Okay, so where are we in our knitting. Girlfriend finished hers last week, a few minutes before meeting her friend to present the hat as a gift. That was a time crunch there for you, girlfriend. But it did not turn out well. Too big. Try again, my cute little niece-y. You say that you’ll give the hat as a Xmas gift instead? Now you’ll have plenty of time to knit. This happens a lot. The knitting may be done beautifully but we tend to forget to check gauge intermittently. Gauge is important. It determines the size of your knitted piece. I know so for it was something I learned when I started to knit 1000 years ago. 

JJ and I are at the same phase. Just knitting the rectangular piece. You know we are busy souls, and have x amount of time to devote to knitting. It took me about 1 month to knit this hat, and I think this time it will take me …. 1 month to knit. I’ve had a busy week, but I took some time to check out stitch patterns in knitting books at a local library. I wrote that I’d be faithful to the pattern and use the stated stitch but I’m afraid the stitch is not working for me. In the end, it comes to how comfortable you are with the knitting, and since this hat is for me, though the stitch is lovely, it is not for me. I’ve been experimenting with different stitch patterns and selected a simple rib stitch. I did not use the same rib stitch knitted for the first hat. I had my niece in mind when I chose that rib stitch. This time, the simple rib stitch suits me. There was another factor. In selecting a new stitch pattern, I had to keep in mind how it will look when knitted. The back of the hat has folds, so a flat and simple stitch pattern would do well. Flat, so the folds will not be bulky and unsightly. Simple, so as not to detract the stylish folds of the hat. TMTH?

I know we are still at the beginning of our first knit-along, but I browsed knitting publications for the next knit-along project. I..couldn’t… help…myself. I found some wonderful sweater knits in the winter issue of Vogue Knitting magazine. JJ and I both love a long sweater coat with big cables down the front. It is designed by Anna Sui, and rated as ‘very easy, very vogue’ knitting. Something we both could knit. Well, I dunno know about JJ, but I am an advanced knitter. NOT! JJ emailed me a weblink to Crafters.org for Mary Jane slippers. It’s so cute! And functional! Yep, cute is my favorite word at the moment.

Here’s my sign-off – Keep on knitting. Until next time!