Pattern: Porom by Jared Flood/Brooklyn Tweed
Yarn: Aslan Trends Artesanal, 40%cotton, 30% alpaca, 30% polyamide, 1 skein
Needles: US 6 and US 8 circulars; I used my Addi Turbos

I finished this back at the beginning of October and then packed it up to go in a care package for kidlet; it took me a while to mail off the package but she has it now. I kept eating the cookies I was supposed to send her and in fact she still hasn't gotten the cookies (from Yama's Market on Young St. – the oatmeal chocolate chip are crunchy bite-sized delights). I'd seen a lot of slouchy hats around, and tried not to stare too hard at a young woman on the city bus, who was wearing a slouchy lace beret that looked like it was knit with a variegated sock weight yarn. I made a couple of quick sketches in my notebook and then decided that the smartest thing for me to do, if I intended to actually get a hat done while something warm was still needed, was to use an existing pattern. I bought the pattern on Ravelry and then wrote down the yarn information in my journal, and bought the yarn at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop in Portland while I was there. This project moved quickly; the yarn is delightful (a wonderfully soft, warm blend that has the warmth of alpaca with more body from the cotton) and the pattern is very clearly written. This was a great commute project (even though the yarn sheds enough so that I got off the bus looking like I'd hugged an alpaca), and I placed markers to separate the repeats. As long as I remembered to shift all the markers (in the same way that the beginning of round marker is shifted in the instructions), the markers kept me on track.

Even though it's lacy, this is still a warm hat, especially with the alpaca content in the yarn. Kidlet has been adjusting to the cold, and she says she loves the hat. The ribbing doesn't smash her hair down and the hat can be pulled down over her ears if needed.

Overall, I think this is a great pattern that works up quickly enough so that you won't be the last person on the block to have a slouchy lace hat this season.

I wanted to show this to you in all its pre-blocked glory (click on the photo to go to the Flickr page where you can read all the notes detailing where stuff is going to be neatened up with blocking).

Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple Children’s Poncho #243
Size: 6 – 8
Yarn: Peace Fleece Worsted, Patience Blue (2 skeins), Hemlock Green (25 yds?), Shaba Green (1 mini-skein) and Zarya Fog (10 yds?)
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Modifications:
* worked the first several rows flat instead of in the round for a split neckline
* worked increases 2 sts apart (this threw off the "v" shape of the stripes, though)
* added stripes of color – note to self, next time start new color at back (same note to self made the first time I knit this pattern)
* 3 rounds of reverse stockinette instead of garter hem – 2 rounds probably would have been enough
* 2 rounds of single crochet edging around neckline
* no hood or fringe (ran out of yarn – I have been stashbusting)

The inside – all ends woven in and waiting to be snipped. There were a lot of ends; I wound up frogging the Tillie sample and using all the little oddballs I had left over from that.

I am ever so far behind on getting this done and sending it out.

This is the first poncho I made from this pattern, shown here running around Sauvie Island back in September of 2006. It was too small for this young man back then – it is now MUCH too small. I got carried away with ideas about how to modify the pattern and got bogged down in details. I have a few inches of neck and shoulder shaping hibernating on needles; I think I can now safely frog that and use the yarn for something else, perhaps a hooded jacket for the young mister? Off to search Ravelry!

Pattern: Needle Noodles Crochet Baby Bib
Yarns: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton (Sand, Nut, Bone) and Dyed Cotton (Espresso, Pumpkin)
Hook: US H/5.0mm
Modifications: I started with the Vamp and altered it by curving the sides of the smile upwards, relocating the teeth, and embroidering them on as rectangles instead of applique fangs. I worked a single crochet edging around the entire piece instead of using a topstitched chain around the edge.

I am not truly finished; I went to Ben Franklin (Market City) to get Velcro fasteners and got sideswiped by the new yarn displays (Cascade 220, many many colors, Cascade Fixation, Cascade Handpaints, Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted). 

Beatrice isn’t the sort to complain, mind, but that she would one day be called upon to model a crochet baby bib while a dog sniffed at her underside was never a thought.

Pattern: Needle Noodles Crochet Baby Bib (includes instructions on how to do 5 variations; Flower, Abstract Wheel, Drool Monster, Vamp, and Cthulu – a Cthulu bib puts the words "baby food" in a different light, no?). This is the Standard Bib; I used Vamp as a starting point for the final embellished version, which I will be taking pictures of later this week.

Yarns: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton in Nut and Sand.

This isn’t done yet – aside from this being a not-so-good photo, I have to redo the ties because I didn’t get them lined up correctly.  Full review of the pattern (Deja, French Girl Knits) coming up when I get better photos taken.