Butterfly Hat by Sofiya Cremin
knitted in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Vetiver
knitted on US size 5 & 6 Addi Turbos
Ravelers find it here.
I really wanted to get one more thing in under the wire for Malabrigo March, and when I saw this pattern yesterday on Ravelry I knew I had my knit. Since I saw my friend Shelly's latest knit with floats I have been looking for a pattern to test them out on.
This was a simple pattern to knit. And once I figured out the basic idea of a float it was gang-busters from there on in. I was even able to sit back and watch a little TV while working on it. Usually, on a hat, I have to stick pretty close to the pattern, but this design was really easy to memorize. I wanted to make a child's version of this hat, so I shortened the butterfly repeat from four to three. And because of it, I had to reverse all my decreases, but that was a simple adjustment. So for Round 4 of the decrease, instead of k5, k2tog, k3 to the end, I did k3, k2tog, k5 to the end of the round. And then you just continue to reverse every round until finished.
If you've never knitted floats before here's the only advice I can give, when you knit the floats together with the next stitch on the left needle, use your right thumb to lift the floats up and over the needle as you finish the stitch. In doing this, you can actually see your work and don't have to worry about dropping the stitch you are trying to knit (which can be difficult to see when you are knitting five strands of yarn together with one stitch). But other than that, it's really an easy technique to pick up on. And I think the end result looks really unique.
It's starting to warm up here in Kansas, but I think Annabelle can still get some wear out of her Butterfly hat on chilly mornings this Spring. Plus it's knitted in Malabrigo, which is so light and fluffy it's really hard to believe it's wool at all!
And changing topics for a minute, I mentioned in a recent post that I had been tagged by Molly, and I had to go read up on being tagged to see what that even meant! (You guys have to bear with me, I didn't even know what a Webkinz was until last week!) So I'm supposed to tell you (and all of cyberdome!) seven facts about myself... some interesting, some weird. (Molly they may all be weird...)
1. I just began knitting last summer, June 2007 to be exact. I first taught myself to knit and purl after Annabelle was born five (!) years ago, but I only managed a confused looking dishcloth. So last summer, while I was digging around in my desk drawer I found my first pair of knitting needles. You guessed it... size 8 aluminums! And long enough to ground your house with, or as my friend Kandi says, add tassels to and take up the baton. But this time it stuck (English rather than Continental), and I am rarely seen around my house without a pair of needles in my hands.
2. 
My husband Andy and I met in high-school, and married after our first year of college. We've been married fourteen years this August. So, we've pretty much grown up together (he much faster than me!). Sometimes you might see a picture of him here on NIK, but don't bet on it, he's a terrible model who poses!
3. I love to run, and have recently taken up yoga, which is a big fat joke. I am strung tighter than a drum and it's all I can do not to yelp at every down dog... but I'm getting there. Slowly. Who am I kidding? I suck.
4. I absolutely love to cook and make a batch of Bacon and Gruyère scones that'll blow your mind. I'll post a picture of a couple next time I make them. I'd like to add a page and link in the sidebar of some of my recipes. Maybe I'll do that in the not so distant future.
5. I
am a crazy lady at my son Ben's baseball games. Awful. Horrible. Ben is another member of our clan that you may see occasionally around here, but the only way I can get him to model is if I promise he can eat while doing so. (But he's still the cutest nine-year old I know!)
6. I am addicted to Anthony Bourdain's hilarious show, No Reservations. He may be the grumpiest chef on earth, but I'd love to have dinner with him and just throw out topics to watch him cringe and cuss... Rachael Ray, vegans, boiled wart-hog... three topics I've personally watched him go ballistic on. That guy is friggin' crazy.
7. I can burp the alphabet. Ahhhh. Now that, my friends, is T A L E N T.
Okay! That's it. No more self-indulgent nonsense. And I hope that will do for seven facts. Actually I hope it didn't scare anybody away! So I will wrap up this decomposing bit of a post with one of our favorite sayings when Ben chooses to give us an update on how things came out in the loo...
That was waaaay too much information. ;-)
