I've been knitting!

Shocker, huh? I finally completed the Scotty Hat, based on the hat from the Star Trek movie--which you should see if you haven't yet. Lots of fun, and I adore Simon Pegg. A. Dore. Ever since I saw Shaun of the Dead. So when he popped up as Scotty in that cute hat, I just knew that someone, somewhere, would work out the pattern and make it so. My patience (heh, patience isn't the word, the movie had been out less than two weeks before the pattern popped up on the intarwebs) was rewarded and I cranked out the two panel version (not entirely movie authentic, but they've updated the pattern already to a four panel version.) I made some minor structural modifications and it works very nicely.

For firstly, I only used 330 yards of yarn, not the 380 yards called for in the two-pannel pattern. This was just a matter of how I knit and the cast on I used (a lace type of cable cast on that leaves no wasted at the tail end, which probably saved some yardage). Of course, this is all I have left of my three skeins of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Worsted (Blackberry):
Not much to be going on with, eh?

Then, in the decrease section, it calls for k2tog on the right side of the fabric. Being a pervy lace knitter, I find this unacceptable, as the k2tog is a right leaning decrease--leaving a series of small holes up the sides of the panel. So I changed the first of each pair of decreases to a ssk, which leans left, leaving no gaps of any kind at the edges, and my OCD was calmed. In addition, I did not use a mattress stitch seam, I kitchnered that beyatch. On the upside, my hat is truly reversable. On the downside, the kitchner instructions are now engraved on the inside of my skull. Those side seams were 85 stitches long, people. And my yarn is dark purple. I've got a migraine like you wouldn't believe right now.

The true insanity is that I'm already contemplating making one of the 4 panel version. Oy, vey.

Anyway, here's the fruit of all that labor:

Purty, ain't it? It's nice and warm, and the seams, for a beginner kitchner, are beautiful. I can't fathom why anyone would make do with a paltry mattress seam (migrain not withstanding) in the face of such beauty.

It actually even looks good with my hair:
What little of it you can see, that is. This was a very easy pattern, for all that it was my first experience with short rows and kitchner stitching, and I knocked it out in less than a week.

See the lengths I will go to for a piece of Simon Pegg and Trekkery? I really need help.

Been a while

And I ain't been doin' nothin'. Well, some things, but not much. My primary focus has been trying to figure out how I can freelance doing something I love and am good at, but since I've never had it as a job, everyone keeps telling me I won't be able to get work. However, I can't seem to get into the field as a job because I've never done it as a job, so it's a Catch-22.

Suck.

Anyway, one of the ladies from my knitting coven suggested a cat sweater knit along. Since Yoda is just that kind of a hip, timely guy, I figure he needs a sweater. I was going to go with a late '60s, early '70s color, like lime green or burnt orange, but decided on cream, on the basis that cream is always classy.

So I bought the yarn today. As Yoda has a surplus of the fluff, I decided a cotton sweater would be for the best. Wool would be too much and might itch. I got the cheap cotton from Hobby Lobby, the "I Love This Yarn" line. I introduced the concept to himself early on.


But would it make my ass look big?


I don't know, dude. I think it would be ok.


OK, I'll go with it. Hey, it's kinda nice....

Yoda loves this yarn.