Yes, this entire post is just about one hat.
I haven't done much knitting lately. And it's not because I haven't had time, although I guess when you break it down I've actually been kind of busy since I got back, between family things, traveling, blogging, nights out/away, Shabbats, holidays, etc.
Still, there's certainly been a lot of TV time as well and TV time is knitting time. Yet I haven't been knitting much. I made a scarf for my mom a few months ago, as I discussed in my last post, but I never put on the finishing touches, nor did I make the accompanying hat I promised (there wasn't enough yarn to make a matching one. Instead of finding a solution, I just gave up on the whole project).
I have, however, completed a different hat, this one selfishly designated for my own head. I love her.
I bought the yarn at a shop in Ithaca a few weeks ago. I hadn't been to a yarn shop in many, many years. I usually buy at Michaels now. It's cheap, and most stuff from there is washable, and since I've mostly just been making baby blankets, it was sufficient.
But definitely for the past little bit I've been feeling the insufficiency of Michaels. The selection never changes. Most of their yarn is acrylic. And it's always the same, the same colors, same colorways, same brands, whenever I go. It's boring. No longer exciting to buy yarn there. I don't go to shop, I just go to get something specific when I need it. The selection is so generic.
There was a notions shop I sometimes went to in Jerusalem that had an okay yarn selection, but it was very small. And they didn't have luxurious handpaints, or mouthwatering textures. It certainly doesn't count as an LYS (local yarn store).
So when I walked into Handspun in Ithaca, I was suddenly overcome by the colors and the choices. I had forgotten, almost, what it was like to browse a collection of lusciously dyed merino sock yarn, to rub a skein of alpaca against my cheek, to choose from a brilliant wall of deeply saturated color one or two that I could take home with me.
I don't know how long I was there. For a while, it was just me and the owner, who seemed to be on the phone with a credit card company, but then two other women came in and stood at the back of the shop, talking and gossiping, so all of the attention wasn't focused on me. (I like to shop very incognito, gently ignored by all sales staff.) I stopped at every shelf, squeezed every skein, marveled at the color, the rich, deep, wild, gorgeous array of COLOR!
I hadn't had a project in mind when I went in, but I developed some ideas as I shopped. I decided to buy a skein of brilliantly teal sock yarn to make socks for my dad's birthday, coming up in May, and then, when I found some beautiful handpainted Malabrigo (I am a sucker for anything Malabrigo - I LOVE their colorways) sport weight, I spontaneously decided I needed a slouchy hat for spring. I also purchased a hank of Malabrigo roving to try spinning with, a material that obviously was never available in Israel.
All this set me back only $45, which was really pretty reasonable for a yarn store, and I walked out happy with my hour's work. Soon after I got back to Syosset, I scouted out a pattern for my spring hat and got to work.
I decided to use the same simple pattern I had used years and years ago to make another slouch that I subsequently lost. I wrote a lovely eulogy to this pretty hat in an ancient blog post, here, about Hats I Have Known.
The hat was made of a merino-silk blend, in a silky lavender colorway, and it was the prettiest little slouch you ever did see. It was too big on me and had no stretch, however, so when I wore it, I always had to use bobby pins to keep it on. But I really liked it and I've never stopped thinking about how weird it is that is just literally vanished into thin air.
Anyway, I decided the time had come for another Gwen Slouch, especially when I found the perfect colorway at Handspun in Malabrigo Arroyo's Indiecita - a sort of green/blue/purple that epitomizes the beauty and potential of the hand-dyed yarn. The color could never really exist anywhere else, and it's so freaking gorgeous.
I did a little calculating to adjust the size - I wanted to ensure a slouchy fit - and got knitting. Like with my first slouch, it was extremely quick and fun. I LOVED the yarn. I finished it in two days and quickly blocked it so I could start wearing it. But once I had blocked it, I realized that, like everything I knit, I had also made it JUST too big. The ribbing wasn't snug enough on my head, though it should have been, and it already seems stretched. Probably because I did a twisted rib, rather than a plain k1, p1. Maybe it would have been stretchier if I had done a plain rib, but we'll never know now because I'm not the type to unpick all the woven-in ends and rip back to the beginning. And the hat itself is... a bit too floppy. It's almost more of a snood than a slouch. I can't seem to get the "slouch" bit quite right. If I were sticking all my hair into it, snood-style, it would be perfect, but if my hair is down, it's kind of a flat drape on the back of my head.
Works as a snood.
Anyway, it does fit, but not snugly. If the ribbing were maybe 10 stitches less, it would have been almost perfect. When I push it back from my hairline, which is how I like to wear hats, it's only a matter of time before it starts sliding off and I have to pull it back up. I'm contemplating now how to counter this propensity. There are a few options. I could pick up and knit on another, snugger ribbing band, and sew them together to form a double band with elastic inside (This was just an idea that occurred to me, not any kind of technique that I've heard of. Most people just rip back and start again.) I could sew an elastic band on the inside of one layer of ribbing. I could just wear it with bobby pins and clips all the time. I could pinch in an inch or two of ribbing and just sew it into a little flap that I'd hide underneath.
I do want to do some kind of fix, because I want to be able to throw the hat on and not have to worry about it sliding off.
I don't know. All of this writing and thinking and photographing has me thinking maybe I should just rip it out and do it over, exactly like with my first Gwen Slouch.
Knitting is a wonderful yet annoying hobby.
I haven't done much knitting lately. And it's not because I haven't had time, although I guess when you break it down I've actually been kind of busy since I got back, between family things, traveling, blogging, nights out/away, Shabbats, holidays, etc.
Still, there's certainly been a lot of TV time as well and TV time is knitting time. Yet I haven't been knitting much. I made a scarf for my mom a few months ago, as I discussed in my last post, but I never put on the finishing touches, nor did I make the accompanying hat I promised (there wasn't enough yarn to make a matching one. Instead of finding a solution, I just gave up on the whole project).
I have, however, completed a different hat, this one selfishly designated for my own head. I love her.
I bought the yarn at a shop in Ithaca a few weeks ago. I hadn't been to a yarn shop in many, many years. I usually buy at Michaels now. It's cheap, and most stuff from there is washable, and since I've mostly just been making baby blankets, it was sufficient.
But definitely for the past little bit I've been feeling the insufficiency of Michaels. The selection never changes. Most of their yarn is acrylic. And it's always the same, the same colors, same colorways, same brands, whenever I go. It's boring. No longer exciting to buy yarn there. I don't go to shop, I just go to get something specific when I need it. The selection is so generic.
There was a notions shop I sometimes went to in Jerusalem that had an okay yarn selection, but it was very small. And they didn't have luxurious handpaints, or mouthwatering textures. It certainly doesn't count as an LYS (local yarn store).
So when I walked into Handspun in Ithaca, I was suddenly overcome by the colors and the choices. I had forgotten, almost, what it was like to browse a collection of lusciously dyed merino sock yarn, to rub a skein of alpaca against my cheek, to choose from a brilliant wall of deeply saturated color one or two that I could take home with me.
I don't know how long I was there. For a while, it was just me and the owner, who seemed to be on the phone with a credit card company, but then two other women came in and stood at the back of the shop, talking and gossiping, so all of the attention wasn't focused on me. (I like to shop very incognito, gently ignored by all sales staff.) I stopped at every shelf, squeezed every skein, marveled at the color, the rich, deep, wild, gorgeous array of COLOR!
I hadn't had a project in mind when I went in, but I developed some ideas as I shopped. I decided to buy a skein of brilliantly teal sock yarn to make socks for my dad's birthday, coming up in May, and then, when I found some beautiful handpainted Malabrigo (I am a sucker for anything Malabrigo - I LOVE their colorways) sport weight, I spontaneously decided I needed a slouchy hat for spring. I also purchased a hank of Malabrigo roving to try spinning with, a material that obviously was never available in Israel.
All this set me back only $45, which was really pretty reasonable for a yarn store, and I walked out happy with my hour's work. Soon after I got back to Syosset, I scouted out a pattern for my spring hat and got to work.
I decided to use the same simple pattern I had used years and years ago to make another slouch that I subsequently lost. I wrote a lovely eulogy to this pretty hat in an ancient blog post, here, about Hats I Have Known.
The hat was made of a merino-silk blend, in a silky lavender colorway, and it was the prettiest little slouch you ever did see. It was too big on me and had no stretch, however, so when I wore it, I always had to use bobby pins to keep it on. But I really liked it and I've never stopped thinking about how weird it is that is just literally vanished into thin air.
Anyway, I decided the time had come for another Gwen Slouch, especially when I found the perfect colorway at Handspun in Malabrigo Arroyo's Indiecita - a sort of green/blue/purple that epitomizes the beauty and potential of the hand-dyed yarn. The color could never really exist anywhere else, and it's so freaking gorgeous.
I did a little calculating to adjust the size - I wanted to ensure a slouchy fit - and got knitting. Like with my first slouch, it was extremely quick and fun. I LOVED the yarn. I finished it in two days and quickly blocked it so I could start wearing it. But once I had blocked it, I realized that, like everything I knit, I had also made it JUST too big. The ribbing wasn't snug enough on my head, though it should have been, and it already seems stretched. Probably because I did a twisted rib, rather than a plain k1, p1. Maybe it would have been stretchier if I had done a plain rib, but we'll never know now because I'm not the type to unpick all the woven-in ends and rip back to the beginning. And the hat itself is... a bit too floppy. It's almost more of a snood than a slouch. I can't seem to get the "slouch" bit quite right. If I were sticking all my hair into it, snood-style, it would be perfect, but if my hair is down, it's kind of a flat drape on the back of my head.
Works as a snood.
Kinda flat.
I do want to do some kind of fix, because I want to be able to throw the hat on and not have to worry about it sliding off.
I don't know. All of this writing and thinking and photographing has me thinking maybe I should just rip it out and do it over, exactly like with my first Gwen Slouch.
Knitting is a wonderful yet annoying hobby.
