Pattern: Felicity AKA Swatch Hat
For: me
Yarn: 185 yds Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Peat Mix
Needles: US 5 and 7 Knit Picks Options
Timeline: started 05.20.2009; finished 05.23.2009

I've had this queued for a while and decided to cast on to check my gauge for Cobblestone. It's a nice, simple pattern, although I'd definitely recommend casting on more stitches if you don't have a smallish head.

I absolutely adore Ultra Alpaca. I need to knit myself something big out of it. After I soaked this and let it dry, it was even softer and felt lighter. Sigh...lovely, lovely stuff. Also, I like that I can fold this over to keep my ears warmer when the weather is bad.

I did make some other changes aside from how many stitches I cast on. Here they are...
Cast on 80 sts instead of 70.
Knit on 5s until 3.75"
Knit on 7s until 6"
Increased until 150 sts
Decreases:
Worked 2 rounds even between the first 3 decrease rounds
Worked 1 round even between the rest, until there were 90 stitches
Then…
k1 k2tog around - 60 sts
k even
k1 k2tog around - 40 sts
k even
k2tog around - 20 sts
k even
k2tog around - 10 sts
k even

Pattern: Ishbel
Inspired by: BigSister
For: me
Yarn: 260 yds Handspun Malabrigo Sock in Lettuce
Needles: US 5 Knit Picks Options; US 11 Denises for the bind-off
Timeline: started 04.23.2009; finished 05.05.2009

I don't know what to say about this pattern other than it is fantastic. Ysolda's patterns are always so clear, and this was no exception. I made the smaller version and loved working on it from start to finish, and would have finished sooner had I not forgotten it one Knit Night.

And the yarn...oh, Malabrigo. I loved working with it. It's definitely a thinner fingering weight, but it was so soft. I'm also really pleased with the stitch definition. I mean...check this out.

The only change I made was to knit it on US 5s (no reason other than I couldn't find my 6s) and bind off on WAY bigger needles (US 11s) because I knew some people were having issues with curling and losing the pointiness. This was the first time I broke out my blocking wires and I really liked them. Yay for control! They definitely helped with the points.

Oh, and who's a knitter? I am!

06.21.2009
Re: the pointiness
I used blocking wires, so I just ran through them the last stitch on each point and, well, blocked the shit out of it. It worked really well. It isn't as pointy right now, but it is pointier than most other ones I've seen. Plus, I wear it constantly. Ha!