I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore ...
In an effort to be more diligent about recording everything I make this year, there's a different face around here today! It's my friend Ludmila who was staying with us last week - along with her lovely husband. I've known Lud since we were 19, all the way back in 1998! 🤯🤯🤯 She still lives in Brasil but we've remained as close as ever as the years went by. When she fixed her wedding date to be the week before I moved to the UK so I could be there, I knew we were forever. 😆💗
So when we were in Leeds last week and she found some Rowan Big Wool in a gorgeous shade of yellow, I didn't hesitate to offer to make her a hat with it. It might have been a risky proposition as this was Monday lunchtime, they were going home on Thursday and we were spending Tuesday and Wednesday in Dublin with no space to bring any knitting with me - only a backpack allowed. 🤦♀️ But hey, Big Wool knits up so fast and she offered to take care of dinner that night so I could knit in peace so I thought it was doable.
We had no pattern in mind but I knew one ball would be more than enough. We also found the perfect pompom at Samuel Taylor's and then it was on to search for a pattern. We settled on the Up & Up hat by Melissa Nemitz and I got started.
The pattern calls for a 10mm needle to the body but I stuck with the 9mm as Lud's head is quite small. Plus, she's a little particular about how she likes her hats to fit her - I made her another hat YEARS ago that she still wears all the time and says it's the only one she likes.
I also knitted an extra pattern repeat because, probably due to my smaller needle, the body was nowhere near long enough after doing the 2 required ones.
Wouldn't you know it, I was done while she and Liam were still doing food prep for dinner! 🤣 It literally took me a couple of hours to get it knitted - and I had a headache! Gosh, I wish I liked knitting with super chunky wool more but I find chunky needles really awkward to hold.
Anyway, I was a little worried it might turn out too tight because it was a bit touch-and-go when I got it off the needles. But the wool really relaxed after blocking and it ended up fitting her head like a dream! I hoped we'd get to take it to Dublin but it was still damp when we got up at 4am the next morning to catch our flight at stupid o'clock. At least I managed to get it finished before they left my house. 🙌
Here's the Ravelry link with the knitting specs.
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