the additional length *and* the pattern would look too restless.

I'm also thinking about adding a fold-over cuff from by picking up the cast-on stitches and folding it in to the inside, because even though the yarns are wool, it is still a bit chilly around the ears where the pattern isn't stranded.