Leftover Hat Recipe, and some wonderful knits

 Here's the latest leftover yarn hat. Not very manly, is it? Pretty? Yes. Masculine? No. This is yarn I bought at the '09 Sock Summit, and used as Road Knitting to make socks on the way to the Michigan Fiber Festival last summer (and which were gifted to my niece). I love how the stripes are working out (it's not officially a self-striping yarn).

Elizabeth asked in the comments, for the basic recipe for these leftover hats. It's easy peasy:  Approx 34gr fingering weight sock yarn, 16" size 2.75mm circ and DPNs (or whatever needles will give you 8sts=1"). CO 140 sts, join (without twisting). Work 6 or so rnds of K2P2 ribbing and then K until the hat measures 5" (more or less, depending on who is the recipient). Decrease every other rnd as follows: Rnd 1: *K 12, K 2 tog*, rep around, Rnd 2: K, Rnd 3: *K 11, K 2 tog*, rep around, Rnd 4: K. Continue, working one less st before the decreases on the Odd Rnds, until you K2 tog around. Cut yarn, weave the tail through the remaining loops, tighten and tie off. Weave the ends in, wash and block. This makes a snug beanie. If you use slightly heavier yarn and 3mm or 3.25mm needles, you'll get a looser hat. If you want a smaller hat, CO 10 or 20 fewer sts. As I said, easy peasy.

 Robin knitted these gorgeous Macaroni Socks (from The Big Book of Socks). She adapted the pattern a bit because the yarn she used was finer than what is called for in the pattern (yay for adaptation!). She said that she hasn't even gotten to try them on because her 12 year old daughter has appropriated them (yay for daughters who love handknit socks!). Thanks for sharing!

Susan took my Nordic Christmas Stocking class at NCFF last September, and made this wonderful stocking! It turned out beautifully! It happens that I'm teaching that class at the Winter Retreat in Asheville next weekend, too.

Next weekend? Yikes, I'd better finish getting ready.

NCFF Friday

NCFF doesn't really open until tomorrow, but people are trickling in, and vendors are setting up, and there were classes and workshops this afternoon and evening.

 This is what the Coddington County Extension Center looked like when I arrived, just before noon. A few tables were set up, and the exceptionally hard-working board members had already put in a hard day's work.

 Before the vendors started setting up, before the kitchen was open, before the classes started, the spinning circle formed out of thin air. It's a powerful force.

 A few hours later, the marketplace started to take shape. Already, I have spotted many things that I want to own. I'm going to try to stick to my moratoriums, but there is some fiber calling my name. And I  think there is a lurking spindle that wants to go home with me. I fear that I am doomed.

 Today was the debut of the Nordic Christmas Stocking Workshop. It's a 6-hour class that covers yarn wrangling, chart reading, and afterthought heels. Susan and Carrie were my genius students- they caught on so quickly that they didn't need me to show them how to proceed. See that knitting there? They started the class at 1:00pm with only a toe.

This is what they had done by 8:00pm. How's that for flat-out amazing? My goal for the class was to work past the waste-yarn heel marker, and then to go back and pick up those stitches and start the heel. Speedy Susan and Carrie not only did that much, they finished their heels, and worked past them. I knit along with the class, and my stocking is the red and black one on the table. It was a wonderful class- thanks ladies for making the debut such a success!

Tomorrow afternoon, I have my Writing Patterns for Publication workshop, and I'll do a book signing sometime in the morning. I suspect I'll also succumb to the wool fumes and I'll buy some of that peach color wool that is calling my name. In any case, I'll take pics.

If at first you don't succeed...

...nah... that joke isn't appropriate for here.

In any case, the second try at a sample for my new Nordic Christmas Stocking workshop came out well.

I scaled down the motif, the number of stitches, and the length of the stocking from my first attempt. This version should work  just fine for the class. It will be an all-day workshop (usually that means 6 hours of classroom time). I was able to knit the entire toe-up stocking in 5 hours. Students will knit the toe in advance (or they can use a provisional cast on, and knit the toe later), and the goal of the class is not to finish the stocking that day (though it is possible). The goal is to get usesd to yarn wrangling, to be comfortable reading the charts, and to work the afterthought heel. Sock phobic types need not worry- there are no short rows involved. This heel is easy and stress free (and better yet- adaptable to nearly every sock pattern).

All anyone has to do in class is knit a bit past the first chart, so we can all knit the heel together. After that, finishing the stocking up to the picot edge at home will be a snap! And since it's a Christmas Stocking, there's no Second Sock Syndrome.

Woohoo!

Now to write up my SAFF class proposal.