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!
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.
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.)
Like a year ago. In fact here it is making its debut at last year’s Thanksgiving.
Since then it’s seen a lot of wear. My intent was to make a sweater that was warm and blankety enough for lounging and pretty enough to class up the pyjama pants and soup stained t-shirt that is my standard around-the-house ensemble. After all, as lovely as it is to actually be a sloppy, sedentary lump on the couch, it sucks to look like one. I think I succeeded, so well that it’s become my standard grocery store/movie theater/airplane/restaurant (and anyplace else that’s inexplicably OMG freezing!) sweater.
That right there is the look of love. Comfy, cozy, yet totally OK to wear in public, sweater love.
Anyway, around January I took some pictures, threw them up on Rav, and proceeded to ignore my blog, kinda ignore Ravelry, and not knit all that often either. Then my mood changed, I came back, and found that a few people had said some really kind and flattering things about the Big Bad. They were also asking for a pattern, and that is a problem, because try as I might I can’t seem to write one.
Writing a pattern for a sweater is way harder (to me) than designing one. I have no idea about sizing, or other people’s proportions. I don’t know if the way I write out instructions would be clear enough, or maybe patronizingly too clear. Every time I sit down with my notes, my calculator, Ysolda’s sizing charts, graph paper, a lap top opened to this article, every pattern book I own to use for wording reference, and a strong cup of coffee - my brain shuts down. The whole thing just makes me wanna go “AAAAAGGH!” like a Muppet monster.
Eventually I gave up and made this announcement: “It’s a pretty simple design though, and I’m sure many of you are capable of improvising your own sweater that would look pretty much like this one, so please feel free. I’ll be flattered.” Some people took me up on it (yay!) and emailed a few questions. A lot of the questions are understandably repeats, so in order to save me, and maybe you, some time I thought I’d just put up some general notes here. If your specific question doesn’t get answered feel free to email me, leave a comment, or contact me on Rav.
If you do make your own Big Bad Noro good luck, and be sure to send me a picture:)
Its a new day, and I’m feeling good.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. … It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.”
Today it feels like this old world really is a new world, a bold world. A world where hope can triumph over fear and divisiveness, and where I can feel real pride in, not to mention be inspired by, my fellow Americans.
Tomorrow: actuall knitting content. Yay. In the mean time how about saying goodbye?
**illustration courtesy of january20th2009