A Tale of Two Hats

The last couple days have been spent on projects. I started and ripped out and started and ripped out and started again on Ray's hat between Sunday and Tuesday. The first time I kept screwing up the pattern because I had cast on two less stitches than the pattern called for (I'm knitting it in the round and the pattern is flat, -2 st.= no seam), however, I forgot to not do those two stitches in the pattern repeat. Therefore I ended up with a spiral pattern that was spiraling out of control! I also decided that I thought the hat was too narrow with the two stitches left out so when I cast on again I did so with the correct amount of stitches and left the pattern as-was.

As I knit along, something just didn't seem right (no pun intended!). First, let me say that this hat is knit from the top down. While that may be fine when knitting flat (as the pattern calls for), in the round it makes for a difficult start, and what I like to call "The Inverted Bellybutton" or "Nipple Effect" on top of the hat. Being in denial I kept knitting, thinking that with every increase the "nipple" would get smaller and smaller. This hat was shaping up more like a cone that a dome and I was getting pretty frustrated. Then I looked at the spiral pattern and how it twisted around the fabric and I noticed that one of the spirals didn't look quite right. Count, count, count, count, count. Oh crap, those two stitches WERE supposed to be left out and one section of my spiral was a little larger than the others. AGGHHH! At this point Ray decided to tell me that he didn't really like the spiral pattern/fair isle combination and wanted a "crown" that would be more plain. Good, now I don't have to look at this pattern anymore. I do love Marnie MacLean's patterns, but this one wasn't working for me.

So I decided to use a different pattern of hers, the Carlsbad hat. This is knit from the bottom up! It's still knit flat (she must like to seam) but the adjustments on this hat are a lot easier. I am having to make quite a few adjustments though since my gauge is completely different from hers (I think she's using a DK weight and I'm using worsted) but the measurements are right. I'm basically using her pattern as a guide and I hope that it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass when I go to decrease. ~fingers crossed~

Tonight I am blocking/have blocked the Blissful halter top that I made from the Happy Hooker crochet book. It is my first/only crochet project so far and I have been putting off blocking it because I didn't think that I would have anywhere to do it. I opted for the floor in our spare room/closet room and put some laundry baskets over the top of it to keep the cats off. I'm hoping that it's dry tomorrow so I can wear it to my "photo shoot" with Maura. She is doing a series of photos for a class she's in of people and their passions. Since knitting and yarn are a hobby/lifestyle that I've been more passionate about than anything I can think of, she is going to take some pictures of me with my "stash" and a few of the items I've made. If she'll let me, I'll post them here when they're done.

Tomorrow I have the day off and if my top is dry I'll be sewing the ribbon and hook-n-eye closures on it, knitting more of Ray's hat, and playing "super model" with Maura. Oh, and TKG of course. Depending on the weather there may be a secret craft project that I work on, but we'll have to see about that.