Season of mists and tiny little hats

Now that climate change has put the kibosh on the many of the traditional signs of autumn it's fortunate that there are some non-natural markers to let us know that it's time to break out the chunky yarn like the appearance of Fall Knitty, the return of Strictly Come Dancing and Innocent's Big Knit 2008. Between the credit crunch and rising fuel prices there's never been a better time to support Age Concern's Fight the Freeze campaign. Plus knitting tiny hats is super fun and helps me combat my knitting related ADD. Seriously they take half an hour each - gratification doesn't come much more instant than that



See.

I'm up to 21 so far and would like to beat my previous best total of 78 but me being me I've got other fish to knit.



Obviously a shot (taken with flash) of blue knitting blocking on a blue towel was never going come out well so you'll just have to take my word for it that this is the test knit of Megan's Liquorice shrug coming along just beautifully. The yarn is Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 ply (my last two balls) in a gorgeous shade of teal. I think this is going to look great with all my brown and blue stuff. If only it were shrug weather!

Autumn's harvest

After months of wonering if the tomato plants were going to produce any fruit, let alone ripe fruit, they've suddenly come up with a bumper crop - or at least two of them have, the third never really recovered from being blown over during the storms. The question is what to do with them, it's not really salad weather anymore! I think they'd be nice roasted for a sauce (there aren't quite enough for a soup) or maybe in a tart.

Ta da



Hat #3 in RYC Cashsoft DK on 3mm needles with a seed stich rib pattern - the same one that was used for the Sock of Doom in Sock Wars.

A hat a day

The deadline for sending in hats to Innocent Smoothies for their anuual Big Knit in aid of Help the Aged is earlier than usual this year on the 22nd October as I realised when listening to Cast-On last night. I've been a bit behind with my hat knitting this year and so resolved (in the mad way that one does at 1 in the morning) that I would knit a hat a day (on average) until it was tme to send the hats in. This should give me a total of at least thirty hats which is more than respectable.

Presenting..hat #1



I need a slightly smaller circle template for my pom-poms, at the moment they're coming out larger than the hats.

Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK
Needles: 3mm dpns

On the other end of the knitting scale I've finally made a decent start on the Anya sweater from Rowan 40. I had a go at casting this on months ago, got freaked out by the cable ribbing at the start (obviously Rowan don't believe in leading you in gently) and in the end ripped back because I wanted to use the needle for the Mystery Stole. One Mystery Stole later and I've completed the ribbing (which took the entirety of Shaun of the Dead) and made a start on the chart, which is worked mostly in KSH* and Kidsilk night stranded knitting with some beading thrown in for extra fun. At least the yarn is held double.



OK, they're playing the national anthem on Radio 4 so it's definitely time for bed now!

* Brenda Dayne describes this as a 'gateway' yarn, but I think it's more like the hard stuff.