Friday Fibre Frequency

Well, it's a Friday with no FO... And you know how much I hate that *laughs* And I've already done a few retrospectives, so no point boring you guys with another one of those.

But then I had an idea, as I was putting on my slouchy hand-knit hat... I wondered how often I have worn some of my knits, and decided to do a graph. Yep, I can be a bit of a geek sometimes!

• So, as you can see, socks are (unsurprisingly) the most frequently worn item. 
• My Lore hoodie cardigan is my favourite garment, as is obvious from the graph. 
• Some of the winter accessories have recently seen the light of day again, such as my pink cowl and my mitts, as it is now cold enough for them, so their frequency should increase fairly quickly
• My first proper garment, the brown jumper (or sweater for my international readers!), has been disappointly under-worn. I should rectify that this winter. 
• My Dragon Tail scarf (my hitchhiker) has seen quite a lot of wear already, considering that it was only recently finished. 

As I was already having fun with graphs, I also decided to plot out how often I tend to use certain types of fibre in garments and accessories for myself...

This isn't representative of my stash, and I'm pretty sure my tastes have changed since I started knitting, but I do still love alpaca and wool. As you can see, though, I have a place for all different types of yarns, and although I prefer working with soft and beautiful yarns (although I haven't split out the cashmere and merino from the wool section), sometimes acrylic is the best option for the project. 

And I haven't included stashed fibres, like my bamboo or llama yarn, but I'm looking forward to both of them *grins*

So, despite my lack of proper finished object, I hope this hasn't been too disappointing a post ;) I actually quite enjoyed looking at my knitting stats!

For actual creative, fibrey and finished content, you know where to go: Tami. Natural Suburbia. Wisdom Begins in Wonder

Plans of the Cunning Variety

You remember the little felted balls I made recently? Well, I have come up with something to do with them *grins*

The Christmas decor at boyfriend's flat is orange/cream/brown... Finding orange tree decorations is almost impossible... See where I'm going with this?

I also found some cute little present shaped decorations I had bought some time ago. They open up to put sweets and such inside, but I thought they might look good with orange balls:

It's a little sparse at the moment, and it is extremely difficult to get a picture that represents what it actually looks like *laughs* But I think it will work. And I have plenty of feltable merino left to fill this and the other 3 decorations up:

I have also had a small amount of inspiration for presents. I have no idea whatsoever what to get my grandfather as a gift. And then it came to me - I can make him some cotton washcloth type things for him to use in his workshop! It might not be a perfect present, but I think it is thoughtful and useful enough to be a good idea.

You may wonder how this equates to a cunning plan - and given that I'm not a fan of cotton and don't have much time before Christmas to add more present requirements, you may have a point *laughs But I'll work it out ;)

Work In Progress Wednesday Number 31

Well, I don't have a lot to show for myself this week *laughs* Most of my time has been spent focusing on Christmas knitting to try and avoid a mad panic in a couple of weeks ;)

So, Cria hasn't had more than a couple of rows worth of attention, but I am itching to pick it back up which is definitely a good sign. And I haven't forgotten about my fuzzy ballet sweater, really! I just put it to one side when the Cria motivation kicked in and haven't got round to finishing it off. Well, that's something that can wait until deadline knitting is done *smiles*

However, I have started mum's scarf. I haven't done very much, but I wanted a relatively simple but small knit to pick up when I need a break from the present knitting, and this seemed like the perfect project. Plus, mum would probably like it sooner rather than later *laughs*

It's also nice to be working with yarn that isn't dark blue this week ;) It's Colinette Art, a wool and bamboo blend and I'm enjoying knitting with it.

Mum - I hope you like how it is turning out!

As ever, you know where to go for more works in progress and yarn along posts ;) Although you may have noticed the lack of a book in my pictures for the yarn along - unfortunately I am rubbish at balance and can't get enough knitting done if I'm enjoying a book too *laughs* I know some people swear by audio books, but I read so quickly that audio books always feel so slow to me. Ah well, plenty of time to read soon!

History

A couple of days ago, I got an unexpected letter from my Grandmother. I should probably preface this with the information that my Gran is not the most emotionally available individual. I don't want to say too much, although I have many fond memories of her from my childhood but it is fair to say that we have a difficult relationship at times.

The letter was particularly suprising in that it talked about someone she has never mentioned before. From the sound of the letter, her Aunt Edna meant a huge amount to my Gran and as I've never heard anything about Gran's childhood, it was a pretty big deal to get this long, detailed letter about some happy memories.

Enclosed with the letter was this:

A gold brooch. This was given to Edna, who I think works out to be my Great, Great Aunt, by her Fiance some time before the First World War.

It means a lot to me that Gran gave me this brooch. I have a really small family, without much in the way of history, so having this beautiful antique that has been passed down to me makes me feel a little more connected to the past. A past that had never even been mentioned before now. Knowing my Gran, it won't be mentioned again, but it was nice to get a small snapshot *smiles*

Twinkle, Twinkle...

I put my Christmas decorations up *grins*

In fact, I am currently typing this in my gingerbread scented grotto with a glass of Baileys and a satisfied smile... In previous years, my decorations have been teal, silver and black, on a white tree but since I have changed my interior design style and no longer have a black and teal room, it seemed like a good time for a chnage.

Finding copper/brown/cream/etc baubles was a bit of a challenge, everything was either overly rustic or shiny and gold. But I am pretty happy with what I got in the end. I love these particular metal decorations:

You can barely see it in the main picture, but my new pride and joy is a snowglobe... Snowglobes aren't my usual style, admittedly, but this one just had to come home with me *grins*

Ok, so skeletons aren't fantastically Christmassy *laughs* But I love Jack Skellington.

The Bright Cave*

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I finished boyfriend's hat:

Hmmm, headless hats look a funny shape, don't they?!

As with his socks, he was extremely excited and grateful for his hat... There was a small amount of dancing in front of the mirror, followed by a little song... No, really *laughs* I won't embarrass him by recounting it here, but it was to the tune of "the sun has got his hat on" and was very cute.

It's quite hard to take a picture of hat-on-head when the wearer doesn't want his face in the picture *rolls eyes* 

As you can see from the picture, he likes his hats slightly shorter than most people, which has the excellent result of leaving me enough yarn for a (non-matching!) hat of my own. Following Tink's suggestion yesterday, I used the decreases from the Watchman's Hat pattern, which I think look really cool:

I love the way the varied colours in the yarn seem to spiral.

Details:
Pattern: 2x2 rib, shorter than most hats, Watchman's hat decreases
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, in Marine (love this yarn!)
Love?: Oh yeah, he seems to love it *laughs* He refused to take it off for some time in fact ;)


*"Everywhere you hang your hat is home. Home is the bright cave under the hat" - Lance Morrow



As ever: Don't forget the usual suspects: Tami. Natural Suburbia. Wisdom Begins in Wonder.Plumslife. 

Refrigerator of the Mind*

I finished boyfriend's hat last night (more on which tomorrow, of course!) and had an excellent realisation...

I seemed to have quite a lot of yarn leftover. In fact, having weighed the yarn and the hat, I have just over half left *big grin*

So, boyfriend's hat is safe from my grubby little mitts, because I can make one for me too. Which is good, because trying on the finished hat yesterday made me want it all the more, not just because the colour works so well with my cardigan, but also because it really is crazy soft ;)

Which means I now get to choose a pattern for me. I somehow don't think I want a matching hat *laughs* I won't cast on for a while, plenty to get finished in a short period of time, but I can start choosing now, right?!

I could go with a simple beanie sort of shape, but I'm thinking something a little more interesting...

Hurricane Hat:

by Abandonada

Or perhaps the Eyelet Rib Beanie:

© Beka Inman

I have about 110 yards of yarn left, and a fairly small head, so if you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!


*"Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart". - Thomas Fuller