Saturday, January 08, 2011

it's 2011: i'm dipped AND buttered

There's been a certain bagladyish-ness to my presentation when I dressed nice in cold weather.  Black & neutrals vintage-y herringbone tweed coat, red helmet earflap hat, orange  scarf, striped noro blue/purple mitts? yeah.  I'd walk in to a job and catch clients rolling their eyes, wondering why they trusted me with their photo shoot budget. OK, maybe I didn't catch them, but I just know they were thinking that. Can't blame them, I looked one crayon short of the 64 pack. Athough with most of the colors.
bulkyhatcowl
No longer. I am now, officially, Put Together. This photo Thursday, thanks to Linda at Knit New Haven as I was on the last few cowl rounds, you can see the needles still in there if you look closely enough. Knit from  2 skeins of Cascade Magnum,  super bulky, super soft 100% wool. What you're looking at is $36. and not a whole lot of time either. That's a lot of put together bang for the buck, no?
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details
hat (less than 1 skein of Cascade Magnum, less than 2 hours of knitting)
inspired by  Quick & Easy Ribbed Hat by Laurie Kimmelstiel
needles: us 15
my variations: Cascade Magnum is one bulky mother! I cast on 30 stitches,  did wider bands of reverse stockinette than of stockinette,  added rounds to increase the slouch factor,  with a more gradual decrease than written, ending with reverse stockinette on top.
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I'm sparing you the modeled views in which I look more like Hassidic Aunt Chaya than fashionably topped
I love this hat .  It is not much of a hair squisher, thanks to the loft, while being very warm Win, win, win.
cowl:  imy intention was a simple cowl in bands of stockinette & reverse stockinette to mimic the hat. I cast on 48 stitches, not paying too much attention until I was well into it, when I saw I'd twisted the join. So, why not? Twisted cowl.  I kind of like it with the twist in front.
Backstory:
Before the cowl I  started  a 4x4 ribbed scarf from the yarn. It was almost done when I left it sitting on a chair. Fatal error .  My lovable new beast Bobo has a taste for one thing , in a house full to the brim of Stuff You Could Chew. That one thing is  wool yarn. 
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exhibit a of lovability, boy & his dog 
He doesn't destroy.  It's more like he seeks it, places a whole skein in his mouth and then shakes his bowling-ball sized head, walking and spinning out yarn,  down halls and stairs. I've found whole rooms strewn with saliva soaked unwound skeins*. (are you thanking me for that mental image? You're welcome)
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Bad news: Bobo's  big bulldoggy teeth made an impression on the scarf-in-progress. Good news: it was kind of ropey and roll-y,anyway. So I ripped and knit the cowl.

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only thing scarcer than yarn sitting out unscathed these days is a squirrel in the yard, 
thanks to this welcoming committee

8 comments:

SeattleAmy said...

Oh, I am SOOOO familiar with destoryed yarn this week!

I am living with 8 terriers right now (4 foster JRTs and 4 terriers of my own).

They decided to "play" while I was emptying the dishwasher in the kitchen...$300 of yarn GONE. I had to use shears to cut the dogs out of the mess.


I can send you a picture of the mostly cleaned up scene...but I'm sure you can imagine it!

Mary Lou said...

Not baglady, creative dresser. But now, oh so creative and put together. Can I borrow the dogs to get rid of my squirrels?

Ibunnysavetroy said...

pretty cowl and hat! and pretty pups!

twinsetellen said...

Situational creativity - the save of the twist in the cast on is an improvement, for sure, over a straight tube. Nicely done.

Lisa/knitnzu said...

I was somewhat tempted by some of that yarn today... but they only had 2 skeins, 1 dusty blue (not a favorite), the other black... I'm doing a black/dark charcoal/gray lopi sweater, so I want a break from black!

Poor bobo!

gayle said...

Does he slobber up finished accessories too, or only WIPs? Now there's an incentive to finish a project...

Anonymous said...

Love the hat! Love the dog! He is very handsome.
The hat reminds me of this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45199340@N00/3176130441/

I have plain gray yarn and fuzzy gray yarn and was planning on making the bulging parts fuzzy. (Those are technical knitting terms: plain, fuzzy and bulging.) But the super-scale idea that you've done also fabulous.

Hmmmm.

Marla McLean, Atelierista said...

Maybe you are "soft serve vanilla, hold the sprinkle!"