Because using DPNs just isn't challenging enough by itself. Also, I'm old.

Monday, December 12, 2005

After making 3 Shining Star hats, I decided I needed to UP the ANTE and make my knitting life interesting again, which would also provide writing fodder for this blog. I thought, wouldn't it be cute if the star pattern was its own color? Then I thought, wouldn't it be cute if the star were white, and the rest of the hat were a light blue, so that it looked like a snowflake against the sky? Then I thought, the gauge for the existing yarn I have for this white and sky blue yarn is too small, so wouldn't it work just as well if I doublestranded?

2 colors, 4 strands of yarn, 5 double-pointed needles, 1 circular needle (that I'm using as a dpn to give me a total of 6) and I have this:

It's a fiasco. I carried yarn across as many as 10 stitches because I didn't want to do intarsia and have pumpkin innards, but any way you cut it, there will be pumpkin innards and fairisle on this pattern doesn't work. I still think a star in its own color would have been so money, but the effort to achieve it isn't quite worth it. Granted, I didn't make the process any easier by doublestranding.

So sad. I spent a whole afternoon on this.

Know what else is sad? That it's less than 2 weeks til Christmas and we are sans tree. We've always had a tree, except for last year but that was because we weren't around for most of the month. I have not at all been in the holiday spirit. I know I must say this every single year, but this Christmas seemed to have leapt upon us like a duck on a junebug, and even though my body is swathed in 5 layers of clothing, my mind is still running around in a tanktop.

HA HA! Now do you also see why I haven't been writing regularly?! Such prose. Ha. Heh. Ugh. Sob.

Also it's a week until my birthday. I am turning 1000 years old. Again every birthday I say I am turning 1000 years old but this time I really mean it. My parents have even acknowledged that now that they have a decrepit sort of daughter, it must make them Keepers of the Crypt, and this too makes them sad. We are all sad for my birthday.

Duck and I are going to NYC to celebrate. I hope to drink and eat away the birthday blahs. My BFF whom I call Kitty (she has a food blog) made reservations at 24 Prince, and we will have pumpkin-spice and cinnamon martinis over at Public. I will choke my sobs with cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery and hide my runny nose behind Japanese craft books at Kinokuniya, and the next day, drown my sorrows in a fatty vat of cassoulet at Gascogne.

Mmm. I love cassoulet. Mmm, rendered duck fat. Turning 1000 doesn't sound half bad.

Comments [13]
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Monday, December 12, 2005 5:25:28 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I think it's very pretty. Then I saw the insides. I don't really know anything about two-color knitting, but would that snag very easily?

p.s. Silly question--was "so money" a Swingers reference?
Monday, December 12, 2005 6:17:51 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I think the idea is great. You could carry the yarn at the back like fairisle (wrap it in every 2 to 3 stitches). Fairisle has a slightly smaller gauge (makes the stitches slightly tighter) but apart from that it should be fine.
Monday, December 12, 2005 6:59:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I tried that once too when I started butterfly sweater from rowan 37. Poor you.

It looks like it would have been nice and it looks like you've gotten good tips.

BTW, I read all you entries, but don't always input a comment. So don't think I've abandoned your blog. : )

Lizard
Monday, December 12, 2005 7:01:35 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Wow, that totally would have been so money! You could try (if you're not already sick of dealing with it) securing the floats ever 3sts or so.
Monday, December 12, 2005 7:09:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Ugh, what a nightmare of yarn. It would have been so cute!

So sorry about your birthday. Mine is coming up shortly and I'm ignoring it cause really, it's just a year closer to death.
Monday, December 12, 2005 7:43:10 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I turned a year older two months' back so I totally understand how you feel. But if I don't get to wish you on time... Happy Birthday, sweets!
Monday, December 12, 2005 9:38:15 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Snowflake hat is such a good idea. And don't despair, I'm 1004 this year and it's not all that bad. Especially with dinner/drinks/dessert in NYC... everything you described sounds DEElish. Oh, and I don't have a tree yet, either. Somehow I'm not totally in the spirit yet this year... maybe 'cause I haven't seen any of those old school TV specials like Charlie Brown Christmas or Frosty the Snowman? :)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 11:32:03 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I LOVE me some rendered duck fat. Happy 1000th birthday!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:39:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Too bad the snowflake hat is turned out to be a nightmare. If you tried intarsia in the round you would have been even more frustrated. Ask me how I know! There are techniques to do it, but seem even more fiddley than doing the knitting flat and seaming it afterwards.

If you're 1000, I'm 5000. Sorry your birthday is giving you the blahs. The NYC trip sounds like a great remedy.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 1:30:21 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Awww...that would have been cute! Sucks that it didn't work out. :-( I'm sure you will have a great birthday - sounds like a fun trip anyway! I'll be 30 this time next year and not looking forward to that one.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 2:36:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
are you sure you don't want to try intarsia, because that would work. and that nyc trip of yours is going to be just fab. hmm...
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 4:42:22 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I know next to nothing about colorwork, but I think your idea was a good one. Maybe like Blossom said?

Wow, happy 1000th birthday! That is quite a feat!
Thursday, December 15, 2005 3:56:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Could you finish the hat and then just cover the pumpkin innards with a lining? I'm all for simply covering messes with linings -- it'd make the hat warmer, too.
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