Today's Outline:
1. Netroots Nation Holiday Auction.
2. OWS Cold-weather locations.
3. How to knit a Hat, including knitting in the round.
4. Holiday gifts scheduling and planning.
It's beginning to look a lot like... time to start your Netroots Nation Holiday Bazaar projects! was posted earlier this week by the blogger formerly known as mcjoan.
I have, finished and ready to go, a beautiful original design cabled scarf in jewel blue, and it hangs symmetrically around the neck. (the pattern reverses).
I also found a pile of knitted cotton dishcloths - the ends need to be woven in, and they will be ready to go. Perhaps I should split them into a couple groups.
Think about what you may have hanging around, already or nearly finished. Or small, fast projects. Or offering to make your item in a certain colorway. ;-)
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The Occupy movement is going strong, and some of the Occupy locations are in cold weather areas. Occupy Salt Lake will accept hats and other warm clothing and linens. Occupy Sacramento put out a tweet for warm clothing/linen/supplies.
So think of your local or nearby Occupy movements and maybe knit up a couple hats and take them down. If you are madly knitting hats and live in a warm sunny place, comment here or message me and we'll figure out something.
What Are You Working On is a community diary series for all things crafty and artsy, in a variety of mediums and techniques.
You may volunteer to guest host by joining this Yahoo group, which I check from time to time. Also by joining this group, you will receive one email a week when the diary is posted. You may also volunteer to host by posting a comment in this diary.
If you click on the WAYWO group, there is a box for the group about 4 boxes down on the right hand side. If you click on the heart in this box, you will "follow" this group and the diary will appear in your "stream."
On Hats
Many people have not only extolled the virtues of hats, but written excellent instructions for the general hat and the specific hat. I have a couple of points unique to myself to make.
I want to encourage you at how easy and achieveable hats are. Really two days of knitting on bulky yarn and the hat can be nearly done. Whether you knit flat or in the round, hats are fun and fast. They probably have the fewest stitches of any finished item besides wrist-warmers. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, thinks that hats are the perfect teaching tool because they are so much faster to finish than a scarf. And you can acquire a few new skills too.
For charity, I think we should not spend a lot of time on something we may never see again. We of course want to do good and joyful stitching, but then we have to let the hat go. For this reason, unless the charity requires otherwise (I am thinking of premie hats), I use acrylic or acrylic blends. They are easy to care for, easy to wash, the yarn is easy to find. I really love knitting with wool, but charity hats are not the best place. Unless you can find superwash in something thick enough.
And we can sew hats too. And knit, and crochet. For knitting hats, you will need 16" needles and double-pointed needles in the same size to knit the hat in the round, or straight needles to knit it flat. For knitting baby hats, you may need 9" needles.
A note on gauge: this is secret knitting language. It deserves its own diary. It never hurts to knit up a practice swatch.
Links for knitting hats in the round:
Comprehensive 8-min guide to hat knitting
Great video of knitting in the round
Intro to Circular Needles and short tutorial.
Review of circular needles
Double Pointed Needles Tutorial.
Knitting Hats Flat:
Chunky Cable Hat, pictured above unfinished
This link requires an email signup I think. Anyway, knit flat is basically a rectangle, then with the decreases at the top, a bit of a pointed side.
Above pattern, finished:
Hat, knitted flat, worsted
There are THOUSANDS or MILLIONS of free hat patterns out there, even if you are not a Ravelry member or do not want to give your email to the big yarn companies.
Sew A Fleece Hat
No-Sew Fleece Hat Pattern
Loom Hats - Yarn and No Knitting!
Hat/Head Sizes - Average
Challenge
Make one hat this week and give it to a charity. OWS, local women's shelter, nearby premie unit, whatever: you pick.
Bonus challenge: Make a second hat for a holiday gift.
Reminder of hat's quickness: Son's hat last Sunday afternoon:
Finished hat is at top of diary and in first comment. ;-)
A note on holiday projects:
I saw a tweet that Christmas was 7 weeks away. I hope your projects are already started, or planned. Make time now for them. ;-)
What Are You Working On?