Hat on Top, Coat Below
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Knitting Miscellany
August 6, 2007
I made these caps for the Charmed Knits Knitalong using leftovers from the other hats I’ve made. That explains the slightly wonky stripe pattern on the Hufflepuff on the left; I started out making the trapped bar style but then realized that I didn’t really have that much yellow but had plenty of black, so switched to wide stripes after a couple inches (and made the black stripes a round taller, too). It also explains the reverse Slytherin; I had lots of grey left and not much green. (Between the last knitalong hats I wrote about and these, I did also finish a wide stripe Slytherin, too.)
My ability to be virtuous and knit from stash only goes so far, which is to say, not far at all. After finishing the hats, I thought briefly about casting on for this cardigan in Andean Silk and even more briefly about looking through Brilliant Knits for something multi-colored to make with Felted Tweed. I may do those things someday, but they both seemed too big and difficult to tackle right now, when the heat and humidity seem to drain my energy away even though I spend most of my time in air conditioned confines. So, I decided to do something easy and fun in bright, happy colors. My stash being understocked with bright and happy, I had to buy more yarn. Had to. Thus a baker’s dozen of KnitPicks Swish in pink and purple and blue and green and yellow entered my life and went right from shipping box to casting on with no stop in the stash cupboard in between.
And since I’ve been wanting to try making two socks at once on two circulars a la Queen Kahuna, seeing that KnitPicks had some sock yarn on clearance in a purple/blue/grey/pink colorway seemed like fate, so I got some of that, too. (Yes, I did have sock yarn in my stash already, but almost all of it in big skeins that I’d have to split into two balls to do the Queen Kahuna thing. Which I could do, I suppose, but—purple, clearance, small skeins, fate.) I haven’t got so far as casting on that project yet; I’m still studying my gauge swatch to try and decide which needles to use. The US 1 size yields a fabric that seems okay but I wonder if the firmer result of the US 0s would be better, more durable. I did find the 0s harder to work with, which makes me lean toward the 1s, except I worry that the socks won’t hold up as well, but then I tell myself so what if they don’t, I can make more, so why not use the 1s. Good thing I don’t have any truly important decisions to make so I can spend plenty of time on this one.
