Phileme? - Yes Please!

Work has been keeping me busy lately and when I'm not busy at work I'm busy trying to keep things running at home. Nothing terribly amazing or important going on, just busy. I have managed to fit in a little knitting here and there and have 2 new FO's to show you.

I finished a new hat dear hubby. The pattern is the skull hat I found while browsing around on Ravelry.com available for free on the Knit Two Together blog. I used Rowan Calmer yarn in black and purple and size 8 needles. The only changes I made to the pattern was to eliminate the ear flap that is designed to cover the stranded colorwork on the inside of the hat. I figured down here in New Orleans that it didn't really make sense to make it double thickness even if I was making it in cotton and I also changed the decreases at the top to make it a little more like skull cap as I thought the method of decrease in the pattern made the top of the hat a little squarish looking. I had plenty of yarn left over and I'm thinking of making a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend who saw the hat and loved it with the leftovers, probably not real soon though.

Then I also cast on and finished this wonderful scarf. The yarn is the alpaca yarn that I talked about in this post back in November when I got to visit Tuscancy Valley Alpacas and feed and pet the alpacas. This is the yarn I got while there. It is so very soft and lofty. The pattern is called phileme (free translated download) and is another pattern I found while browsing Ravelry.com. There is a knit along (in French) and ravelry knit along as well. I knit this on size 4 knit picks options needles. I love the combination of this yarn and this pattern. It was very quick to knit and I loved every minute of it. And the finished object is perfect. True I probably won't get a lot of use of it down here in New Orleans, but it is already my favorite scarf and I just finished it last night. I haven't taken it off all day today because it is just so cozy and soft around my neck.

I have also made a little more progress on Jeanie but it's been resting while I worked on on the scarf for the most part. All those cables don't make Jeanie a very portable project so I think I will be casting on for some socks soon as a second project. And it's been so long since I've done a pair of socks I think it's about time!