cable brim hat

Yarn: 200-ish yards of worsted weight wool
Needle: 5mm DPNs and circular

Pattern:

Pull out your stitch dictionary of choice (I confess, I am deeply enthralled by Barbara Walker) and pick out a cable pattern that looks like it will knit up to be 2-3 inches wide. Add two stitches to either side of the motif and do the following:

RS: slip 2 stiches, knit cable pattern, slip 1, purl 1
WS: slip 1, purl 1, knit cable pattern, purl 2

The extra stitches and all the slipping give you an even, nice-looking edge while also creating a border for your cable motif.

Knit the cable motif until it is however long you want your hat brim to be, and sew the cast off edge to the cast on edge. I tried to be clever and start with a provisional cast on and then graft the two ends together, but it didn't turn out that well. This is probably because I didn't feel like thinking that hard about it when the time came, and not because it can't be done, or that it would be particularly difficult. Do whatever you want.

Then, with your circular needle, pick up stitches all the way around the brim you just made. If you need more stitches than you picked up, increase in the next round. Knit the rest of the hat like you would any other hat (for advice on this I highly recommend the section on hats in Knitting Rules by that other Stephanie).

Cast off, weave in ends, feel clever. The end!

a small update

What I have been doing for the past month:
1. going to school
2. working
3. sleeping
4. eating
5. knitting like mad

Sadly, blogging is not on the list, although I could add "thinking about blogging," but if I start including things I have been thinking about to the general list of what I have been doing, that list is going to get pretty un-concise pretty quickly.

But, I have been knitting. I finished a pair of socks this week, but didn't take a photo, and now they're in the wash. You might never get to see them, because my ability to take photos of my finished objects is sketchy, at best. But rest assured they are very pretty, and I, like many before me, have discovered the delights of Trekking XXL.

Now I am going to contradict myself and show you a picture of another finished object I finished this week:



I made the pattern up, but I'll do a seperate post explaining what I did, because I thought it was fun, because I am a nerd. Also, I seem to be all about the almost-run on sentences today. Strunk and White are going to kill me in my sleep.

Currently, I am completely addicted to this:



Which is, of course, The Hemlock Ring Blanket. I am completely taken by this doily blanket business and have been perusing all sorts of old doily patterns, making grand plans for at least fifty lap blankets. And actually, this current one is knitting up pretty fast, so I might get through a couple before I get sick of the idea. You never know. Stop snickering.

Other than that, I started a pair of fuzzy feet for mindless bus/boring classes knitting. Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I'm really not knitting "fuzzy feet." I just saw the pattern while perusing knitty and decided that I would make giant socks and felt them. I've never felted anything before, but it doesn't seem that difficult. (On second thought, I should not tempt fate by saying things like that.)

what a dream I had

You are held captive by a mad scientist in a dimly lit castle decorated like a cluttered, late 1970s rec room. As you enter the main drawing room, you suddenly spot what seems to be a basilisk. Horrified, you squeeze your eyes tight shut, until the mad scientist says to you, "Have no fear, my prisoner. The crocheted basilisk is not dangerous. It is the knitted basilisk you must be afraid of."

If this ever happens in your dreams, you can probably be sure of one or more of the following:

1. You spend way too much time knitting.
2. You have read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets recently, or too many times. Or both.
3. You saw this in a library book:



And were duly frightened. You find out later in the book that the dear snake pictured above is, in fact, Crispin the Crocheted Cobra, but I must confess upon first sighting I was more inclined to think of him as "Sammy the Serpent of Satan". But that's just me.

And yes, I really had that dream.

is this thing on?

To start, a confession: I've been back around normal, English internet services for a little over two weeks now. I've been meaning to post, I swear, but wasn't sure what to say or how to begin. Finally, I decided it didn't really matter, and that I'd better post something before school starts (on Thursday!) or I never would.

So hi. What's up? How was your summer? Eventually, hopefully, I'll post about Quebec, and the knitting that went on, and the yarn-buying that went on, and the French-speaking that went on, but not today, mostly because at the moment I'm more in the mood to get a post up than to sift through pictures.

The past couple of weeks I have, among other things, been cleaning out the stash. Don't let the time allotment fool you: my stash is not particularly large, I'm just a slow organizer, and when I'm stumped by something (in this case, "Where am I going to put all of this yarn?!!"), I tend to let it stew for a bit before going back to it. I'm pretty much finished, and I did get rid of a lot of yarn (ok, actually, the yarn is in a big bag in my front hall closet, waiting to be mailed off to Interim House). I decided to keep only the yarn I have a very specific plan for; I've found that otherwise yarn is a source of some anxiety for me.

However, I still have a bit more yarn than I really have room for in my apartment, so I've done two things: planned my Christmas knitting around what is currently in the stash, and made some rules.

I won't go into details on the Christmas knitting, since I think some of the intended recipients stop by here on occasion, but the rules are as follows:

1. Finish all Christmas knitting the stash currently has yarn for before buying new yarn for Christmas knitting the stash cannot accommodate.

2. If Christmas knitting gets extremely boring, work on a UFO.

3. Avoid Value Village at all costs.

Now, to be frank, I'm pretty sure rule three is going to get broken a lot, but it's ok, I have back up Value Village rules too:

1. I do not need any more random acrylic for the Weasley blanket.

2. Yarn may be bought only if it meets one of the following conditions:
a. it is pretty, not 100% acrylic, and enough to make a scarf
b. it is sock yarn
c. it is fabulous and doesn't meet condition a or b

The Value Village rules exist mostly because I sometimes lose all reasoning abilities in the face of a good deal; for example, the ability to determine what a good deal really is. Twelve balls of Paton's Kroy Socks for seven dollars? That's a good deal. A bag full of random yarn with questionable fiber content in dated colors? Probably not a good deal, even if it is only two dollars.

One last thing: I got my invite to Ravlery while I was in Quebec, and this past week I've finally had a chance to properly play around with it. It is every bit as great as everyone says it is, and a definite threat to my ability to not procrastinate this year. Ah well.

signing off

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Quebec, and I'll be gone for five weeks. I've heard that internet access where I'm going is limited, and at any rate I've been such a slacker about blogging lately that I doubt I would post anything with such distractions as "having to speak French all the time even though my French is atrocious" and...well...actually that's the only distraction I can think of right now. I am hoping that the break will make me more interested in the blog when I get back.

Later gators.

score!

I adore Value Village, especially when I can buy 12 (TWELVE!) balls of Paton's Kroy Socks for $7.00.



I must confess that I did a fair bit of maniacal laughing when I found it, and then proceeded to walk around the rest of the store with the bag clutched to my chest (I didn't think it was safe in the cart. Admit it, you would have done the same thing.). Looking back, I suppose my behaviour might have been embarrassing my friend, but she was nice enough not to mention it.

sorry

I am being such a blog slacker. My sincere apologies. Since my last post I have knit two socks, one washcloth, and ten Weasley squares (I have 96. I need 140.) I also moved into a new apartment, and that was about as much fun as you think it is. Right now I'm going to go knit more squares, and maybe I'll have this blanket finished before September.

c is for cookie

Reasons Why Eating Cookies All Morning is a Good Idea

1. Cookies are very tasty.
2. It's easier than going grocery shopping.
3. It's too hot to cook.
4. They go well with milk.
5. The cat doesn't try to eat them too.
6. Did I mention it's too hot to cook?

Reasons Why Eating Cookies All Morning is a Bad Idea

1. You can't eat cookies and knit at the same time.
2. Heat makes me sick. Excessive amounts of sugar make me sick. They will not cancel each other out.
3. There'll be less cookies to eat all evening.
4. Have I told you how nauseous I feel right now?
5. I'll feel obligated to vacuum later.
6. Seriously. How old am I?

and by 24 hours I obviously meant 2

pattern: Jaywalker Socks
yarn: Sockotta by Plymouth Yarn (45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon)

I must confess I liked the yarn better in the ball than I did knitted up, and was a bit irritated by the weird flashing thing it did in the second sock after behaving so nicely in the first, but I do think the Jaywalker pattern used the yarn best. I first started making just plain stockinette socks with it, and it did that weird flashing thing all over. I don't really mind the zig zags, but the colors of this yarn made it look like a kindergarten classroom threw up all over it.

motivation

There's nothing like pretty yarn, and only one set of needles to knit socks on, to cure the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.



Expect to see finished Jaywalkers in the next 24 hours.

nobody loves garter stitch like I do

I've been hanging around the knit blogosphere for a bit now, and I know you all understand buying something yarn-related just because it is a ridiculously low price. So, I assume you'll understand when I tell you that I bought a whole box full of crochet cotton at a garage sale, because it was only a dollar for the whole box.

Heh.

I'm not really sure what I was thinking. When I got the box home, I just kind of looked at it for a bit, in a dazed, confused way. Then I got a popsicle and stared at it some more. Then I remembered that I started knitting Jaywalker socks, and I forgot about the crochet cotton until a couple of nights ago, when I pulled out some skinny knitting needles and started knitting.



So I don't know what it is. Maybe I'll just hang it on the wall. I like hanging things on the wall. I sorted all the crochet cotton by colors, so I'll have a large, garter stitch, pinky orange thing:



And a large, garter stitch, green thing:



And a large, garter stitch blue thing:



And another green one:



I'm a bit light on the purple:



But maybe, if the first four don't drive me insane, I'll go pick up some more purple-ish crochet cotton.

jaywalking

getting it out of my system

finals finals finals

So this morning I was doing normal morning stuff (get dressed, trip over the cat, burn myself on the toaster oven, etc.), and the knitting came pouting over to me with one of those "I'm depressed and it's your fault but I'm going to pretend like everything's fine" looks. Generally I ignore such silly behaviour, but I make allowances for my knitting. I mean, it's my knitting. So I said, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing..."

Ok, fine. I went back to burning myself on the toaster oven.

"It's just you've spent all week with those textbooks!"

Slightly surprised, I said, "But you know I have exams next week."

"That's not an excuse. We were together before you had exams."

That doesn't even make any sense, but again, I let it slide. Knitting.

"Listen, this isn't because I don't like you anymore. You know I love you. You know I want to spend every waking moment with you. But, if in the near future you want me to have disposable income to spend on you, you have to leave me and the textbooks alone for a few days."

The knitting didn't answer. It slunk back to the knitting basket (where it belongs) and I went to work. I thought about telling it about the lovely long train ride we'll have together next week, or the lovely nice yarn shop we can visit in Detroit, but it's being so pouty I don't even want to.

terrorist tactics

"One false move and the yarn gets it."

I got an A+ in Nerdology 101

I finally wove in all the ends on the Gryffindor scarf the other night, so I suppose I should be mildly grateful for the weather giving me the chance to wear it around before the summer. In this picture I am demonstrating rare use of the flash, frizzy hair, and my desperate love for the color balance tool in Photoshop ("Ooo, I can make everything MAGENTA!"). Maybe I'll talk somebody into taking better pictures of me wearing it...but don't hold your breath.

Stephanie 1, cat 0

I have found her weakness at last...wool!

My suspicions started back in the fall, when, somehow, this wool sweater that I have ended up sitting on my desk. The cat started sleeping on it all the time. It was great, she stopped sitting in front of the computer and trying to eat my knitting and generally let me enjoy having her around without her being extremely annoying. But then, silly me, I decided to wash the sweater and put it back in the closet where it belongs (I obviously don't know a good thing when I've got it). The cat reverted to her usually cuddly-but-somewhat-annoying self.

Then, in November, I got a wool coat. I often leave this coat draped over the armchair closest to the back door, because hanging it in the coat closet five feet away is a lot of work. The cat immediately started sleeping on it. She'd get mad at me when I actually wanted to wear it. I began to contemplate the idea of knitting her a big piece of wool to sleep on, but didn't really execute that plan because cats have a tendency to not like something if they think you want them to like it. Why waste the time and the wool?

Well, I've been knitting this wool pullover, and I finished the back last week. I had it lying on my desk a few days ago, and, surprise surprise, Sassy was all over it. Still, I didn't seriously contemplate making her a wooly blanket until today. I was sitting on my bed, trying to knit, and she was just mauling me. Biting the knitting, sticking her whiskers in my face, stepping on the cord to my headphones, and just generally making herself unpleasant. I got up and pulled the sweater back out of my knitting basket, and layed it on the foot of the bed.



Game over, I win. Coming soon to this blog: bright red wooly cat blanket.

In other news, this is the view from my apartment today:



So much for April showers. I wonder what April blizzards bring.

April blizzards bring big lizards:



Hmm.

April blizzards bring brave wizards:



No, not until July.

April blizzards bring turkey gizzards?

That's just disgusting. I think I'd rather have the showers, please.

just so you know

Planning and executing short-row shoulder shaping in your French class, without any help from the internet, will make you feel very, very clever.

And yes, I did learn some French tonight. I can conjugate l'imparfait indicatif like it's nobody's business. For example:

je tricotais, tu tricotais, il/elle/on tricotait, nous tricotions, vous tricotiez, ils/elles tricotaient

Watch out for me.

I swipe memes shamelessly

You scored as Luna Lovegood. You're an extreme introvert and because of this, are also a deep thinker. You ponder things others would never dream of pondering and stand with your beliefs without backing down. You find it more valuable to daydream than to socialize, because there's so much more going on in your head than others'. Most people don't understand it, but you seem to prefer it that way.

Sirius Black 72% Luna Lovegood 72% Neville Longbottom 69% Albus Dumbledore 69% Bellatrix Lestrange 69% Harry Potter 66% Remus Lupin 63% Hermione Granger 59% Ron Weasley 59% Severus Snape 56% Percy Weasley 50% Oliver Wood 44% Lord Voldemort 31% Draco Malfoy 25% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

Found it at Carrie K's blog.

feeling better

Before I talk about knitting stuff, can I just say that I love, love, love April Fool's Day on the internet? Facebook made my day:

click for larger

Anyway...

Still life with unblocked Argosy and cat.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm sure eventually some occasion will call for giving someone an orange mohair lace scarf, so I'm not too concerned.

And now, now, I am going to say to the world: I hate the carpet in my living room. HATE IT. I can say this because I'm moving into a different apartment in June, and I no longer feel obligated to tell myself the brown carpet really isn't that bad. UGLY BROWN CARPET!!! Ugh.

A strange family of turquoise yarn has taken residence on my printer:



But I am ignoring them in favor of a large quantity of brown stockinette:



The turquoise yarn looks a bit vulture-like, no? I was knitting Wavy with it, but I really didn't like how it was turning out. Frog pond! Now I am rather suspicious that it is asking to be another Argosy, but like I said. I'm ignoring it.

tune in tomorrow for the next episode, in which Stephanie starts a turquoise Argosy