Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Colorwork and Chickens

We had a pleasant, unfussy 4th here celebrated with tortellini and sausage, scones, soft drinks, games and the Monk marathon :) I am desperately hoping that the after dark noise level goes down now.  For the last three nights there have been firecrackers and whiz-bangs going off straight through the wee small hours and I’m beginning to twitch unbecomingly…

I admit to having been a bit obsessive over the last few days.  That is, I found a project I liked and stuck with it.  Ahem…


Cap with seed stitch band

Cap with seed stitch band




I wanted to see what the seed stitch would look like if alternate rows were worked in alternate colors.  It’s not bad and it certainly adds plenty of texture.  Interestingly, the seed stitch isn’t nearly as compact as the stockinette - spreads out a lot more.  This won’t be of any consequence when the hat is worn, but for the picture, a little creative messing around was called for :)


Cap with red diagonal stripes

Cap with red diagonal stripes




This one really pleased me because I was able to engineer the stripes so that the beginning/end of the round wasn’t obvious.  I have been looking at methods for “jogless joins” all weekend and I shall no doubt try them eventually.  And, since you all know me I can admit, with only a slight bit of embarrassment, what a zingy little thrill I got out of figuring out how many stitches I needed to have in order to go around the hat knitting three cream, three red, etc...until the diagonals were as long as I wanted them.


Viking chicken hat

Viking chicken hat - sort of :)




While I’ve had the Chicken Viking Hat in mind for a while, it took June’s 7/2/05 post over at Twosheep to kick me into gear.  I confess, I did not spin my own yarn as she is doing (beautifully too, if I might say so) and I also made some changes to the pattern.  Surprise!

First, I didn’t have a size 5 circular needle to do the seed stitch band with so I just went ahead and did everything on a size 6 circular (magic loop style).  Things seem to have come out nicely and I like the way the decreases are handled in terms of fitting the head.  I believe I will try this kind of decrease on other hats to see how it works out.

I also discontinued the stitch pattern when the decreases commenced.  I could tell you all kinds of stories about contrasting texture going from the dense seed, to the less dense goosebump and finally to the smooth stockinette - but I’d be full of sheep dip.  Once I started the decreases I was chicken to try and continue the stitch pattern and so I just abandoned it at that point.  I don’t think the hat looks bad though.  I like the colors here - sort of caramel and French vanilla.  Butterscotch sundae, anyone?  Oh, and the drumsticks?  I got hungry :)

Now I have a fragment of an old Neil Diamond song running through my head - something about “chicken-ripple ice cream”?

So, while I told myself I was playing with hats, that’s only a partial truth.  I’ve also been playing with color and that took me longer to figure out :) My last stranding experiments were more than a year ago and I would have told you that I hadn’t given it much thought since then.  Clearly there’s been more going on in the back of my head than I was aware of.

But then isn’t that always the case?

Babbled by Robbyn on 07/05 at 09:41 AM
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  1. it looks like you’re getting a start on dulaan ii-

    umm, i thought i was familiar with *all* things neil diamond sang (this is proof that i am far older than dirt!!) but i cannot come up with any ‘chicken lyrics’-

    sounds like you had a nice and productive, if not quiet, holiday- i can’t really believe we’re already well into july-

    stay happy-

    Posted by  on  07/05  at  12:55 PM
    Location : searching for shade

  2. Barb - The rest of the song caught up with me while I was driving this afternoon.  It’s “Porcupine Pie” from 1972’s Hot August Night which I played absolutely to death and then some :)

    Posted by Robbyn  on  07/05  at  03:56 PM
    Location : Contemplating pasta salad...

  3. Ahem.

    My hat’s off to you.

    (I had to say it. Don’t hate me!)

    Don’t talk to me about twitching - I know whereof you speak. Our neighbors partied like it was 1999. And then some. Bang, whiz, screech, pop, rat-a-tat-tat. Scared the cat half to death & made me want to dive under the bed too!

    Posted by Bron  on  07/05  at  11:04 PM
    Location :

  4. Bron - You have my complete sympathies.  And, now that you mention it, the poor cats have been acting a little weird.  And, goddammit, it scares away my birds! LOL!

    Posted by Robbyn  on  07/05  at  11:24 PM
    Location : Contemplating pasta salad...

  5. Hot August Night...Boy, does that bring back memories. I played that album to death. I had seen the Chicken hat over at Vicki’s (knitorious) blog a few months ago. What a hoot!Glad to hear you had a great weekend.

    Posted by Maureen  on  07/06  at  09:25 AM
    Location :

  6. Maureen - I remember listening to that album while staying up all night to finish my very first afhan.  goodness, Diamond was something in those days.

    ‘Course, so were we :)

    Posted by Robbyn  on  07/06  at  09:43 AM
    Location : Contemplating pasta salad...

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