pepperknit

Happy New Year, all! The past month has been an absolute whirlwind of travel, fun, visits, and parties, and I’m just now finally starting to settle down. I’m back in Singapore for the month of January (the switch to Food Blog will commence!), but first we need to weave in some loose ends.

Christmas really really snuck up on me this year, as I know it did a lot of you. Stupid late Thanksgiving! Also, this was the first year I have done Xmas with anyone other than my nuclear family. Which meant I needed gifts for a whole branch of my family. Somehow, I whipped them all out in the two weeks before the holiday—three of them in the three DAYS before Christmas.

After finishing that 2×2 hat in Manos, I just ignored knitting for a while. But in a spurt of productivity, I knit a Koolhaas in two nights. The more complex pattern was always intended for my Uncle Mark, of course, host of our holiday gathering:

Note the deep-fryer in the background! Christmas dinner was a deep-fried turkey. I may have found the sole reason to move to the suburbs.

And then I hit this downward spiral of bad planning and even worse time management. Ultimately I did manage two more FOs, both completed on December 24 (one started that morning!).

This 2×2 hat was for my cousin Patrick, whose head is huge. The fact that it goes on his head is accomplishment enough for me!

My cousin Meaghan got a bulky moebius cowl in seed stitch. Back after Thanksgiving I’d seen Carrie knit one off a pattern, and I liked it enough that I “unvented” it for myself. I estimated about 22″ around, put in a twist, and knit until it looked tall enough. I never even measured it. It’s not as wide as Carrie’s, but it fits nicely.

Also knit but ultimately a total FAIL was a pair of fingerless gloves for my aunt, whose hands didn’t fit in them. Luckily (?) I only finished one of them. So I’m back to square one there. I have them with me and have already made progress on reknitting them.

Still, all in all, I couldn’t believe I finished ANYTHING in time! Go me! This brings my total FO count for 2008 up to new highs. I’m pretty thrilled. Recap for the year to be posted soon!

You know how sometimes you just suddenly want something new—a diversion, an idle fancy, a fling—and before you know it you’ve gone and done it?

Last night I got the urge to cast on with this Manos that has been in my stash forever. And tonight I finished a simple watchcap that I’m now in love with. I had a recipient in mind, but seeing as how I’m sitting in my roasting hot apartment still wearing it, I may have some trouble parting with it.

2×2 hat
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay
Color: 105
Skeins: 1
Needles: US 8
Cast on 108, knit for just over 5 inches, then started decreasing. Did in multiples of 12 to start, and worked a blank row (no decreasing) between decrease rows until there were 5 stitches between decreases. Then I picked up the pace and decreased every round, til there were 9 stitches. Drew through, and called this baby finito.

There are no words. Just the best game ever invented, and the best Halloween costume I have ever made.

I am not a Halloween fan, never have been. But Katamari Damacy? That I love. And when my friend Nanda suggested I be the Prince of All the Cosmos and she be the Katamari? And she was willing to dress up like this on Halloween proper, her birthday? Oh. Yes.

There’s a pattern for the earmuffs, which I read but mostly ignored, “unventing” the earmuffs myself. The sides of the prince’s head are really quite straight, not rounded, and I wanted accuracy! There’s a disc of cardboard in there to stabilize the edges.

I’ll put the full details on Ravelry. . . . Getting the band across to be flat was stupidly complicated; the pattern recommends double knitting, which would have made sense and solved it, but I thought I was going to attach it to a headband, but that wasn’t working right. Ultimately, I interfaced corduroy and lined it with that. Um, there is interfacing on my costume, which was supposed to be just an off-the-cuff knit. I had to find the iron in half-unpacked boxes (not to mention the interfacing and fabric!). But it’s worth it.

No one knew what the heck I was—but everyone smiled or laughed at me. People at the bar came up to ask. I was sitting in the front window of the bar, right at a busy corner on the Lower East Side, with my back to the street, and all my friends kept laughing as strangers did doubletakes. I got a lot of props from people when they realized that I’d made the costume myself. I also had a little visual aid, so people would see the prince in full—the small felt toy my friend Melissa made me!

The best moment was on the subway home. I wore the earmuffs because, being 100% wool, they are awfully warm and totally functioned as earmuffs (throughout the night at the bar I was saying “I’m sorry, what?” because I couldn’t hear anything). Pulling into one station, a throng of about 10 teenagers on the platform saw me and burst out laughing; one stuck his head against a window and howled in joy at me. They clambered into the subway car I was in, stomping and laughing, and one finally was like “Miss!!! What ARE you!” And I showed them the tiny prince and said I was the Prince of All the Cosmos, of course! He was like, “not the princESS?” And I said, “no, there isn’t a princess. there’s a queen, but the prince is cooler.” he then jumped up and started dancing around in front of me (awesome popping/locking). They caused such a ruckus that other riders were stonily irritated, but I was just enveloped into their fun times. It was so nice!

I actually finished this hat while watching the Superbowl, and have been wearing it daily, but I never got around to taking real FO shots. But look how happy I am with it!

Roman Earflap Hat (pdf)
My pattern, but the original was knit for a friend. Now I have one for me!
Yarn: Tess Designer Yarns, Superwash Merino, a whole lot less than 1 skein.
Needles: US 8 . . . I think
Started: I know I re-started it after Rachel was here, because it was initially too small (that’s what happens when you guess at your head’s circumference instead of measuring, even when you have a tape measure in your hand), and she came over on Jan 31, so I’m going to guess Feb 1.
Finished: Feb 3. (Woah, that was fast. Oh, right, I got horribly ill after seeing Rachel.)
Modifications: This yarn was worsted weight, but the yarn I used in the pattern was a little thinner, so I just adjusted the brim by a multiple of 4 and then after the brim I decreased to a multiple of 7. I believe that 7 is crucial for a nice rounded decrease, so that’s the most important factor when modifying the pattern, as far as I’m concerned.

You may notice that something is conspicuously missing from the top of the hat. Yes, I opted to not pom-pom my hat. I made a pom-pom for the end of one tie, but it came out sloppy, and then I lost all interest. This is a constant problem for me—semi-complete a project for myself, start wearing it, and then never put the final touch on. This is why Pam (the cardigan, not the blogger) still doesn’t have—and will never have—buttons. The hat at least doesn’t scream to all who see it that something’s missing the way the buttonholes do!

I also modified the earflaps slightly so that they weren’t too big. I probably could have made them wider, to have a warmer hat, but this one is plenty warm. I love it more than any other hat I’ve ever made for myself!

And for those who heard me complain about the yarn bleeding all the heck over me, I washed it a few times in wool wash and all the color rinsed out—it does not turn my head black/brown when I wear it!

I started a Koolhaas hat on January 1, but in the past few weeks I’ve barely touched it; I just didn’t like knitting it. Something about the frequency of the cable crossings didn’t ever let me get in the flow. In the meantime, every single last one of you has cranked out your own–oh, wait, no, you actually made at least two, sometimes three! I watched in awe and befuddlement.

Yesterday, my Flickr friend Julie organized a knitting afternoon at a bar in the Lower East Side. I brought Koolhaas, to force myself to knit it. I really love the finished look, so I decided I would just have to soldier through. Well, last night, I finished it. And it was so small and tight, it slid right off my head. I considered investigating the source of the problem–careful assessment of gauge (which I’d thought was right), frogging to the beginning of the decreases and adding height, all those things that I normally do. But you know what? I didn’t like knitting it the first time, why would I like knitting it a second time?

So it’s frogged—gone—a mere memory. I needed that ball of yarn to finish up my skirt, anyway.

The pattern is ready! Click here to download the pdf. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view it. If you are on a Mac and have trouble viewing the file, use Acrobat, not Preview.

Roman Earflap Hat Pattern

It’s also up on Ravelry, should you be a member and interested in queuing it!

How very apt that the word finished is perfectus in Latin (at least, it is according to the Internet). Because my earflap hat is perfect! I really can’t tell you just how much work went into the earflaps, but I will say there is earflap detritus all over my couch. I think I knit three or four different ones before the right flap came into being.

Roman Earflap Hat
Pattern: To come! I will be writing it up in full soon.
Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style in Nutmeg
Skeins: 3
Needles: US 6
Started: 8:30 am Saturday, September 22
Finished: 7:45 am Monday, September 24
Nitpicky notes: As I alluded to above, I was persnickety about the flaps. The eventual winners were knit using the double knitting technique so that they would lay perfectly flat and also be toasty-warm.

Earlier I mentioned my attention to the brim, which I worked with the yarn held double, for thickness and warmth. I chose the stitch pattern out of Barbara Walker’s first treasury; it is based on garter stitch so it creates a dense fabric (also good for warmth!).

I very deliberately decreased by a multiple of seven. I decided that an odd number would be the most aesthetically pleasing, and I was convinced 7 was the perfect balance. I think I made the right decision on that.

The last step was the pompoms–which I put more thought into than you might have suspected. (Sizing was the issue–I know I like dense pompoms.) I hope Liz likes the hat! I can’t wait for the weather to turn so she can start wearing it. In the meantime, I’m making one for me.

When my now-married friends met, she owned a hat that featured earflaps, a big pompom, and pompoms on the ends of the earflap ties. And according to my friend, that hat is the reason her husband fell in love with her. (We all know the reasons are much more varied than that, and include her intelligence, beauty, and kindness.) But she lost that hat within their first year, and he’s been wanting her to get another.

So when I told them over dinner that I was in a knitting slump, they didn’t offer sympathy, or try to find out if there was a deeper reason I wasn’t knitting. No, they said “Knit the earflap hat!” And I didn’t need to be asked twice. We looked at yarn online, and I’d ordered and received it within a week. I started knitting it last Tuesday.

I’d never designed an earflap hat before, and I debated all the ways to approach it. I thought earflaps that were knit beforehand and then joined to the brim would create a neat, continuous effect. I thought, let’s put a stitch pattern on the earflaps, continue it as a hat “brim,” and then switch to stockinette. Great idea, right? I knit on this happily away, and then I stopped and tried it on.

And realized what a horrible mistake this was. Don’t deny it. It’s hideous. It looks like a helmet, right? Like something from ancient Rome.

The truth is, I tend to look bad in hats, but this is atrocious. I can’t even believe I’m posting this picture on the Internet for all to see, but you need to recognize JUST how awful this hat was turning out. I couldn’t give this to my friend! I even showed these pictures to other friends, who were trying to convince me the hat was going to be fine, and then they’d stop mid-sentence at the sight of these photos and say, “Oh, wow. Yes, it’s bad.” Friday morning, I frogged the whole thing and tried to really learn from my mistake.

I ruminated. The biggest problem, to my mind, with hats, is that you need it to be thicker right at the brim. It’s why so many hats have a folded-up cuff. Without that, it hugs the shape of your head and is rarely flattering. So I tossed aside the idea of having earflaps continuous with the brim, and found a way to make a thicker brim using the same stitch pattern, which I liked.

Et voila!

I know this is more flattering light, but this is a more flattering hat in every possible way. I might venture to say it’s a perfect hat. I’m going to knit another version for me–and leave it just like this. But this hat is not done yet–still have to figure out the earflaps.

Can I just say that earflaps are tougher than you might think? At least, getting the perfect earflap is. I’ve got the second one on the needles–FO soon!

* “Learn from your mistakes” in Latin (you know, ancient Rome)

I mentioned earlier that my dad nicely complained that the hat I made him last year (that I do not remember at all, and which I didn’t see while I was visiting over Xmas, so I have no idea what it was or when I actually made it) had gotten too big. So I got some sedate, slate blue Jo Sharp yarn and made him a new hat, working it in k2p2 with as few stitches as seemed safe to make it both tight and big enough.

He came up to Philly today and we went to brunch followed by a St. Joe’s basketball game at the Palestra. Dad went to St. Joe’s, and our family has always been big into college hoops. Amazingly, despite some crappy play, St. Joe’s won by 2 points–scoring those last 2 points with 2.2 seconds to go! The drama!

Here’s dad in his hat:

He was thrilled with how snug it was, and he dutifully posed for me to take a picture. Yay for father-daughter bonding days.

Yarn: Jo Sharp DK Pure Wool
Color: blue-gray
Needles: Addi Turbo size 3, using Magic Loop
Time to complete: 4 hours (or so) on January 1
Specs: k2p2 rib on 112 stitches. Worked the decreases every 14 stitches (16-stitch batches) on first round so the decrease was more gradual.

I got a cold a week ago Tuesday, and I ended up with some major laryngitis. I started off 2006 sounding like a frog, and Monday I mostly communicated with air. I had to expell so much more air than usual to make even the slightest sound! It was exhausting.

Which is why it’s nice that you can just sit quietly when knitting. I made my dad a hat!

The color is definitely too washed out in this shot–it’s really much much darker. I know you can’t get a real sense of scale here, but it honestly looks really small. Still, I can put it on and it’s comfortably roomy, and dad told me that the last hat I made him eventually ended up feeling too big, so I wanted to err on the tight side. I’m going to surprise him with it; he made it pretty clear over Xmas that he’d like a new one, but I wouldn’t commit to a timeframe. I knit it completely in one afternoon, but as you can see I haven’t taken it off the needles, because I fear it’s not going to fit.

And since Dad’s coming to visit on Sunday (we’re going to a St. Joe’s basketball game, at the Palestra—his Xmas present from me), he’ll be able to try it on so I can know for sure whether it’s back to square one or if I can cut the yarn and sew it up. A soon-to-be FO, I hope!