Some of you Harry Potter fans may remember, from the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the scene where they are eating animal crackers that cause them to make the noise of that animal. In that scene, Ron was wearing a hat- here is a rather shabby photo of it:


In any case, a friend of mine fell in love with this hat. This same friend did the photography for my wedding, and as part of payment she asked for this hat, only more practical for actual winter wear, and a set of matching flap-top mittens. I haven't yet finished the mittens, but here's my practical version of this hat.




In order to make the hat more practical for MN winters, I used a worsted weight yarn at a fairly tight gauge, and lengthened the brim so it would cover more of the head. The earflaps are shaped better for coverage, as well.

This was mostly ad-libbed from looking at stills from the movie. I took inspiration from http://djinnj.livejournal.com/150838.html, and used pieces of the pattern Swell from Knitty and the Norwegian Star Earflap Hat for the earflaps and decreases.

Specs: Cascade 220 Wool in five colors, size 6 needles. Total knitting time- about a day and a half. I had to rip back twice because it was too small.

I really love the way it turned out, and I hope she does, too!

Here's my big fat skein for this week!





540 yards (!!!!!!) of mostly light fingering weight, with areas of lace to sport... it's a wool blend, possibly merino x corrie? from Maine Woods Yarn, in colorway Vineyard. This is my third yarn spun on my Ashford Kiwi.

Hooray, my first fiber (fibre) friday!

I got a wheel about a month ago, or so, but with finals/graduating college/ getting married/ honeymoon/ finding a job I didn't finish anything worth talking about until this week.

Here's my first leetle skein, 2oz of wool blend from Maine Woods Yarn.

There's only a few dozen yards there, navajo plied and not exactly... ahem... even. Something like worsted weight, mostly.

next is what took me sooo long because, as it turns out, I get really bored spinning undyed wool. It's Brown Sheep top, 4 oz. 2 ply, 188 yards, thick-and-thin as I was practicing different techniques. Sport to bulky.



Finally, here's what I'm working on now. I have a lot more than this now- I worked on it some yesterday, I have probably half of a bobbinfull?

It's more Maine Woods Yarn blend, and I'm shooting for sock yarn. Hopefully 3 ply but it's probably too thick for that, in which case I'll do a really tight 2 ply and whack the heck out of it. I'm planning on plying this colorway (vineyard) with some dark green (evergreen).

I have been knitting up a veritable storm lately! Here's a few things I haven't posted here yet.

I posted this before, but it wasn't complete in those photos. It's a yoga mat bag, made for my sister last Christmas out of Knit Picks Main Line. It's the Namaste pattern from Knitty.





Next is a felted laptop case that I made for my friend/coworker Nicole. She requested a blue case with Zelda heart containers, so that is what I made. It's based on the Detlef-13 pattern and is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes.





This is my wedding clapotis, knit out of Malabrigo Silky Merino aka the best yarn ever. I LOVES IT.



Next is a set of booties and a hat that I made for the nephew of a friend of mine. The booties are the Baby Booties pattern by Carole Barenys, and the hat is from the Peapod Baby Set. I made both in Rowan RYC Cashcotton.







These are socks that I made for my mom for mother's day. She knows she's getting them because I was worried that the yarn was pretty rough, but she says it'll be fine. The pattern is River Rapids and the yarn is Trekking Pro Natura. No photos on her yet, since it isn't mother's day yet.



Finally one I just finished today- A hat requested by my lovely fiance, Cory. It's Koolhaas by Jared Flood and the yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I cast on 128 on 6's since the yarn is DK weight, and switched to 8's after the ribbing. It worked great. And I promise he loves it, I insisted on snapping photos while he was watching a movie.





Thanks for looking!

My sister gave me a spinning kit for my birthday, which she got on etsy. It came with several small dyed batts of roving and one very small undyed practice batt. I spun it up this morning using the instructions here- it was easier than I expected, though of course it isn't perfect  It's thicker in some places, so I'd guess it's about worsted-heavy worsted, 2 ply. I haven't set the twist yet as I'm at work, but here it is!





The first photo is more true color. One of my singles was much more even/thin/twisted properly than the other as I was getting the hang of it as I went along, but I'm still pretty pleased with the outcome. Now to make pretty colored yarn!

Thanks for lookin! 

[UPDATE April 15, 2008]

I'm just gonna make one thread for all of my crafty wedding stuff, so I can keep track of it and all that good stuff.

My wedding is May 23rd, and I've got most of the big planning done at this point. I just started actually MAKING things, though, since it's about that time.

General details: We don't really have a theme. Our wedding will be in a public park, in a little amphitheater (very little- holds 100 people max) and the reception will be in the neighboring GIANT picnic shelter (holds 300! ). Our colors are sage green, brown, cream, and black.

My mom is making my dress (sage green two piece, with one long skirt for the ceremony and one shorter one for the reception so I don't fall all over myself). Bridesmaids are wearing brown dresses of their choice. Groom and groomsmen are wearing black kilts and black dress shirts.

Food is hors d'oeuvres made by various friends, and cake is fancy filled cupcakes baked by a friend of my BIL. Photography is by a friend as well.

I'm doing everything else myself. Decorations, centerpieces, invitations, flowers, the whole bit. I'm also knitting myself a wedding clapotis out of cream colored malabrigo silky merino, which is LOVE.

On to the craft photos!
So far all I have completely done is the lino block for the front of the invitations. The invites will have this image on a sage cardstock background, and inside will be a cream colored paper insert with a love quote and all the basic details.



The image is pussy willow, which will be our central flower (I'm not a big flower person, but I love pussy willow). The initials are (duh) our first initials.

I've also purchased the dried portion of our flowers- pussy willow branches, curly willow, willow eucalyptus (see a pattern? the park is full of weeping willows, too), and sarracenia. We'll have some fresh ferns and hopefully calla lilies for the bouts and my bouquet.


UPDATE April 15, 2008:
Wedding is really rushing up, now! Not much left to do- just centerpieces, flowers, and other decor.

Our invitations have been completed and sent! Here they are



The inside top quote is from Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the author of Le Petit Prince. It says, if you can't read it, "Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction."

Here's my wedding wrap- a clapotis, in Malabrigo silky merino in "natural". It's also the background in the invite photos

No pics on me yet, not til the wedding.

Another update- my mom made my card box, here.

I'll update when more is done!

I received from GatorWrangler today! I love it all


Here are Wynn and Tansy modeling almost all of it. (Layla was included in the swap too but she was being difficult so no modeling for her.) There's a cute purple shirt with heart trim, an awesome blue hat, and the cutest hoodie and jeans set EVAR. LOVE LOVE LOVE.


closeup of the shirt


lookit the ladybug!!


pic with hood up

And the final item!

An adorable cape! It's got deers on one side and green velvet on the other. So cute!


See? Deers!

Thanks so much Gatorwrangler, you're an awesome craftster and great partner!

I finally got Tansy yesterday

I'm in, hooray! Here are two of the three girls I listed in my questionnaire (I don't have the third yet, she's for Christmas):

Layla


Wynn

So, I've been doing a lot of knitting lately (so. much. knitting). Here's what I've come up with.

First, here is my sister's Christmas present. Kristen, I don't know if you read craftster but if you do, no peeking!


First time with cables. Pattern is Namaste from Knitty.com, and the yarn is Knit Picks Main Line. I love pima cotton, it's really shiny. I hadn't done the strap yet in these photos and of course there's nothing in it, but now the strap is on there (it's a six-stitch i-cord.)

Next is my friend Kiah's Christmas present, the Buccaneer's Booty socks from the pattern here on Craftster.

There are two, I promise. I just only have a photo of one of them and I already wrapped them up for gifting. They're done in the recommended yarn (Knit Picks Elements, I think it was). I loved this pattern! First time with Fair Isle.

Finally my friend Jody commissioned me to make her some mittens! This pattern is from http://www.konop.net/lifework/ and I love the way they turned out.


 These are  made with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Forest Heather. I loved this pattern, it was so fast and easy. First time with increases.

...can you tell I like trying new things with every project? soon I'll run out of new things to try! 

Comments and crit welcome!

oh and here are two pairs of knucks I made a while ago.