"properly practiced, knitting soothes
the
troubled spirit...
and it doesn't
hurt the untroubled spirit either."
~elizabeth zimmerman
Monday, January 24, 2005
How Very Exciting
News Flash! I completed something. I know, hard to believe, right? My (step)Dad asked for a hat to go with his lovely Irish Hiking Scarf. He said just plain old stockinette was just fine (well, he actually said, whatever's easiest and warm). But could I be satisfied with giving my old man a plain old stockinette hat? NO WAY! Instead I looked around online for some kind of cabled hat that would complement the scarf. I didn't want to do the hat in the alpaca 'cause I thought it would be too itchy for him. I ended up with Jiffy, a mohair-ish looking acrylic that I got for a whopping $1.97 after Christmas at Joann's Yarn Blowout Sale. Well, I could't find a hat online that I liked, so I decided to take a pass at making one up. Yep. I thought I would actually try to create a hat pattern. I wanted the cables to be on the same principles as the Irish Hiking Scarf, but I didn't want to outright copy her pattern. I did want some ribbing for stretchiness, but I didn't want to do an exact duplication. It was only after I was halfway through my hat that I realized I could probably have used the Basic Cable Hat pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. D'oh! 
Here The Boy models the hat with the IH scarf So instead of inventing a new hat pattern, I think I probably re-invented something that's been done before: cables + ribbing for a nice man's hat. It's no doubt been done dozens of times before, but I like to think that never in exactly this way. ;) The only challenge I ran into was on the decreases. I started with an elaborate Excel spreadsheet for the decreases. It was a work of art: color-coded and perfect. It also didn't work. When I started the decreases, the pattern got all honked up. Eventually I came up with something that worked. I finished it last night! There are, of course, modifications I would make for future generations of the hat. 
This isn't the best picture (darn nighttime photos!), but you can see that the decreases actually look pretty good! I am so unbelievably proud. And, finally, the blackmail shot of The Boy. I may use this for our wedding announcement. Heh.  |
            Former -Alongs      
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2 Comments:
At least you can call it an original!! Love the blackmail photo. I have a bunch of those hehe
By
Vicki, at 4:09 PM
I am in awe of you. I feel sorta like Mr. Miagi in the Karate Kid.
By
Jenny, at 6:24 AM
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