Knit in upheaval, worn with humor.

I finished this hat sometime in late November I think. I’m not sure, life was kind of hectic. You know, in the way that being doused in gasoline and offered a lit cigarette is kind of hectic. Maybe it was mid-December.

Okay. I should say that I finished knitting it, weaving in the end and sewing the pointy tips together to make the crown are more recent developments. It’s a pretty generous length because if I’m going to wear a hat I at least want it to keep the wind off of my ears.

There is a lot of wind here; cold bitter snow driving wind. The scenery is beautiful and well worth braving the elements, but when it comes to fetching the mail in the morning I tend to think it can wait until after it warms up, sometime in Spring maybe. We all have our priorities– mail just does not seem to be one of mine.

It’s a knitters freakin’ paradise, or it would be if I could find a proper LYS out here. I’m pretty much stuck to Micheal’s in Klamath Falls for yarnage. Let’s just take a moment to feel sorry for me.

Poor me.

pictured: hat, snow. not pictured: self pity

Moment over. I’ve been working on a hat, no pattern (no big surprise there) just a circle with cables on it. The uncabled bit at the beginning will be folded under and stitched down to make a nice band inside. The yarn is Caron “Country” and it’s a 75% Acrylic, 25% Merino. That cold breeze that blew through here was not the weather, just the bitter winter of my heart as I weep just a little, longing for proper handspun wool on my needles.

As soon as I get a place I’m going to grab at least one of my wheels and do some spinning.

I think if I were to reknit this I’d add at least 3 more inches in length. Maybe just a squidge more.

The finishing was super easy, I snipped a small hole in the top to let the lid button through, and sliced holes to let through the spout and handle.

I’m going to mount googly eyes on it and make it my friend.

Where it is now.

Hopefully when it’s out of the washing machine, it’ll be suitably felted and appropriately sized to my Amsterdam teapot, then I’ll slice a openings for the handle and the spout.

I cross my fingers.

I’ve finished one light blue Garden plot square and started on the second one.

The squares are coming out nicely, but I have to work considerably less on them because the cotton has no give and makes my wrists ache.

Once I decide on a tried and true thing it’s very hard for me to change brands, or even styles within a brand. I debated for days, then weeks, and then timidly added harmony interchangable needles and cables to my shopping cart. I must have read the description at least a hundred times before completing the order (that’s the thing with monomania, it is an OCD and not a terribly fun one at that.) I ordered a set of size 4 and a set of size 6, along with 24″ and 32″ cables.

They are beautiful. The joins to the cable are smooth and the tips are perfectly pointylicous.

Lexi’s baby doll provided the perfect opportunity to try out the size 4 needles. The green and white sweater was done on size 0 bamboo needles, yarn is 2-ply Falkland sock yarn that I spun up last year or the year before last. The purple and blue yarn is 2 ply merino sportweight that I dyed and spun around the same nonspecific time frame. I knit that one using my new needles, I love my new needles.

Love love love!

Law of mohair #143 All mohair articles larger than 2 cubic inches knitted on metal circular needles will reject said needles when the article is in a resting state prior to completion.

Law of mohair #143 appendix a) articles larger than 2 cubic inches that have successfully rejected knitting needles in a resting state will spontaneously begin to unravel.

Further scientific study on the unique and often frustrating physical nature of mohair is required. The laws of mohair although baffling seem to be finite and immutable.

It’s after 8 o’clock so the intended recipient is unavailable to model it. It’s past her bed time. Although it’s pretty heartening to hear, “That’s my beautiful shawl?” as I pin it to shape on the quilt. I think Lexi likes it.

The yarn is handspun Shetland laceweight, doubled as recommended in the pattern and knit 4 stitches to the inch on size 7 US needles.

It’s quite pretty, I know people don’t think of putting little girls in such dark colors– but Lexi has such a clear complexion she can pull it off.

As for knitting lace, the jury is still out. I think I’m giving it a fair trial, but truthfully there are parts of it that really just don’t make for a relaxing time of knitting. I’m definitely not in love with carrying around patterns or firing up the laptop everytime I want to knit. At least with socks and sweaters, cables– oh my beloved cables– I know where I’m going.

I have an appropriate plan for the button. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for unusual vintage buttons, I dreamed that I found the most perfect Bakelite button, it was red and pink tortoise shell and just slight smaller than a half dollar. I woke up so fast this morning it took me a few minutes of actually looking for it to realize I’d just dreamed it. I’m hopeful though, in the past I’ve had exceedingly good luck at finding just the right findings for projects. (Knock on wood!)

We ran out of room on the servers. Ick. So my knitting has been punctuated with lots of colorful language, backing up websites, and uploading our files to a new hosting service. Please pardon the broken images, they will be fixed. They will be fixed soon.

I’m not sure I like this new hosting service, sure– they are cheaper, there is more storage and bandwidth, there are all these cool features but I’ve already had to contact the customer service twice, the control panel lags a bit, and the connection is slow (although relatively stable from what I can tell.)

BTW if you are insane and want to try the size 1 version the gauge is 6 stitches equals 1 inch, 7.25 rows equals 1 inch, and I started with a cast on of 132 inches for a 20″ neckline (if you’re doing the math on stockinette stitch, which would be 22″ you’ll realize this is because I did the neck in an inch of ribbing.) Place 4 stitch markers for the increases after 30 stitches, then 6, then 60, then 6– work in stockinette stitch increasing 1 on both sides of each stitch marker. (I’m knitting one below one stitch before the marker, then k 2 stitches– then knitting one below the last stitch knit. I know it sounds confusing but it is actually easier done that described.)