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Because I Needed Another Addiction!

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twilightcoverSo the folks at Random House thought I needed more knitting time. Ok, I’ll go with that, let’s see where that leads. That was a month or so ago, and 3.5 Audio Books! Not the little ones that resemble bed time stories, no! These ones are the full length novels. So far we’ve conquered Twilight, New Moon and 1/2 of the 3rd in the series, Eclipse. Also The Symbol.

Am I getting more knitting done? First lets consider that this is cold, snowy, sit by the woodstove and drink hot tea season. But, it’s also snowshoeing and skiing season, but yeah, I’d have to say that the verdict is positive. More knitting is being knit. Good, that!

These audio books are just as addictive as the original novels, but they don’t need to be held (or petted, or talked to, fed, or watered, or even taken outside). Just plug them into the computer, grab your needles and you’re good to go, or to sit, or whatever!

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Comments

  1. I am presuming these audio books are the ones on cds? I use mine if I have trouble sleeping I plug them into my walkman headphones in and lay back and close my eyes – sometimes better than sleeping pills. Use the walkman on the train or bus to help pass the time. Many good ways to listen to them.

Have you read?

Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

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