The First of Many

The first finished object of 2011 is off the needles! I’ve been having a lot of fun knitting the Rectangly hat!

I’m really pleased at how it turned out, even though it seems I can’t read a chart very well (there are a few little “mistakes”, but you’d only know if you compared the hat with the pattern). This little hat is really cozy, warm and cushy. Unfortunately, it’s a touch small for me. It could be a little longer. For it’s purposes, though, it did what it was meant to do; it was meant to be a learning tool for the technique of double knitting. I’m comfortable with the technique now and am much more comfortable purling in the Continental style of knitting.

The hat will go into my box of finished objects and will, eventually, be given to some worthy person with a smaller head than mine.

I’ve also been working on another small project. You may remember that this suite has ceramic tile floors and, now that it’s winter, the floors can be quite cold. To that end, John and I decided (yes, WE decided… he even suggested it!) that we need to have a stash of house slippers at the door for guests. Most of our friends are really good about taking their shoes off, but with the floors as chilly as they are, I feel a bit guilty about wearing my felted slippers and having our guests suffer cold feet. I know, we could get some rugs, but we really don’t want them.

John suggested I make a bunch of the felted clogs, but I wanted something a little quicker and less personalized (felted clogs are felted to size; it’s a little difficult to make “one size fits all” kind of slippers), so I went on the hunt for patterns. I’ve bookmarked a few and cast on for one pattern.

It’s a fairly simple pattern, basically just the foot of a sock. The pattern is Marilyn Van Keppel’s Faroese Footlets. The pattern has different options, including a colourwork option, but I’ve decided to make a plain pair first, just to get familiar with the pattern. Personally, I’m finding the pattern easy to work up, but a little disjointed and a bit confusing in places. I’ll try a colourwork pair next. In the meantime, at least one guest’s feet will be a little warmer.

Oh.. the yarn? It squeaks!