Happy Haunting...

Wooooooo...is it an apparition?

That's the signoff on the message I've recorded on the answering machine at work. Today's the day! Happy Halloween to all of you.

I'm celebrating the holiday by showing off my Skully cap. I finished it at the end of last month and am very happy to have it done with lots of time to spare. Our work Christmas party isn't until December 30 so I'm a couple months early. (Imagine that!)

What I wasn't counting on was their inviting the "other boss" that I don't see as much. Now I feel obligated to knit a second hat...but I sure don't want to!

No, it's my Skully cap!

I started the hat at the top with a tiny I-cord and then read the pattern top to bottom.

I really like the ring of skulls around the top.

The skull pattern itself is quite convincing.

It's always amazing how much you can imply from a relatively simple dot matrix type pattern.

The hat itself came out a little loose. It's not so loose that it will fall off easily but still a little looser than I would have liked. I've decided it's better than too tight and maybe it will even be perfect for the recipient. Kind of depends on what he likes. (There's a good chance he won't wear it at all so I can't get too warped about it.)

But it is part of why I'm not overly enthused about doing a second one. I'm thinking I would just down one needle size, but then I worry it will be too much and the hat will come out too small. Ah, the angst!! (My Oma [grandmother] hated making things for specific people for just this reason--she worried too much about whether it would fit or be liked. Instead, she just made lots and lots of things to sell at the Project Stats
Started: 1 Sep '11
Finished: 30 Sep '11
Pattern: Skully Hat by Camille Chang
Materials: 20g laceweight lambswool recycled from a Ralph Lauren sweater; 24g laceweight wool from American
Eagle vest
annual bazaar. I relate to the angst, but I try to keep it in check so it doesn't control me. (Too much.))

The other reason is the difficulty of working the pattern on the short needles. I could use this as an excuse to buy 8" needles, but I'm feeling cheap. Not quite in the mood for taking the excuse, apparently.

But getting back to the pattern, I really like the pattern for the hat. I think I'll be using it on a pair of socks one day. (Did I give you the background on this pattern? I originally saw a sock pattern with the skull and crossbones in the Knitpicks catalogue that I was very tempted to buy. I talked myself out of it, but not a week later, I saw the same design in a hat on their website. I checked and sure enough, it was by the same designer.  So then I figured I could buy the hat pattern and just use the colour chart for a pair of socks if I wanted. I always use my own toe and heels anyway...I can just plug the pattern into the rest of the sock.)

As to the pattern itself, however, I found it to be a little confusing and hard to follow. There are several versions of the hat available and it wasn't always clear what the directions were referring to. I think that is part of why I had a hard time getting started. (But only part. Another part was that I was using recycled yarn that isn't conveniently labeled as "fingering" or "sport" so it was difficult to know which pattern version was best to use.)

In any case, I hope you all have a good night, whether you are celebrating Halloween or not. And again, Happy haunting!

Current Projects

With my current lack of large chunks of time for knitting and even smaller chunks of time that my brain can focus (seriously, I come home from work and just stare into space occasionally thinking "I should knit" but not able to pick up the needles and do it), I have been working on small projects.

A few weeks ago I was finishing a number of projects (the red stole, Green Leaf beret and Mini Mochi Circle Socks) and debating what to do next. It occurred to me that I could make the decision easier by just working on some gifts for Christmas this year. I had a couple ideas already so it was a matter of casting on and getting going.

First was a "spooky" hat for my boss at the haunted house. (Yes, I work for a haunted house--specifically, the Niles Haunted House Scream Park. I went there last night, incidentally, and had a great time with the rest of the office staff! Oh, alright, while I'm on the subject I may as well show you the pic we got at the photo op:

The one on the torture table is my boss in case that's not obvious. I'm the one tightening the chains.)

Anyway, back to the knitting. I had seen several skeleton or skull design hats and thought I would make him one. I settled on the Skully pattern from Knitpicks and cast on with some raveled wool I had. Green from an American Eagle vest and more of the black I just used on the Circle socks.

The first attempt I did with the yarn doubled and it wasn't right at all. When I finally accepted that, I ripped it out and restarted with a single strand of each. That was much better and I've been making pretty steady progress. I thing I'm about half way down the length:

One thing that is slowing it down is that my needles are just a little too short.

This makes it a pain to work because I'm always having to watch the stitches to make sure they don't fall off the end or picking them up when they do. I don't have a circular needle in this small a size or I would have switched over already.

It should get a little better when I do the ribbing. And even if it doesn't, I'll get through it.

The second project is the gloves I mentioned in a recent post. They are just a simple stockingnette stitch and haven't given me any trouble at all.

I have not let myself work on them at home because I knew they would get done too quickly and leave me with no "travel" knitting. So it's been my Skully hat at home and these gloves in the few minutes I find to knit when out of the house.

I did get in a couple hours of knitting on them during small group on Monday so that helped a lot.

This week I finished the second glove and turned my attention to the cuff. I decided there wasn't enough wool left to do the cuffs. So I enacted my Plan B and added a second colour.

I had a couple choices on hand:

I debated between the light purple alpaca/silk in the middle and the darker sequined silk on the right. (The main colour is on the left.) I ended up going with the sequined silk even though sequins aren't really the style of the recipient. I thought I could get away with it because it's going to be very subtle once it's mixed with the main colour.

I picked up the stitches from the provisional cast on and started knitting in the other direction. I used the stitch pattern from the Honey Cowl I made last year and it worked out very nicely! I tried the contrast colour on the slip stitch rows first but it looked much better with the slip stitches done in the main colour and the contrast on the plain rows.

Once I had that figured out, I motored on the first cuff. I made it fairly narrow and was done in no time. The second cuff is about half done now too. No pictures? Nope. At this point you'll just have to wait until I'm done. But trust me, they're looking good!