Monday, November 20, 2006

A weekend in bed…

Despite my initial enthusiasm for the pink stole last Friday, things stalled somewhat over the weekend while I dealt with the opening salvo of a nasty cold.  For me, these things follow a very predictable pattern:  There’s a 12-24 hour sore throat followed by 48 hours of heavy congestion, coughing, sneezing, fever, aches and general misery.  If I behave myself, stay in bed, get plenty of fluids and lots of rest, the worst is over after that.  And if I don’t behave myself, well, then there’s Myria who sees that I do :)

Many of the yarns shown on Friday need to be wound into balls and I simply didn’t have the motivation this weekend.  That just seemed way too much like work!

So, to a background of Voyager interspersed with an occasional Hercules, I did this instead:

It’s the same basic design as Blossom except done to adult size and with a rolled brim rather than ribbing.  It was actually a lot of fun and once I got going, I enjoyed figuring out what the next step should be.  This is a great design for encouraging spontaneity and something I should play with more often as I don’t tend to be the most free-spirited of people :) A little loosening of the ideas and approaches is a very good thing.

This starts with a ring into which 12 dcs are worked (worsted weight yarn - Cascade 220, in this case, size 8/H crochet hook).  Each round is increased by 12 dcs evenly spaced until you have the diameter crown you want.  I have a large skull, so I did 6 rounds, ending up with 72 dc stitches.  At that point, I picked up the stitches on a US size 8 (5mm) circular needle and commenced to play :)

Knit a few rounds - how about a few bobbles?  Yeah, sounds good - bobbles it is.  Knit a few more rounds - a little seed stitch, just to keep things interesting?  Why not?  Knit a few rows of seeds and a few more rows plain.  What about a knit/purl pattern that isn’t either seeds or ribbing?  Would that be good?  Hey - worth a try anyway, let’s see what that looks like....

And really, before I knew it I was checking the hat for length and binding off.

Oh - and, besides the fun factor, there’s a real advantage to making a hat this way:

It can hold your materials neatly and help keep things tidy.  I don’t know about you good folks, but that’s something with which I need all the help I can get!

Note: If anyone has seen the top of my coffee table, please let me know?  It seems to have disappeared.  There’s a rumor that it’s lurking under the yarn and projects but there’s no real evidence to substantiate that.  For all I know, it’s run away and joined the French Foreign Legion, slogging away under the name Beau Dacius :)

And then, because I thought there was enough yarn, I did this too:

It’s short because I wasn’t sure just how much yarn I had left.  The pattern is what I think is called a gull wing cable both forward and reversed with a couple of coin cables thrown in for variation.  I haven’t completed the second mitt yet, but it will likely not entirely match the first one - though it will use the same patterns, just arranged differently :) If, when the second mitt is complete, I still have yarn left over, I may see about crocheting a ruffle onto the cuff - you know, just for fun!

Now I need to get dressed because nothing else got done this weekend while I was incubating the plague and we’re running out of essentials - like toilet paper!

Happy Monday :)

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1. I really like the mitts...can you tell me how the cables are done (that is, the pattern repeat), or point me in the direction of the pattern?

   Thanks!

   Posted by  on  11/20  at  11:40 PM
   Location : Boise, ID



2. Mary - I’ve sent you e-mail to explain this :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  11/21  at  05:48 PM
   Location : Coming up for air...

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