The Hat that Could Not Be Lost

Let me tell you a wonderful story about the hat that could not be lost.

The protagonist of this story is a lovely hat. The black, squishy, yet washable yarn holds the intricate and simple cables well. It goes with all of my coats and is worn so often there is a ring of foundation around the brim. The extra ribbing covers my ears perfectly and it hugs my head without being to snug or too slouchy. My fellow knitters will understand it to be a Traveling Cable Hat made with black Cascade 220 Superwash yarn. It is four winters old, which is something like 80 in hat years. Aside from the aforementioned ring of foundation, it barely shows its age.

It is a good hat.
It is a hat that knows where it belongs and always find its way home.

About me: I lose a hat a year or just about. They're left in cabs for the most part, though perhaps they fall out of bags, pockets, or the hood of a coat. Not this hat, though. This hat has fallen out of my hood on the subway in a distinct manner so that a fellow New Yorker could see it, and call out to me in time to collect it before the doors closed. It is a special, loyal hat.

Birmingham, Alabama was chilly in January 2019. Expecting weather in the 50s, I almost did not bring this hat with me on my sales call. However, the morning I left New York was cold, so I donned the hat without thinking. I was glad I did. The rental car was chilly at first.

Purse overflowing with not only the usual items, but also my work laptop and folders of presentations, I went to my account's offices to sell some great books. The day grew warm and as I left their offices I tossed the hat on top of my purse and rushed back to the hotel to meet colleagues for dinner. Quickly, I deposited my sales materials into the hotel room and left for dinner. I had wished the hat had come with me as we left the restaurant as it was quite cold that evening. The hat was not in my hotel room when I returned.

Disappointed at losing the hat, I made plans to use a bit of extra time the next day to visit a yarn store in Birmingham and to knit a new favorite hat on the way home. I opened the passenger side door to place my (still overflowing) purse on the seat and was greeted by the hat!
"What's new?" it seemed to say.
Delighted to be reunited, we went to breakfast (and still to the yarn store because, well, now I wanted to knit another hat anyway!).

All day we traveled together. We had tea at Starbucks and meandered to the airport together, waiting for our flight. We walked almost a mile from the gate to the taxi stand at Laguardia together. The cab was warm and after spending so much time together, we needed our space so I left it reconnect with the (still) overflowing purse.

The next morning I went looking for the hat. It was perfect weather for this hat and the coat I was planning on wearing gets along so well with this hat. Yet, I could not find this hat. With disappointment, I put another hat on my head and left for work.

The day was busy, but I thought about where I could find more Cascade 220 and when I'd be able to manage that during the weekend. It was a good hat. It needed to be re-made.

My husband will not have even 1 beer before getting into the driver's seat of a car, so I suggested we take a Lyft to and from dinner. He agreed. Beer and a plan in place to re-make the hat allowed me to relax enough to forget about the hat.

Forget about it I did. Until we arrived home. The Lyft driver stopped the car. I got out and spotted something on the black road.
Could it be?
Yes! It was!

Lying there on the road. Soppy, soggy, and sad, but happy to be found! My hat!
Happy to be brought inside the nice, warm apartment to dry out and rest after prolonged adventures. Waiting to be washed so it can take its rightful place on my head once again.

Short Row Heels

I started knitting Nutkin socks on Saturday. I turned the heel on Sunday night right before bed. I'm happy with it, and I'm not. You see, I'm a heel flap kind of girl. But I like the way this sock looked so much, that I thought I'd try, just once, to do what I was told.

I'm happy with the left side of the heel (strangely, this is the side that I had to P3tog)


However, the right side, leaves a little to be desired. I'm going to have to go over it again after the sock is finished to reinforce it.



My main question for you folks: do you know any good short row heels that are awesome and don't create holes? I'm looking for the short row heel that will tear me away from my happy heel flap loving existence, and turn me into a short row heel kind of girl.

Apparently, I'm doing a short row toe as well, so that kind of advice might come in handy sooner rather than later...

Glass Needles!

OMG. I LOVE the glass needles I bought at Yarn Diva & More a couple of weeks ago. They're not only beautiful, but also they're quite pointy and slippery and, to me, the perfect needles. The Yarn Diva gets her needles from Michael & Sheila Ernst. But look what happened:


My needle broke! I was on the couch lying on my back talking to Stan on the phone and went to roll over to grab something from the coffee table and I heard it snap! :( They were my favoritest needles!

But not to worry, I emailed with Michael and Sheila Ernst. They have a warranty on their needles and will fix them for just the shipping costs! I'm so excited, I can't wait to get them in the mail on Monday!

Getting Chilly

I'm wearing grey pants and a white shirt today. My black, purple and kahki scarf wasn't going to look right today. So I decided I'd wear the cowl I knit last year.


But I totally can't find it. it wasn't anywhere in my apartment I'd think to put it. There's only one pile of clothes it might still be in, but I'm not hopeful. This kinda bums me out because it was the softest thing ever. And also is somewhat annoying as now I totally have to knit a new cowl pronto while I'm in the middle of Christmas knitting. :( Hopefully I'll whip this one Christmas project out during Thanksgiving so I can just quickly knit a cowl before getting back to the other Christmas project I've got to finish before the big day.

Continous Cables Disaster

So, I don't have any photos to share, but I will say that I'm having serious issues with the Fireside Afghan I'm knitting for a friend. Row 12 seems to be quite wonky and it seems as though there are some places where stitches are being increased, but there's no mark to let you know to increase there. It's all rather frustrating.

Anyway, does anyone have time to check this chart out and to confirm my sanity?

Help!

A Bit More Time

So, Illanna came up with a great idea to put the side I've half completed on a holder to try the second size for the other side. I'm so ready to do that! Except that I'm at Stan's in Staten Island and the tips for my interchangeable needle set are still in my apartment in Brooklyn and I will need tips 2 sizes smaller for the ribbing at the bottom. Now, this is not a long term problem. I also forgot my camera for our trip to Boston so we're picking that up on out way. It's just going to be tough tonight since I don't have another project with me to work on!! My computer's also in Brooklyn and Stan's computer is locked so looks like I'm going to get a LOT of TV time in.

Sigh.

Bogged Down

Firstly, I want to mention that the above poll closes on May 21st at 9:30pm EST so that I can pack for Memorial Day. Currently, two of the options are tied, so if you could weigh in, that'd be awesome. It looks like it's between the Sublime pattern (You folks really want to torture me with the knit stitch don't you? Y'all realize I'm going to knit that sucker in the round.) and the Indigo Ripple skirt.

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What I really need to figure out, however, is this:


You see that those stitches aren't even don't you? I certainly do. I removed the green yarn holding all of the stitches. I didn't have a problem figuring out where the stitches were in the part that I knit the waste yarn into. I did have a problem figuring out where the stitches are in the part where I cast on provisionally for the arm. There are 28 stitches there that are supposed to be on the needle on the right side of the yarn poking up.

Not only do I want there to be 28 stitches to the left of that yarn, I want them to be as even as the stitches on the left side of this photo:



I'm seriously hoping that SNB can help me find these stitches tonight. Next I have to come up with a better way of getting the stitches off the yarn from the provisional cast on for the next sleeve. I must say, that trying to do this around 12:45 this morning probably didn't help. I have to go back home to pick it up so I can work on it tonight at SNB. I thought I had to go to a meeting tonight, but I don't. I left the Bog Jacket at home, and am actually feeling kind of anxious thinking about it sitting on the couch right now...

I Know Why They Call it the Hemlock Ring Blanket

Because it makes you want to drink Hemlock like Socrates.


What is this, you ask? It's the stitch count for the 8 different sections once i got to the second to last repeat of the pattern. As you can see, it's off by a bit. Four of those sections had the same number of stitches, but not one section had the same number of stitches it was supposed to have. This occurred the Saturday before Christmas. So I started tinking back. I didn't know how far I was going to have to go, and since my markers were all in the right spot, I figured that tinking was the best option.


I put the Hemlock Ring Blanket on a bit of a timeout and while I was tinking I made myself a cowl.


It's from Knit 2 Together. I absolutely love it. It's knit out of Malabrigo Worsted and it's the warmest thing. I could live in it for life. I might have to knit a couple more of them so I can wear it with each coat (I just bought a new bright orange snow jacket for when Stan and I go snowboarding in January).

Finishing the cowl gave me enough motivation to get back to the Hemlock Ring. In total, I tinked back 36 rows I think. Here's what my diagram looked like after the fact:


So, I moved inward every time I got back to a row that was right before a decrease row. Good thing I only had to tink back that much, otherwise I'd have to re-do the chart. You'll see there are three sections in the middle that are circled. They're all off by only one stitch so I said to myself "fuckit, I'm just going to fudge that one part." Fudge it I did, and I think it turned out ok. I've been on the right stitch count now for quite a while and I'm almost back to where I was when I noticed things were awry.



In the meantime, I've gotten a little antsy. I realized that now that I have this bright orange snowboarding jacket, I need a hat that will match. Something about light blue and sparkles doesn't seem like it will go well with the orangeness. So I stopped by Knit One, Purl Too in Wakefield, RI when I was home and scored some Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL to knit up into a hat. I found a Lucky 7 hat pattern on Ravelry and cast on. I've got two repeats out of 8 done, and while I was hoping to get it done yesterday on the ride from RI to NY, dawn was way too late and I didn't get a chance to. So I'm still chugging along on it.


So that's all I've got now. I'll leave you with some photos of the Red Sox Socks I knit for Beth. I've given them to her for Christmas so it's safe to post them! I'll probably post some sort of 2008 wrap up soon. It's the best way for me to keep track of what I knit every year. Then I can re-set the status bars on the sidebar.

Jasmine Issues

Ugh. I was doing so well. I finished the front and the back. I finished the sleeves. When all was said and done, it looked like this:


Which looks great right?
Too bad it hung off my shoulders. When I say that it hung off my shoulders, I mean that my massive breasts couldn't even keep it up, which means it was humongous. Upon further investigation, Illanna and I found out that my gauge was 28 stitches to 4 inches. The pattern called for 24 stitches to 4 inches. It's just a tad bit different.

So I cast on for a pair of socks for Stan's Mom.


I'm knitting them out of Knit Picks' Felici. I haven't been a huge fan of Knit Picks, but it worked for that sweater I knit for my brother. I just wanted to see what this yarn would be like, and it seemed appropriate to knit it for someone else so I wouldn't be stuck with it. :) But it's actually really soft and machine washable and can go into the dryer too!

The pattern is a free pattern I found on ravelry. It's Criminy Jickets' Ridges and Ribs. It's really easy to memorize and looks really great with all those stripes!

While I knit on that, I decided that I'd knit the sleeves for Jasmine a size smaller on size 1s (I knit the body on size 2s). While I did that, I'd knit the top part of the front and back on size zeroes. I think it's working, but I've only finished the sleeves and the back so far. I'm hoping to be done with the front by the end of next weekend so I can put it together and all that. Wish me luck!