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.