faux fur pom pom – Yards of Happiness

FO: Inspired by Beanie Beanie

I designed a hat!
Beanie Beanie
Last month when I was knitting Jellybean’s Rosco sweater I feel in love with the main stitch used for the body, the right twist stitch.
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When she was laying in my lap wearing her sweater I kept saying ‘I really love this stitch pattern, I should make a hat out of this.’ So I did! Look at those stitches, aren’t they just yummy?!
Beanie Beanie
The previous day when I was out running errands with my husband I saw this post on Fibre Space’s Instagram account and noticed there were small leopard printed faux fur pom poms in the pic. I love a good tiny dose of animal print. I had to have one and I said it out loud and my sweet husband said, ‘well, we’re close to Fibre Space if you want me to stop.’ I love that man. He stopped but what was hilarious was that he had already been to Fibre Space twice to buy my Christmas gift (a camo print Field Bag, some enamel pins for it and a gift card). And when I grabbed a pom pom I happened to see some perfectly matching camel color Woolfolk yarn, Luft near the register that told me it needed to also come with me so I picked up two skeins. I will admit, I’d wanted to try out the yarn but it’s a little expensive so I was happier to just buy two skeins with a purpose.
Beanie Beanie
Since Luft is a bulky weight yarn and is a super soft blend of cotton and merino wool I wanted to do something a little slouchy and fun. I figured out the match to do a hat with the right twist stitch and then did the crown in garter stitch.

I love the final outcome. Now my only question is, would anyone else be interested in me writing up this pattern? I was thinking of making a hat for my cousin and working out the pattern again and I’d probably want someone else to test it for me too. Let me know if you’d be interested in the pattern or helping to test it out!

FO: The Road Trip Hat

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen in my Instagram stories that I shared our road trip for Thanksgiving. My husband and I packed up Cher and Jellybean and drove from Maryland to Memphis, Tennessee. Are we crazy? Perhaps.

On the way there we broke it up a bit stopping after 12 hours in Nashville for the night. The next morning we hit the road to Memphis.

Cher loves car rides and her cushy seat in the car. Jellybean does not. So on the way home I ended up holding her for about 4 hours since we did a straight drive home. It ended up taking up a little over 16 hours to get back because of traffic but we survived.

While I was on the road I decided I’d make a hat for my cousin Amelia that she asked for last year. It’s a pattern I’ve made a million times before,Dreiecke by Shannon Cook. I started it that morning…

And before I crashed for the night at the hotel I had reached the point of making decreases. In the morning we weren’t in a rush and my husband had a little work to do so after we walked the dogs and had breakfast I finished it off before we headed to Memphis.

The yarn is Lion Brand Heartland in Joshua Tree, a pretty olive green and it also has a Lion Brand pom pom I picked up from Amazon last year – note if you search for them on their site they have some fun colors and on clearance too! As for the trip with the dogs…

I already know Jellybean is slow to adapt to new environments and change so there was a lot of Bean holding. I also brought my little sling sack I carry her in and she would happily slide in and take a nap or just quietly observe hanging from my back. She’d be so quiet you’d almost forget she was in there until she started to wiggle around or readjust.

And Cher, as long as she has a blanket and someone to rub her belly when she rolls over she’ll go wherever we go. She’s such a trooper. And since I finished the hat so quickly I was able to start my next project!

My husband’s sweater is now almost to the point of separating for sleeves! But more on that later. Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

November 29, 2017November 29, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Cher, Color, FO: Finished Object, green, Hats, Jellybean, Knitting, Lion Brand, My Dogs, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, Dogs in sweaters, faux fur pom pom, knitting, Lion Brand yarn, road trip knitting, Yarn 9 Comments

FO: Green Monster & Its Gray Cousin

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. I did. It was nice to recharge and chill out. I also shopped online and picked up some Madelinetosh yarn because she’s had her entire store on sale for 30% off since Friday. I figured it was the best time to get a sweater’s quantity, right? And speaking of yarn, remember that skein of super bright green yarn I bought it New Orleans? Well I finally put it to good use. I knit myself a hat!

This is my favorite coat. I splurged on it (with encouragement from my husband) about 2 years ago and bought it from Boden (it’s their classic Mac style coat) and it has been the most used/worn coat in my closet. Totally making it worth the price. It is fleece lined, has fleece lined pockets, snaps and zippered closure, a removable hood AND it’s waterproof. Plus it’s a perfect length. I can wear this coat from October through December until it’s super cold and I need to pull out my Land’s End puffer coat for the super cold winter weather. I’ve struggled over the years trying to figure out what color to make my accessories for this coat and what hat pattern and I’ve never been very happy until now…

I knit the Dreiecke hat again (you may remember it when I made it for my friend Salina). I’ve knit this hat several times already but never in a solid color, which is what it needs to show off the lovely triangle pattern. But I’ve loved the shape and style of the hat so I didn’t mind not seeing the pattern. Now that you can see it, I’m wondering what took me so long to do it in a solid yarn?! Also, as someone noted on Ravelry when I posted pics, I’m wearing my Green Garter sweater in these pics.

I also thought about adding a pom pom to the hat and decided to look up a faux fur pom pom since they’re all the rage. I actually found a bright green one on sale at Joann.com and thought I’d give it a try. It’s a perfect match!

I walked into my office building the other day and someone saw me and said, “that’s a lot of color.” Yes, yes it is and it makes me happy. I also knit this same hat the other week for my cousin.

She wanted a slouchy gray beanie and I knew this would be a perfect hat. The same hat but knit in Heartland yarn and it looks completely different. In this yarn it turned out slouchier than mine since I never do a gauge swatch on hats but was perfect for what my cousin wanted. I’ve worked on a few of smaller projects this month, including the cowl I’m wearing here, so I’ve got other finished objects to share. I’ll also share the super easy pattern for my cowl as well. Having a bunch of smaller projects finished is good because I don’t want to share the Christmas projects I’m working on until after the holiday. And if you’re looking for a few quick knits I’ve got a post from last year that you can read as well. Oh and if you haven’t checked it out already, the Indie Designers are doing discounted patterns again this year. Check out all the designers and their patterns on Ravelry. Did any of you get in some quality knitting time during the long holiday weekend?