Out With the Old, in With the New

Presenting on the left: the last finished item of 2008, the Green Buzzbee hat. I knit this hat in a few days, and I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I used Cascade 220 superwash in a heathery evergreen, and the color has a ton of depth. In addition to the evergreen, there's yellow, and copper, and more--as I learned while cutting off the tip of the hat and reknitting it because I didn't like the way the point looked. The end knot made it look asymmetrical, and weaving in the end (which is why I had to cut off the top) made it look worse. On the second attempt, I turned the hat inside out before pulling the yarn through the last three stitches, and the result looks much better. The hat didn't look as awesome as I'd hoped on my Godzilla nightlight, but I might try it again now that it's been washed and blocked--although I'd like to get it in the mail tomorrow, if it's dry.

Presenting on the right: the first new project of 2009. The pattern is Empoisonnee from the Twist Collective, and at long last I'm using the Wollmeise sock yarn that I've had for several months. So far, so good, but it is early days. It's not bad luck to abandon the first new project of the year is it? Hmmm. . . maybe I should check to see if I've done that before.

Happy New Year everyone! I don't know about you, but I was pretty sick of 2008. I've been mulling over some "best of" lists from 2008 to post, and maybe I'll get around to them, but probably not. I've been really behind on everything for the last several months, so there hasn't been a lot of time for reflection. Maybe my goal for 2009 should be to let stuff go . . .

Some Hats May Have Been Started

Too late in the evening to blog . . . . but I may have started a couple of new hats.

Maybe one that's knit from the top down, and will hide an iPod and headphones . . .

(it's a lot bigger now, but hard to photograph).

. . . and maybe one from the cover of this collection of patterns, that if finished & mailed quickly will keep a Southern baby warm when he visits Germany in January:

(I started this yesterday, so I should get it in the mail maybe this weekend).

So much for working on the same projects all the time . . . although I'd like the record to reflect that the progress on the Hulk Smash socks has been significant. I've finished the gusset decreases, and now it's a race to the toes. The pooling is a little weird in the photo, but the cashmere softness and quick pace of the knitting more than makes up for it:

You'll have to trust me when I say that these look a lot less busy in person (at least until they're finished & blocked).