Give Peace A Chance.

Back about two months ago (although it honestly feels like it was about two years ago) you may remember that I gave a speech about Knits by Meliss at a convention. Cool, but not exactly the point.

Well, after I was done talking about myself, one of the participants approached me and asked if I could make her a peace sign hat. I agreed. I thought it would be kind of fun. And besides, how hard would it be to make a peace sign hat?

Very.

But this afternoon I think I've finally conquered peace — or at least the sign part!

It took three tries and a whole lot of patience...

For my first try, I couldn't find a pattern to make a peace sign that I liked, so I decided to knit a plain hat in the round and then make a peace sign applique to attach to the outside... It seemed like a great idea at the time, but unfortunately failed miserably....

The applique looks OK from the front, but when viewed from the side it looks pretty silly. Unfortunately, even if it hadn't popped out so much, I would have had to redo the peace sign part because I sewed it on too high on the hat, so it sits awkwardly high up on the forehead. Whoops!

Next time I try this technique, I'll use thinner yarn so that the effect isn't quite so 3D...

For my second try, I looked up peace sign cross-stitch patterns and found one that I could alter to work for the hat. This version totally would have worked but I miscalculated how many stitches to cast on and accidentally made the hat 4.5 inches wider than I meant too... I was going to try make it work, but when I started knitting in the pattern, it went all wonky, then I dropped a stitch, and things got awkward when I tried to fix it... so I decided to start over. Again.

Third time's a charm! This time I think I made it a good width (slightly larger than I would normally have made an adult hat, per her request) and I managed to knit in the pattern without doing anything strange or dropping any stitches.

I'm pretty sure it's a miracle!

Knits by Meliss

I did it! I made my very own website for "Knits by Meliss" which is the line hats that I created and have been knitting for the past two years for Grandma's. 

Well technically I made a blog... but "Knits by Meliss" looks like a website, so I'm satisfied.

I've been toying with the idea of making a site to display my hats ever since I made special labels in the fall,  and now my idea has become reality! I plan on posting pictures of different hats pretty regularly and I'm also going to try to post patterns for some of them so that any crafty readers can knit them for themselves. I think the hardest part of this endeavor is going to be naming each different hat... so far the only one I've posted a picture of is my flower petal hat which I've dubbed "Blossom" and coming soon (ie tomorrow afternoon) is my snowman hat or "Snowy." Those were easy... I'm going to have to start getting creative when it comes to the plainish ones.

But I digress. Knits by Meliss can be found at www.knitsbymeliss.blogspot.com.

Check it out! 

Science Is FUN!

About 90% of the following silly scientific things were either sent to me by my father or found on his facebook page. Oh the joys of having a biology teacher for a dad.

The first, "Hello Darwin, My Old Friend," a.k.a. the classic Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence" is a pretty fantastic tribute to Darwin.

These fabulous cookies, cakes, and cupcakes were featured on an awesome cooking blog called Not So Humble Pie, which belongs to a biologist turned baker. My old genetics professor probably would have died over the drosophila cookies, but the mouse cookies are my personal favorite.

Next up we have a sweet knitted DNA pattern from the website twosheep.com. The pattern is featured here in Dr. Montville's DNA Double Helix Fisherman Scarf.

Finally, we have a full on knitted dissection of a mouse, a frog, and a pig from Emily Stoneking of the Etsy shop Crafty Hedgehog. You can buy the patterns for the mouse and frog while the pig is made to order... I would totally have knit these for my favorite bio teacher in college! I think Yorty would have loved them!

Is it wrong that I find these adorable?

It's A Hat! With Earflaps!

It's a little big for Big Dolly, but I think she managed the modeling gig pretty darn well!

Isn't this the absolute cutest earflap hat ever??? I'm trying to decide if I should add a pompom to the top. What do you think?

Houston. We Have Mittens!

That's right. Mittens! I've finally conquered my arch nemesis... the thumb. Aren't they super cute? I'm going to make a hat to match next.

Next stop... Socks!

Knitting Up a Storm

I'm working on my new collection of hats and mittens for Grandma's next year. Thanks to the snow, I've had a lot a lot of extra time on my hands so over the past week I've been knitting up a storm. I think I currently have about 15 different projects in progress because I get ADD and decide to start a new one when I'm half way finished with the one I'm working on.

I tackled the mitten... normal mittens almost worked, but I'd call baby mittens a success. I also finally tried out the ear flap hat... it's almost finished. I've also learned how to make flowers and leaves that I can use as appliqués. I feel pretty productive.

Infant hat and (thumbless) mittens with matching toddler hat