The Same Thing

Remember last post when I showed you this hat?



Well, my new FO is this hat.







I promise, those really are two different hats. The gray yarn in the second hat is totally different from the gray yarn in the first hat. If you remember, my dad asked me to make a replica of the first hat so his running buddy could have one. I had run out of the gray from the first hat (Wave by Filatura Di Corsa) and decided to sneakily sub something from my stash for the second hat instead of buying more new yarn and breaking my yarn fast even more. In my stash I found some Knit Picks Pallette in Ash and decided to just hold it double to get gauge. When I showed the Palette to my Dad the first time around he said it wouldn't work, too scratchy. Now that both hats are done (and I told him I used the same yarn) he can't tell them appart, except that he knows that one is a bit shorter. The first one came out a little big, so for the second I knit the whole hat on size 6 needles instead of changing to 7s after the ribbing. Both hats are Turn a Square by Jared Flood aka Brooklyn Tweed. It's not a bad pattern, but I really didn't enjoy making the exact same thing twice in one week.

In other news, I've joined the cult of Ishbel and cast on one of my own.



I have no idea what size I'm going to make because the yarn I'm using was hand spun for me and I got it in a swap. It didn't come with any label so all I know is that it's 65-ish grams of lace-weight wool. My friend finished the biggest size with just over 50 grams of lace so I'm hoping I can make the big one. As of now I'm just short of the small stockinette section. I'm planning on putting a life-line in there and then continuing on till I have enough for the large stockinette section (just in case I have to do some ripping back due to yardage limitations). It's going really fast right now but that's because it's just stockinette so far.

The Universe is Against Me

Why, you ask, is the Universe against me? Listen up. First of all, I'm a sucker. I will pretty much knit anything for anyone who asks me. A few posts ago we went over the assortment of crazy hats and other things that my brother has asked for and I know that I've related the troubles a certain pair of slipper-socks for my dad caused. Well, my father was at it again this week. It started with a seemingly harmless request: "Melanie, can you make me a hat that will keep my ears warm when I go running?" Um, I am a knitter aren't I? What could be easier than a hat (OK, a garter stitch scarf, but what else?) So I open up ravelry and start showing him the thousands of hat patterns that could be his new hat. He picked the third picture down which happened to be Turn A Square by Jared Flood aka Brooklyn Tweed. Cool. No problem. I have some Noro, I have some neutral colored wool... I go to my stash and pull out the Noro (which is total male-friendly colors) and the plain wool and show pops. He doesn't like the Noro, it's light blues and greens and he wants dark colors. OK, I don't have any dark Noro, so I ask: "Do you really care if the stripes are variegated?" Of course he does. Me: "Will this at least work for the solid color?" (as I hold up the good plain wool.) Of course not, it's scratchy. For the record, no it wasn't. Then dad says, "Can't I just come with you down to the store and pick out what I like?" Sure, sure, no problem. Only two weeks ago did I swear off buying yarn for the next six months, but sure, get your coat. On the up side, it's a pretty rocking hat.







The Noro is Silk Garden in a bunch of gorgeous neutral shades ranging from cream to gold to light grey. The other color is Wave by Filatura Di Crosa which is a really nice Wool/Silk blend. The Wave knits up just a little bit nubbley so it the hat has kind of a rustic feel... Alright, no joke, as I'm sitting here typing this my dad comes in and says: "Melanie, can you do me a favor?" Me (looking at him out of the corner of my eye): "That depends..." Dad: "Can you make me another of those hats so I can give it to my running buddy?" Me: "Same yarn?" Dad: "Yeah, will you need to buy more?" Me: "Yes." So I set out to write a post about how the universe is against me and (obviously against my yarn fast) and here is incontrovertible proof. In the middle of the post, I'm asked to buy more yarn... Luckily I have enough of the Noro left over, I just need more of the Wave. Really Universe? Really?

Also, I've been garter-ing away on my Op Art blanket and have made some progress. I thought I was whizzing right along, it kept getting bigger and bigger and even though my logic center told me that it was because the blanket is knit from the center out I thought it would end up being a pretty quick project. So I call Andrew and ask him to do some math for me... If I start with 4 and I add 4 every round and I need to get to 888, how many rounds is that? Answer: 222. OK, sounds like a lot but I've already done over 50 rounds so I'm 25% done already. No says Andrew, that is bad math. Because each round gets bigger the first 50 rounds are certainly much shorter than the last 50 rounds. OK, says I, what percentage have I done. Andrew calculates.... 8, EIGHT! that's it. Universe, I hate you. Also, Andrew calculated that there will be 99,012 stitches in the blanket, and that I've done just under 9,000.

Startitis

So even though I've got three very good projects on the needles right now, in the past couple of days I've started two more and I know that I'll be starting a sixth (and maybe a seventh and eighth...) before anything comes off the needles. I blame the fact that I just recently went through my entire stash and cataloged everything. Normally I keep my stash secreted away in various hiding places (and various states) so that I'm never actually confronted with everything that I have. (This is probably the reason I have so much...) The yarn was calling me in so many directions that I had to begin just a few more things... The first is a pair of basic socks. I decided that I needed to have some car-ride knitting since when I'm in New Mexico I do quite a bit of ridding and almost no driving and every car ride is at least twenty minutes long. All of this has been done away from home, riding in the car or in spare minutes waiting for various errands.





I'm just following the Sock Recipe pattern from the Yarn Harlot's book Knitting Rules (rav link). The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in Coney Island which is a colorway they no longer make. I love how bright and happy the socks are and every three to four rows I get to knit with a new bright happy color.

The other thing I started is a blanket. This may sound weird since the temperature has been in the 90s for most of the time that I've been down here in New Mexico, but the fact that in two short weeks I'll be hunting for my first apartment has me majorly home-oriented right now. I keep thinking of how I'm always cold in the winter and how I'll have to keep the heat low because of my poor-law-student budget so I have recently been attracted to a lot of blanket patterns. I resisted the urge to cast on a wool blanket (barely) and settled on acrylic. Not exactly luxury, I know, but it pretty "good" acrylic (it will definitely serve the purpose of wrapping around my legs in the winter anyway.) I'm following the pattern Op Art from Knitty.com. The pattern makes a largish baby blanket, but I'm hoping that by knitting it with bigger yarn and bigger needles I'll get a smallish adult sized blanket. It's knit from the center out, so right now it feels like I'm flying along. (I only have about 130 stitches.)





In the end there will be 888 stitches (I know that sounds like a number I just pulled out thin air but it's not a exaggeration!) The yarn is Carron One Pound in Rose and Off White (creative huh?). I had these two balls in my stash from way way back. I think one of the big box store had it on sale for $3 a ball so I bought these two on impulse and they've been sitting around ever since. I love this patter because it's mindless; long rows of knit or purl with four increases thrown in per round. I'm using it to catch up on all the TV and movie watching I missed during the school year.