Every Pot Has a Lid

This is my fantastic, awesome, gorgeous new hat. Which I love. Can you tell?

It only took three tries to get the brim right. No thanks to a certain designer whose initials stand for Annie Modesitt, and who created instructions for what is probably the weirdest hat brim ever in the history of knitted hats. So I ignored hers and made my own. Nyah, nyah.

The body of the hat comes from her pattern, more or less, found in knitscene fall 2006 (the central park hoodie issue). I started on size 8s and switched to 9s when I began the crown shaping. I used 9s for the brim, too. The yarn is malabrigo chunky, colorway whale's road.

I made the brim in basically the same way I would make a short row toe on a toe-up sock. I picked up stitches at the band across the forehead -- that was the hard part, to be honest, because getting the right number of stitches there took some trial and error. Then I knit short rows until I had a double-sided cup which, when flattened smooth, is exactly the shape and size I wanted.

I thought it might need some kind of buckram or something to stiffen the brim, but as it turns out, knitting chunky yarn on size 9s yields a fabric firm enough to stand on its own.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to block it. Anyone have any ideas?

Now All I Need Are Some Mystery Bananas

The mystery monkeys are finished! Whew! Seems like a long time since I posted an FO. We can blame Al1ce Starmore for that -- five more rows until I put Fulmar's back on stitch holders and knit the sleeves! Woot! -- but let's talk about the monkeys.

My best guesses in the "Name That Mystery Yarn" contest are Colinette Jitterbug and Socks That Rock Lightweight. STR is probably more likely, if only because I tend to stash it like crazy. But there is one key fact that makes me think it can't be STR. You see that tiny ball of leftover yarn in the crook of the ankle? My handy dandy drug dealer scale tells me this is 3 measly grams of yarn. STR hanks are enormous, and these monkeys are normal sized. I seriously doubt this pattern soaked up all but 3 grams of an STR skein.

This was a fun pattern, an easy and pleasing little knit. I doubt I'll make any more monkeys because I'm not one for repeating any but my standard sock recipe. But that said, I'd be more likely to make another pair of monkeys than another pair of any other sock pattern I've knit to date.

I used a single reinforced heel instead of my usual double, because the single is stretchier and I know that bias-knit items stretch differently from standard knitting. And I wanted to be able to, you know, wear these socks some day. The monkeys are tight, but wearable.

In other news, all of my favored teams are out of the tournament. Not the team I picked to win it all -- I picked UCLA -- but, you know, the teams I like to watch. I didn't get to watch nearly as much of the tournament last weekend as I'd hope -- blame the day job and the holiday! -- but I did watch enough to knit the second monkey, anyway, and a few more rows of Fulmar.

And for those of you keeping score at home, this puts my official tally for the year at 700 grams in, 474 grams out. I'm very close to adding another 400 grams to the yarn out side of the column, though, so the balance will soon be restored.

Tipping It Off!

The NCAA tournament starts in 21 minutes from now, and I can't wait! Every year, I am glued to the television while the tournament is unfolding. Love it.

And every year, as I watch, there is yelling and knitting in equal measures.

Some years I've started a new project on the morning of the first game, sort of like my own personal Olympic knitting project, except that it's college hoops. This year, I've decided to concentrate on meeting my March goals and finishing some existing projects.

That doesn't mean I won't start something new.

Any excuse to start something new, right?

I've got three pairs of socks OTN, and two of those pairs are on the second sock. I imagine I could finish both pairs in the next week, maybe even in the next couple days. That would leave only one sock OTN, and lawdamercy, we can't have that.

So I'm winding sock yarn this morning. Gobs and gobs of it. I brought boxes of it with me to the office. (I'm stuck at the family business until early afternoon.) (And yes, I brought a tv with me, too, so I could watch the games here.) (And no, I have no intention of actually working today. It's tournament day! Sheesh.) I brought my swift and winder. I'm alone here and enjoying every moment, winding yarn and anticipating tipoff.

I've about resolved on knitting some of the Alpaca Sox yarn next. I'm very curious about this yarn. It seems counterintuitive to have alpaca socks. It's not the most generous of fibers, and it lacks wool's elacticity. But the yarn feels like heaven, and it's got some wool blended in, so maybe it will outperform my admittedly low expectations. We'll see. I've wound off a hank that's all shades of smokey gray -- it looks like the ashes in a campfire pit, which is actually much prettier than it might sound.

Have any of you knit socks with this?

One Mystery Monkey

I stole a bit of knitting time last night and finished the foot of this first monkey. This is the yarn that might be Colinette or might be something else -- the yarn I found wound and without its label in a storage area at the family business. I have another skein of Colinette unwound, and the two yarns do share some similarities.

The monkey pattern is addictive and very easy. It's an enjoyable knit, as so many others have already discovered, but I have some concerns about how comfortable this sock will be on the foot. I'm just skeptical of all these ridges and puckers in the fabric, and I'm still shy of socks that angle across the leg after the jaywalker incident.

But this one does seem to have some stretch, at least, so maybe it will work out in the end. I'll knit the second, regardless of this little concern.

I also spent part of the morning comparing patterns for hats with brims, and I checked for errata on the malabrigo hat. No errata, but that could be because I'm the only damn fool on the planet to be knitting this thing. Do you think I'm exaggerating about that? I'm not. Ravelry shows one and only one project in progress or queued for this pattern: mine. Does this make me the dumbest knitter, or the most adventurous? I figure everyone else took one look at the designer's name and turned the page quickly before her madness could infect them. This will be the last time I ever attempt one of hers, that I promise! Sign me, frustrated!

Mmmmmmalabrigo Hat

I had a hard time photgraphing this hat today. The light was doing things to the color -- the yarn is much more muted than it actually appears here. More navy and purple, less teal.

Anyway, the hat is done except for the brim. It's an Annie Modisett pattern, meaning that I've had one or two nits to pick with it as I've worked it. For example, she had a random row of purls at the start of the crown shaping. Yeah, I skipped that.

And the brim -- the reason I keep putting off picking up the stitches to knit the brim is that her instructions are so darn weird. You have to pick up all but about ten stitches of the entire circumference. Then you do like 5-stitch shortrows on one end, then knit across to the other end and do some more short rows. Then you knit the whole brim, back and forth across all those short rows and all the stitches between them, and if that makes sense on any level whatsoever, I sure wish someone would explain it to me.

I mean, all the way back around behind your ears, there will be these little extra poofs of stitches. Ooooo-kay.

Hmm. Maybe I should check for errata first!

Well, at least the yarn is good.

Fulmar Update

Six pattern repeats, done! Woot! This measures a notch over 15" in length. I am considering one more pattern repeat before I bind off some stitches on each side for the armholes. (That's not part of the original pattern, but I'm doing it anyway.)

One of the reasons I started this blog was to record project information which might be useful to other knitters contemplating a particular yarn or pattern. Also, to amuse myself, which is a high priority in my life. ;)

What I've decided about Fulmar is that I'm very glad I went with a sportweight yarn. (Silver Creek Merino - 306 yds in 100g, tightly spun and round.) I've seen some other Fulmar pictures here and there, and some of them are dense enough to stand up on their own - great for durability, but less attractive when worn.

Mine is resulting in just what I had hoped for, a sturdy and dense fabric with some flexibility left. We'll see if it retains those characteristics once it's finished and made up. Which, at my current knitting speed, ought to be somewhere around the end of the current millenium.

I Am So Freaking Fashionable

I can't believe it. Dudes, I'm hot. I'm so hot.

Someone just emailed me a link to a blog called style sightings written by someone who apparently works in fashion. And look at the picture there!

The writer calls it Yves Klein blue, but we all know better, right? That's Fulmar blue!

OMG, I think I am going to faint from my own fashion-forwardness.

Curly Girl

Here's a current picture of Catherine Parr. It's curling badly at the bottom hem, but I have plans to fix that later. Right now this measures just about 14", maybe a notch less, in length, so I'm within two inches of the place where I will have to divide for the sleeves.

I don't have anything new to say about this project, but wanted to post the picture now that I can post pictures!

Goals Report

It just occurred to me that I never reported on February goals. I need to set some March goals, too.

1. Finish pink socks.
Done! Already have worn them with my favorite pink cotton sweater, which is definitely not warm enough for this time of year. Don't care. Sick of winter. Maybe if I start wearing my spring clothes, the weather will take a hint.


2. Two balls on Catherine Parr.
Done! Actually, I knit two plus maybe a quarter of a third ball.


3. Finish orange felted clogs.
I ended up frogging these because I was unhappy with the way the yarn looked. I bought a beautiful multi-variegated Mountain Colors yarn that looks like a fall forest. It has to be knit double-stranded, and there was only one skein of it, so I picked a complementary orange Cascade 220 to knit with it. The orange swamped the other colors, so I ended up frogging it. (But I did find a felted slipper-boot pattern that will let me use both skeins, so there will be a second go at this yarn.)



Hmm. March goals. I'm knitting more regularly than I have been, but I still find myself knitting in spurts and snatches between other duties. It's hard to judge how much real knitting time I'll have. So this is a shot in the dark.

1. Finish the Socks That Rock Sapphire socks.
Easy enough. It's plain knitting, so I pick away at them while I'm reading.

2. Finish the Malabrigo hat.
It's about half done now, maybe less. It's a fast knit, but the pattern changes in almost every round, so it takes some concentration.

3. Finish the current ball of yarn on Fulmar.
I just started a ball, so this is a lot of knitting. Each ball is a touch over 300 yards of yarn.

4. Knit Catherine Parr to the armpits.
That's about another two inches. I think I can manage it, as long as life cooperates somewhat! Once I have this to the bottom of the armscyes, I intend to put the body on stitch holders and knit the sleeves.

So there we have it. My two big projects should advance some more, and I have a couple of little things for variety. That out to get me in like a lion and out like a lamb!

What about the rest of you? What are your plans for the month?

SSS, Here I Come!

This is the Socks That Rock Sapphire Mediumweight. All I have to do is kitchener that toe shut, and it's on to Second Sock Syndrome.

Actually, there will probably be no SSS for me on this one. This is my plain sock du jour, which I keep on my desk to knit while reading submissions. By my last count, I have just under 50 manuscripts to read at the moment, and I'd like to knock through them in the next week or two. A lot of reading time equals a lot of time for plain knitting equals a second sock which ought to come together fairly quickly.

And even though my pictures must all be unedited until I figure out why in the world my software won't let me save any edits, I have made enough progress with this new computer and software to be able to post photos again. So I thought, you know, this being a knitting blog and all, I might as well post some progress pictures of knitting. Imagine that.

In the blurry bad picture, you don't see all the gradations of color in this yarn. It's very subtle and pretty, bits of teal and turquoise winding through that royal and sapphire blue. Of course, this being Socks That Rock, I don't expect those colors to remain true after the first washing. But they please me during the knitting! So that counts for something.

Of Course There's a Spreadsheet For That

I'm trying to focus on finishing existing projects and cut down the number of projects OTN. I've even started a spreadsheet to track my yarn in and yarn out for the year. Go ahead. Roll your eyes. Yes, a spreadsheet! I do love my spreadsheets and databases.

All I'm doing is marking yarn in grams -- and I'm not bothering myself about leftover bits and dabs of yarn. So the Lorna's Laces self-unknitting Penelope socks count as 100 g out, because that's what you have to buy to make a pair, even though I probably have about 30 g leftover.

And a project has to be finished before it goes in the "yarn out" column. So the several balls I've knit toward Catherine Parr don't count yet, but they will all go in that column when the sweater is finished.

At the moment, because of the recent Malabrigo purchase, I have 126 more grams in the "yarn in" column than in the "yarn out" column. But half the hat and half the scarf are already knit, so this will soon re-balance itself.

My only goal is to hold the yarn in and the yarn out roughly equal over the course of the year. This is because I'm running out of storage options, and I have enough yarn to knit, and I keep forgetting about lovely yarn I've already bought. And if there's one thing I learned in the December work frenzy and the January flu, it's that huge quantities of yarn only make sense if we are doing a lot of knitting. I didn't have to fret about the 100+ skeins I bought at Stitches last year because I knew I'd knit through them pretty rapidly. But slow knitting means slower accumulation, or at least, it should.

This is what I tell myself, anyway, as I open the winter issue of VK and stare longingly for the ten-thousandth time at the cabled turtleneck with the gusset sleeves -- pattern number ten, and it is SO ME -- but I don't have a single lot of sweater yarn in the stash that will work for that pattern. If I want to buy the yarn for this pattern (IF? ha!), I have to finish a sweater's worth of yarn already in progress.

We're into March, by the way, so two full months into the spreadsheet, and the yarn in/yarn out thing is working better for me than anything else I've ever tried. This might just be the winning system.