Ripley and a woodland delight

Oh hello! Yes I'm the person that was just going to give away a skein of Malabrigo a few days after posting and BOOM it's a month later. Yes, well, that's par for course around here I'm afraid to to tell you. However I am rectifying the gross injustice that has been committed by sending it out straight away to the Greenhorn Knitter. Enjoy!

I recently acquired a few skeins of Rowan Creative Focus Worsted in a series of events that went something like this: go to lys for something totally unrelated->chat with owner Cynthia (love her!) about Rowan->buy Rowan pattern mag "City Retreat"->get home and feverishly order four skeins (don't hate on me, her store doesn't carry it!)->twiddle thumbs/stare into the void waiting for yarn to arrive-> receive yarn but realize the Rowan hat pattern I'd wanted to do is knit flat (HATE THAT WHY DOES MARTIN STOREY DO THAT)->troll Ravelry for a better pattern and voilà-> Ripley!

The Specs:
Pattern: Ripley by Ysolda Teague
Yarn:Rowan Creative Focus Worsted in Heathery Lavender, .75 skein
Needles: size 10
Mods: see below

Ripley was quite a lot of fun once I got past the band. The pattern gives you the choice of either a picot/lace band or a garter st one. I chose the latter as it seems less fussy and femme, and I'm happy with this choice although next time I might just instead do a regular cast-on band as this took a tad longer than I'd like.

This is the first time I've ever done the "knitting pleats into the back of that hat" maneuver. Yeah, that! Such a nice built-in slouchy effect and bonus: you always know where the back of the hat is. Nice touch, Ysolda!

As I am on the record as being a bona fide alpaca nut, it will come as no surprise that Rowan can put me down as a Creative Focus Worsted fangirl. So soft! And yet sturdy (thanks wool, I still like you too). The color selection is nice as well. Rowan, I was mad at you for the whole discontinuing Calmer debacle, but this makes me slightly less angry with you...

You might notice a disturbing trend in the photos shown here. They all feature a young lass who is, dare I say it, not unhappy? The smiles you see pictured here are real. She was, at this particular moment, the opposite of glum. But stay tuned! Things can turn on a dime around here...

Not only have I been knitting like a whirling dervish (lots to show you in due time), I've also been dabbling in other areas. Why just look at this delectable woodland hideaway that made its way on to our Christmas dinner table yesterday:

To say that I was thrilled with this scene would be an understatement. After arranging my tiny pals just so (I knew I was collecting wee woodland wooden figurines for a reason), I basically went into a fugue state and stared at it (think: drooling) for a good 20 minutes. The kids were, oh how shall I put it, concerned for my mental health/mortified? "If you post that on Facebook I AM GOING TO DIE!", I believe one of them said. Feh! Not sure which one because I was too enthralled with my special fantasy world of toadstools and tiny hedgehogs to really notice. In any case, this was our stump de Noël cake. It's like a bûche, but it's a stump--get it?