spoiled rotten

Okay, I've been spoiled. Two parcels arrived for me today. One was some yarn I ordered and the other was a bit of a surprise. The surprise box was from Purling Pirate. I didn't know what to expect - she just told me that she was sending me a few things.

There was some fabric:


I love the skulls with knitting needles and the skulls with scissors. It just cracks me up!

And she sent some yarn:


My very first skein of STR! I might've screamed a little when I saw it. I love you P-la! You rock! And you certainly made my day week year!

Now that I've calmed down a little, I'll show you what else I got in the mail today.


I got 20 balls from the Elann sale last week. I'd tell you to go buy some but they sold out shortly after it was listed.

Last week, I got 2 packages - both of them from Ravelry destashers. Some pretty coloured aluminum dpns that I can't buy in Canada...


And the largest cone of yarn that I've ever seen:


It's Patons SWS and weighs 2.5lbs - should be enough to make the Imogen jacket. I've already swatched and I'll start knitting after I buy a circ needle in the right size.

And after cursing the chart B errata, I finished the Bloody Stupid Johnson hat.



Pattern: Bloody Stupid Johnson by Sarah Lilly
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Alpaca Elegance; 1 skein plus a few yards of a second skein (how annoying)
Needles: 3.5mm & 3.75mm Addi turbo circs
Notes: Knit for Three Bags Full. I don't like the yarn. It doesn't have a consistent thickness. It also feels more like sportweight rather than DK. If you follow the pattern, the finished size is 23" which is huge. My head is 22.75" and I have a large head (according to bicycle helmet manufacturers). So I went down a needle size for the brim, cabled section, and crown short rows. I switched to 3.75mm needles when doing the crown decreases because I didn't want the top of the hat to be too small. Because of the smaller needles, my row gauge was off in the stockinette part so I did 2 extra short rows in the crown section. After washing & blocking, the hat is pretty baggy. If I were to knit this again, I would cast on 16 fewer sts and repeat chart A 5 times (rather than 6). The end result should measure about 21". I would also add an extra stitch to the left side (aka the top) of the cable panel. There are 2 but you lose one to selvedge when you pick up sts to knit the crown. It's not a big deal - after all this hat is very asymmetrical. Bloody Stupid Johnson would be proud to wear it.