Sunshine Barf Hat

I'm feeling Mondays.  Mondays work for you?  Good, because Mondays work for me better too.  Now, let's get onto my latest project!
Last Friday something wonderfully wonderful happened.  I went to a fabric store, expecting to be bored, since, you know, I can't machine sew yet.  While I still have two sewing project kit things waiting under my bed to be transformed from flat boring fabric into a gorgeous tank top and hobo bag, I still do not know how to operate the sewing machine stowed away in the basement.  Once my mother's pride and joy, it now sits alone, freezing in the frigid back bedroom, crying from neglect as my mother is just 'too busy' to finish the many project piling up, like, say, curtains for my room?
But I digress.  What potentially would have been a painfully boring trip actually turned out pretty good, considering the fabric store had a yarn section!  I love yarn!  But you know what I love more than yarn?  Other people buying yarn for you!  See, my little sister is in a production of Willie Wonka for her grade school, where she is the annoying twit who is shrunk in the television.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, shame on you!  Go have a childhood and read some Ronald Dahl!  So the director is trying to make the doll they're making of a front and back shot of my sister more life-like by adding brown hair and a hat matching the one she will be wearing.  The only problem with this is, of course, that they do not have a set of matching beanie-type caps.  So my mother volunteers me.  Yay.  I have to stop working on a fabulously gorgeous pair of wristwarmers (stay tuned!) to work on a hat the color of Sunshine Barf.  My little sister named it, and that is how it shall be referred to as evermore.
I'm kinda winging the pattern, casting on 80 stitches on a set of size 7 double-pointed needles.  Right now, I'm just working a 2x2 rib for 7 inches, then I'll turn to the plethora of online patterns for tips on how to shape the hat.  I found a couple of patterns for American Girl Doll beanies, so I guess I'll use those.  The bad thing about all of this?  Opening night is THIS WEEKEND.  Meaning I must give up silk-painting in my Fiber Arts class, which we just started, to work on the Sunshine Barf Hat.
The only upside of this is that my mother bribed me.  I'm weak, I know!  But she bought me all sorts of goodies, like a cool college knitting book, some nice size 2 bamboo double-pointed needles and a ball of superwash merino wool/ bamboo/ nylon sock weight yarn for a pair of Harry Potter-inspired socks, and a niftalicious knit-a-pair-of-boots kit.  Unfortunately, I don't have the right size needles for that yet, but oh well.  It's time to go back to knitting the Sunshine Barf Hat and watching The Suite Life on Deck instead of preparing for the ACT this weekend!
(edit: I'm trying out a new format for this blog.  If you don't like it, or, if you do like it, please comment on it so I can improve!  Thanks!)

Let's Get This Started!

In the real world, I would be considered quite talented in the fiber arts, but let's be real, these days, real talent isn't all that necessary.  So in the knitting, sewing, and crocheting circles, I'm quite inept.  I am, for lack of a better term, an apprenctice to those great knitting goddesses, Purlia and Castoffa.  I'm trying to please them, because, well, the alternative, of spending hours on an ugly or ill-fitting project is just horrifying.
Right now, the only fun class I am taking is Fiber Arts.  That class is my life, and it's where I got back into sewing.  Sure, I sewed a bit as a child, but those 'samplers' on the stiff cross-stitch fabric that ended up jumbled messes hardly count.  Now, I can feel semi-proud of what I'm making.  We started with samplers, which I sadly don't have a picture of.  I do however, have a picture of my current project for the class.

We were supposed to create a square inspired by our school.  The pencil lines I drew a couple of weeks ago are starting to rub away, so I need to redraw them.  What you see now is the crest of my school.  Eventually, there will be a greyish cross behind it with the word 'Sisterhood' written across the bottom.  The white edging is all in french knots, suggested by a fellow classmate.  Bad idea, people, bad idea!  No one should have that much time to kill!
So anyways, what makes me an apprentice?  I've been knitting for about 5 years now, and crocheting for a little less than that.  Crocheting, actually, I can do pretty well.  It's the knitting that worries me.  Blocking terrifies me, and don't get me started on cable and double-pointed needles!  But, I am willing to try, to spread my glorious fiber wings!
Let's see, what other projects do I have going on right now?  Well, I'm working on a pair of 'Frothy Gothy Wristwarmers' (link to come later), a pair of MIA striped socks, and a crochet Harry Potter Scarf.  If you want to hear more about those, and other projects, stick around....