Knotty Mouse

I finished this a while ago but in the mess of trying to figure out how we were going to pay our bills (and then how we were going to put gas in the car… have you seen the stupidity that is the situation with gas down here?? OMFG people.. there is NO gas ANYWHERE!! ) I sort of forgot to post about it… though I did put it up on Ravelry. My father-in-law asked me shortly before we moved if I would make him a hat that was tight fitting and covered his ears and the back of his neck without being bulky. It could NOT have earflaps or be “fancy” in any way and shouldn’t be “dorky”. I browsed patterns for MONTHS on Ravelry and didn’t find anything suitable for my father in law.. so I decided that I’d make my own pattern cobbled together from the best points of other hats I’ve knit in the past. Its knit flat from the bottom up in seed stitch and then joined in the round to form a tight fitting hat… worsted weight yarn on size 7 circular needles. Thankfully it fits my father in law (not pictured… *snort*) well.. because it looked terrible on everyone else in this house — I think because we all have WAY too much hair for a helmet hat.

Pattern: my own (will possibly be offered later if I can manage to write a proper pattern)
Yarn: LB Wool-Ease in Blue Mist -less than 1 skein
Needles: 7 US circulars (magic loop & 16 inch)

I wanted to edit this post to say thank you to the folks who helped out by buying  my stashed fiber, handspun & sock yarn. I really appreciate it.. and my family does too.

Arrrrrr Mateys… today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day.. and I be your Captain.. The Dread-Pirate-Mousie!
Ye can be seein’ me colors t’ th’ starboard.. “th’ Jolly Mousie” which I be definitely goin’ t’ be havin’ made into a shirt one tide.. fer knittin’ events. I be spendin’ th’ day wit’ me crew an’ me knittin’ -an’ tonight we`ll be goin’ t’ th’ fair.

Hooray.. finally a finished object! The weather has taken a turn toward being fall-like and I’m more motivated where spinning & knitting is concerned, not to mention that its very nice not to be sweating while knitting. The weather channel says that its 64 outside - I’m VERY happy! (not to mention that this cold wave will hopefully kill the fleas that have returned to the house and are biting me to death) Hubby is out in the woods behind the house right now gathering firewood (I think that’s what he said he was doing…) and we cleaned out the birds nest from inside the chimney in preparation for being able to use our great big fireplace soon.

These socks above are the Nanner Sock pattern from Wendy Knits that was available only through Plurk. This is my first all over patterned sock and I think I got bit by the bug.. there might not be many more ‘plain vanilla’ stockinette socks in my future now! I really enjoyed the design stitch pattern (very easy to memorize) and it is helping me get my confidence on reading charts. The pattern itself was well written and easy to follow.. though I have to admit that I strayed off the pattern where the heel was involved. I personally don’t like flap heels.. they don’t fit me and I think they are WAY too bulky for my shoes, so I went with a no-hole short row heel and then continued on in the pattern. I also went up to a size 1 needle, did the sock Magic Loop, and made the smallest size.. which fits my nearly size 9 foot perfectly.

The yarn is (looks around for label… clicks over to Ravelry instead..) Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Bosco which was an inexpensive ($14.95 at my LYS which as sock yarns go is cheap…) yarn choice for a pair of socks that I wasn’t sure I was going to be finishing. I thought the pattern might be too complicated for me.. clearly I have no self-confidence. I also chose this yarn because I wanted something semi-solid so that I didn’t bore myself to tears (this colorway is actually wine with lines of slate gray and mustard yellow) and superwash because I seem to felt the crap out of all of my socks even if they ARE superwash (I think its that I wear clogs & boots) and I wanted something long wearing if I was going to go through all the trouble of knitting a fully patterned sock. I didn’t realize how stiff of a yarn this (though nowhere near as crunchy as Opal yarns, IMHO) was until I picked up my mom’s hidden cable socks (mountain colors bearfoot) but I didn’t really mind it while I was knitting.

Quick Project Stats:

Pattern: Nanner Socks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Bosco
Needles: size 1 Addi Turbo circulars throughout - knit Magic Loop
Mods: used short row no-hole heel instead of flap heel. Went up a needle size and knit the smallest size (58 sts) for my size 9 feet
Knit it Again? yup! kept me occupied and I love the pattern stitch. I would make these again.

I’ve been in a fall state of mind and wishing that the weather would cooperate with me.. but alas, its still in the high 80’s here in GA. I’ve spent the last week getting my supplies out and set up in the kitchen where I’ve been keeping myself busy making and assembling stitch marker sets for the shop… you can see some of them in the photos above. <insert blatant self promotion here> This means that the Mousie Masala shop is back open and ready for orders! I’ve still got some teeny tiny (smaller than a tic-tac) candy corn stitch markers to upload but that will happen in the next week and I’m going to try to upload new items every other week from now through the holiday season. </blatant self promotion>