It's not very easy taking pictures of your own head. This is the best I could do until this morning. It was complicated by the fact that every time I tried to do this using PhotoBooth, the Amazing Blur wanted to get in on the action.
So, this is the Fountain Hat. I downloaded the pattern from Knitting Daily. I wasn't totally enthralled with it, but I had 2 skeins of ShiBui Sock that refused to become socks in my hands. I tried several patterns, but I couldn't find something that I thought worked with the yarn. It's a pity, as I thought they would be excellent socks. The yarn is nice to work with, the same Louet Gems-like yarn that I gravitate towards. I adore the mulberry color, and the tonal variation - it's deep and rich and the sort of thing I get far too excited about. However, it pools. I did know this when I bought it, or at least shortly afterwards, but I thought I could beat it. And frankly, if I alternated skeins, I probably would still be really really excited about it for socks, but I'm a bit lazy for that kind of effort. Even though I love this deep burgundy/wine color.
The lace pattern wasn't hard to knit, at least the large snowflake-like motif was a piece of cake. The only stitches in this whole hat are knit, YO, and K2tog. Simple. The smaller motif was more challenging. I'm not sure what the designer was going for, and I'm not certain there isn't an error in the pattern. There aren't any difficult stitches, it just required more attention as I couldn't figure out the logic of the yarnover placements, and the overall effect is kind of incoherent to me.
My only other minor gripe is here - the very top of the hat. It's finished by simply drawing the yarn tail through a whole lot of stitches and weaving in the end. This not only leaves a fairly prominent hole at the top of the hat (it looks okay), but also doesn't strike me as the most elegant way to finish the knit.
In the end, it's a neat hat. Not super impressive or exciting, but it is cute, and I'll probably wear it around sometime. Just not until after this summer. Even with the lace holes, I don't really need a wool hat in 85˚F weather.
Knitting has slowed a little more again, this time due to a work related injury. After 9 years, I finally got bitten by a rat. Little buggers have sharp teeth. It hurts less than you might think, but my finger is a little sore and I don't want to drag yarn across the wound. (Don't ask what I was doing - you probably don't want to know. Unless you do, in which case I'll tell you.)
Summer of Socks starts soon... why do I suddenly want to cast on for a sweater?
5 comments:
Hi Terri! I'd love to get back in touch. Email me at erling[dot]mork[at]broadpark[dot]no
Great looking hat! You'll need to visit a cold place in the fall!
(I agree, they should have worked a few more rounds of decreases in the top before closing, but it's not a fatal flaw.)
What is it about kids and the PhotoBooth? I have about 1000 pics of my little guy having fun with mine. Your little guy is darn cute.
Nice hat.
Bummer about the rat. If you're sure it's not germy, you can seal it shut with super-glue, which makes knitting much easier.
Great hat! Love the colour but I agree about the hole. Before I knew better, I made a hat for my husband that has a hole and he's got a bald head so he feels a draft through that hole!
And rat bit you - I don't s'pose that makes the news in your latest post any easier to bear? Sorry, I don't mean to be flippant, it just sounded me like a job where you get rat bites much not be so great. I realise there's much more to it than that.
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