Hat based on Aimee Alexander's Autumn Days Scarf

US10 DPNs
Malbrigo Twist yarn in two colors (black and purple), about half a skein each

Pattern:
R1: (K P K K YO K K SSL K2tog PSSO K K YO K) x5

R2, R4, R6: (P K P K9) x5

R3: (K P K K K  YO K SSL K2tog PSSO K YO K K) x5

R5: (K P K K K K YO SSL K2tog PSSO YO K K K) x5

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I-cord, you cord, we all cord

I have learned to i-cord.

I'm making the Official Kittyville Hat. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my sister in law but I didn't even start it until well after the holidays.

I'm working in red and black - the band, ear flaps, i-cord, and inner ears in red, the upper hat and outer ears in black. The pom poms will be in both red and black.

The yarn is gorgeous. I picked up some Cascade Cloud 9 at the Yarntopia after-the-holidays sale. As soon as I picked it up, I knew I had to buy the yarn. It's so very, very soft. Think kitten fur soft. I walked around the store petting it before I bought any. *blush* No project in mind. Then I decided it would be perfect for the planned Kittyville Hat for my beloved sis-in-law.

Of course, everything went wrong.

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Teaching myself how to use DPNs, or Rowan Big Wool Red Hat

I started the hat on April 1st, 2009, making me an April Fool I guess.  It took a few tries to get the hang of DPNs.  I was working with Rowan Big Wool for the first time, trying to teach myself how to use double pointed needles (DPNs).  I started out using Size 17 DPNs, thinking bigger was better.  I'd already learned the lesson that I can not accurately do a bottom-up hat (my gauging never quite works out somehow), so I started my hat with six cast on stitches, split them between two sticks to knit in the round, and gradually added a stick as the stitches I had on started to slip off the ends.  It worked, more or less - I bound off way too tightly, so while the beanie-like hat fits, it's a little tight across the brow.  When I figured out what I was doing (how many to cast on, when to increase), I redid it on a US 15 circular.

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Seed stitch hat and scarf

For the past couple of weeks, I've been working on the seed stitch hat and seed stitch scarf from Alison Barlow's Fashionable Projects for the New Knitter.  I got the hat finished in time for Christmas but had barely cast on the scarf by the 25th.  (I was working on it after I recovered from the holiday meal-induced food coma.)  I won't include the pattern here, so as to not undercut the author copyright and income source.  She - Alison Barlow - has some patterns on Ravelry.com, though I didn't check to see if she has any free patterns available there.

My first attempt at the hat didn’t quite work out.

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