Dead Fish Hat

It's a craze on Ravelry as the hat is sure to bring a smile to the face of young and young at heart alike.  I finally knit the Fish Hat after joining the KAL in the Namaste Farms Ravelry group.  And can you say LOVE!  

It is an easy, fun and quirky knit.  Once over the idea that stripes do not need to necessarily be the ones in the original pattern, knitting was a breeze.  Just wasn't very fish like in my opinion, unless you were in love with Clown Fish or African Cichlids.  I'm more of a Striped Bass or Rainbow Trout kind of girl;)

Enjoyed it so much that we started a KAL on my shop's Ravelry page:  A Tangled Yarn.

Want to know what I did different with my Fish Hat? Well, here you go:

After doing the short row lips…..

K3 from ball A, K3 from ball B Repeat to end of round. Repeat for all rounds.

When it came to the decreases, I either K2tog or SSK depending on which stripe I wanted to decrease on that round. On the knit rounds, I made sure that if I decreased a stripe from 3 stitches to 2 , that I only knit 2 on the knit only rounds when I came to that section of stranded knitting…. and so on and so forth:)

Let me tell you, I would not recommend using all of the same color way for the striped like I did. At one point, the stripes were VERY similar in color during the last couple of decrease rounds and it was pretty hard to keep up with the strands.

The eyes were easy peasey even from someone like me who can crochet, but would never claim to be more than able to follow only the very simplest of crochet directions.  Using worsted weight (#4) black wool yarn, I did a slip ring and crocheted about 9 single crochets into the slip ring and joined using a slip stitch.  On the next round change to  white worsted weight yarn chain 1, do a single crochet in the previous round's single crochet, do 2 single crochet into the next single crochet of the previous round, repeat to end and join with a slip stitch.  Very sorry if these directions are not very easy to follow, I'm a Knitwit not a fabulous hooker:)

GGAF

Have no idea how I totally forgot to post about GGAF last year!  For those who don't know, GGAF is the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival and it is absolutely AWESOMENESS!  2012 was no exception!  Met new fiber/yarn people, sold some yarns I miss, and managed to pack and load before the rain hit.  That in itself is a great hit in my book.

Have I every told you....  I love my yarns.  Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that my yarns are better than everyone else's yarn.  What I am saying is that a little bit of me goes into every yarn/fiber dyed and spun, so it is like saying goodbye to a little piece of myself every time I sell one.  That definitely is not a bad thing, especially when my fabulous customers show off the lovelies they made.  It makes my heart warm inside.

This is the long stretch on Johnson Beach and is also where we were married.

My booth behind the rainbow adorned 'Wool Girl'.

Finally had a chance to finish spinning some very lovely hand dyed teeswater locks!

Don't you just love this knit hat!  Traded with a friend, yarn for knitting me this lovely hat using my Glammy yarn.  I seriously think I got the better end of the deal.

Very appropriate colors set up in the booth as the festival was in Florida!

Loved the Teeswater spun locks so much that they had to be shown again:)

Met a few Floridian friend for Pho (pronounced foe).  LOVED the fish sauce too!!!

Another Florida friend gifted me eggs, delicious, home-raised EGGS!  The little yolks come from eggs called and I kid you not.... 'Farters', a very technical term for the very first egg a chicken ever lays...hehehe

Had to show off some spindle spun yarn at the Barnes & Noble Knit Night...  PS, it is every Monday night at the Barnes and Noble by the airport in Pensacola.  Fabulous group of knitters and I LOVE THEM DEARLY!!!

A sand dune shot, just because I could.

Did anyone ever tell you they grow cotton in Florida!?! Well they do and in Alabama too!  This field of cotton was near Floamaton.

And why is there a picture of a room here?  Well, as chance would have it, these were my lodgings for the return trip through Georgia.  It was a darling room and I was a terrible guest... I broke part of the coffee table... Sigh, when will I ever learn!

Taught classes in Georgia on Carding and Core Spinning underneath this gorgeous chandelier.  This is one of those lovely places that one wishes they never had to leave.  Oh, I was so depressed leaving Georgia to go home!

Wonder if this sweet little guy missed me.  Probably not for long...lol

Luckily the fall foliage in it's gloriously colorful autumn splendor will cheer even the glummest of outlooks.

Seriously, I drove through this on the interstate.  Gorgeous no?

Digitabulum Fingerless Mittens

It has been quite some time since I posted and thought it would be a good idea to start out the new year with a free pattern!  Hope you enjoy it!!

Digitabulum

A Free pattern by Stephanie Stratton of LunabudKnits

Yarns:
1 skein Silky Flamme by Elsebeth Lavold. 
1 small 20 yard skein of Handspun yarn with approximately 6 wraps per inch or WPI which is the same as the Silky Flamme used.

Needles:
US 10 DPNS

Notions:
Darning needle, scrap yarn and stitch marker to mark beginning of rounds.

*NOTES* If you do not want to use handspun, there should be enough yardage to the Silky Flamme to knit both pair of gloves.

Wrist
Using the Longtail method, cast on 21 stitches using handspun yarn. Rounds 1-11: K2 p1 ribbing for 11 rounds 

Rounds 12-13: Change to commercial yarn and do 2 rounds of k2p1 ribbing. 

Rounds 14-16: Knit all.

Thumb Gusset
Round 1. K1 m1 to last stitch m1 k1. 

Round 2. K all 

Repeat 1 & 2 until there are 31 total stitches. 

K 7 rounds. 

Knit to the last 4 stitches and slip them onto waste yarn. Slip the first 4 of the next round to the waste yarn as well.

Fingerless Fingers 

Re-join in the round. 

Rounds 1-5: Knit all. 

Round 6: K2 p1 to the last 2 stitches and purl 2 together. (21 stitches) Rounds 7-12: Switch to handspun. K2 P1 ribbing on every round. 
Bind Off.

Thumb 

Pick up the 8 stitches held on waste yarn. In the corner pick up two stitches of the previous row and knit them tog. There should be 9 stitches. 

Rounds 1-5: K2,p1 ribbing. 

Bind Off all.

A Free pattern by Stephanie Stratton of LunabudKnits

Copyright 2012 Stephanie Stratton.  May not be sold, but can be freely givenJ

Fingers crossed, Here is the PDF!