1.10.2007

Demi Again

Nearly a year later...
Demi - back
A blurry photo is better than no photo at all. It turns out that a blurry photo is also much better than the effort required to take a better photo at 3am. Ergo...yes.

I decided to make the back plain because it would go more quickly and I found it more aesthetically pleasing. I hope to finish this piece in the next few days. (I actually put off knitting to redo my header and update all the various HTML issues with this blog. Now that I'm done, can I say: so gorgeous. I can't stop looking at it.) I want to finish the entire thing before I go to Paris. I have just over a month. Can I do it?

The color in this photo is much more accurate than in any of the previous photos.

Hats

I took a long break from any sort of fiber art because I had become bored with it all. It also didn't help that I had a really busy semester. Anyway, I spent a week at my parents' house in Seattle for Christmas. Idle hands being the devil's playthings and all, I came up with two hats:

The Seattle Beanie

Seattle beret
A fabulous dirty mirror shot, complete with spur-of-the-moment lack of makeup and scraggly hair.

Seattle beret

Seattle beret

Seattle beret

Pattern: My own. Want to know it? Crochet a circle. Alternate rows of sc with popcorn stitch. Do some decreases. The end.
Yarn: Wool Ease Chunky in charcoal, 1 skein. I ran out of that toward the end so I used Wool Ease Worsted in oxford grey for a row of sc and slip stitch.
Hook: Oh, who the hell knows. J? I don't know. Whatever the Wool Ease label recommended, probably.
Thoughts: Easy. It took a few hours. Both of my parents liked it. (My dad said I looked like Mary Tyler Moore.) The extreme thickness kept me very warm. Better pictures someday when I'm feeling glamorous.


Thistle Earflap Hat

Thistle hat

Thistle hat
Didn't really feel like getting gussied up for this one either.

Closeup of pattern

Stranding
Yeah, I didn't sew in the pink ends, and I probably won't ever. "Why? Don't wanna." --Stephen Colbert.

Pattern: My own, influenced by several elements: the shape is based on Knitty's Cross Country; the thistle pattern is a modified version of the one seen here; the random white-and-grey pattern is taken from here.
Yarn: Various acrylic from my mom's stash. I think Wool Ease and Red Heart were key players.
Needles: US6? 5? Not sure. DPNs. Plastic. Nice.
Thoughts: I was hoping the sc around the bottom edge would stop the curling, but it doesn't (though it doesn't curl too much when I'm wearing it). I didn't swatch; I just cast on the appropriate amount of stitches (108 I think; it seemed like a reasonable number, plus it worked with both the thistle and the white-and-grey pattern) and played it by ear. It ended up being kind of tight, but maybe it'll stretch over time. I don't really like the way I did the decreases for the top; I had no idea how those would turn out, and it just sticks up funny and looks kind of silly. Overall I think this is a pretty badass hat, but I'm just not a hat person. It's a shame, because they're so quick and allow for lots of variation.