Well, I’ll tell you what’s new! It’s knitwear season in South Louisiana! Temperatures have been steadily falling since Monday night and this morning registered a chilly 39 degrees! As I was pulling myself together for my morning walk to the coffee shop, wet hair and all, I thought “Jeez, I better grab a hat!” The first thing to hand was my ages old alpaca beret. I love this old hat.
I remember buying the yarn for it at Romni Wools on Queen West just after I got back to Toronto after several years away. I had very little money, but I managed to eke out the sheckels for a couple of skeins of Fable Handknit Pure Baby Alpaca, such a luxury at that time. This is a tricky yarn to find these days. It looks like their website is undergoing maintenance and I haven’t been able to find a shop that still carries it. As for the pattern, I vaguely remember it being an off-site pattern that I found through Ravelry. I think it came from someone’s blog. I had the hat done in about a day and have worn it every winter since and sometimes in between! Ah, knitting memories!
About 6 months ago, Bubba asked me for a beret. Unable to find the original beret pattern, I’m using this one from Churchmouse Yarns. The yarn I’ve chosen is Knit Picks Capretta which is a fingering weight, not the DK weight called for in the pattern so I’ve had to make a few adjustments to the numbers, not to mention that Bubba has an enormous melon! I’ll admit it’s a little late for his birthday but at least he knows it’s in the works.
It’s been another busy week and weekend. There always seems to be some sort of celebration going on around here and this week was no exception. We celebrated all the Scorpio birthdays at the same time! That meant a big party at the Artisan Cafe with music by Big Daddy O. That went rather late and was followed up by a sumptuous surf ‘n turf dinner at The Pelican Club. I got to rock my new red tassel earrings. I suffer so.
There were several deadlines this week for Fall & Winter design submissions. That means MUCH swatching and sketching. So far I’ve put together about 16 proposals with one big batch still to go. It’s one of the best parts of the job! Everything is so full of potential!
I made some new acquisitions this week. Look at these!!! I’ve been seeing these furry pompoms everywhere lately and I just had to have some. I like these so well, I think I’ll order some colored ones. I thought it would be safest to go with the natural colors first. I had them in mind for two of my upcoming new hats out for test knitting now and due out within the next couple of weeks. Here’s a sneak peek at the yarns.
Now that it’s colder out, I want to wear hats all the time. They’re also one of my favorite things to knit. I’m going to be putting my hat, mittens and cowl patterns on sale starting on Friday so we can all knit a little for the holidays. That’s about all the news for now! Happy knitting!
