Warning: This post contains photos of my knitting and discusses knitting related things about which you may not give a shit. Thank you.
For our shared birth-day this year, my pal Jeba and I decided to meet for coffee. Since Jeba likes meeting times to be "flexible" and I wanted to blow my birthday cash on yarn, we decided to meet at the yarn store. Jeba's not a knitter but when she showed up at the yarn store, she became smitten with a hat knit of green Silky Tweed, the same green I used to knit Maja's birthday scarf. I include a photo for your reference and also to gloat over my fine, fine stitches.
The hat Jeba was enamoured of was a fairly simple shape with some very nice celtic-looking cables. "Could you knit me a hat like that?" she asked. "Well," I said, "I COULD. But I don't think I'm ready for those fancy cable things." "Would you be able to have it done before hat weather is over?" Jeba inquired. Could she BE any more demanding? "Well," I paused, struggling with whether to be heroic or honest, "no. Probably not. But hey - I'll be bound to finish it SOMEtime! Pick some yarn!"
Unfortunately, I had other projects in the cue and I did not finish Jeba's hat until this morning. We bought the yarn March 3rd. Today is April 12th. Tomorrow, it will be 20C outside and I believe that "hat weather" is officially over. But WHO CARES? The hat is finished! My first grown up hat!
Katr's TED2006 dog is modelling this fine hat for us today. For those who care, it's made of Silky Tweed (black with tiny flecks of dark orange and purple) and the pink stripes are some kind of Debbie Bliss cotton. I kind of extrapolated the pattern from my Stitch n' Bitch book, which was a little nerve wracking for a beginner like me. I learned some valuable lessons about stripes and how to make them look seamless (you know, for next time) and also some valuable lessons about repeating your mistakes throughout so that it looks like you MEANT for it to look like that. I also learned that accidentally slipping half the stitches off the needle is no call to immediately shit twice and die; with patience, it can be fixed. I cast on 104 stitches, knit the hat on 5mm needles and panicked throughout over whether it would be too big and, later, if it would be big enough. But it sure fits this dog nice and also, me. Hopefully, it will fit Jeba as well.
In other knitting news, as she promised in an earlier comment, Sahi has invited me to her Stitch n' Bitch group tonight, where, unlike my knitting lessons, "no one is a asshole"!! I'm very excited to hang out with knitters of superior skill, which I hope to absorb just by sitting next to them. Also, I know it's not good manners for beginners to badger busy Stitch n' Bitchers for knitting assistance, but I AM hoping someone can explain what the whole "knitting with two strands of yarn held together throughout" business is all about. Because I don't think I get it. Any assistance in this area is very welcome. Thank you.
