Preview of hats to be released tomorrow, Wednesday, October 5th. Black, smoke & cream!

Wednesday will be hat day!

Eleven different hats will become available for purchase in the shop. Each hat is unique: no color/stitch pattern combo has been used twice.

What kind of yummy fibers are they? Merino, silk, alpaca & cashmere! So so soft.

I’ll be posting more preview shots tomorrow.

It’s hard for me to believe that fall is already here (especially while located in Southern California where summer feels perpetual and seasons never seem to change—it’s like a weird weather-time-vortex) and that I have been knitting for WEEKS on end. I am sourcing some finishing touches for this season’s hat launch and will definitely have the first of the hats up by the end of the month (hopefully sooner). I will certainly keep you all posted.

The story of the hats! I first began knitting hats in November of 2008 when I was laid off from a magazine publisher in Chicago. Luckily, I wasn’t unemployed for very long but the brief break allowed my brain to churn out some creativity on full throttle for a month and a half (while panic-stricken, I frantically looked for work). I had been hunting for a hat to give my little sister as a gift for a bit but I couldn’t find anything that was exactly what I was envisioning so I started testing out some ideas on my needles. I wanted a beret, in a vibrant color with lots of cute cables and just the right amount of slouch. Thus the Twisted Thistle was born! I liked it so much that I started knitting more and more and suddenly I had far more hats than what I knew what to do with. I sold my very first hat on Etsy in January 2009.

Knitting berets has become somewhat of a meditative process for me (each one takes me about 8 hours to create) but last season, I kept saying to myself that it would be my last season knitting hats. It’s a lot of work, effort and time. I spend a lot of time producing and less time creating new things. I try to source gorgeous yarn, soft and durable and remain as cost effective as possible. I want to maintain great quality and a reasonable price but I also want my hands to not feel broken after a knitting sprint! I have a fairly demanding career as an Art Director for a magazine, I like to dabble in all sorts of crafts (as evidenced by rottencupcakes itself), I have a few other side projects that keep me with my hands and head full of ideas & activity and I do actually enjoy spending time with my rad husband and our cats. I enjoy knitting these berets too much to stop entirely but in order to keep my life a little more balanced—this hat season will be a tish smaller and perhaps show up a little more slowly.

That being said, I can’t wait to show to this season’s efforts in the coming weeks. Cheers! <3

More needle-felting fun. Another robot. He’s French.

Clearly, I like making things. And learning new skills. So it’s inevitable that my craft-blitzing is going to wander around all kinds of different techniques, mediums and materials. Lately: needle felting has been turning my head so I decided to try it out. This little robot is my first attempt (the cube he’s sitting on is 1inch).

Have you ever needle-felted anything?

I am super happy to announce that I’ve released the Daisy Cutter beret pattern for sale on Ravelry & Etsy!

It’s been a long time coming; hopefully others will be following soon! In honor of this pattern’s introduction, I am giving both of my hat patterns away! One winner will get PDFs of both the Original Twisted Thistle Beret and the new Daisy Cutter Beret knitting patterns. Just leave a comment on this post telling me who you plan to knit the berets for by Wednesday, July 27th 8PM PST. If you want an extra entry, like rottencupcakes on facebook & let me know in your comment on this blog post. I will post the winner on Thursday, July 28th! <3

I’ve been working on this project for awhile now but I finally finished it! Huzzah!

Here is the rad vinyl ottoman I bought on my very first thrifting trip in high school. Clearly, I hang onto things! My high school self painted on pretty much everything in her room, so… of course—the ottoman was also painted. First with some acrylics and then sloppily with some bright blue spray paint. Now I totally wish I hadn’t because check out the amazing mustard color it was underneath!

I have been knitting a cover out of lots of different random wool yarn that I had in my stash. It’s a slightly mod-podge cobbled look but it works for our home. I knitted a cover to match the dimensions of the ottoman, basing the pattern off of the Felted Boxes pattern from Mason Dixon knitting because it has some clever construction details that help the cover to hold it’s boxy shape.

After knitting the fabric & seaming it into it’s proper cube shape, I threw the cover in the washer to felt a bit. I wanted to solidify the fabric a bit more and felting seemed to do the trick rather nicely. I blocked the cover on the actual ottoman (hooray for vinyl!) and then stapled all along the bottom edge. I started at the center of each side & worked my way to the corners, taking care to fold them neatly down prior to stapling the heck out of it.

& voila— in action, my newly knitted ottoman.

Well hello there, soft and adorable coffee cuff. You look vaguely like the Chicago flag—your awkwardness is endearing. & your stripey friend is sort of Slytherin? Let’s see how to make you!

Materials:

• Size 7 & 9 US DPNs
• Leftover yarn!
• Some felt & thread if you’re feeling fancy!

Chicago Cuff Instructions
I used 2 different blues because neither were correct and being just a little ‘off’ is part of the charm. The colors you see here are all the same yarn but this would work with any type of yarn as long as they are all the same weight. This is Andean Silk from Knitpicks in Merryweather, Cream & Hyacinth.

Using the size 7US DPNs, cast on 36 sts. Join carefully & place stitch marker at the beginning of the round.

Garter Rib
*Knit one round.
K1, p1* one round.

Repeat these two rounds until desired length is reached with the first accent color (Hyacinth). Make note of the number of rounds if you would like both accent color stripes to be the same size. These are 5 rounds.

Switch to main color (Cream). Continue in garter rib until desired length (the cream is approximately 3 inches).

Switch to second accent color (Merryweather). Continue in garter rib for the same number of rounds as your first accent color. Bind off.

Stars
I just cut these out without drawing a guide so they would be a bit askew & odd. If you would like a more uniform appearance, draw or trace some stars onto your felt with a fine tip sharpie & cut along that line. I found some thread and quickly (and not very tidily I admit!) attached them to the knitted cuff. Slip onto your favorite beverage and enjoy. Next step: getting one of those neat porcelain versions of the cardboard cup!

Stripey Goodness Instructions
Using size 9US DPNs, cast on 30 sts. Join carefully & place stitch marker at the beginning of the round.

Knit 6 rounds in a 1×1 rib (k1, p1)  in your first color (Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Lumberjack).
Switch to second color (also Wool of the Andes but in Silver), knit 6 rounds in 1×1 rib.
Continue in this alternating manner until you have completed three sets of the first color. Bind off!

Coffee cuffs are a awesome stash buster & instant gratification vehicle (& good last minute presents too!). I made both of these cuffs using yarn remnants from other projects. I’ll be posting a free printer-friendly PDF download of this pattern this weekend.
What’s your favorite stash buster OR instant gratification project?