Every time!

How come I knit a swatch, got perfect gauge, cast on 172 stitches, and my perfect gauge was all gone?
Same needles
same yarn
same hands
same brains

But it's like a kajillion sizes smaller than it needs to be.

Couple things

1) I bought the pattern Bloody Mary by Thea Colman (same talented designer who made Vodka Lemonade and Dark and Stormy)
2) I then immediately recieved my newest guitar in the mail and did not cast on at all
3) I have been playing with guitar strings instead of wool strings

Seriously you guys.
My guitar hooks up to my laptop.
Straight in there.
Loving it!

FO: Long Leaves Beanie

Back in November I bought Weekend Hats, by Cecily Glowik Macdonald and Melissa Labarre. I actually made a list of the hats I most wanted to make out of the book and I've finally made number 4 in that list. (In fact, of those 5 the only one I haven't yet knitted is the Glashutte Hat.)

Long Leaves Beanie

I knitted this hat up while on the long drive to the ocean with my family for Fathers' day. And on the long way home! I mostly followed the pattern, except that I used a larger needle and compensated by casting on one repeat fewer. Then, of course instead of working the chart twice I had to stop short at one and a half, which then affected the decreases. But it all worked out in the end, and it fits very nicely!

I'm not sure whether I want to give this one up! Usually my knits end up as gifts but part of me really wants to hold on to this one. Especially since it's a memory of a nice beach trip!

And now for the worst picture ever, in which I try desperately to show you the decreases at the top of the hat.

Yeah my house is like 90 degrees and it took a lot of effort for me to actually put on this hat, let alone model it while trying to take a decent picture. (Note: teach Vyvyan to take good photographs that way I don't have to humiliate myself in this way.)

Now to go and play guitar and enjoy the rest of my day off!
I hope you all had a good Fathers day weekend!

Prescription Hat

Is it possible to knit bad energy into things?
I have been so... overwhelmingly full of negativity lately and so s a prescription for my lingering depression, I thought a feel-good movie and chunky knitting just might do the trick. So I just sat down and knit a freaking hat.

It's a pretty freaking hat.
But I'm afraid that I might have knit bad vibes into it, and so I don't think I'm ever going to wear it. Like, if I gave it away the bad vibes wouldn't matter because they're my bad vibes. Like maybe vibes are brain-specific and you can't catch mine from the hat I made? Doesn't make sense, I know, but that's how I feel.
In other news it is 1:30 in the morning and that mockingbird just doesn't quit.
I haven't been working on anything else- perhaps that is why my happiness has been missing.
Chunky knits are such a good thing for the soul. <3

Free pattern is Ardelle and I used some discontinued bulky wool I stashed away long ago. I truly think this hat is gorgeous, but I don't know if I want to add a pom pom. Probably not. I hate making pom poms and if I resist the pom pom urge I might be able to get another hat out of the yarn I have left...
And I kinda sorta want to make another one because
a) I didn't graft it shut I just seamed it which looks a lot less good
b) I think the extra slouch in the back isn't really my style
c) Almost-instant gratification is pretty cool

I can think of someone I want to gift this to for Christmas but I actually haven't spoken to her in years. Maybe it's time to find her on the book of face?