Koolhaas for M

A friend has begun losing her hair during chemotherapy, so I decided it was time to put aside my obsession with evil and use my knitting powers for good.

Presenting Jared Flood's Koolhaas Hat in Rowan All Season Cotton. I loved it when I saw it on Jared's blog, but since I'd just knit three things after seeing him knit them first, I decided I needed to stop being a copycat. But when I found out M. needed a hat, this immediately leaped to mind. And it's even library-related, based on the windows at the Seattle Public Library.

Today is Columbus's Komen Race for the Cure. Maybe next year I'll be in shape for it. But meanwhile, I'll make a donation and encourage everyone to do the same.

Random bizarre thought: cancer drug companies should underwrite free mammograms since they create demand for their product.

Backwards and in high heels

My boss asked me to clarify a knitting point that cropped up in the book she's listening to. Three times in a character's life she has made the mistake of turning a heel twice, and each time it portended some life-changing event. Boss wanted to know what "turning a heel twice" meant. I explained, we discussed what a twice-turned heel might look like, and she asked further questions about sock construction.

I told her that while socks usually are knit cuff-to-toe, I prefer knitting them the other way, toe-up. In fact, I said, I tend to be drawn to odd construction techniques, to knitting things the opposite way. Toe-up socks, top-down hats. I convert sweater patterns to the round so I don't have to sew. "I like to do things backwards and in the round," I said. "I am the Ginger Rogers of knitting."

I completed the Lillehammer hat with no fancy adaptations. Just in time for spring to finally begin breaking through. I think of this as my "Robin Hood" hat, since I was watching the new series when I started working on it. The ribbing flares out a bit at the bottom, which makes this particular hat a bit too flapper-ish.

My hopes are still high for Tallguy's toe-up gusset and heel flap breakthrough, but meanwhile I might just make Widdershins socks for Nancy. Based on a comment on Tallguy's blog, I bought the Queen Kahuna Crazy Toes & Heels Sock Book. Good if you like verbose, detailed, step-by-step instructions, but I should've known it wasn't for me.

New Project-itis

I've got three active projects right now. The Camel Gansey is zipping along, and I'm at the point that I need to decide how long the plain area will be (all the way up to the sleeves?) and then chart out the patterned area for the chest. It's a critical part of the project, and I have to be careful not to lose momentum. However, I've already started two new projects.

I snagged some Cider Moon "Glacier" skeins at their trunk show a couple weeks back, and started a pair of socks.

The black toe is in "Johnny Cash" colorway, and the red is "Cayenne." I'm planning to give these to Mike's mom, who will like the bright red (being legally blind, she doesn't see much color) and who has yet to get a decent pair of socks from me. I hope Tallguy posts notes on his new toe-up gusset and heel flap method soon. I'm dying to try it.

Working on these from both ends of the skein has given me an idea for a center-pull ball holder which can make such a task easier. I've sketched out some concepts for everyone's favorite knitting contractor to think about.

At the trunk show, I saw their Lillehammer hat and got a copy of the pattern. I'm not wasting this yarn on a hat, so I picked up some Brown Sheep "Nature Spun" and started working on that last night. The picture isn't great, but I'm digging the ribbing band: K1P1 rib, with the knit stitches in one color and the purls in another. Neat effect.

Halfdome, Topdown

I finished the crown on my top-down version of the halfdome cap.

And I've learned something: increases do not look the same as decreases. This was probably always perfectly obvious to everyone else, but my reading of Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top led me to believe otherwise. I can see where it sort of looks raglan-ish, but it's just not as attractive as the bottom-up version. Still, the advantages of not running out of color before finishing the top outweigh the beauty of the raglan decreases, if you ask me.

Apartment renovation update:
Molding is complete in the bathroom. Kitchen ceiling has been painted and the broken plastic light panels have been replaced. I'm sure my designated knitting contractor is correct and the whole thing needs more major repair, but it's an apartment, and up to the property managers and owners to decide how much work to do.

What's that smell?

This is turning out to be the summer of disagreeable odors.

About 10 days ago, Mike surprised a skunk one night when he was taking the trash out. In the darkness, he didn't notice the animal or see what it was, only that it looked like a puppy that was "moving funny." It was probably stomping in warning. He dashed off when the tail went up and he saw the white flash, but it was too late.

I'm enormously grateful for the Internet, which provided an effective recipe for musk removal. Tomato juice, all sites seem to agree, doesn't really do it; you need hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dishwashing liquid.

I'm still finding some lingering contamination in the house (the towels Mike used after showering, the t-shirt I wore to bed that night, the small pillows we use in place of teddy bears), but generally the musk is gone from the house. Just in time for new and different bad smells.

I'm pretty sensitive to mildew. It's quite a battle in our bathroom, because a few years ago we had a leak that the landlords didn't repair -- just sealed it over, trapping moisture behind the tile. The new landlords are putting some energy into fixing the problem, but this involves extensive repair on our kitchen ceiling and a powerful, industrial fan blowing into the bathroom plumbing access panel (which happens to be on the wall by my side of the bed). Happily, Loratadine/Claritin handles my mildew allergies as well as it does hayfever. We won't be able to use our shower next week, but the inconvenience is a small price to pay for getting this problem taken care of.

Knitting reports:

I apparently dropped a stitch at the heel join in Mom's purple fib socks. That's enough of a problem area on socks even without mistakes, so I frogged back to really fix it. That pair is completed now.



One ball wasn't enough to complete the large adult halfdome cap, which isn't a surprise, but unless I make a longer contrasting brim, one ball isn't enough for me to make the regular adult size either. I finished off the top of the large cap with the black yarn I used for the brim (pictured below in green; the hat is weirdly shaped because it's too big for me, but it should fit Aubrey). I'll buy more of the blue to finish the last few rounds of the regular cap, and maybe knit a second one from the top down so it won't matter when I run out of color.



Nice picture of my bald spot, huh?

Hat for LC2

The head hugger hat I talked about a few weeks ago did not shrink down to size. So I decided to try again.

Working with some Debbie Bliss SoHo that I bought near SoHo (at The Point in Greenwich Village), I went down a needle size and tried the alternate directions for a six-section (instead of a 12-section) crown. One section in, I decided:

1. I didn't like how the chevron brim pattern looked with variegated yarn, and...
2. I didn't like knitting the wraps visibly on the top

So I started again, this time knitting a plain, garter-stitch body for the hat, and working the wraps to the inside of the cap.

The result is a smaller cap that should fit Linda much better than the previous attempt. It's blocking now (turns out that the core to my old Donvier ice cream freezer is the perfect size and shape for blocking pill-box hats),


In case you're interested, here are my instructions for the six-section crown without knitting the wraps visibly. (For the rest of the pattern, buy a copy from Danny).

 Row 17    K3, kw, swt
 Row 19    K4, kw, kw, swt
 Row 21    K6, kw, kw, swt
 Row 23    K8, kw, kw, swt
 Row 25    K10, kw, k1, kw, swt
 Row 27    K13, kw, k1, kw, swt
 Row 1     K16, kw, k1, kw, k2