The Entrelac Hat

This hat was supposed to be a challenging project, picking up a new skill with a new yarn.  I expected to be tearing my hair out, and thankful that I don't have much time to knit!  I should have been frustrated and tossing it back in the bag!  What's wrong with me?

Entrelac is...well...easy!  Much easier than I expected.  It's just a simple back and forth knit/purl pattern.  There's a couple decreases and stitches get picked up.  It's really not all that bad.  In truth, it's quite simple!  I'm really happy with that fact, but it's also a little disappointing.  I was looking forward to a challenge since my fall/winter shawl is on hold until I can get my hands on my new needles.  A challenge was definitely not what I got.

I have to admit, I almost don't want to finish the project now.  A part of me is okay with keeping it on hold on my needles until the end of time.  A part of me doesn't want to be bothered with working on something so simple.  It's sad when you get bored easily.  At the same time, a part of me can't wait to see it finished, with the beautiful colors and the silky soft yarn.  Paton's Bamboo Silk is a deliciously wonderful yarn!  I can't wait to have all the colors knit up!

On top of that, I've got a wonderful reason to be knitting.  I need a cute new hat that will flatter my new dreads.  I want it to be done already so I can have a hat that fits well with my dreads, and has a bright, cheery, contrasting color.  Is that really so much to ask?

It's times like these where I really need someone to motivate me to finish what I've started!  I know I'll be thrilled when I'm done with it.  The process isn't the most boring of slogs.  I just need to get my tail in gear!

The Dreads Are Done!!!

It took hours and hours of felting, to the point at which I wanted to shoot someone, or never look at a piece of wool to felt again.  I didn't even finish them all before starting to put them in my hair, which was probably a good thing, because otherwise I never would have gotten those dreads in my hair!  I would have been at it forever!

After that it was three days of having my hair yanked on, pulled, tugged, and brought to order.  Bobby pins were rammed into my scalp in an attempt to get the non-sectioned hair to stay put.  There was a bit of a conversation about my bangs, which I think came out decently cute.  Even so, I was tempted to never have my hair done again!  I swear, I can't wait for these dreads to finally grow into something more....dread like?

In the end I've got 95 new dread babies in my hair!  They're all extensions, but over time they'll start to dread up on their own under the extensions.  I know it can take a year for dreads to actually start growing and gaining length.  I'm going to have to get myself a nice little crochet hook to pull in all the little loose bits that try to escape.  Even so, I'm pretty satisfied with the end result.

The only down side to wool dreads is the cling factor.  When wearing jackets and the like, my hair tends to stick to me more than anything else, making it a bit rough to turn my head.  I'm sure I'll get used to it, but until then, I think I'm going to look forward to putting my hair up all the time.  I'm already liking the ease at which I can pull my hair up and use my own hair to tie it up out of my way!  It looks really cute!  I can't wait to see how it's going to start looking as it grows out!

Too Much of a New Thing?

I'm starting this new hat.  It's going to look awesome!  It's an entrelac hat, a knitting skill I've never undertaken.  I'm working with a new yarn that I've never used before, compliments of my swap partner.  It also required a new cast on, which I thought would look wonderful!  It's a tubular cast on that requires you to pick up the stitches from your cast on and continue on with the project.  It sounded wonderful and looked even better!

Unfortunately, after I attempted to cast on, I found that the yarn was, well, not co-operating.  Knitting into that first row was like torture, though the rows after that weren't too bad.  Then trying to pick up those stitches, that was a nightmare!  I was beginning to wonder what I did wrong!  Now I think I'm just going to go back and knit it the way I typically start a hat, doing the ribbing in two needle sizes smaller and go from there with a regular cast on.  I might be adventurous enough to try that new cast on again, should I decide to start all over, but for now, I think I'll be happy just to try one new skill and one new yarn at the same time!

Improvised Hat

This is it!  I'm flying without a pattern here!  I've decided I want to make a hat for the baby for winter.  After searching for patterns that would use the right amount of yarn and be flattering on a boy, I simply couldn't find what I was looking for.  I decided to try it on my own.  After all, I could make a cute little ribbed hat without much worry over fit.  It doesn't take much to fit a hat on a baby.  Just cast on a bunch of stitches, about proportional to your gauge and the size of the head and go.  I already had the gauge swatch.  I just needed to measure it off the longies.  The baby's head was measured and we were off!

Things were going pretty well.  I had a good feel for what I was doing.  We were making progress.  I had knit a good part of the way up and decided to start decreasing for the crown.  There was one slight problem.  It's been so long since I've knit a hat that I couldn't figure how to do decent crown decreases!  I found a website that gave me some suggestions, but it's not like socks.  There are a million and one sock recipes out there!  Hats don't seem to have any recipes at all!  I guess it's because those who knit without a net when it comes to hats generally have made enough that they've got it all in their head.  They don't need any help with it.  They just do it!  Not me.  I rarely make hats, and now that I was, I was stuck.

I have to admit, I got rather daring.  I started throwing those decreases in there, just to see how it would turn out.  I had some vague concept of shaping in mind, though I'm not entirely sure I was sane when I made that decision.  The hat is now too long and will likely require to be rolled up so my baby can see!  Still, I've got a pretty good science on this thing.  I'd like to think that it didn't turn out all that bad...I hope...