More Hats and Not Much Else

Hi everyone out there in blog-land!

I've temporarily lost an internet connection at home, so I'm coming to you from sunny (not so much, really) University campus in Philadelphia! It's been rainy and yucky and all around unpleasant here the past few days. But there is always the internet.

So, I don't have any new photos, but my current project is a doozy. Remember how Little Bro #1 wanted a hat like the one I just finished? And in horribly clashy and garish colors? Well, he's got it. I don't have a photo, but suffice it to say that it is this color:


With this color for the snowflakes:

And will have this color tassels and pompom:
I almost feel like knitting this hat is an affront to my dignity, not to mention my eyes, but he wanted an ugly hat (his words), so by Jove he's going to get one. If you can't tell, the pink there is sparkly pink acrylic from a friend's grandmother's old stash. I've got nothing against acrylic, but this is 80s acrylic. An entirely different breed.

It's been interesting, because my gauge is off. These hats are the first time I've bothered, because the gauge really obviously affects the size of the hat (all the sizing is done by changing gauge). I know gauge affects the size of anything anyway, but this made me actually pay attention. Plus, you can use an ear flap as a swatch. So I actually went and measured my gauge, and it was 6 stitches to the inch, half a stitch smaller than the gauge for the smallest size, which is 20 and a third inches around. I think the blue yarn (Which is Deluxe Worsted Tones by Universal: Yarndex link) is more of a light worsted. Then again, I do usually have pretty tight gauge. Anyway, I figured that I had to add stitches, because this wasn't going to fit my little brother's 22.5 inch noggin and hair. This kid has got a fro that would make 70s era Peter Frampton jealous. Kindly look on the right, and imagine it more voluminous. It's like a giant triangle of hair. He gets it from my mom, who has really curly hair. Both of my little brothers got it, but I managed to get the thin, limp head of hair typical of my dad's side. Boo. So anyway, I had to make accommodations for his fro. In addition, I thought the earflaps were a titch too narrow on my hat, so I increased until I hit 25 stitches instead of 21. I ended up doing the math (22.5X6 = 135) and then realized that a hat is supposed to be smaller than the head it's for, not the same size. Usually you'd cast on 112 stitches, so I realized that the easiest thing to do would be to add another repeat's worth of stitches, so I ended up with a cast on edge of 128. I tried to keep the front-back proportions the same as the original, but made the back a little longer and the front a little shorter by a stitch or two. I was not, by the way, pleased that I had to do math. As an English major, it affronted my sensibilities. I could write a paper on gauge and knitting, or knitting's history, but math? Pah!

The hat seems to fit well so far. I'm almost done the actual knitting knitting bit and after that it's just i-cord, tassels and a pompom in Old Mrs. Proulx's sparkly acrylic.

Also, I've been looking at colorwork patterns like mad since I found out that yes, I could do it. Mittens, mostly. I lack any DPNs between a size one and a size I'mnotsurereallya5or6, but I'm still looking at some fingering weight ones. I have a size 3 nine inch circ which could be useful for this. I've got my eye on Endpaper Mitts. A really popular pattern, but so pretty.

Also, there's an interesting discussion over on Rav right now about the pronunciation of skein. I say skayne. It's also got a little bit of hank vs skein vs ball in it. For me, a hank is a twisty thing that you need to wind to use. A skein is an oblong center pull thing, like most big-box put ups, and a ball is usually something I've wound myself (I don't own a swift or ball winder). A cake is something wound by a winder. What do you all out in blog-land call these things?

Tentative Rejoicing

Breathe a sigh of relief: I've started a new project! I've decided to do a Dummy Clap with the Abby I talked about last post. The Dummy Clap is pretty much a simpler Clapotis, without all the increasing and decreasing. I'm doing it in a scarf size with a cast on of 28. Wish I had a picture, but my camera has mysteriously disappeared. The yarn is knitting up okay, although there are some splotches and I don't particularly care for the green; looks a little sickly. I'm going to see how it goes. The knitting is super simple, and I can do it in class.

In other news, I've discovered the lovely fiber stylings of Jags. She recycles yarn from sweaters, something any reader of this blog knows I wholeheartedly endorse.There's some lovely stuff there. You might be wondering why I'm mentioning this; to tell you the truth, besides the fact that I'm always happy to support recycled yarn, and I think that Jags' stuff is very pretty, there's a giveaway of some of her cashmere, and this is getting me an extra entry. When the prize is cashmere, a girl can be convinced to do almost anything. ;)

Another Grovelling Post to the Knitting Gods

Blast it, I still haven't got the knitting mojo back. Nothing appeals to me, and if something does, I don't have the yarn for it. Boo. So I haven't been knitting a thing, and it's starting to get to me. I want to do something simple, but everything bores me. The new Knitty was somewhat inspirational, but, as usual, I don't have appropriate yarn for anything.

I really want to knit Pauline, but I don't have any suitable yarn. It's really meant for Malabrigo, which I was planning to pick up on a yarn store excursion today. However, the fates and the weather conspired against me, so it will not be until next weekend at least that I get a suitable yarn for it. I have a single-ply aran weight, but it is bright orange and destined for a hat for Christopher (little brother). The idea of me in a bright orange bonnet is laughable at best. I'm hoping to do it in a teal or steel blue, as was suggested to me by a group of my contemporaries, who are much better at choosing color and gauging fashion than I am. The fact that I'm itching to knit this does give me an excuse to splurge on a nice yarn, though. Malabrigo is really popular, but it ain't cheap, at $11 a skein. I've never seen it in real life, and I really want to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. The pattern, of course, is super cute and impeccably written, as can be expected of this designer. Really, you should go check her out: Kristen Hanley Cardozo. She blogs at Knitting Kninja. I knew her from elsewhere on the internet before I realized she was a knit designer, so it was a bit of a shock when I realized this same person that I was seeing was actually the designer of Maude Louise, one of my favorite cardigan patterns. (Please excuse the wonky sentence structure; I don't care to give out the name of the forum, for her privacy and mine, even though it's fairly well-known.) So yeah, if you're reading this (looks out to internet, sees no one, hears crickets), check her patterns out. They're perfectly and meticulously written, and always pretty.

My main headache these days is trying to find out what to do with some Bare Sheep Yarn Company Abby I have. It's merino worsted, as far as I know, but the colors are giving me trouble. See on the right? The colors aren't blended into one another in any way, and the transition is stark. I think if they were more subtly blended, I wouldn't be writing this paragraph. I'm thinking about doing a scarf, since that's a place where you can wear a bit of a "statement piece," but I haven't found the right pattern yet. It's a balancing act, because these colors can easily go horribly wrong. I'm thinking about doing a So-Called Scarf with it, but I'm not sold. Argh!

School is eating up a good chunk of my time, too. I've got no problem with knitting in public, but I prefer to have the resources there in case I run into trouble.

In the lit department, I've finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. (Spoilers ahead) It was worlds better than Agnes Grey, with lots of action and much more sympathetic characters. It was still a little too religious for me, but really, I expect that from Anne. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, when Helen went back to Arthur. Of course, it was framed as Christian duty, but I would have let that no good bastard rot in hell. Of course, to have the happy ending, he needed to die. So I suppose this was Anne's way of doing it while preserving the character of Helen. Helen was already a bad wife, so she couldn't be a bad Christian, too. If Mr. Huntingdon had died suddenly, or had she not gone back to him, she would have never forgiven herself, I think, and as such, she would have never married Gilbert. So, it did work out for the best. The ending was of the same happy sort I expect from these books, so I walked away satisfied.

So yeah. Knit's going badly, lit's going well, and, well, you can't get away from the bullshit anymore. I'm beseeching the Divine Woolly One to give me my mojo back. Maybe I should burn some baby alpaca as a sumptuous offering. This sucks.