Awesome hat!

I finished knitting Ben's hat. :) It looks super cool. I was able to finish it and then felt it immediately because I was at mom and dad's when I finished!
Felting it was a lot simpler than I thought it was going to be. Mom has a front loader that locks whenever you start the cycle (they probably all do that, I just don't know these things so it seems weird to me) anyway, usually when we felt stuff we have to hit the pause button, drag the stuff out while dripping all over the floor and making a complete mess of the laundry room. This time it was SOO simple! She said she had talked to a woman that just runs whatever the item is she wants to felt through the entire wash cycle start to finish instead of stopping to check it.

We decided to give it a try and it worked beautifully! She felted two sweaters to see what they would do and I felted 4 hats. (One of which was Ben's)

Today I sat down and figured out how I'm going to line these hats with the micro fleece I have. It's actually very simple. I think I ended up with about a 3 inch band. I think it probably ended up about 21 inches long to go all the way around the hat.

Initially I attempted to just sew it on there using my sewing machine...Well I didn't like that you could see the stitches on the outside of the hat. So I opted to hand sew it using a whip stitch. (well...I did a janked version of a whip stitch, but it totally worked) I didn't have to hem the fleece either.
When I first sewed it on there, I wasn't holding the hat and fabric on tension so there was no room for expansion for when a head got put into the hat! I discovered this after I'd sewn the bottom half on. When I started sewing the top half of the fabric strip on, I pulled the hat over my knee so that it would mimic a head being in it. Once I did that, the stitches on the bottom broke in some places and I had to go back. Good thing I figured all this out before I tried to sell it someone!! :)

Anyway, it took a while, but it looks really good. You can't see the stitches on the outside of the hat and it makes it SOO much more comfortable to wear because the scales of the wool to scratch at your skin anymore! I can't wait to line my hat and finish my other one. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep my first one. Good ol' Blue. I'm thrilled about the colors for my new one! It's mostly black like my Spyder jacket (brand whore, I know) and since my jacket is accented by white and a really bright green, I decided to put stripes of white and avacado yarns in. The avacado is just the name of the color. It's just a bright green. :) It'll look pretty good hopefully. Well I'm pretty tired. I'm still battling a cold and trying to sit there and sew that liner on wore me out. (that's sad. I feel pathetic) So I'm going for now. :) More yarns should be on their way soon and then I can finally have my 10.5 DPNs to finish my hats with!!
~JoAnna

Oh my....

I went around town today looking for US Size 10.5 double pointed knitting needles. I checked the hobby store, Wal-Mart and the local yarn store. NONE of them had them!! Okay, the yarn store did, but it was $17.95! For 4 needles!! I asked my mom to check Knit Picks for me to see if they had them for cheaper... They did. They had a set of 5 bamboo DPNs size 10.5 for $6.00!! Are you KIDDING?! Well then I started adding a few things here and there that I needed. A cable needle, a couple of row counters so I can have them on more than one project at a time and I found this great kit that teaches you color work. (I'm a bit scared) But super excited. All this came to about $25.00...The thing with Knit Picks is that you get free shipping on orders that are $50+....So I texted Ben to let him know that I was ordering more stuff from Knit Picks and told him about my shipping dilemma. He is probably the sweetest man in the world. He told me to just go ahead and order the $50 dollars worth of stuff. WHAT?! Really?? Okay. So I did. They didn't have the color that I wanted in the fair isle kit so I ordered some yarns for that and more yarn for felted hats. Oh my....I'm going to have SOO much knitting to do!! I have to get these hats knitted up and sold!! I'm probably going to get another huge box of yarns in the next week or so.

I'm intimidated by how much yarn I'm amassing, but I'm so excited because I love all of it and I love making the hats. :) I have lots of micro fleece for liners. But here's what I need to play around with: I was in the outdoor store today buying a new splash guard for my Nalgene bottle (I know, I'm totally a brand whore. I can't help it...I'm also a good advertiser for all these companies I love!) ANYWAY! On some of the wool hats that were for sale they had sewn in a band of fleece that was just on the rim. It was basically so that the scales of the wool wouldn't itch on the forehead. Well originally I had thought I would need to line the entire hat with the micro fleece, but now I wonder if I should just line the rim. I do think if I just line the rim, I'll need to use a taller piece than what was on the commercial hats. I don't think it would cover the whole forehead and you might still get some itching. (Not cool). I need to try actually sewing with that stuff...Well...Lots to do! I have to finish Ben's hat and start mine! Ack!! Then I have a million more to knit up!! haha.
~JoAnna

Warp Knitting!

Okay. This post is gonna be a complete throwback to the 80s/90s. Be prepared. Oh I'm also completely embarrassed at the quality of the pictures. (Tara, I have decided I hate flashes too...)

So in my textiles class we were talking about knitted fabrics. I gotta say, I love learning about textiles stuff, but knitting? Oh it's so boring. I love to knit, but learning about it is just no fun.

We were talking about weft versus warp knitting. Weft knitting is what every hand knitter does. (The loops connect next to each other, horizontally, in the weft direction)
Warp knitting, as far as we knew, could only be done on commercial knitting machines. But then our teacher reminded us of a little thing called Loopers. Remember these?? If they weren't a part of your childhood experience, it's okay. I was all too happy to see a bag full of stretchy nylon rings just waiting to be made into something.

One of my friends even discovered how to make bracelets! After leaving lab that day, I immediately went home, cut up t-shirt sleeves and made the lovely necklace that you see around my neck. It made me so very happy. :)

So I decided to have 90s throw back day. I feel it was a huge success. I suppose it really should just be vintage day because the shirt I'm wearing was my dad's...Probably from the 70s. HA! LOVE IT! It's this weird fabric. Like some kind of thermal something. Not normal t shirt fabric. Still awesome though.
Just wanted to share. :) If you want to become completely addicted to these little nylon rings, you can buy a potholder loom and loopers at Harrisville Designs. (you could probably get some at a craft store too, but I haven't checked there)
~JoAnna