kmkat and her kneedles

This is how long it takes to get to Sioux Falls and back.

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug (100% merino, fingering weight), color 184 Scented Paprika, about 3/4 of a skein/300 yds.
Needle: Signature circ US#4.
Pattern: Sockhead Hat.

We went to visit Elder Son last weekend -- many hours in the car. I had cast on this hat the day before and knit a few rounds; it was my car knitting for the trip. Finished it on I-90 even before we turned north on I-35, so I was able to get a good start on another pair of double-thick socks.

I made myself a hat about a month ago, but it turned out to be droopy rather than slouchy, so it is in time out until I get the courage -- or energy -- to frog the last part and make it shorter. This one, however, is a winner! In my stash I have some handspun in a similar colorway that will become a coordinating scarf.

Success is wearing a handknit.

I recently got this photo of The Hat in the wild from Elder Son's friend Alí. Looks like Ann Arbor weather was giving it a good workout that day!

 

 Looking back through the blog, I cannot find that I blogged the actual completion of The Hat, only the endless whining about How hard it was.

Here is the finished hat, plus a close-up to show the horizontal cable panel. (Hover for knitter's comments.)

 

What I knit in 2013.

Hover over the photos to see the comments.

Twelve squares.

 

Five baby bibs.

  

 

Four pairs of socks.*

 

 

 

Four pairs fingerless gloves of varying lengths.

 

 

 

Four hats.

 

 

Four dishcloths.

 

 

I actually knit far more than four. I was on a dishcloth rampage for a few weeks last summer to use up odds and ends of discloth cotton, and it was the perfect mindless project while I was still taking painkillers after the hip replacement. These are the only ones that got photographed, though. The others are in the kitchen rotation and are, of course, no longer camera-worthy.

 

Two scarves.

  

 

Two cowls.

 

 

 

One pair felted clogs.

 

 

One double-knit felted hotpad.

 

 

 

One pair of mittens fit for Sissy Hankshaw, if Sissy Hankshaw were eight years old.

 

One Red Quadrant.

 

One swea--, er, finished one sweater.  

...and started but didn't finish another one.

 

I also dyed some yarn...

and frogged some long cabled stockings... 

...plus any number of intermediate cowls...

...and trials...

...and errors...

...and that is why knitting is such a great hobby: if we make a mistake, we can rip it out and do it again right/better.

 

* Everything with a blue border is something I knit for myself. 

Le tuque du voyageur!

When the weather turned cold a couple weeks ago, Smokey went on a quest to find the hat I knit him last winter -- the one that somehow never got chronicled here. He found it, no problem, in a box of hats at the top of the stairs. 

And there was great rejoicing.

The hat in all its extended glory. You can just barely see the fold line slightly to the left of center.

 

Voyageur style, with the hat sagging down the back. Somehow this one
isn't quite long enough to do that effectively.

 

With folded brim.

 

Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply, fingering weight. Several skeins. Color was originally the creatively named 450. I overdyed it with Rit Denim and achieved the look of a well-broken-in pair of blue jeans. Hat is knit with two strands held together. I knit two swatches for him to decide between: single strand on US#2 and double strand on US#6. Surprising me, he chose the second. But it meant the hat went a lot faster so I was pleased by his choice.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#6/4.0mm.
Pattern: an authentic voyageur hat pattern shared with me by Dale-Harriet.

Since this is a double-layer hat with four layers of knitted woolen fabric over the ears, it is W.A.R.M. Perfect for a Wisconsin winter.

 

If this is Sunday, it is time for the Sunday Stuff.

1. Games :: Hunger. Duh.
2. Younger :: woman.
3. Propose :: marriage. To a younger woman? Sheesh, I must be feeling insecure.
4. Closer :: to heaven.
5. Cleaned :: and polished.
6. Fresh :: produce.
7. Crunch :: Cap'n.
8. Centers :: of interest.
9. Shiny! :: Firefly!
10. Horrific :: nasty.

* * * * *

A friend just posted this on Facebook:

So [husband] just told me that the useless dude we had to see 27 years ago for pre-marriage "training" (<-- parent-pleasing move) was one of those named on the recently released Mpls/St. Paul Archdiocese list of abusive priests. I thought that guy was terrible back then, just on general principle, and now I'm glad we walked out of there and did pretty much the opposite of everything he suggested.

My friend is a GREAT judge of character.

* * * * *

 
While writing Friday's post about South Africe I found this photo that Younger Son
took in the men's room at the Madrid airport. Love it!

* * * * *

Winter arrived this week... with a vengence.

Actually, the above reading on our (internet-connected!) thermostat represents a slight heat wave. Yesterday at about the same time it was -12˚F (-24˚C).

Yup, winter. I have been making good use of my warm woolly scarf-y shawlettes  and hand-knit socks and LLBean flannel-lined jeans. For some unknown reason, the power company has not seen the need to turn off the interruptible power yet this winter, plus -- unlike last year -- the heat pump seems able to maintain the desired indoor temp. All in all, the house is balmy :-)

Speaking of hand-knits, the cabled hat I blogged about a couple weeks ago is coming along swimmingly. I know, I know, I complained about it in the original post, but I managed* to get the actual pattern -- Celtic Bunny Hat. Now, the knitting is slow -- lots of cabling -- but not difficult. Good pattern! This cable chart is much more logical than the one for the Saxon Braid. I actually experience joy when knitting it rather than anxiety and dread. 

The horizontal panel has short rows to duplicate the effect of the first decreasing rounds as a hat approaches the crown. I have not seen short rows in a cable pattern before, but they work just fine here. As some long-ago cooking program host used to say, Very simple very easy! 

* We shall not discuss precisely how I got the pattern. Just know that knitters are delightful people.

* * * * *

Younger Son just did a customer service call on the land line behind me. (Computer service people are never off duty, apparently.) Lots of technical jargon. When he hung up, he said,"You understood all that, right?" Then he smirk-chuckled. And proceded to explain to me what he had just told his client, which involved terms like "kernel panic" and "LUNs" and "disc arrays". Before he started I tried to tell him that I didn't need to know -- because I knew I wouldn't understand -- and he insisted, "No, this is fun!" Um, sure. But it makes me happy to know he loves his work.

A hat really shouldn't be this hard.

Awhile back I offered to knit a hat and/or scarf and/or mittens for Elder Son's friend Alí. When he was here in August he complained of being cold, so a hand-knit seemed in order. Last week he sent me a photo of what he would like.

Um, okay.

I immediately emailed him back and asked for a pattern or a link to one. But the more I looked at the hat, the more convinced I became that I could replicate it. Cables are easy to read, right? He had said he wanted one along the lines of this one, but not necessarily an exact replica so I had some leeway.

I consulted Barbara Walker's stitch dictionaries for the main cable and found this one, which is very similar but without the stretched-out bits.

The rope cables on either side of the horizontal panel would be easy, so I was ready. I went stash-digging for some dark blue superwash worsted, cast on 42 st (three reverse stockinette, four for the first rope cable, 28 for the main cable, four for the second rope cable, and three for more reverse stockinette), and began.

After a few rows I thought to search Ravelry for "hat horizontal cable" and found this worsted-weight one which has that same Barbara Walker Saxon Braid.

Notice how tall the cable panel is and the resultant lack of space for the rope cables and the ribbing at the bottom. This one is on a kid's head rather than an adult's but still. I held up the panel I was knitting and found it reached from my nose nearly to the top of my head. I hadn't gotten far enough for the cables to pull in as much as they would eventually, but I was pretty sure it wasn't gonna work.

Rippit. More stash diving.

I cast on again with some Trekking Natura fingering weight sock yarn in a darkish gray-blue, but after about three rows I got discouraged -- too difficult to see what I was doing, plus it seemed that the yarn was too fine and would not give the cables the floofiness that translates to warmth.

It didn't take much of a swatch to convince me I didn't want to knit anything
this complicated on such small needles in such a dark color.

Rippit. More stash diving.

Next up were the leftovers from a toque I made for Smokey last winter. (An exhaustive search of Ravelry and the blog revealed that I never documented the hat. Which is really a shame because now he doesn't know where it is. Crap.) I had dyed some light blue Rowan 4-ply fingering weight wool  with Rit in a denim colorway, which turned out beautifully -- lots of subtle variegation in the dyed yarn. This fingering weight was woolen spun rather than worsted, so it had more loft --> better cables, I hoped.

This one looks good. The reason I stopped in the middle of a row is because I screwed up the cable pattern and it is in time out right now while it thinks over what it has done. There is also the possiblity that my 316 yards of this yarn may not be enough.

Stay tuned...

Ten on Tuesday, the long weekend edition.

 Ten Things I Did Over The Weekend.

1. Knit. Duh. 
    
2. Finished Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and started The Memory of Breathing by Perry Klass.
    
3. (Knit.) Read and re-read and studied and analyzed the Snicket Socks pattern until I finally figured out how the leg pattern works. It's not all that hard, but I had put the pattern on my iPad instead of printing it out and that meant I could not compare the written instructions side by side with the chart -- had to keep flipping back and forth. When I bit the bullet and attempted to print out the chart, my husband's computer (the only one with a functioning printer at the moment) locked up. So I went back to flipping back and forth between screens and eventually it all clicked.
    
4. Attended our lake association annual meeting, gave my report on doings in county government. (I am the county board rep on our lake association board.)
    
5. Watched the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire on Netflix. (Today I will watch The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.) I also ordered the American version from the library; compare and contrast, etc. Tragically, the library consortium has only the first of the three movies; my Netflix has only the Swedish versions. Big Red Box, I may be visiting you for the first time...
    
6. Knit. Started a simple ribbed hat with the skein of Knit Picks Swish Bulky that was left over from my hat and scarf. This turned out to be the perfect thing to knit while watching the above movies because I didn't need to keep my eyes on my knitting, thereby freeing them to read the subtitles.
    
7. Made a dandy dinner that took less than 10 minutes of actual prep time. Stir-fried chicken with jalfrezi sauce over brown rice with steamed asparagus. One more thing out of the pantry, one more thing out of the freezer.
    
8. Began cleaning my office. My first goal is to clear a path wide enough to use a walker easily, in preparation for my recovery from the hip replacement. Once that is accomplished -- probably today -- I will begin dealing with the clutter around the edges. 
    
9. Played many rounds of Word Seek with Smokey. He worked this weekend (nights as always) so he tended to fall asleep after two or three games.
    
10. Did NOT knit on the deck. Not quite warm enough. Yet.

 

 

FO Friday.

I finished a hat and scarf set for myself.

Color is off in this photo, but I couldn't fix it without making my desk look even more overgrown with moss than it already is. (see next two photos)

Pattern: Sideways Grande Cloche from Boutique Knits.
Mods: None except that I used a different, slightly heavier, yarn so I cast on 36 st for the body of the hat instead of 42. 
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Bulky (100% superwash merino) in Aegean; 1 skein exactly. 
Needles: Knit Picks Options, US#10, 9, 8, and 7, as called for in the pattern. I do not understand why the designer had me use four different needle sizes, but whatever. 
 

Scarf is not blocked yet so the lacy pattern is rather...camouflaged.

Pattern: Lace Rib Scarf by Kay Gardiner. I found this one by using Ravelry's advanced pattern search -- which is wizard, btw -- to look for a scarf using bulky yarn. I avoided ribbed ones b/c they draw in  in width, and I didn't want to have to knit the scarf wider then necessary. Lazy efficient, me.
Yarn: (same as above, 2 skeins exactly)
Needles: Knit Picks US#9 because they were handy. Kay used US#10s for the same reason.

This is a more accurate portrayal of the color from the KP website:

This will be a cozy set to wear next winter when the winds howl. Color is gonna be kinda boring next to my brown coat, but whatevs.

Muttering through Mother's Day.

1. 537 :: is more than 400
2. Horizon :: line.
3. Episode :: seizure.
4. Character :: -driven.
5. Crossed :: town bus.
6. Shipping :: charges.
7. Jump :: Whoopee Goldberg.
8. Bowling :: Lebowski.
9. Grumpy :: Old Men.
10. Them :: Us.

 

I celebrated my own Mother's Day yesterday -- spent pretty much the entire day in my recliner reading, watching Netflix, drinking coffee/soda/wine (as the day progressed), and knitting. This is Smokey's weekend to work (always with the night shifts) so when he is home he is tucked up in his bed with two dogs and a cat and a box fan for white noise. Today I might be productive. Hard to say, really. 

 

Reading: 
A few weeks ago I read a piece in The Nation by Deborah Kopaken Kagan about her experiences as a woman author and how she was demeaned by the publishing industry. I was so inspired/enraged by her experience I clicked over to bn.com and bought all four of her books to read on my iPad. (I also clicked over to her website and sent her an email telling her what I did; she emailed back that it made her cry.) Anyhow, I want to recommend her books. She came from an ordinary middle-class background, graduated from Harvard, moved to Paris, worked as a photojournalist covering a lot of gritty stuff (ex., she went into Afghanistan alone during the Soviet-Afghan war), eventually married, had three kids, started to write. The woman has lived more in her 40-odd years than a dozen other other people put together. I highly recommend her books, especially Shutterbabe (memoir) and The Red Book (fiction). Her collection of essays, Hell Is Other Parents, is pretty damned good, too.

Yesterday's book was Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich. I had read the first 60+ pages in fits and starts and was not particularly engaged by it, but yesterday I decided to give it a chance to pull me in. Which it did, in spades. Protagonist is a quant who specializes in the odds of disasters; the 3-person consulting firm he works for makes him rich. Then a real mega-disaster hits New York City -- essentially Hurricane Sandy plus Katrina -- and his life changes. Some of the scenes were lifted straight out of the news stories of Katrina. Good book, four out of five stars.

Last night I startd NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Creepy as hell, that one. I follow the author on Twitter. He is currently on tour for the book and every day posts photos of readers attempting to kill him in various ways.

 

Knitting:
I am enjoying having several projects to hand at all times. A hat, a pair of socks, the top-down set-in sleeve sweater, a scarf of the same yarn as the hat. They are strewn about my chair in various stages of doneness. When I sit down there is the delicious feeling of What shall I pick up this time? Project monogamy, begone!

Stuff:
Remember the humungous external hard drive? I have moved most of my data files over to it and gone into my most-often used programs to direct them to that drive for files. Two programs have me stumped, though: Excel and iPhoto. I can deal with the former, but iPhoto is being a bugger. I have searched through all its menus and preferences and cannot find a place to tell it where to store its files. My internal 160GB hard drive has 76GB of photos. It would be nice to get them all moved and backed up. All suggestions welcome. (I started to email Younger Son yesterday to ask him but got distracted, had to reboot, lost the email, yada yada. So I'm asking y'all.) 

No photos popped into my head to illustrate today's post. Here, in honor of Mother's Day, is a gratuitous one from 1984 of me being a mom to Elder Son.

Life is random, why not me?

1. Baked :: Alaska.
2. Excited :: to go.
3. Print :: out of,
4. Obstruct :: -ionist.
5. Bladder :: full.
6. Matrimony :: wedding.
7. Car :: many.
8. Reconstruct :: Civil War.
9. Lenses :: contact.
10. Best for last :: save it.

* * * * *

I got to thinking about John Sandford and his Virgil Flowers novels because I noticed a new one had come out, Mad River. Love John Sandford, love Virgil Flowers. Maybe not quite as much as I love Lucas Davenport of the Prey series, but close. Couldn't remember which of the books I had already read so I requested all of them (five plus the newest one) from the library. Have been reading them one after the other, kinda like 350-page potato chips. Just started #4 AND got the email that the newest one is waiting for me at my local library.

Heaven.

Edited to add: the reason I like Sandford's novels and characters so much is that they are the most intelligent but down-to-earth ones I have read, amen.

* * * * *

Speaking of books.

I sit on the board of trustees of the regional library system, which is currently embarking on its [latest] long-range planning process. Members of the board were tasked with visiting all the libraries in their respective counties and chatting with the directors about the services they get from the regional system. On Friday the other board member from our county and I visited four municipal libraries and had four wildly varying discussions. Wildly varying in a good way, mind you -- their experience in the library system ranged from 1 to 29 years and their education/library size/community demographic varied almost as much.

It was an interesting and informative and fun way to spend a day. Which is good because next Wednesday we are going to do it again with four different libraries.

* * * * *

I liked the yarn I knitted the fingerless gloves out of so much (it's been sitting in my stash since 2007, why haven't I used it before?) that I decided to make myself a hat from it, the Twisted Toque from 60 Quick Knits. 

Fail.

Sorry, I should have taken a photo to show how terrible it looked. If you scan the projects in Ravelry you may notice that on some, the non-stockinette portion of the hat sort of... sticks out. Mine looked like the one in the link but much, much worse.

Ribbit.

In hindsight, I think the problem was that the pattern was written for Cascade 220, which is a light worsted, and I knitted it from a plump worsted. Perhaps if I had gone up a needle size all would have been well. 

But we shall never know because I am NOT knitting that pattern again.

So there.

Not that I am bitter or anything...

 * * * * *

(something I commented on another blog that seemed so revolutionary and astoundingly awesome that I had to include it here)

The possible long-term effects of global warming have been endlessly reported upon, but the day-to-day effects have been downplayed. I have concluded what the latter means for us in the northern latitudes is that our weather will change more quickly than we are used to. The past few weeks, with fronts blowing through seemingly every other day, are what have convinced me of this. Makes sense meteorologically, too -- globala warming is basically just more energy in the atmosphere = more volatile weather.

Kinda fun, actually. Every morning is a new surprise. Can I go into town minus hat/scarf/boots or will I need long underwear and three pairs of socks? 

* * * * *

Have any of you been watching House of Cards on Netflix? I started last night, got annoyed in the first 30 seconds*, so annoyed in the next three minutes* that I stopped watching. I eventually went back and am now ready to start episode 2.

But it is not nearly as good as the British original with Ian Richardson, imnsho. I blogged about that once twice before. When Kevin Spacey delivered that line -- You might very well think that. I could not possibly comment -- I actually groaned. He is a great actor, don't get me wrong, but this whole thing seems kinda flat compared to the original.

I will continue to suffer through it, though ;-)

* They broke a primary law of good writing/movie-making: show me, don't tell me. When FU kills the dog, that is showing; when he expounds to the camera to give every bit of background information we may need, that's telling.

 

Not that anyone is counting.

Four days until the hip replacement. 

Per doctor's orders, I had to stop taking ibuprofen last weekend and instead take Tylenol until the surgery. The latter does not work nearly as well as the former for joint pain. Just in case you were wondering.

On the knitting front, I finished Scotty's mittens (New Year's Day) and Younger Son's hat (New Year's Eve) as promised. Cast on for a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend; she runs a drive-through coffee kiosk in town so has to open and shut her window all morning long. Although she claims it is warm inside the kiosk, I bet her hands get cold. Thus, the fingerless gloves.

As an added benefit, I realized that the yarn I am using -- Colorado Yarns Durango -- would be perfect for the extra-long fingerless gloves I want for myself, to wear when I am reading in bed. I have 4 or 5 skeins of the ecru -- plenty! I shall cast on for them next.

Smokey wants a tuque for himself like the ones I made for Harley and Peter. I don't have any more of that yarn, Phildar Pure Laine 3-1/2 DK, and it is discontinued. I have been searching for a suitable substitute. He desires the hat to be wooly and (probably) blue. As I am determined to knit exclusively from stash for the foreseeable future, this has necessitated some serious stash diving. But I may have found the solution: the Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply fingering weight I got when I subscribed to the Rowan magazine. If I double-strand it, it should be roughly DK weight. The tuque requires about 350 yards of DK weight, so that would be 700 yards of the fingering weight; if Ravelry is to be believed, I have a little over 1,000 yards. Score!

It has been snowing nonstop for two days, with a total accumulation <1/4". Such is January on The Great Frozen Tundra.

WIP (and FO) Wednesday.

Do I still knit? Why, yes, thanks for asking.

I finished a pair of socks a few weeks ago.

Yarn: Regia Galaxy Color, purchased at Camas Creek Yarn in Kalispell MT when we went to Glacier National Park a couple years ago. When I saw the yarn in the ball I thought it was going to make striped socks that would coordinate with my multicolor striped raglan. These will be fine even without the stripes. I alternated between the two balls to minimize pooling.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock
Needles: US#0. Normally I do the foot on zeros and switch to US#1s when I get just past the ankle, but I forgot. They still fit.

I picked up the Tappan Zee sweater again; it has been quietly snoozing in its bag for a year. For those of you who care but don't remember it, it is a top-down cap sleeve sweater. I had reached the armholes and knit one front a couple inches past that. When I picked it up I discovered that actually, I had knit both fronts to the point where they were ready to be rejoined, so all I had to do was knit the back to that point, join all three parts, and knit away mindlessly until it is long enough or I run out of yarn. Yes, I am knitting as fast as possible in order to finish before the yarn runs out. Don't we all?

(no photo -- it doesn't look significantly different than in the posts linked above, just a bigger blob of knitting)

The Christmas knitting is progressing. A Windschief hat and neck gaiter (that's what cowls were called before they became The Trendy Thing) for our renter. I knit them almost entirely during the annual two-day tax conference last month, or, as I like to think of it, the annual two-day knitting retreat with CPE credit. Here they are posing with Bubbles on my soon-to-be history first generation Maytag washer, piece of crap that it is.

Pattern: Windschief by Stephen West. Delightful pattern to knit.
Yarn: Filatura Lanarota Pure Washable Merino, from Smiley's Yarn in New York. This stuff is surprisingly pleasant considering the El Cheapo price ($2.99 per 109 yd. skein(!)). Truly machine washable, not scratchy. It is a bit splitty because it is 8- or 10-ply and not tightly spun, but with blunt Addis I had few problems. Huh.
Needles: US#6 and #7.

A tuque for Smokey's partner at work. I had no plans to make this one, but last week I was complaining to Smokey that I would be riding in a car for hours in a couple days, and I had no small portable project on the needles. Really, I was complaining, not because I was looking for a project, but mostly just to make noise. However, he said that Peter, his partner on the adolescent psyche ward night shift, was intrigued by the tuque I had made a couple years ago. So I checked my stash and found I still had just enough of the yarn to make another one.

Oh, you wanted to see it as an actual hat rather than just a blob? Okay, here ya go:

Yarn: Phildar Pure Laine 3-1/2 (apparently discontinued), DK weight, colorway 'Corsair', 3+ skeins (350 - 400 yds.).
Needles: Addi Turbo US#6.
Pattern: I got the original pattern from Dale-Harriet in Madison but couldn't find it when I looked. So I winged it.

When that is done I plan to make a pair of mittens, probably from some more of the same yarn I used for the Windschief set, for the teenage boy who has been our hired slave since last May. When one's own sons are not around the house any more, and one's disabilities make it difficult to do certain things, hiring a teenager is the perfect solution. Scotty is a great kid: reliable, cheerful, willing to learn, willing to do whatever we ask of him. When the task is partcularly disgusting, like changing the litter box, we pay extra.

Then there are the medical mittens, slumbering for years. Last spring the woman who designed them for me emailed to offer to finish them (!) She had noticed that their Ravelry status had not changed in a loooong time. For those of you who care but can't remember them either, they are for Elder Son, who was in medical school at the time. He has since finished and is now at UMich in Ann Arbor getting a master's degree in public health, epidemiology. The design has the caduceus on the backs of the mittens; I knat them up as far as the wings at the top but couldn't get that part right. She finished them and blocked them and sent them back. Yarn is Cascade Heritage sock.

 

I still have plans to make a DNA scarf of the same yarn for him. Will it get done in time for this Christmas? Probably not, although miracles DO happen...

There is a also tiny bit of stealth knitting going on, maybe for Christmas and maybe not. Someday I'll show you it. 

Monday mutterings. And knitting,

1. Call :: back
2. Instinct :: basic
3. Toffee :: caramel
4. Cleaner :: software*
5. Gut :: level
6. Leveled :: destroyed
7. Discover :: TV
8. Together :: again
9. Attack :: plane
10. String :: theory

* I used to have a little Windoze widget called The Cleaner that would clean the << and extra carriage returns from emails I wanted to quote.

* * * * *

I have four project OTN right now. Guess what I did yesterday?

Cast on a baby hat for here. Hats are the comfort knitting of comfort knitting.

Thing #4. And the beginnings of Thing #5.

  

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #271 and 279, about 1/2 skein each.
Needle: US#7. Or maybe it was a #6. Or maybe I did the ribbing on #5 and switched to a #6 or a #7 for the stockinette. Anyone? Bueller?
Pattern: A pastiche of hat patterns. I wanted a hat that got bigger after the ribbing, sort of a slouch/tan. This is that, if I rearrange the slouch -- which is minimal -- after I put it on.

Now I have a sort-of matched set of hat, scarf, and mittens. They are all Noro, just not all the same Noro.

 

 

* * * * *

Matthew requested another hat for himself, this time in charcoal and 2x2 rib. He specifically said, No cables, no cuff, none of that stuff that is such fun for knitters. Sorry. Mom. He also does not care for the lines formed on the crown by columns of decreases, thus, the 2x2 rib that can hide the decreases. I sent him links to about a dozen different superwash merino DK yarns in charcoal. He chose Tanis Yellow Label, a yarn I had never used nor even heard of before I googled.

As soon as I ordered it I started noticing all the Ravelry projects made from it. Once the yarn arrived and I cast on, I learned why it is so popular. Nice stuff! Soft like merino but still with a bit of woolliness. The color is tonal, and it looks GREAT in ribbing -- very 3-dimensional.

What is that gap in the ribbing, you ask?

I could tell you it is for the unicorn horn at Matthew's hairline, but that would be... a lie.

Most of you already know this but just in case somebody doesn't: when knitting in the round, it is NOT necessary to join immediately after the cast on. That way lies madness twists.

Knit back and forth for a few rows, then join. You can easily see how the knitting should be joined and avoid that dreaded twist. Use the tail from the cast on to sew up the little seam; no one will ever notice when the garment is worn.

Observe:

In the case of the hat, above, the viewer will be so distracted by the jog in the stripes (does anyone have a good method for avoiding that job when the stripes are only 2 rows tall?) that they will never notice the seam in the ribbing. In the mittens, I defy you to find the seam.

* * * * *

In other breaking news, I tripped over something invisible in my office last night and fell. My can of soda and bowl of popcoarn went flying, and I smacked my hand on a chair. (I know the thing that I tripped on was invisible because after I got up there was nothing there to see.) No huge damage to myself, and Lucy The Wonder Dog was thrilled that I had thrown an entire bowl of popcorn onto the floor for her, instead of the usual few kernels, but the index, middle, and ring fingers of my right hand were very sore. So sore, in fact, that I could not knit.

Wah! It doesn't look bad -- no swelling, no bruising -- but it is sore.

The next day the fingers were still sore but not enough to prevent knitting, only to make it go a bit more slowly. Yay!

 

I made another thing.

 

Yarn: Knit Picks Sugar Bunny (worsted weight, 80/20 merino/angora), ~1-1/2 balls.
Pattern: Slip Slip Cloche, from Boutique Knits.
Needles: US#5

I started this hat in November, but because I had so many things on the needles it didn't get finished until nearly Christmas. It is adorable on Alex.

WIP Wednesday.

Still working on the dog sweater for Ser Perival The Energetic. I am at the part between front legs and neck and need to try it on him again to figure out the shaping.

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Frogged the first Kill Bill scarf, started it again with a different pattern. Clearly, I have a ways to go.

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Tappan Zee has not glimpsed the light of day since you last saw it.

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Cast on for a hat for BGFE. Yarn is Knit Picks Sugar Bunny, a merino-angora worsted; color (Wine) is less brick and more maroon than my photo. If you are having difficulty imagining how that strip will turn into a hat, click on the first link to look at the pattern -- it is adorable.

* * * * *

Yesterday I was a bell ringer for the Salvation Army again 3:00 to 5:00 pm in front of the local Wal*Mart. This is how it looked when I left home:

19˚ F (-7˚ C), but happily there was little wind. I wore a Calorimetry, a Noro striped scarf, a turtleneck and sweater, a down parka, leggings, jeans, and snowpants; and Sorel boots. Those of you in warmer climes probably know nothing of Sorels; those of you north of the 40th parallel probably do. They are awesomely warm. 

Lucy The Wonder Dog went with me. She charmed passersby, kept my legs warm, and prompted at least two people to donate. The last half hour of my two-hour shift was hard to get through because both of us were starting to get cold; I have to admit I left a couple minutes early. But my bucket got full. It was very apparent when the customers changed from home-all-day types to stopping-in-after-work types -- the donations picked up noticeably. Some of the earlier people probably count on the Salvation Army for help.

Please give generously to the bell ringers you see. The Salvation Army an organization that helps the down-and-out get back on their feet.

I had my 15 minutes seconds of fame.

Some of you have seen this already, either on TV or Facebook or soxanne's blog or Ravelry, but hey, watch it again! Make me feel famous good!

 

 

Ellen and I were interviewed on Wednesday for this piece, which aired on the Thursday 5 o'clock news on WCCO, channel 4 in the Twin Cities. Ellen is an awesome person whom I am proud to have met and even prouder to have helped.

As of yesterday her efforts had secured hats for all 100 heads in the Senate and a large portion of the House -- 42% of Congress in total. I certainly hope those Congresspeople take the sentiment to heart. Thanks to all the knitters who have jumped on this cause!

Warm heads, not hot heads.

As I mentioned before, I jumped into this project with both feet and all my needles. I knit one hat and plan to knit one more by next weekend. But I had several other hats hanging around in the "to be donated" basket, and what better use could they have?

I have worn several of them on occasion, but after a good soak in Eucalan -- which none of them had had before -- they are good as new. (There is one more hiding on the shelf below.)

There is still time for any of you to whip out a hat and let twinsetellen know to whom you plan to send it. As of today she has people signed up to send hats to 20% of Congress! That's a lot of hats and a lot of knitters!

Yesterday I drafted the letter that will accompany the hats I will send. It was cut and pasted together from Ellen's and Alison's examples.

February 22, 2011

Congress[wo]man The Honorable* Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
Yada yada

Dear Congress[wo]man Senator / Representative* Xxxxxxxx:

I knit this hat for you; I live in xxx in Wisconsin District 7. Many of your colleagues will also be receiving hats from knitters of all political stripes and from all around the nation. We wanted to show you that we appreciate the work you do for those of us whom you serve in the House.

I knitted it as part of a campaign among knitters for Warm Hats, Not Hot Heads (more information at http://twinset.us/?page_id=3736). We are from many political backgrounds. We want those who engage in angry and even vicious public rhetoric to stop speaking for us in those ways. We want civility in Congress. We are choosing to give hours of our time silently to be able to give you a visible, tangible, heartfelt symbol of our desire for respecting and honoring one another within our government – and to thank you for doing your best.

Why a hat? Knit hats meet a simple need for warmth. They are an every day comfort. Everyone can use a good hat. Civil political discourse also meets a simple need – the need for our government to have the best information and insights from many viewpoints. It would be an everyday comfort to me and to many other Americans if the airwaves were free of hate-filled rhetoric, and it would help lead to good government. As I am sure you will agree, everyone can use good government.

Each stitch is individual. Each stitch depends on every other stitch within that hat being present for it to be able to do its job where it is of creating comfort and warmth. I wish you the best in your work and thank you for your service to us all.

Warm regards,

 

Kathryn Xxxxxxx

P.S. If you are not able to use this hat yourself, please donate it to a worthy charity. There are many that help the homeless and underserved, and I would like to know that the hat is keeping someone warm.

* The Google showed me the proper way to address such a letter.

 * * * * *

It is melting here this weekend.

Do you know how hard it is to photograph a melting drop in the air? This is the best I got out of over 20 shots. I even investigated the "Continuous" mode on my new camera. It worked just like it was supposed to, but I still failed to capture the desired shot. You will have to settle for a drop almost ready to come off.

Hannibal was not impressed, either.

FO Friday.

I have been cranking out the small projects on a regular basis lately. Very satisfying, especially after that nearly-12-month sweater.

This scarflette has been gifted to our local librarian, who has been pestering me -- in a good-natured way -- to knit something for her ever since I started requesting knitting books.

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, 1.75 skeins of some unknown, mostly blue, colorway (band long gone) purchased at either School Products or Purl Soho in 2007. Souvenir yarn, don't you know...
Pattern: Simple Things by Mary-Heather Cogar (of Ravelry fame). 
Needles: Addi Turbo US#4 circ.

(That swatch at upper right is something else. Please ignore.)

I followed the pattern exactly as written. If I had it to do over I would attempt to use more of the yarn and make the scarf as big as possible. As an inexperienced triangle knitter I did not feel like I could judge the amount of yarn required to finish from any given point, so I just followed the pattern.

(When I was in the library yesterday she told me that whenever she wears the scarf people want to know where she bought it and could they buy hers. She told me I could go into business making and selling them, and I reminded her of how I knit for friends and relatives and myself, not for 50¢ an hour. Non-knitters just don't get it.)

Next up, a pair of felted slippers for a friend. Bad blogger that I am, I neglected to get a photo of the actual felted FO. Here is the first one, unfelted, next to my size 9 clog; the recipient's feet are size 7.

Yarn: Reynold's Lopi.
Pattern: Felted (Fulled) Stuff by Nancy Lindberg.
Needle: Knit Picks US#11 circ.

Lopi is a scratchy, uncomfortable yarn, but it may be a good choice for slippers that will be worn with socks -- it seems like it will wear well. The slipper is really a scuff or mule. As I was knitting them it seemed to me that they were too wide for their length or too short for their width. After they went through my front-loader twice they looked sufficiently fulled. I attempted to stretch the soles so that they would fit. My friend tried them on and declared them perfect*.

I knew that this person had a birthday coming up in February and had decided that I would knit her a pair of felted clogs. I already had the pattern and yarn -- bright red KP Wool of the Andes for the top and black for the soles and trim. Then I ran into my friend earlier last week and she burst out, "I'm going to make myself felted slippers for my birthday!" To which I replied, "I was going to make you felted slippers for your birthday!" She thrust her bag with the yarn and pattern at me and said, "Well, then, you can make these!" Perfect!

*Update: I checked with said friend again yesterday and she admitted that they are a little short. I may be knitting her another pair.

The latest FO is a hat for me. Here is is, with and without flash.

   

Yarn: Bernat Lana (worsted, 100% wool; discontinued) with stripes of leftover bits of Noro Silk Garden and Plymouth Boku.
Needles: KnitPicks Options, Zephyr tips, US#8.
Pattern: Sixteen-Cable Hat, heavily modified. No cables; I just used the first and last couple inches of the pattern to create the general shape. Initially I followed the pattern but found that without the cables to pull it in, the hat hung halfway down my back. Slight exaggeration, but clearly I needed to frog back. After removing several inches (including all the decreasing and a 2-3" more) I decreased down again and found that it looked much better.

WIP Wednesday.

Today's WIP is brought to you by Twinset Ellen via Carrie K.

 

This is the beginning of a 2x2 ribbed hat intended for either Senator Ron Johnson or Rep. Sean Duffy, both of Wisconsin and two of my three guys in Congress. The previously mentioned Ellen and her friend Alison have started a project they call Warm Heads, Not Hot Heads.

Here is Ellen talking about the project:

"Pick a Congressperson for whom you’d like to knit a hat. You don’t have to agree with their politics, in fact it may be a more enriching experience for you if they don’t." 

And Alison (emphasis mine):

"Invite any and all knitters who would like to join in to knit a hat...for their own congressional representative, whether Senate or House.  Ask them to email me, perhaps send a photo or link to a Ravelry project, and let me know to whom a hat has been sent. I can track who is being covered (literally!) and if anyone wants to knit more than one hat, they can send them to me and I’ll handle mailing them to a rep who hasn’t received one yet.

"I’d like to write a standard note to go with it, to which any knitter could add her own personal message. I’m also thinking how cool it would be to design a hat for it, but I am also telling myself to keep it manageable. (Her husband) suggested that the hats be purple, a blending of red and blue, but I told him I want them to be worn!...After thinking on it all week, though, what is really compelling me is to highlight the need for civil discourse even over things we disagree on.”

Ellen's letter to accompany her hat(s):

Dear Congressperson,

This hat was hand knit with care for you.  Many of your colleagues will also be receiving hats from knitters of all political stripes and from all around the nation.

Why a hat?  Knit hats meet a simple need for warmth.  They are an every day comfort.  Everyone can use a good hat.

Civil political discourse also meets a simple need - the need for our government to have the best information and insights from many viewpoints.  It would be an every day comfort to me and many other Americans if the airwaves were free of hate-filled rhetoric, and it would lead to good government.   As I’m sure you agree, everyone can use good government.

Thank you for your service, and best regards,

Ellen

P.S.  More information about this effort, Warm Hats, Not Hot Heads can be found at http://twinset.us/?p=3732 or http://spindyeknit.com/2011/01/lets-change-the-world/.  If you can not personally use this hat, please donate it to a worthy charity.

You can find out more about the project at either of the linked sites, above. For myself, I am knitting for two people whose political views are pretty far from my own. The yarn is some lightweight worsted superwash merino I got recently from Smiley's Yarns, and, yes, I would wear it myself.

* * * * *

The other WIP that has been pending for w-a-y too long is my name-the-glass-head contest. Remember that? I didn't think so.

There were 16 entries (so much for bringing out the lurkers), each of whom suggested a dandy name.

And now... (drum roll, please)

...the winners are... (suspense mounts)

Gayle, for "Bubbles" (my favorite*)

...and...

Sophanne, for "Ida Lee." (the random winner).

 

Winners, check your email. Check your spam folder, too, since I foolishly made the subject line "You won my contest!" which is sure to be flagged as spam.

 

 

 

* "Marie Antoinette" was a close second (headless, get it?) but was ruled out on the basis of length. I couldn't see myself using a five-syllable name. Gail, you lost only because of my laziness energy efficiency.