![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EwFmYNYqTC0/SV3MjOwzgII/AAAAAAAAATE/dfG5zpOzIyM/s320/matthat5.jpg)
Here, at long last, is Matthew's hat, that he commissioned towards the end of the semester to keep his ears warm during the long Ohio winter. It ended up taking 2 balls of Waterlily in brown, and one ball of turquoise Queensland Rustic Wool, and well over a month of getting really excited and knitting half the damn thing and then sitting there thinking really mean, rude things at the yarn because something just wasn't right.
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This hat, in short, has kicked my knitting mojo's ass. I spent about 3 hours today re-knitting the ribbing and grafting it on because the original 132-stitch ribbing was just too big. I couldn't even bear to take pictures. It was just really floppy and weird, and totally didn't fulfill the whole "clingy ribby stuff at the bottom of a hat to make it stay on a person's head, DUH" role. Which led to me re-knitting a cuff, grafting it to the hat, and then trying to unravel the original ribbing while both ribbings were attached.
Which led to a veritable yarnpocalypse. For some reason, ribbing doesn't like to be ripped backwards - something about the transition between knit and purl created these strange, spider-webby (and completely f*$%*7ing infuriating) tangles of yarn. Frustrated beyond all belief, I took a long, ragged breath... and started cutting the little ribby twerp right off the hat. It took the better part of an hour, but then I had a nice, clingy rib.
Good knitting mojo. You get a cookie.
I'm a little frustrated with myself on this project because Matthew originally wanted a garment that was two colors (gotcha), hat-shaped (check!), reasonably fashionable (...ish?) and long enough to pull over his ears when it was cold, or fold up if it was too warm. I'm afraid that I wasn't able to fulfill the last requirement. But I think it's cute. And very manly, of course.
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I'm down to two projects on the needles again, one of which is the cabled gauntlets that has infected me with a terminal case of Lazy. The other is this little pile of awesome:
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EwFmYNYqTC0/SV3QGxeNRLI/AAAAAAAAATs/ShttvhQfaM8/s320/crumpledgoo.jpg)
What the heck is that, you might ask? It is the result of me going to to Tricoter in Seattle with my mother, too much money and a dangerous lust for expensive yarn. The yarn is Alchemy (my first time working with it!), the pattern is the Magician's Scarf, a design specifically for Alchemy yarns. They had a couple of them worked up in the store, and they were awesome: it's shibori, so the yarns are Silken Straw, a 100% silk yarn that literally feels like straw, and Sanctuary, a silk/merino blend. After I'm done, I pop it in the washer (gulp....) and it comes out all fabulous and stuff.
I love the colors... it feels very vintage to me. I can't wait to see the finished results!
2 comments:
hat! hooray!
and pile of awesome! eep!
ps i am wearing the orange/green pace socks
that eep was an expression of excitement, just to clarify
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