The Impulse Hat.
At various points over the past couple of years, and before I was introduced to Ravelry, I would look up patterns on the internet, bookmark a whole bunch, knit one or two, and then forget about the rest. A week or two ago, I was clicking around and came to the knitting folder. Upon seeing it, I suddenly had to make this hat, NOW, and had conveniently, recently, impulse-bought some sale yarn that was the called-for bulky weight--Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed--in a pretty grey sprinkled with blues and pinks, and a rare yellow or purple.
The pattern was this one, which was originally written in Finnish and translated into English. It was a frustrating, but interesting project--I haven't had to think quite so much about a pattern while working it as when making this hat. I would really like to deconstruct it a little and come up with a modified, clarified version in English, if only to appease my own need to understand it. I was surprised, when looking at the projects page for the pattern on Ravelry, how few people seemed to have (or mention, anyway) difficulty with it. Maybe I'm too used to being led by the hand in knitting patterns, but I could definitely see a lot of places where people might slip up and get confused. The comments section beneath the pattern post reveals some of this. And I'm not some amazing knitting pro who has the fiber sagacity to unravel the secrets of esoteric knitting patterns; this one just happens to fall into a 'frustrating, but doable' space from which I would like to remove the 'frustrating'. The only thing stopping me now is time, and knowing that I would probably have to knit the pattern through a couple more times to get a really good walkthrough up. Moving on.
The Color Scarf:
You could call me half taught and half self-taught in knitting. After the basics and cabling, my knitting knowledge comes from books and the internet, and practice. Color knitting falls more into the latter half than the former--I have never done too much with multiple colors, though I had played with it early on. This has more to do with my tendency toward patterns suited to a one-color palette than it does with any real aversion to colorful knits--and I think I am changing that tendency as I am becoming more engaged in knitting/crochet/fibercraft.
With my newer projects I thought I should focus on doing new things: gaining or refining less familiar techniques, or making things I don't usually make (which, basically, includes anything but hats). So I am tackling color: working on a sampler scarf, which basically consists of me knitting in color in any manner, with three colors and 20 stitches across, until I run out of yarn. It's all stockinette, which makes for a pretty one-sided scarf, but I'm okay with that. The techniques are four, or perhaps three and a half, or perhaps three:
- Stripes
- Carrying colors up the side of the work (only notable because I hadn't thought of it until I had already gotten some length).
- Stranding method of color knitting
- Color slip method of color knitting (although I think this is basically stranding with slipped stitches)
I wouldn't mind throwing Intarsia in there, if I could figure out how to incorporate it into the existing scarf. Maybe at the end.
I had originally planned on knitting with four colors, but I think I left the fourth ball of yarn at the store, and never returned to pick it up.
Crochet Patchwork Blanket (Part One of the CROCHET ODYSSEY):
Again in the spirit of doing new (crafty) things, I picked up crochet earlier this summer, and was making some sample swatches enthusiastically, until my hand cramped so painfully that I had to give it a rest for a while. I planned, and still plan, to make more swatches and granny squares until I feel that I have the technique down pretty well. From these, I will make a blanket that will be, if not conventionally beautiful, then charming in a homey and practical kind of way. The other purpose of this project is to use up some of the yarn that I have stashed and for which I can't figure out any other use (though I am still selecting even from this to have some kind of coordinated color system). I bought a lot of Jiffy yarn once, probably on sale, and haven't really been interested in using it for any of my garment or toy projects.
Phase two of the CROCHET ODYSSEY will be working from a pattern. That pattern will probably be a Totoro.
Mentionable Others:
- A colorful lap blanket in sport weight yarn that I started months ago, and can't seem to make much headway on, because it is 300 stitches of the same over and over--boring.
- An exact remake of a previously lost hat, though the hat recipient tells me this new one is a little smaller. I must have knit it slightly tighter than the last time, because the yarn and needles were the same. I had also knit the brim of this one longer in an attempt to make this new one even more cozy than the last, though evidently this did less than I'd hoped.
