Behold
Look, an actual real live finished hat! There's a bottom part and a middle part and a top part. It fits on human heads. It does not squeeze them nor slide off. It covers that 'top of head' through 'top of ears' region and does not wander over and impede the eyes or attack the neck. It is, more or less, a successful and functional hat. Also note how dramatically the color changed between the partial picture and this one. It's not just different light/camera settings. This yarn (Malabrigo Twist in color Indiecita) just seems to do this. It happened [...]
Completely Smitten
So it turns out I like hats. That sound you just heard was my mother gasping. We lived in the mountains for two years when I was in high school. I went skiing just about every weekend there was enough snow to hide the grass (and one or two memorable weekends there wasn't). I never wore a hat. I would occasionally (and under great duress) grudgingly consent to wear a little ear band to keep my hair out of my face and keep the tips of my ears from turning blue and falling off...but never a hat. Turns out if [...]
Markedly More Hatlike
Well the title more or less says it all. It's is officially looking like a hat now. I looked at some in the store to make sure. I've learned some things. First, hats are full of mystery. That doesn't look like it would go on a human head, but it goes on mine just fine, even before blocking. And my head is very large. Second, each round feels like it's taking for.freaking.ever, but the hat itself grows with stunning speed. That hat in the picture? That's like two evenings of light knitting (the slow and dawdling kind where you're doing [...]
Well Dressed Pumpkin
Why yes that is a pumpkin. Three of them really. Well, I'm not actually sure if the white one or the green one are technically pumpkins, but they're playing the role of pumpkin for me this year. And yes they're still on the porch. As far as I'm concerned the pumpkins can reasonably hang out on the porch and be considered 'festive decorations' rather than 'signs of terrible yard maintenance habits' until Thanksgiving weekend or until the squirrels devour them -- whichever comes first. Why do you ask? Oh, you were surprised about the neck warmer on the pumpkin. Well, [...]
Underway
I cast on the hat yesterday morning. I have mixed feelings. I am totally confident in my gauge. I knit a damn fine mitt gauge swatch and measured very carefully. But I still feel uncertain. Sometimes I think it looks too big, other times I'm convinced it's way too small. I think it's because I don't know what 'proper hat' looks like laying there on the needles. By this point, I am deeply familiar with what 'proper sock' looks like. I can tell within 2 or 3 rounds if it's going to be too big or too small. Not so [...]
Hubris
Did you catch that? That tiny little throw away line at the end yesterday? That spot where I said "All I have to do is find buttons." Yeah. I thought I heard someone cackle when they read that. It's not so simple is it? I looked through the button box (along the way realizing I need a much larger stash of buttons on hand...mine is really quite pathetic). Nothing appealed. Not even a bit. So now I have a soft, fuzzy, hand spun, hand knit neck wrap...all washed and well blocked...and no way to hold it on. For the meantime [...]
First
See those dots? Those giant, fluffy, white dots? Those are snow flakes. There are not many of them there in the picture (it turns out there is a distinct limit to how long I'm willing to stand barefoot in the snow in my pajamas waiting for snow flakes to alight upon my knitting in a picturesque fashion), but quite a few in the yard. It's our first snow of the winter and it's a good one. It's coming down hard as I type this. The grass is covered and it's starting to stick to the sidewalks. I wholeheartedly approve. I [...]
Seeking Balance
Real tentacles are damn scary. I think tentacle-bedecked sea creatures are among the creepiest things out there -- worse than bugs, far worse than snakes. Go look at pictures of squid and octopus and cuttlefish and see if you don't get a case of the screaming heebie-jeebies. If that doesn't work, read about giant squid. Guaranteed sea monster dreams for weeks, at least if your brain runs along the same lines as mine. Knitting, on the other hand, sometimes has a certain tendency to lean toward the overly cute. Certainly not all knitting. Maybe not even most knitting. But there [...]
Tick Marks
The good thing about a fit of profligate casting on is that you can have a whole host of projects that are mere minutes from completion. Last night I finished off the socks for Heather's book. I can't show you much, but I can give you a tiny peek of the toes just to prove they're done (still wet, still on the blockers, but done). They're in Briar Rose's Grandma's Blessing in...um...a lovely blue/brown/green color the name of which is forever lost to me as it isn't listed on the tag. It's also from one of their 450 yard put [...]
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