November Stitch Day with the Guild

Yesterday was our guild's stitch day - the first Saturday of the month all year. I got the rest of the mortar done on the house on my Live on Little piece (pics to follow) then worked on my Kathy Barrick Christmas tree piece.

Once home I completed Day 2 of the Arne and Carlos Mystery Stocking KnitALong and after posting this will knit Day 3's six rows.

I then completed the Puffin Hat that I was commissioned to knit.

I took some artistic license with the design, adding a couple of rounds here and there, duplicate stitching the beaks on the puffins rather than deal with stranding 3 yarns for those rows, and only using a medium and light blue rather than dark, medium, and light.

The pattern calls for 90 sts and 6 repeats but due to the recipients larger head, I cast on 105 sts and did 7 repeats. 

The decreases for the crown on the chart were a bit misleading so I just did what I thought would work and it did. Also the chart calls for a k3tog on the final round before finishing/closing the top. this creates a slanted stitch that shows. I thought a centre double decrease would look better. This is done by slipping 2sts together knitwise onto the right needle, knitting the next stitch, then passing the two slipped stitches over the knit stitch. What results is the outer two stitches slanting towards the centre and the centre stitch resting on top.

I emailed the person who asked me to knit the hat with photos. She was pleased with the result. I said there was more than enough yarn left for me to knit her one - either the same pattern or another pattern using these colours. She thought another one the same would be good so I have started it and am at the round at the top of the beaks. Instead of using orange yarn there, I knit with the white, then cover the beak stitches with the orange yarn using a darning needle and duplicate stitch.  The orange yarn is a bit thicker so covers nicely.

These hats are for an upcoming tour of Iceland that we'll be doing before our cruise out of Bergen up and down the western coast of Norway - well beyond the Arctic Circle. A first for me. 

Arne and Carlos just did a knitting cruise out of  Bergen on the same itinerary and highlight each day on their Instagram page. 

Skip and I travelled to Bergen on our Scandinavian tour back in 2017 and after that, the Norwegian cruise was on our bucket list. Sadly, Skip didn't live long enough for us to do it but I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to do this trip with dear friends. Skip's spirit will be with us. 

• Watched 'Maudie' on Netflix. 
• Enjoyed 'Nobody Wants This' and hope we don't have to wait long for the next season.
• Also watched the Martha Stewart documentary.