Flying Spaghetti Monster hat

I just came across this great hat the other day and think it's absolutely hilarious. I first heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster several months ago, but I never thought about knitting one. Hmmmm...

Almost halfway done

I've finished the front (or back--they are identical) of Anouk. After discovering my big mistake, I decided to undo everything and start over. It really didn't take me that long to regain the ground I'd lost--this is, after all, a pretty small piece. But I'm glad I did that, because it looks so much better now! All of the decreases are even, and this is turning out quite spiffy.

I've started the second piece, but realized at row seven that I'd somehow managed to pick up two stitches. (I guess that's what happens when I try to knit and pay attention to Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the same time...) Fortunately, I caught this mistake early on, so it wasn't too traumatic to fix. I've definitely learned my lesson and will be counting my stitches every few rows, just to make sure I'm where I'm supposed to be.

I found it!

I found the missing pieces of the sweater I've been knitting for myself. For some reason, they were in a Target shopping bag that was shoved into the office closet. Not quite sure how they ended up there... But I'm glad I found them! Now I just have to knit the second sleeve, then put the whole thing together. With luck, I may actually finish this in time to wear it once or twice before winter ends.

Decisions, decisions

I've reached the end of the skirt for the Anouk pinafore and am just about to start the bodice. However, I have three more stitches than I am supposed to have at this point. ARGH! As it turns out, I am very good at remembering which rows have decreases, but I remember this only at the beginning of the row, when I do the first decrease. Sixty- or seventy-odd stitches later, I sometimes forget to do the second decrease...and in this case "sometimes" means "three times." So what do I do? Live with the mistake and try to compensate for it with extra decreases from here on out? Or frog it and start over?

Surely you jest!

My friend Mary Ann (whom I've known since our college days and who now lives several hundred miles away from me) has a nearly-three-year-old daughter. Every time Mary Ann sends out photos of her, it seems to me that Maggie is looking more and more mischievous (but in a good way!). So for Christmas I decided she needed a jester hat. Unfortunately, I was a littler slow with the knitting (as well as with the holiday cards, which didn't go out in the mail until a week ago), so she didn't actually get the hat until early January. At least it's still winter!

Anyway, I really lucked out with this one. It's based on the hat in
The Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits: Patterns for Babies and Toddlers by Julie Carles and Jordana Jacobs. They say to cast on 86 stitches for a three-year-old's hat, so I added a few extra and rounded it up to 90 in a worsted-weight yarn. Good thing, too, because according to Mary Ann I managed to get the fit just right. It's not tight enough to be head-squishing, and not loose enough to be eye-covering. And there's a bit of room for growth, too!

Anouk underway

With the gauge swatches for this project behind me, I've gotten well underway with the Anouk pattern. I don't have bamboo straight size 8 needles, so I started on circulars. But the cable was so twisted--and the yarn not nearly heavy enough to untwist it by weight alone--that I ended up switching to plastic straight size 8 needles. I bought a few sets of plastic needles when I started knitting, but then I discovered how much nicer bamboo needles are to work with, and I haven't used plastic since. Fortunately, though, I kept them around just in case...

This is the front (or back--the two pieces are identical) of the dress. I'm knitting the 18-month size. Sylvia is only 8 months old, but she's already wearing 12-month clothing, and I'd really like for her to get a lot of use out of this. There's a nice seed stitch along the bottom and sides, with stockinette in the middle. The decreases on the left are K2TOG (knit two together) stitches; on the right they are SSK (slip slip knit) stitches, which I've never done before. I looked at some photos in a book for how to do this, but I think I've been doing it wrong. The decreases on the right look a little wonky (see the single slanting pieces of yarn every few rows?), and now that I've just watched this video I am pretty sure I've been doing SSK wrong.

So now the question is whether to frog (as in "rip it, rip it") what I've done so far and start over, or to leave it alone and just do it right from here on out. I think I may take the latter course, partly because I'd like to finish this project sooner rather than later, and partly because I actually don't mind some little mistakes in knitting. I think they are a charming aspect of handknits.

Second and third gauge swatches

In my pre-Anouk preparations, I moved up to size 7 needles and knit another gauge swatch. Still too small! Grrrrrr.






Fortunately, size 8 needles did the trick. This is like a knitter's version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears": the third one was just right.

First gauge swatch

I'm starting a new project: the Anouk pinafore/dress/tunic that was posted in the Knitty.com spring 2004 issue. I decided to use the yarn called for the pattern, and since it was unavailable from my local yarn shop I ordered it online from One Fine Yarn, who delievered it in just a few days. (Hooray!)

This is something that Sylvia will be wearing for a long time. It starts as a pinafore/dress, and as she gets taller it can be worn more like a shirt or tunic by adjusting the side tabs. So I figured I should get this right from the beginning...which means knitting my first gauge swatch ever.

Using size 6 needles, I cast on 18 stitches and knit 27 rows...only to end up far, far short of the 4 inches I needed. D'oh!