Sunday, December 16, 2007

Xmas Knits



Finals are finally over and my backlog of knitting is getting my full attention (well, what isn't taken up by the second season of Rome). I just finished my Amelia Earhart Aviator Cap. It is currently blocking on a mannequin head that my roommate happened to have. Just to finish something is exhilarating.



Fiona before the blocking. (Please ignore the sideways-ness of the pics. Blogger is not letting me re-orient them.)

Dad's Hunting Cap has a few inches of the ribbing done after all the false starts. For such an easy project it has given me a lot of headaches. May be those headaches make up for the crappy acrylic yard that I'm holding together with some crappy wool yarn. The first version of the hat was HUGE. I didn't have a measurement of Dad's head so I measured mine and added a few inches. When I tried it on my head when it was mostly finished, it fit like a bucket. So I frogged the entire thing, reconfigured the gauge and started knitting again. After a few rows, WHOOPS!, I saw that I had neglected to calculate for an even number of ribs. Frogged that and started again with a new recalculation. This time I was using some beautiful stitch markers to mark the ribs that NB gave me; however, they started some awful ladders in the transitions from the knit rib to the purl rib. So, I frogged it and started knitting again with contrasting stitch markers made of yarn. Same problem, so I frogged yet again. Now I'm not the last (I hope!) version and have a few inches. Knitting with my fingers crossed is kinda difficult, but I really can't start this over again.

The earwarmer/headband that I want to knit for Mom hasn't had the best of luck either. I had some yarn leftover from the scarf I made for her for Xmas (or St. Paddy's Day) and wanted to make for an earwarmer with the same yarn and stitch pattern. The pattern will have to be scratched though since the wavy nature of the pattern would make it difficult to get good ear coverage. Plus, the yarnover holes aren't conducive to warmth either. I'm thinking of doing a double moss stitch pattern. Easy and textured is the preferred way to go.

After, these get done, then I can return to those socks from Socktober fest. Sigh. It's a good thing I didn't do the NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater in a Month).

Oh! I'm leaving for Missouri on Tuesday and am trying to get ready for that too. I'll keep you updated as much as possible for the wild Mid-West, but my access to the internet will be limited to the hours that I spend at Panera Bread (which I here has free WiFi). I will also get some pictures up of the finished projects, promise!