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?

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.

Peep Fondue

This is the Malabrigo Chunky, colorway Whales Road, that will become a hat and scarf for me. This yarn is positively decadent. I hope it holds up well, because it could easily be a new favorite staple yarn for me. It's that wonderful to knit.






















This is a blurry close-up of the mock I-cord that will be a hat band. I'm making the newsboy cap from Knitscene Fall 2006, the same issue with the Central Park Hoodie pattern. You start by knitting this non I-cord I-cord -- it looks like I-cord, but it's flat in the back and the stitch count doesn't work like regular I-cord. You start with 91 stitches live on the needles, and knit these back and forth bits that are almost like a cross between short rows and I-cord, and then you end up with 90 live stitches when you finish the row. Very cool.

Peep Fondue

Today was peep fondue day at Nana's. It all started rather innocently. A couple of weeks ago, we were chatting at open knitting about holiday candy, and I mentioned that when I was a kid, we did a peep fondue one time. One of my favorite memories of holiday candy. Seriously, it's delicious. Just melt a little chocolate and dunk the marshmallow peeps in -- ummmmmmmm.

So we peep fondued today with both dark and milk chocolate, and we all got giddy from the sugar, and now I'm remembering the downside of peep fondue. Major sugar crash. Complete with a headache. Bleurgh. Though I suppose I have only myself to blame -- if I'd only had one or two peeps, instead of the eleventy thousand I consumed, I wouldn't feel quite so woozy now.

Also. Peep fondue? Dramatically increases your knitting time. Try it and see how buzzed you get.