Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Just in time for summer



I've been thinking a lot about knitting between stitches lately, and after some swatching, ended up with this hat:

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It's really just a variation on a slip-stitch, but I'm pretty fond of it, and have great plans for more swatching and tinkering.

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I worried all through knitting that it would be too big, and it's not. It's not totally snug, but I was actually aiming for that since I'm not-so-fond of hat head. I know, crazy.

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It's a nice dense fabric and cozy like whoa. I defy you, summer weather!

Well. While I was in the Poconos (which are in Pennsylvania, for those of you playing at home) I stopped in at Mountain Knits and Pearls in East Stroudsburg. It's a great shop with lots of Dale of Norway patterns and yarns, plenty of sock yarns (including Noro's Kureyon sock), and what looked like a charming knit afternoon. Plus beads and stuff, but I mostly ignored that.

ANYhoo, I was browsing the Dale of Norway patterns and saw these Lillelam pants:

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And my ovaries melted into a puddle of goo. I mean, I'm not really one to get all in a fluff about clothes, but there's clearly some kind of subliminal cuteypants message in all that fair isle. Even now I keep thinking "Pssh, they're pants, whatever, I'll just take a look and awwww those are so CUTE I love you yes I do."

Yes I do.

But! I was going to Maryland Sheep and Wool the next weekend, so I refrained! And in the following week thought better of it, and called the shop and ordered the pattern book AND the yarn. I couldn't find a website that had both together, so I figured I was being clever. And in conclusion, I was. Sort of. Dale Ull is pretty expensive. I won't tell you what I ended up paying for the yarn and the book because it pains me.

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So. I pulled out the book and started to read the directions. They're short -- like 3 paragraphs. And it's all dense and abbreviated and it uses 7 colors, y'all, 7, and GOD do you know how many ends that will be? and this is for an infant and all they do is eat and poop and make messes and then they grow out of EVERYTHING and 7 colors, people! AND ONLY 3 PARAGRAPHS OF DIRECTIONS. How smart do these people think I am?!

And then I have to go lie down for a while. But they're cute pants.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

But you are intrepid! Like Spaceman Spiff! You can do it!

Anonymous said...

You can do that hat, you can do the pants. Just think of all the leftovers you'll have in the dark blue and bright red - enough for at least another hat.

Kate Schmidt said...

That's awesome. That slip-stitched fabric almost looks woven instead of knitted.

Tanya said...

You are a smartie, you can do it! Then I think you should size them up and make some for yourself, cause those are way too cute to be only for kiddies!

Love the hat!