Doin' the happy FO dance!

I finished the replacement kitty hat today. I'm happy with how it turned out, not that it's a very challenging pattern or anything. The first kitty hat (seen on your right) had a very good life. It went to college in New York for 3 years, and even visited Ireland for a few months, but it has seen the end of it's days. Well, the end of it's days as my sister's hat since she washed it and it's about the right size for a six year old child. Not that she didn't continue to wear it, it just looked pretty silly. When I was out there in November, she was wearing the poor old kitty had around, and it doesn't even cover her ears now.

Fortunately, I had 3 more skeins of kitty hat yarn in my stash, so I was able to kint a replacement for my sis. I'm a much better knitter now, so I think it turned out better. I had to modify it a bit, but I think it's better than the original. I think my sis is going to give the original kitty hat to one of the elementary school kids that she reads to every week. They are in 3rd grade, so the shrunken hat should fit perfectly.

My sister looks totally thrilled about the hat, I know, but she really does dig it. We are just the opposite of photogenic most of the time. That and very very sarcastic.

The pattern I used for this hat can be found at http://www.kittyville.com/knit/kitty_hat.html

Modifications (that I remember):
Used Mauch Chunky yarn on size 8 needles
CO 72 stiches (so it was aprox 18" around rather than 22" or whatever)
Pick up 14 stiches rather than 12 for the ears because everyone thought they were too small
Forget the pom-poms because I'm lazy and I don't think the first one had them

Changes I would make in the next one: I think the ears could be double knit so they stand up better. Maybe decrease the ear flap CO along with the original CO because the ear flaps are friggin' huge!

And I just remembered that I left a stitch marker in the darn thing. I wonder how long it will be in there before she notices? It kind of blends in, so it could be a while.... maybe I won't say anything just to see if it's still there at graduation.

New years resolutions

I never do this, but I feel the need to make some resolutions for 2009. Here goes nothing:

In 2009, I resolve to:
1. Spend less time on Warcraft than I do on wool related activities or school. This means I probably ought to keep it under 20 hours a week. (The fact that I'm trying to limit myself to 20 hours a week is pretty darn sad, but we'll address this at a later date)
2. Keep the stash organized. No more leaving half finished projects in the living room if they aren't actively being worked on. No more wool in the dining room. No more wool in the kitchen unless it's in the process of being dyed.
3. Photograph my work,. Seriously, how the heck am I supposed to sell things if I don't photograph them? This is just plain lazy.
4. Sell the Ashford and the mystery wheel. I haven't spun on the Ashford in over a year, and I've never spun on the mystery wheel. They must go.
5. Cull the stash. It's out of control and currently dominates the bedroom. If I've had it a year and I haven't spun it yet, it needs to go.

6. Work on my fake hair business. I'm talented with the whole fake hair thing (seriously, here's me with green hair) and I really need to focus more on it. I love making hair, and it's why I started spinning in the first place.

Ok, I think this is a pretty good start, now for some WoW ;-)