Finished: Fair isle hat

Pattern: Fair Isle Hat by Sheila Joynes (Vogue Knitting, Fall 2010)
Yarn: Lana Grossa Merino Superfein
Colorway: dark blue, dark green, beige, dark red, light blue, dark camel (where are the labels???)
Price: ?
Amount: less than one ball of each color, I actually think there is enough left to make a pair of mittens
Needles: 3 mm
Gauge: Swatching for small projects is kind of a waste of time, i.e. I was lazy and didn't swatch. It might not have been the worst idea though, because the hat is a tiny bit too big.
Dimensions: It fits my head, but it could be a bit smaller, but still, it's ok.
Modifications: I changed the colors. The original hat is dominated by blue and cool colors and I wanted something with warmer colors. The crown section got shortened.

160 stitches
Crown shaping:
row 1: *k2tog, k5, ssk, k1. Repeat from *.
row 2: k

Repeat rows 1-2 1 more time.

4 rows: *k1 dark blue, k1 light blue. Repeat from *.
5th row: *ssk and k1 dark blue, ssk and k1 light blue. Repeat from *.
6th row: *ssk dark blue, ssk light blue. Repeat from *.

Comments: It's probably one of the most beautiful things I've ever made. :) Creating new color combinations can be so tough, at least for me. What I have noticed is that if you combine two colors together, it might be a good idea that they have distinctive values, otherwise you can't see the pattern well.

More information about color theory be found here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/FEATcolor.html

Finished: Gretel beret

Pattern: "Gretel" beret by Ysolda Teague (I'm also wearing the Backyard Leaves Scarf by Annie Modesitt)
Yarn: Numero Uno Tweed by Lana Grossa
Color: Green
Price: ?
Amount: 1.5 balls?
Needles: ?
Gauge: a bit smaller, I think, but the beret is still big enough
Dimensions: Fits
Modifications: None

I'm pretty late with posting about that one, I think I finished it last year? But never say never! (Hmm, that green of the scarf looks a bit dull in the picture...). It's a ver nice pattern. I made another one with Rowan Felted Tweed in pink, but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. The cables take a lot of time though, even when you don't use a cable needle.

Finished: Esther Williams Hat

Pattern: Esther Williams Hat by Laura from Poor Miss Finch
Yarn: Lang Yarns Baby Alpaca, 170 m/50 g
Color: Grey
Price: around 5 € per ball I think
Amount: 2 (I used the yarn doubled)
Needles: 3.5 mm
Gauge: A very good question... Let me think... :D I cast on 114 stitches instead of 96 to make the hat fit
Size: There is just one size. My hat fits like a glove. :)
Modifications: Cast on 114 stitches and had to adapt the decreases. No biggie.
Comments: Nice pattern, although as alala said that with the short hair I might run risk that it looks like a chemo cap. I think it looks like a bathing cap. Surprise, surprise, afterall the hat is named after a swimming star. To my defense, the hat does not look like a bathing cap if your hair is longer. A girl with long curly hair from my stitch 'n' bitch meeting tried my hat and she immediately got compliments. Some hats look good with short hair and some look better with longer hair. That one probably belongs to the latter.

I like the hat a lot, not so much because I want to look as if I was wearing bathing caps, but the yarn is so wonderful soft. If you have ever worn a hat made of alpaca, you'll never go back to letting anything else touch your head. It's warm and it feels so incredibly nice. So, I wear it, but I try to hide it under a hood. Yeah, lately I've been favoring comfort and warmth over vanity, but still. The hat really does not look good with anything I'm wearing at the moment, but I can't resist its softness. Maybe I should get more of this yarn and knit a matching scarf, but I actually like the red scarf.

I got told that my face looks slack in my pictures and that a good trick is to act an expression.

Trying to look like I'm this harmless friendly person that you would like to meet. (Hahaha :D)

My skeptical look, full with expectations that you are surely going to wreck.

Spot. on. :D

*sulking* You have disappointed me. *booohooo*

Ok, now give me my Oscar. :D

For a profile view:

And although I'm a bit late - Merry Christmas to everybody! :)

Finished: South Bay Crochet Beret and my Amor Intenso Scarf

Pattern: Crochet Beret from South Bay Crochet
Yarn: Schulana Tweed Lux, 85% virgin wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere, 110 m/ 50 g
Color: #05 charcoal
Price: I'm not sure anymore, maybe about 7 € for a skein, must be so pricy for all the expensive stuff like silk and cashmere. The yarn is ok, but well, it's not causing me to gush about it. I mainly bought it because it had the right color, was tweedy and had the right weight.
Amount: 1.1 skein (I had to start the second one because of the brim I think)
Needles: 5 mm hook (you can all be so glad that I'm on Ravelry where it's supereasy to enter the details for your projects, because I have such a lousy memory; just yesterday I entered the information for a scarf I had knit like a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't remember the needle size anymore...)
Gauge: I got told that it's not so important, because you can increase until it's big enough and then you decrease. What I can tell you is that the maximal number of double crochets between the front post double crochets is 8. After that I started decreasing.
Dimensions: The circumference is 24 cm.
Modifications: If you follow the original pattern you will get a spiral pattern. I somehow felt that I did not like the spiral pattern, but I was not not following the instructions on purpose, so you probably will have to pay very careful attention to the instructions if you want to get it right (but what is right anymore, I like my version better :D). I will include here the notes I made on Ravelry for this project:

I'm doing the front post double crochet (fpdc) on top of the fpdc from the previous row instead of on the following double crochet (I used this online tutorial - http://www.crochetkitten.com/tutorials/fpdc.html - because I just couldn't figure out how to do a front post double crochet ). It doesn't create a spiral, but looks much better I think. TheWilk told me about her modifications, but the instructions are a tad confusing I think, because without thinking too much and simply following the directions I did the same thing as she did.

It also seems that I only made one row of single crochets instead of two.

My notes seem a bit messy, but the pattern is really easy and I was able to finish the beret in a couple of hours.

I forgot, the second knit item I wanted to post about is my scarf. I call it Amor Intenso Scarf for the colorway of the yarn.

Pattern: Mine, see below
Yarn: Handspun bulky from handpaintedyarn.com, 135 yard/ 100 g
Color: Amor Intenso
Price: $6.20
Amount: 2 skeins
Needles: Like I said, I can't remember, probably 6 mm
Gauge: Not important
Dimensions: about 24 cm wide and 2 m long
Modifications: None

DSCN4512, originally uploaded by projektleiterin.

The colors are gorgeous, aren't they? :)

Directions:

Cast on 27 stitches (I used the backward loop cast on). Knit 3 rows in garter stitch for the edge.

Pattern:

1. Row: Knit
   
2. Row: Knit 3, purl 3, * (knit 3, purl 3), repeat from* to the end

Repeat the pattern till you nearly run out of yarn. The pattern should end with the first row. Now knit 2 rows in garter stitch and cast off with a technique whose name I just can't remember anymore. :D Ok, I'll try to describe it: Knit 2. * Insert left needle into the second and first knit stitch and knit (as if you were knitting them through the back, it's just that the stitches are mounted differently). You have one stitch on the right needle again. Knit another one. * Repeat from * Break yarn and pull through the last stitch. Voilà, finished! :)

More information about the sweater that I'm wearing here.