Hello! Sorry for the long delay, but thanks very much for saying nice things about my hat. I’m actually reaching near total happiness with it. And look!
I haz a pom!
It’s scraggidy and a wee bit more oblong than round, but it’s as cheerful and charming as a pom can be and I love it.
I hope all your holidays were wonderful, that you are fully recovered from them, and are now happily crafting only for you (if you want to I mean, no pressure.) Right now Bri and I are very into staying cozy and doing domestic things like decorting, cooking and playing video games. We comb Craig’s List furniture listings together, send each other links from Apartment Therapy and Design Sponge, we’ve learned to appreciate the humble staple lifter. We’ve even cleaned and reorganized the closet, which is how I came across this.
This is the last little bit of the very first yarn I knit with in what I think of as “my knitting: modern era.” As opposed to “my knitting: crap era,” which was 20 years ago and eventually resulted in a renewed devotion to my first fiber craft love, crochet. No, this comes from years later when Brian got so bored of me mentioning that it might be cool to try knitting again, he hauled me down to Michael’s, convinced me to get a Susan Bates starter kit, complete with instructional booklet (heavy on 80’s sweaters and garter stitch pillow covers,) two skiens of what I believe was Red Heart, and exasperatedly told me to just try it already.
An important archeological find if ever there was one, but what to do with it?
This jack bugs me, it’s right next to the sink and it ruins my view while I’m doing dishes, chopping vegetables, or squeezing a lime wedge into a can of Modelo. Usually I try to cover up ugly things on the wall with framed pictures, but I couldn’t decide what belonged here. I’ve got the two Nikki McClure prints right over the switch and some photos on a wall close by, so I didn’t want anything too similar, and it had to be red, and graphic, and not too representational.
I tried cutting out a blowup of a section of a suzani from a catalog, which I should have known wouldn’t work. That paper’s wooh(!) shiny, even if you throw a mat and frame around it, it still looks like you cut a picture out of a magazine and framed it because you are lame and couldn’t make the effort to find some real art, or a real piece of fabric for that matter. Still not wanting to leave the house, or wait for shipping, I tried getting out some pens and making myself a little masterpiece, something that’s hard to do when you lack direction, inspiration, or even skillz.
It was a while before I remembered that hey, I’m skilled at making things with yarn! I should make something red, graphic, and not too representational out of yarn. This thing will be flat so I can put it in a frame that will cover up the jack. This thing will be a doily!
Now my taste doesn’t really run to the lacy, flouncy or frilly, but I do have a couple flowery things lurking around the house:
Maybe I could find a not very victorian doily pattern that had something in common with the shapes I already had goin’ on? And maybe I could use up the very last of The First Yarn, because for all its acrylicness, it’s actually a very pretty shade of red. Plus it’d be ironic (satisfyingly cyclical?) to use it for a crochet project.
Ok, so not much of a doily, more of a coaster I guess, or a potholder, a yarny trivet, whatever.
It still makes the kitchen prettier right? Even though it’s a bit small for the frame, and would probably have turned out more graphic if I had used a larger hook, I still dig it.
Pattern: Some sort of variation on Kimberly’s Flower Coaster by Kimberly Andrew.
Yarn: I’m thinking Red Heart Classic Solid
Hook: 3.75 mm/US F, maybe.
07 Jan 09 | 5:7 am
I think I’m pleased. I’m certainly not ashamed to wear it in public, and at least it doesn’t remind me of, uh, used pizza, but I’m not totally in love either.
It is very useful for keeping my ears warm and disguising bed head though.
And I’m thinking that the addition of a big, fuzzy pom might improve matters a bit.
In the mean time I, like I’m sure a lot of you, have quite a bit of cooking to do. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
26 Nov 08 | 7:26 pm
Button choices, patterns for problematic yarn, sometimes it’s nice to have friendly people around who will point out when you’re being a bit of an idiot and overlooking something completely obvious. So thank you Winnie and Lin. Of course My So-Called Scarf! The long established, and rightly popular, savior of ker-azy yarns everywhere. And as good a reason as any to haul Magallanes back out of the yarn closet of shame.
Except right now I’m more into cloth scarves than knit ones, and I still want a hat. After pondering a bit I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out the best way to decrease in pattern and make a so-called beret.
Actually it was ridiculously easy, mainly because someone’s already gone and done it. Looking at the completed hat though, I didn’t think the horizontal nature of the so-called stitch (what is it anyway? Herringbone?) would play that nicely with the slouchy hat form I was after. Out came the stitch dictionaries, the pencil, the calculator - maybe I could come up with something similar. Jo had mentioned a loop stitch, maybe that would work? 
I took my time, put on some music, and made a big, ugly swatch. I also came up with an idea I’m pretty hopeful about.
We’ll see.
Still, if worse comes to worse there’s always Chloe’s genius suggestion of overdying with indigo, or more likely around here, grape and blue raspberry kool-aid.
21 Nov 08 | 8:21 am
A few years ago I bought one skein of wildly variegated, thick and thin, Araucania Magallanes. If I’d been shopping for myself I never would have bought something where texture and color were having such a wild party together. But I wasn’t, I was actually looking to make a scarf for a friend of mine to whom texture is the salt of the visual universe. Plus it was really pretty in the skein. Got it home and the prettiness continued into ball form.
But all knit up it just looks barfy, like it very strongly reminds me of the time Chris Stephenson created a sensation by throwing up on the handball courts after the 6th grade pizza party. Too many color nuggets. And it isn’t soft enough. Soft enough for me certainly, but not to give as a gift.
So Magallanes has sat in the closet for years, occasionally let out to be knit up, frogged, wound, knit and frogged again as I pondered what exactly to do with her. I wouldn’t use a felted purse, and knitting her together with a strand of black or navy in imitation of this sweater would just mean having to find more of this problematic yarn. Finally Urchin came along and I thought I’d found the perfect pattern. Short rows might make the variegated color flashing more interesting, and garter stitch would work well with the thick and thinness. Plus I love hats - making them, wearing them, whatever.
I cast on and knit for 2 nights, with diminishing optimism. It’s a good pattern, but sadly not as perfect for this yarn as I had hoped. I soldiered on, thinking maybe blocking would achieve something magical, but by the end of the eighth wedge I was pretty discouraged.
Besides, I had left my glasses in San Francisco the week before and had sorta felt my way along, occasionally getting my bearings by holding the hat at arm’s length and making Marty Feldman-like faces at it, a system that wasn’t gonna work for the big picking-up stitches and kitchenering finale. Putting the hat aside and waiting for my glasses to arrive from the hotel was hard and in the end I couldn’t do it. I got antsy, mucked up the pick-up, sorta went into denial about that, and decided that a three-needle bind off was the way to go. I told myself that the seam would be barely noticeable amongst the garter and that this kind of half-assery was perfectly acceptable on a quickie project.
It was not acceptable, the bind-off was noticeable, it looked crappy, and I was still reminded of barf.
I gave up.
Meanwhile this is making me giggle, you might enjoy it too (though I recommend skipping ahead to 1:03.)
13 Nov 08 | 5:13 am
Favorite.
Anyway, here’s the hat I made for him.
Yarn: Reynolds Odyssey, color #502, 2 balls. Blue Sky Alpacas Sport, color #527, less than 1 ball.
I really like the Odyssey - pretty colors and it’s merino, so nice to knit with and wear, even when it’s knit at a dense gauge. I’m a little worried about its delicacy though. As soon as I was done making this I put it away in my ugly but useful yarn organizing thing, when I pulled it out lots of the stitches had been pulled. So either the cats got it out, had a field day, then put it neatly away, or it got thrashed simply by sitting in a drawer with a bunch of yarn. Very mysterious.
Needles: 6.0mm/US 10 for the cast on, 4.0mm/US 6 for the ribbing and lining, and 5.0mm/US 8 for the body.
Pattern: My own.
This is pretty much my standard guy hat. If you’re a guy, and I made you a hat, it’s some variation of this one. The math involved is not taxing at all (even for me,) there’s only one fiddly bit, and no time consuming stitch patterns, so they’re easy for me to crank out. ‘Course that doesn’t mean that each and every one isn’t made with love, care, and all the other insubstantial goodness that a hand-made gift simply reeks of. I use this pattern a lot too because fashion-wise it’s unadventurous. Normally I’m all for ‘zazz, but when giving a gift, especially to a man, and especially one he’s supposed to wear, I feel a bit safer making something basic but useful. Still, what details there are I like.
Like the double hem, it looks folded but is actually attached, so he doesn’t have to futz around with it. And since the lining doesn’t show I can get away with using a crazy color if I want.
Usually it’s alpaca, keeps ears super toasty, it’s silky soft and hypoallergenic, ‘cuz giving someone a hat and a mysterious rash is not what I’m usually going for. Plus with a lining I can use any scratchy thing (Noro) I want for the rest.
Then there’s the spiral crown. Love nice, neat k2tog, hate all its sloppy left-leaning counterparts. So as far as hats and I are concerned, spiral crown = instant best friend.
Besides, it’s pretty.
09 Jan 08 | 12:9 pm
Yay!
Pattern: my own
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere in cashmere blue, less than one ball.
Needles: 3.25mm/US 3
Mmm, pretty, no? I wish I’d thought of attaching the I-cord to the inside and making it the “public side.” ‘Course then the bonnet wouldn’t have made such a matchy set with the socks, and the seams might have made baby E’s head look too much like a baseball.
I am digging the gathers at the back of the neck though, and of course the picot edging.
My apologies for the denim, I just didn’t have anything even vaguely baby shaped lying around the apartment. Instead of my knee, try to imagine one of the charming creatures from a Debbie Bliss book doing the modeling.
Even with the extra step of writing a pattern, this was a very smooth knit. The only rough patch was the tedious business of the attached I-cord, the row of sts I picked up around the neck were too loose and the cord sorta flopped around instead of sitting snuggly against the bonnet. At first I though I was going to have to frog and pick up the sts again with a much smaller needle, but a bit of strategic tugging with a tapestry needle evened things out just fine.
Overall I’m pretty happy with it, I wanted something simple and unfussy to match the socks and the bonnet pretty much fits the bill. Still, it’s not the most exciting thing either, and I’m not sad to see it off on its merry way to San Francisco.
Wanna see what I am excited about?
I’ve got plans. Big, cozy, shawl-collared plans.
I’m trying not to let the giddiness get in the way of my ability to do math.
12 Aug 07 | 10:12 pm
So knitting time was limited last weekend,
and this weekend I was up to other things, but I did get the chance to start on a little something. A very little something actually. Because I like sets, and because I think it’s the garment least likely to be thrown up on (Baby Cashmere is unfortunately not machine washable) I’m making a bonnet to match the socks.
All the stockinette is done, and now I’m on to sewing the thing together. Which brings me to my point: I really like seaming. Having done my fair share of knit blog lurking, I suspect that this makes me kinda odd in the knitting world. Maybe not though, maybe the “I hate seaming! Blegh!” crowd is just more vocal than the “Hey, seaming’s alright.” crowd? Odd or not, the way two flabby, floppy edges come together into one neat join always fascinates me.
I mean lookit! I turned a weird stockinette T-shaped thing
into what my mom referred to as a “sorta Amish hat.”
What could be better?
31 Jul 07 | 4:31 am
