Is it a flying saucer? Is it a frisbee? Is it an apple pie? No! It’s a Green Beanie I finished knitting!

I did a little bit during each of my commutes to and from work. Knitting really makes the time fly right by. (Plus I have a bad habit of ‘people watching’ on the bus and subway, so by knitting and looking down at my needles, I’m no longer being ‘nosy’…hehe!)

The funny thing? Although this is the third one I’ve made using the same pattern, I think my first attempt (the yellow hat) came out the best! How did that happen? Beginner’s luck?

There are soooooo many mistakes in this green one, even though I tried to be really careful. Being a beginner, I sometimes couldn’t tell when I made a mistake until it was too late to fix it.

Nevertheless, I will still wear and love this green beanie! After all, you know that I’m a greeeen fieeend! 😉 And I actually like how no two hats come out exactly the same – one-of-a-kinds are awesome!

What was exciting to find out after I made this was that the yarn sometimes looks green, but in certain lighting, there seems to be some brown showing! When I looked more closely at the yarn, it’s apparently not a straight green. I love nice surprises like this!

In this post, I’ll show you a few progress photos from start to finish, as well as the hat at different angles and in different lighting. You’ll also find links to the free online pattern I used and the two other beanies I knit (yellow and purple).

I urge you all to try your hand at knitting this. Not only is it fun and rewarding, but it’s verrrry challenging for a beginner. So…when you finish it, you’ll be pleased with the outcome, even if you made lots of mistakes like I did! 🙂 The lumpiness of the pattern conceals even major errors!

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No idle hands here! They’ve been busier than ever this month with knitting Christmas presents.

I completed the pom pom baby blanket for my niece that I shared with you before. It used up 5 balls of yarn. And although it wasn’t perfect, each stitch was made with love.

In addition to knitting a dark-cranberry cable cowl for my mom, I also made one in a dusty rose for my sister-in-law.

The purple cowl I showed you before on here is the same style. I ended up keeping the purple one for myself because it was more of an ‘experiment’.

The following two cowls were super-quick to complete. I literally finished knitting 2 cowls in about 5 hours. It’s a fun and easy pattern that I recommend you try.

So, now that Christmas is over, I’m back to knitting another hat. It’s no secret that green is my favourite colour, so now I’m Knitting a Green Beanie.

(Yup, it’s the same style as the mustard hat and the purple hat you’ve seen before. I just love the style, and it’s very warm. Hehe, told you that I was going to make it in every colour!) 😉

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Okay, don’t worry – even though a couple of my latest Smorgasbord Sundays posts have been focused on knitting, they won’t always be.

I’ve just been really obsessed with it lately. (Haha, maybe I should start a separate blog all about knitting! 😛 Swatch And Learn is a very appropriate name, though…)

Today, I would like to show you neon pink yarn I bought from Etsy and the chunky cable cowl I made.

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Recently, I’ve been going berserk, knitting as much as I can. You’ll remember that not long ago, I finished knitting a mustard beanie and started a pom-pom blanket for my baby niece.

After the successful hat attempt, I went yarn crazy and bought tons of different colours to make a slew of other beanies!

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I’ll show you photos of my completed purple beanie. (Hehe, I’ve already started a green one, and soon I’ll be making a blinding neon-pink one using hand-dyed merino wool I purchased from Etsy.)

Also, my amazing interchangeable bamboo knitting needle kit came in the mail! I’m so excited about it, and of course I have to show you. It’s literally my dream knitting-needle set. (Haha, that sounds nerdy, but whatever…I stand by that statement!) 😉

P.S. I’ve included a “Knitting” section in the “Categories” menu because it just dawned on me that nobody will be able to find those posts unless they dig and digggg!

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If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you saw my progress in photos of how I started and finished knitting the mustard beanie I’m wearing in the picture.

I’m a beginner when it comes to knitting. Previously, I mainly made basic scarves, and you may remember my blog post about my first attempt at knitting a simple hat and completing it.

That first hat was very difficult for me because I had never done anything like it before, and my then-boyfriend lost his winter hat, so I really wanted to make him one from scratch.

After a lot of hard work (it literally took me weeks to complete because I kept running into problems since it was my first time knitting in the round), I finished it. To my great joy, when I gave it to him for Christmas, it fit his head perfectly, and he loved it! (Funny thing was that a month later, he dumped me. And, yes, he kept the hat…although I’m not sure if the hat is now in the garbage or not. I hope he’s still wearing it because I put a lot of effort into it.)

So…this time, I decided to knit myself a hat. Didn’t know if I could do it, since I never used a cable needle before, and I never did any fancy patterns. I literally only knew how to cast on, knit, purl, and cast off.

But I still wanted to challenge myself to make the mustard hat because it’s totally my style, and I find that these types of hats not only keep me warm, but look good, too.

After just a few days of knitting for a couple of hours each time, I finished it, and I was thrilled with the results! It fit, it was warm, and I liked the design.

Haha, now I’m going to make the exact same hat in every colour I love. (Yes, really! I’m not kidding!)

I’ve also started thinking about what to give my baby niece and 2-year-old nephew for Christmas since the season will soon be upon us. When I went to Michael’s (the craft store) and saw pom-pom yarn, I knew I had to make my niece a baby blanket with it! For my nephew, I may knit him a hat and matching scarf. I’m not sure just yet. (Ideally, I want to learn how to crochet so I can make him knitted plush toys in the shape of an octopus or a frog.)

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I have a lot of photos to share with you. Some are of the progress of the hat I knit because I think it’s neat to see the journey from start to finish. And I’ll also show you how I’m coming along making the baby blanket. (It’s my first baby blanket!) 🙂

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When I was in elementary school, my mother taught me how to knit and crochet. She’s a whiz at both, and when she was pregnant with me, she made blankets, sweaters, cardigans, scarves, and you name it…hehe, just not hats. She no longer knits or crochets – her vision’s really bad.

Unfortunately, I’ve completely forgotten how to crochet, but throughout the years, I keep going back to knitting. I’m more comfortable having 2 needles instead of just 1, but I suppose with more practice, I’d get used to it.

About 5 years ago, I bought a big set of bamboo circular needles on eBay. I don’t own a single crochet hook. (That’s about to change, though, because I saw cool YouTube tutorials on pom-pom scarves! I’ll link to it and other knitting and crocheting videos at the bottom of this post in case you want to try any.)

Knitting scarves is really relaxing and extremely easy to do. I’ve made a few basic scarves and one insane scarf made out of shiny, variegated monster-fur-type yarn.

This Christmas, I wanted to knit something for my boyfriend. Conveniently, he didn’t have a good winter hat, so I knew right away what to make.

However, I had my work cut out for me because I had never made a hat, let alone done any knitting in the round. (I always use circular needles, but all my projects up to this point had been K1, P1 basic, flat, rectangular scarves.)

So I looked up a free simple hat pattern online, referred to my Knitting for Dummies book, did research on YouTube when I got confused or made mistakes, and checked out knitting forums for tips.

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I’m going to show you the two types of wool I bought to make the hat for him and a scarf for myself. I’ll also share with you photos of my projects in progress. (The hat is pretty much completed, though. I just need to tie the end, and it’s good to go.) Continue reading →