I Make These Hats Look Good

My hat mojo is back! I finished up two super easy ribbed hats for Project Hope.

Purple hat in 4x2 rib, US size 9 needles, Vanna's choice yarn-a discount acrylic I think is actually pretty nice!

More Vanna's Choice (this time in silver), US size 9, 2x2 rib. This hat has pretty much convinced me I need to rock the watchcap all winter this year. In this color. But more like this hat (including those kick ass decreases).

I'm so glad I've broken my bad hat knitting streak.

I Don't Want to Talk About It

Ok, actually I do. I've got a new knitting project on the needles and it is going well. But we all know what happens to my knitting when I start talking about it on the blog (see previous entries involving hats). So, instead I'm going to wait. I will show you my second skew sock though. I hadn't talked about it in awhile but I knit a little on it over the weekend when I was house sitting for my parents. However, the Curse of the Blog Mention seems to still have an affect on knitted items that have laid dormant for some time. Exhibit A:

See that weird bump right after where I've joined the heel?

Oh yeah. Pretty sure that's not supposed to be there.
Exhibit B:

This would be the other side of the sock. Last time I checked my foot didn't take that drastic right turn after my heel. Nor does the other sock look anything like this. Luckily I can rip back pretty easily to where I grafted the heel (heel grafting...I know, it doesn't make sense...but this sock is like that...) and restart the leg. But just for good measure...
Exhibit C:

I managed to pull one of the needles out tonight as I was taking a picture (not my original plan). I guess it was going to come out anyways. Now I have a reason to leave the sock lying decoratively on my coffee table for awhile. As long as it doesn't start mocking me...

Looking Up

Since my last post about how crappy my day had been, things have been looking better on the job front :::knock on wood:::. Thank you for the kind words in the comments. I hate to throw my little pity party but it was so nice to hear people encouraging me to just hang in there. I have to keep reminding myself that no job is perfect and I'm very lucky to even have a job. And, of course, knitting helps. Today, I actually came home feeling pretty energetic instead of falling over from exhaustion. Could it be that I have (finally) caught up on my sleep? Or maybe it's just that I've been walking out of work each night as soon as I'm off the clock (instead of sticking around for another hour or so) and leaving it all behind me. Probably a combination of both. Anyways, I was feeling revved up so I did some chores and then dyed a little yarn.

Pink spaghetti! The color is actually a bit darker in real life. It's still a shade of pastel though. I'm thinking of calling it Bubble Gum. Hoping to post this yarn and another shade I dyed a few weeks ago in the store soon.

Still knitting along on a stealth project for Project Hope (stealth because it appears to be working out and I don't want to jinx anything by talking about it). Also planning on making a hat out of the rest of this yarn:

I think I can get another out of what I have left. That would make 3 hats from this yarn! Oh wait, I never told you about the second hat, did I? Hmmm...well, I was reading Knitting Rules! by the Yarn Harlot and in there it talks about teaching people to knit by having them knit a rectangle and sewing one of the sides together. It's the same principle as knitting a scarf, just on a smaller scale. For some reason it made me really want to try that technique. So I did. And, of course, I made it a little too long (remember I've been on a tear of sub-par hat making).

I've been pouting a little about this hat since I had such high hopes for it. And it's a beginners technique for goodness sake! This is supposed to be fail proof!

I guess I should know I can mutilate any pattern no matter how simple at this point. But today, as I was trying on the hat for a little photo shoot, I decided to try turning up the brim a bit. I'd tried it before but for some reason I couldn't get the length of the brim just right. Today, however, the stars must have aligned just so because I think I got it...

Looks pretty good now! Hopefully I've broken my streak of bad hats because I kind of agreed to make one more... We had someone in our EEROP group develop carpal tunnel and wasn't able to finish several projects she had hoped to contribute. It's truly unfortunate but now I have a purpose for the mittens I made and the fair isle sweater with the too small neck (I still have to fix it but now I have a reason to).

What A Day

Today I had "a day". I hate when I have "days". Actually it was a fairly good day until the very end. But it's amazing that most of the time all it takes is one incident to remind you, to bring you crashing back to the reality, that nothing has changed. As much as you would like this year/month/week to be different, things are really the same as they always have been. Then it becomes a battle between shear will and total madness just to hang in there. And this is just day 6, people. 184 more to go...184 more to go... It's times like these that I'm really glad I took up knitting 5 years ago. It helps me maintain a little bit of my sanity. The problem with having a bad day (or morning, or afternoon, or evening, or whatever) is that it completely exhausts me and I don't feel like doing anything other than drinking a beer and knitting. Which is exactly what I did tonight. Since I can't show you what I'm knitting (still fearing it might turn out to be a dud) I'll show you something adorable I made this weekend. I took a two at a time magic loop sock knitting class with one of the ladies from the Atlanta Knitting Guild and she taught us how to make itty bitty booties to learn the technique.

Until tomorrow I'll be thinking happy thoughts....

Abandoned

1.
Name: Child's Fair Isle Sweater of my own designing
Last Seen: June 25, 2010
Reason for Abandonment: Neck opening too small, possible overall design flaw resulting in incredibly too small sweater.

2.
Name: The Steppe Ahead Sweater
Last Seen: Just last week
Reason for Abandonment: Unappreciated yarn pooling, possible knitter error involving math resulting in (possibly) too large sweater.

Please note that both these sweaters were originally destined for the EEROP/Project Hope winter clothing drive. Specifically for a 6 year old little boy. This little boy will get his sweater (and gloves and socks), it's just a matter of time. I've started something else but I'm not talking about it lest it goes the way of the previously mentioned projects.

What, Exactly, Have I Been Accomplishing?

The answer: Not much. I take that back. Not much that I'm thrilled about. I finished the Jog-Less Stripes Hat.

3 alternating skeins of Berroco Cuzco. Pretty sure my colors were Naturale, Achiote, and Troll (I'm too lazy to go find the actual ball bands and I'm pretty sure one of the bands was used to kill a spider last night and got trashed...). US size 9 circulars. Used the jog-less stripes tutorial from Grumperina to get perfect striping. I, personally, love the colors. My issues: I've already mentioned that I should have cast on all in one color and then added the other 2 on the next row. My bigger problem with this is that it's just a smidge too big.

Notice in this picture how low I'm wearing the hat and how oddly it sticks up at the decrease point at the top. I did 4 sets of paired decreases (as opposed to the evenly spaced, spirally decreases I normally do) and it just doesn't want to sit right. I based the decreases off the Turn a Square Hat but I didn't actually look at that pattern to see when to start doing the decreases so I may have started them too late. I also alternated a decrease row with a plain row and I'm thinking I should have just decreased every row.

The hat just doesn't sit tightly on the top of your head. It's one of those things that I would list as a "minor inconvenience" when actually wearing it. It doesn't look horrible and it is nice and warm but it's just enough off that it makes me doubt my hat making abilities. Of course, I love to think I can knit just about anything without a pattern and I may be more than slightly delusional about that. My final attempt at a Hat That Actual Looks Decent and Will Fit Someone Other Than a Football Player will begin today after lunch.

I think some of my disappointment over the hat has been exacerbated by my almost displeasure with this knit:

The Steppe Sweater. My issue here: the yarn. I'm not sure if I love or hate the pooling at the bottom and the cream color (ribbing and collar) is just enough off that I notice it doesn't perfectly match. Other than that the sweater is going swimmingly. This is about 3 days work. Should be finished in under a week.

I think I'm in some weird stage where I'm nit picking my knitting to death. Why I've suddenly become so type A is beyond me. You would think if it bothered me so much I would just rip everything out and start again but the type B in me refuses to reknit a project when 90% of it turned out to my liking.

If I'm not careful I may drive myself mad.