Head Start

The Second Wave Clapotis KAL doesn't officially start for another three weeks, but I couldn't resist casting on the hat to match. Was that very naughty of me? I haven't cast on the actual clapotis yet. Just the hat.

Once cast on, it knitted up very quickly. Two days. That's nothing! The hardest part was working the decreases at the crown in a way that made the pattern look semi-good. I had to rip it back once, but on the second try ended up with this swirly pattern. I think it will do.





















Here's the side view. I chose a 2x2 rib because it mimics the look of the clapotis, but doesn't have all those pesky holes. Holes in a hat + Chicago winter = unhappy me with a cold noggin!

The deep foldover brim will give me a double layer of warmth around the forehead and ears. Again, Chicago winter. "Dressing in layers for warmth" gets elevated to a whole other level around here. I fully expect to wrap the clapotis around the hat/neck for yet another layer on particularly bitter days.

So, that feels pretty darn good. Yesterday I was thumping my own forehead for having nine works-in-progress -- Nine! A new record! And not the kind that deserves a trophy, either. I don't mind having two or three going at a time. Four, even, when I have deadlines or mild yarn-fume-induced insanity or other extenuating circumstances. But nine? Heck, no.

Today, that number shrunk to eight. I'm thinking I can finish two more projects before the start of the clapotis-along. Maybe three. We'll see! I just want to clear the decks a little before starting in on the grandmother of them all ... Fulmar.

If you're interested, here are the hat specs.

Yarn: Jaeger Baby Merino DK, 1 50g skein plus about 15g of a second skein.
Pattern: None. I just cast on 112 stitches on size 6s and knit in 2x2 rib until it was good and long -- 9 inches or thereabouts -- and then I decreased until it was done. First I decreased the purls in the 2x2, then the knits, then worked knits and purls together in more decreases to form that swirly crown.

Started August 28.
Finished August 30. (I love that. Two days! And have I mentioned it only took two days to knit this silly bit?)

Oh, Dear

This is how I started my morning. Imagine me innocently driving along in the morning rush, thinking about one of the manuscripts I had to reject last night. It was good. It wasn't right for our publishing house, but it was very well-written and coherent. If only I could have figured out a way to angle it so that it would fit in our lines. But I couldn't and I had to reject it, and it was bugging me this morning. Really, I hate letting the good ones go.

So I'm musing about the state of the publishing industry and how everything is driven by the shelf labels used by the bookstores, and how even a great manuscript will be hard to publish if nobody can figure out how to shelve it, and I happen to glance over at the car in the next lane.

That bumper sticker is difficult to read because, let's face it, taking a picture of a moving car from a moving car isn't the easiest task. So you'll have to trust me when I tell you that it advertises a new series by author Laurel K. Hamilton. The sharp-eyed among you will notice the apostrophe in the title. That apostrophe signals the possessive case. But what do the animators possess? I mean, other than an extraneous punctuation mark.

So that irritated me -- the freaking title, for chrissakes, and some copyeditor somewhere screwed it up because they can't distinguish plurals from possessives. This is such a basic mistake. It's like an auto mechanic who pumps gas directly into the backseat of the car. Or a gardener who rips out the shrubs and leaves the weeds. It should never happen.

Meanwhile, Laurel K. Hamilton (who surely cannot be blamed for this, I would hope) sells gobs of books with glaring grammatical errors, while my poor rejected writer last night writes excellent prose and can't get a break.
It just bugs me.

















And as long as we're on the topic of people doing the wrong thing, I must confess that I cast on something new. This is a hat -- or it will be a hat, and it will match my eventual clapotis. The fabric reminds me of a speckled easter egg. Me likee.

Another confession. I have somehow managed to get myself into three knitalongs for this fall. The first, the Persuasion knitalong, starts September 1, but I have already cast on a blue empire blouse, the Butterfly.

The second, the Second Wave Clapotis KAL, starts September 23 as the Summer of Socks ends.

The third is the Fulmar KAL which I've cobbled together from a group of amazing and brave knitters. That one is going to be a project. It starts October 1, and will require a lot of time and attention to detail. I'm looking forward to that!

Plus, I promised to teach a friend to knit cables by knitting a hat together with her. We're starting that sometime soon.

This gives me -- brace yourselves --
-- four socks
-- one cardigan
-- one hat
-- one novelty scarf
-- one shirt
-- and some secret knitting
currently OTN. Plus I'll be casting on a cabled hat and Fulmar soon.

No, I don't miss my mind. Why do you ask?