Knitting Group and A New Hat

Earlier this week I attended my first "Tuesday Afternoon Knitting Group" at the LYS. I liked it. It's sort of a new group and so it's rather small. In fact there were just four of us there, the group leader, myself, and a mother/daughter team. I liked them, they brought snacks, chocolate covered raisins and toffee macadamia nuts to be exact. There was much talk of upcoming weddings, being completely intimidated by knitting in the round, which decreases slant which way, and growing hair on your elbows.

I'm taking advantage of the group as a regularly scheduled two hour block of knitting time to finally knit myself Sizzle which is available on Knit and Tonic. I'm knitting it with Berroco Cotton Twist, that lovely cotton rayon blend that has just a touch of shimmer. And because the sweater is for me, it's brown.

I only got as far as knitting my gauge swatch, but I have three things to reveal about myself and gauge swatching: I only do it when I'm knitting a garment, I just can't bring myself to do it any other time. Once I've got the gauge I frog the thing, I can't waste the yarn. And I'm a terribly loose knitter, I am consistently two needle sizes smaller than recommended. I always assumed this was because I do felting (fulling really) and so am in the habit of knitting all loosey-goosey. The group leader pointed out that it is in fact probably because I knit continental, and it's always looser. Who knew? I'm learning new things everyday, as they say. I've decided I will from now on start with the smaller needles, and will perhaps have to only knit the one swatch, getting it right the first time, instead of having to knit three.

On another note... I made this hat. I love it! It's knit from a bunch of stash busting cotton yarn and I added a fringe of cotton ribbon.

That's it for today. Have a great holiday weekend, and please drive safe.