Isn't this Supposed to Be a Knitting Blog?
Yes. This post is dedicated to knitting. The pasttime we all know and love! It's been one of those weeks where I've been able to carve out a good chunk of time to work on things. And I even finished my 'most challenging project ever'.
It turned out to not be the most challenging, but it could have been. The design on the top of this hat symbolizes perpetual energy. And I may perpetually be trying to make this hat. Since the hat is round, I thought it would be cool to knit it in the round using the pi shawl formula for knitting a flat circle. So I started with 4 stitches on the needle and immediately realized that it was going to take a lot of brainpower to figure out how to do intarsia and knit in the round. Still, I tried it this way for about 20 rounds and realized that I was right. And it got too frustrating. So I ripped it all out and knit the top using fair isle method and knitting back and forth. After the design was done I transferred to circulars and finished it into a circle. THEN I knit the sides and then the brim. Then (and this is where it gets really interesting), I felted the thing in my washing machine. I checked it halfway and it looked like it had felted to the right size. But I decided that I should let it continue to felt until the end of the cycle, and was encouraged by a friend to do so. It's the let's do the opposite of what makes sense and see if I was right syndrome.
Well, here's the result.
It's quite small. It was supposed to be a military-style hat and I SWEAR I swatched first and did the math to make it the right size, but after 2 blocking attempts, I think it may just be that I have to make another larger one that will actually fit on an adults head. The second attempt should go much faster, and I think I still have enough yarn to remake it.
Baby blanket is still in progress. This weekend I started a Ballet Tee. That is one addictive pattern. I can't stop myself from knitting it. I even broke out some hanks of SWTC Soysilk for the occasion and wound them into balls by myself, because I am swift-less. I wanted to use that yarn so bad, I was willing to do the work. I bet it took me and hour per hank. But I'm loving the way it looks.
I'm hoping to make it over to the Wine Cellar tomorrow night for a little Stitch-n-Bitch'en.
Posted by Mel at 11:10 PM
