Bearded Hat and Other Stuff

I have FO's!!! Yay!!!
I finished my cowl for Januray. That's two projects down for the month. I'm proud of myself so far, though it's only been one month of my goals. But I haven't really knit in so long, so I'm excited to once again to see things come off the needles!

Here's my January Cowl. It's aptly called January Cowl! I used Vanna's Choice in oatmeal tweed. I don't really like the color, but that's all they had when I went. It's horrible when you have to get your yarn from Wal-Mart since all the good LYS' are about 45 min away. Goes with living in the boonies, I guess. LOL.

My 11 yr old is the model. She's short so this looks very long. It falls to my waist. It's nice and warm and thick and scrunchy. For an acrylic, this yarn is a very inexpensive nice one! I used nearly 4 balls to complete this.

This is the cowl folded up. I sewed it up with a twist, so it's an infinity loop, and I think it lays better. You can even pull it up over your head if you were so inclined.

I made a hat for the month, as well. This is the Simple Slouchy Hat (Ravelry link) and I used....Vanna's Choice in black. It was pretty quick, but it takes forever to knit up 12 inches on a size 8 in stockinette. It doesn't help that I was distracted. The model is my 8 yr old daughter. I think it looks very cute on her!

I love how big and slouchy this is! I might have to make more. I know my 11 yr old wants one, probably in pink.

I'm officially 50% done with  my pair of socks for January. In fact, I cast on for sock 2 this morning and am working through the cuff fairly quickly. I had a hard time with the heel. I forgot how to do a short row heel and had to restart it a few times until I got the hang of it. It turned out pretty good.  The pattern is Pinstripe (Rav Link) and I used KP's Imagination in Evil Stepmother on size 2 needles.

I really like how these are working up, and once the pattern is established, they are good for  TV watching.

Finally, you want to see my beard, right?
Well, when I saw this , I thought it was great and I had visions of me walking through Wal-mart and driving around town with this on. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out. It turned out a bit big, and I had some problems trying to understand the pattern. And I wanted a hat with the beard knitted onto it, and this was just an attachment. But I was able to tuck it under the brim of the hat I just made and take a photo. At least there's that, right?
Here you go:

 

I look like a lumberjack! This was fun to make and I really wish I could wear it around. I know I'd get some looks!! 

 

But this is really cool, right? I might have to fiddle with it some more to get it to work right. It's too funny!

So you can see, I've been busy, busy! I have a week to get sock 2 done, and I should be able to do that easily. I'll show the finished pair once they're done. Ok, off to knit some more now!