Another slouch… I love making these, especially when I don’t feel like thinking too much about my knitting (oh, the lace on that cardigan is driving me crazy!). It’s also a great way to use up scraps.
For this one I cast on 80 stitches (on 4 mm needles), did a K3, P1, K2, P2 rib for 4 inch, increased to 100 stitches and happily knit stockinette until it was long enough.

Linking up with Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

In all my years of knitting I never tried Fair Isle before. I guess I found it intimidating. If you look for patterns, it actually is. So I decided to do what I’ve always done: wing it. I made up a little zigzag pattern and hey presto! A fair isle hat.
I know, it’s not perfect. A bit of a tension problem going on in some spots (if I can find some time I’m going to try if blocking it helps). And it’s actually too small for my head. I should have realised it makes the knit less stretchy, so it ended up being a child’s size. But that’s okay.
I mean, I finally did Fair Isle. A whole world of colorful possibilities is opening up for me right now…

Linking up with Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

The title says it all: with this hat I just wanted to do something different. And I think that worked out quite nice. The garter stitch brim gives it a comfortable fit and the vertical stripes made it interesting to knit (and to look at, I think). Defnitely one to make again!

Linking up with Jeannie Gray Knits’ Makers’ Monday and Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

I made this hat before (it was actually the last hat I made last year and the one I had so much fun with that it started the whole 52 hats idea) and liked it very much.

Naming patterns is not a thing I’m good at. This name? I know, it sounds weird. But that’s what the stitch pattern I used on the rib was called. I found it in a book that once belonged to my grandmother. It looks very intrigate, but it’s actually just simple slipped stitches that create this effect. Really fun to knit and a great one to use for the brim of a simple hat.\

Want to make one? You can download the free pattern here. Let me know if you have any problems or questions. I also love to hear from you if you make it.

Have you been knitting hats this month? I’d love to see them! The next Mad Hatters Link Party will be up on Saturday (March 31st).

Linking up with Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

If you read through my older blogposts or remember my old blogs, you’d immediately recognize this one. In fact, you’d be wondering why I made nine hats before I made one of these. Somehow this is the one pattern I knit over and over again. I’m not sure how many I knit exactly (because I deleted my old ravelry account – silly thing to do) but I know I made over twenty of these already.

The weird thing about this hat is that I really don’t think it looks that great on me. I never wear any of them. But it’s fun to knit, that counts too, doesn’t it?

The pattern is Soulemama’s (apptly named Soulemama’s Favorite Knit Hat Pattern) and can be downloaded from her blog. I slightly adapted it for thinner yarn and thinner needles. I cast on 72 stitches and used a 4 mm needle. The yarn I used is Julia from Zeeman.

I actually finished this one a few weeks ago, but I’m still going steady with showing one a week for now. Dreading the jetlag I will be sporting after we land in Holland on Wednesday (I hate nightflights) and the work we have to do before we can go back to the island. I don’t think I will finish knitting up every bit of yarn I brought, but I’m getting close. Hat # 14 is in the works…

Linking up with Jeannie Gray Knits’ Makers’ Monday and Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

Oh my, this hat. It looks simple and cute, but it’s totally not what I intended it to be. Ahem. I wanted to brim to have more zigzags, but the pattern I got from a magazine turned out to be too high for that. And then I wanted it to be a slouchy hat, but something went wrong there too, so after I frogged that part back to the brim I decided to get it over with and make a beanie.

Yes, it’s cute and I’d probably wear it myself. So maybe things just worked out the way they should have been planned in the first place.

My knitting came to a full stop last week, when I found out that my e-book subscription featured all books by Agatha Christie too. I love them. I even have them all at home (I prefer not to think about having to get rid of them right now). I tend to reach for these books when I’m not feeling well and that’s exactly what I needed last week. I’ve lost count of how many I read, but I think six or seven. And I didn’t feel like trying to knit while I was reading them (sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t). Oh well. I am back to knitting now, but I think there will be some yarn to bring home with me (only one week to go!) after all…

Linking up with Jeannie Gray Knits’ Makers’ Monday and Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On

Such a simple design, but I really like this one. I did a simple k1, p1 rib, but twisted the K stitches. And then I just did a lot of stockinette. Sometimes simple is the right choice, isn’t it?

Ha! I could get all philosophic about that, because simple is usually the right choice in everything, even life decisions. I even might state that it’s the reason we are going to sell our house in Holland and really move here permanently. Our first plan was to keep our house or eventually buy a smaller house in Holland and to buy a house on Curaçao too, and travel up and down a few times a year.

But we already had two situations (a big storm and very low temperatures) that caused damage to our house in the Netherlands while we were here these two months. That involved calling around, bothering other people to ask for help and worrying about inanimate objects. Worrying about family is something different, but worrying about a house while you’re not even there? Nope, not right.

So our new plan is to put the things we’re really attached to in storage for a few years and live in a rental here on Curaçao to see if we really want to stay. That gives us the freedom to change our minds, but without the burden of having two houses to worry about. Simple. But right.

Anyway. Knitting. I’m actually doing very well. Working on #11 already. Since we go back to Holland in two weeks, I suddenly decided that I want to try to work through the little stash I brought. Since it’s all part wool, I don’t think it’s smart to leave it here (moths!) and I would rather take back hats in stead of skeins. After I finish #11 I have two complete skeins left and some scraps I could combine. Seems doable (probably isn’t)…

Linking up with Jeannie Gray Knits’ Makers’ Monday and Frontier Dreams’ Crafting On