the mad hatter strikes again

I took a quick break from my Greenfield Cardigan to knit a chunky cabled hat for my mum.

Pattern: Cranberry Sauce, by Brittany Tyler

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky, #3317, 1 skein (~ 100 yds.)

Needles: Clover US 9 and 10.5 bamboo 16" circs

my ravelry project page

Notes:
This went very quickly, and I used a super cozy and squooshy yarn. Alpaca gives me both the sneezies and the itchies, but doesn't bother Mom. I didn’t check my gauge, and I ran out of yarn during the decreases as a result. I tweaked the pattern a bit to make it work, and it still looks great! Next time I’d use smaller needles, especially for the ribbing, and maybe have an extra skein of yarn on hand.

I've never really mastered the art of taking photos in the mirror, but here's a rough idea of what it looks like.

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Just in case you missed it, The Decemberists were on Conan last night!

Here's a link if they embedded video doesn't come through via a feedburner.

Colin's rocking the plaid flannel, of course.  Takes me back to the 90s and my misspent youth. ;-)

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- Has anyone seen Guy and Madeline Sitting on a Park Bench? If so, what did you think? It's a recent indie film that's part documentary, part musical, but it had a very limited release and isn't on netflix yet.  It sounds fascinating.

- Amazon has made it possible to give e-books as gifts. Huzzah, huzzah! More info here. Paul recently built 3 big bookcases for our downstairs den, and dealing with that has reaffirmed my desire to keep using my Kindle. Some books benefit immensely from physicality -- cookbooks, knitting books, art books, things you want to treasure forever or lend out to friends -- but half the books I read don't fall into those categories. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo simply doesn't deserve shelf space in my library for all time.

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new knitting patterns calling out my name

- Shalder, from The Shetland Trader Vol. 1.  I'm jonesing after the Quince & Co. Lark yarn (perhaps glacier or peacock?) for this pattern, but I must resist until another sweater (or two) is off the needles.

- Leaving, from the new Twist Collective. What a great overall issue!  I'm always a bit surprised by how expensive each pattern is, though. A $5/pattern limit is firmly entrenched in my brain; I wince at anything above that, especially since whole books full of fabulous knitting patterns are so affordable.

-  Little Owls, by Susan B. Anderson.  Just too cute! Plus you all know I'm an owl-addict.

- Holden Shawlette, by Mindy Wilkes (free).