Hot Child in the City

 

• Project Name: Hot Child in the City
• Pattern Name: Cabled Hot Water Bottle Cosy by Alexis Layton. 
• {This is a Free pattern on Ravelry found HERE.}
• Yarn:125 yards of  Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in the color Wine. 
• Needles: Size 10 double point needles and a cable needle 

My Ravelry project page can be found HERE for anyone interested in greater detail.

I have been wanting to knit a hot water bottle cozy for many years. What could be more comforting then a hot water bottle with a hand knit cozy? So I dug through patterns on Ravelry and came across this one. The pattern is written to have a tie at the top to keep the cozy secure on the bottle, but I preferred the ribbed turtle neck look to the tie down look. I also think having no tie is just more practical for us. Nothing to get lost or separated.

 

The pattern calls for 5 repeats of the cable pattern, but I had a smaller hot water bottle than the one in the pattern, so I did the cable pattern 3.5 times which brought me to the top of the bottle's body. Then I did the k2,p2 ribbing until I was to the to the top of the spout of the bottle, did a knit row as a kind of turn row, and then switched my ribbing to p2,k2 so it would lay nice.

 

I kept ribbing until I had the length of the neck/spout area covered and was back to the body of the bottle, then bound off in the ribbing to keep it nice and neat. 

I am really happy with how it turned out. The yarn is a ball of Knit Picks that was was in my stash for years, so I was able to Stash Bust to make this as well - so that felt good too. 

And I think I may be giving my bottle a test run today. It's so cold out that all the schools in the state are shut down and my boss called me last night and told me I could stay home if I wanted too today. (Uh, yeah I want to stay home!) So it's nearly 11:00 and I am still in my jammies playing on the Internet. Not a bad day after all!

Wonder Twin Powers - ACTIVATE

I am trying to slowly work into a crochet-capable existence. I am improving and I can mimic uTube videos, but I cannot read the language yet. I decided recently to use up some of my scrap from my Treadmill afghan and knit up a couple headbands.

I am pretty pleased with the results! The first one is in Purple and the second is a pretty Teal. They are both in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky and I used just over a half skein on each of these.

I had the thought that I could give these as Christmas gifts, but then I thought....No. Too scratchy for your average Joe. So, alas, I will have to keep them all to my greedy self! (yay!)

I am fairly sure these are single crochet. I used an (h) size hook and chained 13 for my foundation. Then I just hooked and hooked until it went around my head. Then I crocheted both ends together and that was that!

I love how fast crochet is. I love the freedom of just whipping out a quick headband. Sadly my wrist is now KILLING me from making these, so I can't see doing much crochet in one sitting in the future. Maybe I can work up to it - but pain is a pretty big motivator to NOT mess yourself up.

Spray Hat

Side view of my Spray Hat knit with Rowan Spray - a discontinued yarn. I had knit some mittens out of one skein of this yarn in the Spring and decided I would use my other ball to make a hat to match. This hat took almost exactly one skein of the yarn and it is warm and cozy! The hat pattern was a free pattern on Ravelry called Painted Forest Ribbed Hat. I knit it on size 13 circulars and double points.

How the hat looks from straight on. The fold-up rim on this is ample - so I will be able to really pull it down when the winter chill is biting at me.

This is kind of gross - but I thought I would show what the "bathwater" looked like after I gave my hat a bath with a packet of Soak. Love that product. I will be stocking up on more next time I go to a yarn store. I really need to give all my woolens a wash.

This is what this yarn did to my needles. Can you imagine if I had not rinsed out that dye from the hat (and mittens)? I would have had all that dye coming off on my head, hair and hands. Gross! (And I think I know why the yarn was discontinued....) I am pretty sure the needles are ruined. I am knitting an acrylic black yarn on them now - thinking maybe the friction will rub some of that red off. Yuck.