Leatherwork

Last night DH and I spent the evening working on our respective crafts, listening to classical and Christmas music, interrupted only by a quick pas de deux during the Nutcracker Suite. I've finished my store model of the Colonnade Scarf, which was hands-down the most complicated blocking I've ever done. It's on the bed downstairs drying now, full of 2 boxes of T-pins. Time to invest in, or create some blocking wires. They would have had to be 8 feet long to block this baby though.

While I finished the Colonnade Scarf for Stix, DH worked on a collar for our Mozambiquan beach mutt. Since hunting season had started off a little slow, DH had time to get back into his leatherworking. He whipped out a holster for his new 1911 in less than 24 hours.




Last year, he was prolific, and I was the recipient of 2/4 of his major projects. He made these plackets for my chinks, which are now being finished at Johnson's Saddlery in Dillon.


For Christmas of 2008, my parents got Jon an ulu, and he made this amazing holster for it.


Lastly, the beach dog that gets the collar.

Hunting Widow/Poor

So rifle season took off a few weeks ago, and though he hasn't yet shot anything, DH has sure been hard at it. We've had an incredibly warm late fall, some weather nicer than the summer (it snowed on Labor Day) so DH's season of work has continued later than ever before, which is great for his checkbook but means that I have been pretty much abandoned unless I feel like walking around after him, five paces behind.

While he has been busy working and stalking, I have been knitting up a storm. The Noro Fifteen-stitch blanket is as far as it will go without the last shipmen of yarn that was accidentally sent to Alaska. I made the dragonfly pillowcase for a Thermarest collapsable pillow that DH found on some bushes at a campsite near the Grand Canyon. That pillow is pretty well-travelled. Arizona, Utah, New York, Mozambique, South Africa. The dragonfly fabric came from my favorite fabric store in the world: Selvedge Studio, in Missoula.

DH also got a new hat - he's pretty easy to knit for, but unfortunately not very exciting to knit for. Solid color. Nothing crazy stitch-pattern-wise.


Man Hat:

A no-fail hat, perfect for the man that is hesitant to wear knitwear. Both yarns are super soft for their ever-so-sensitive heads. Makes a fairly large hat.

Needles: 16” US Size 8 (5.0mm) circular needle, 4 US Size 8 (5.0mm) double pointed needles.
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande or Malabrigo Yarn Chunky, one skein of either.

CO 64 stitches using a long tail cast on. (For smaller or larger sizes, add or subtract CO stitches in multiples of 8, or change yarn size.)
Connect and begin to work in the round.

Round 1: *k1, p1* repeat between *’s until the end of the round.
Round 2: knit around

Repeat until hat measures 7”, ending with a Round 1. Divide stitches evenly onto double pointed needles and begin decrease rows.

Decrease Rounds:
1: *k6, ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.
2: *k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1* repeat between *’s to end of round.
3: *k5, ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.
4: *k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1* repeat between *’s to end of round.
5: *k4, ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.
6: *k1, p1, k1, p1, k1* repeat between *’s to end of round.
7: *k3, ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.
8: *k1, p1, k1, p1* repeat between *’s to end of round.
9: *k2, ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.
10: *k1, p1, k1* repeat between *’s to end of round.
11: *k1, ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.
12: *k1, p1* repeat between *’s to end of round.
13: *ssk* repeat between *’s to end of round.

Eight stitches remain. Break thread, leaving around 8” of yarn. Pull through remaining 8 stitches with a tapestry needle. Weave in ends.

This pattern is for personal use only. By using this pattern, you agree to use it only for your personal non-commercial use. You may not distribute this pattern in any way, but you may sell items produced using the directions in this patten.

I've just begun a Johanna's Shawl from the Madelinetosh sock I bought a while back. I'm not sure it'll stay that, but for now I'm enjoying the knitting. Christmas knits come soon!

Yarn swap package has to leave soon - right now I've just got a skein of Mountain Colors silk sock in Red Tail Hawk, but I'll figure out something else to dazzle my swapee in Finland. First swap!

Noro Fifteen-Stitch blanket with a pillow used mostly by Cao.