Flours & Fibers: Knit. Sew. Party!

Ok, first things first. While I ended up deciding not to incorporate short rows into 'Olive', I did review a couple of my favorite resources. I really like this tutorial from Knit Picks. The illustrations are really easy to understand and there are good descriptions of when and how to include short rows in your projects. I also found this techniques page from Carol Sunday's blog. This is the technique that Kate Davies (Needled) suggests in her Paper Dolls pattern.

Since Olive looks exactly the same, just about one inch longer, I thought I'd bring a project of of the archives to show today. This is one of my favorites, partly because I made the whole thing in just one weekend. A coworker asked me to make a hat for his wife for Valentine's Day last year. Of course, I made it the very last weekend before February 14. He gave me a a few guidelines: not girly, with earflaps, and lined. This is what I came up with:

I used Red Heart Eco Ways, which was a Christmas gift. What's cool about this yarn is that is is made out of recycled soda and water bottles.I made up the hat pattern, but I was influenced by the free! pattern by Leef Bloomenstiel, Leef's Earflap Hat. I borrowed the checkered pattern from The Knitting (Man)ual by Kristin Spurklund. I also used fleece to line the hat for the first time ever. It wasn't too difficult, and I just laid the finished hat over the fleece and cut around the hat. This works because fleece is pretty stretchy. (Provided you cut it the right way. I found this out the hard way. )

Aren't those tags neat? My mom got them for me. I suppose I'll need new ones in October. I'd better get knitting before then; I have a lot of them left! I also crocheted for the first time for this project. It took me a long time to get the ties done, but I'm glad I stuck it out! For more information, check out my Ravelry project page, Fleece-Lined Earflap Hat.