Every payday my husband and I go out for payday date night. We treck to our favorite chinese restaraunt then jaunt over to the bookstore for coffee. He grabs a pile of tropical fish and remote control hobby magazines and cools my coffee while I search for the latest and greatest teacher resource or knitting book. We used to be faithful Barnes and Noble goers but they failed to consult us on their planned move to the mall. We are not pleased. So lately we’ve been gracing Borders with our presence. Much smaller selection but better coffee. It’s a trade.
A few weeks ago I was happily digesting pepper chicken and sipping my caramel machiatto substitute when I happened upon the coolest pattern. It’s the Neck Warmer Hat in the book Knitted Gifts by Ann Budd. It’s knit on circuluar needles until it’s 11 inches long. You put a few eyelet holes near the top, knit a length of I-cord to string through, and you’ve got yourself a hat that can be cinched at the top, pulled down around your neck, or opened part way to let your hair hang out. Cool huh!
Now those of you who know me may be wondering why I think this hat pattern is cool. After all, I hate hats. I’ll wear ear muffs or a head band thing but I’d rather shiver than wear a hat. They are itchy and too tight and my hair tends to point in a thousand staticky directions when I take them off. Men have tried to get me to wear hats and eat seafood for years.
So I see this hat pattern and I think, “If this thing can fit down your face and loosely, yet seductively, rest around your neck then it can’t be tight.” Then I think, “And if I knit it myself I can use the softest yarn and it won’t be scratchy and itchy.” Then I realize, “If my hair is sticking out all over the place no one will think to notice the width of my hips!” See, Cool Hat Pattern!
Pattern in hand I get home and look through my stash and find three balls of the fluffiest wool and angora blend yarn you can find. Enough yardage? Check. Correct weight? No idea. Well no matter because I am a knitter and it’s close enough. It’s a flexible hat so we can be flexible with the yarn.
Then I search through my needles for a circular size 7. Well, better go 8 because I’m a little bit of a tight knitter and always have to use one size larger. Hmmmm, only had a size 10. But they are Addi Turbos (magic needles) and maybe I’m a tighter knitter than I think so….close enough. After all, I don’t like hats because they are tight. If it’s a little looser than expected that would be great!
So I cast on the required 126 stitches and knit about 3 inches when I look down and realize I’m knitting a skirt for a plus size woman. Hmmmmmm, maybe a size 10 needle was a tad too much. But never fear, in my infinite knitting wisdom I put the hat starter (not to be confused with gravy starter . . . family joke) on my head, pinch the excess hat, count the pinched off stitches (I’m so darn clever), and decide if I had just cast on 90 stitches instead of 126 the thing would be perfect! I cross my fingers and pray the angora/wool can be frogged and meet with success. (Thank you knitting Goddess!)
Try number 2. I cast on 90 stitches and happily knit away until I get to 9 inches and am ready for the eyelet row. Things look perfect! Then I try it on. (I just love circular needles.) Just a tad bit loose. BUT if I fold the ribbing up it tightens things just right. Guess I had better add one more inch to the length to account for that folding up business. A few more inches and I’m binding off feeling rather proud of myself. I can now say I’m experienced enough to make adjustments to a tube of yarn that will slide over my head. Looses some umpgh when put that way but it was a darn good moment!
Feeling very snappy I dug up a few size 7 double points and knit 3 whole stitches until I had over 3 feet of hat rope. I figured might as well use the recommended needle size. After all, why take chances. I laced my I-Cord through the eyelets and pulled that tube of flexible warmth over my head. Just as I predicted….soft, loose, I could wear this hat. So I did.

With a few minor adjustments it will be PERFECT!
Unfortunately, the longer I wore it the looser it got. In fact, it got quite loose. At times it slid off the back of my head but I was not deterred! It was a labor of hope and knitting confidence and I just can’t abandon my dream hat. As I see it, I have only two alternatives. I can frog it or I can felt it. If I frog it I can give that recommended needle size a try and see what happens. If I felt it I wouldn’t have to spend another two weeks knitting it again but it might become a grapefruit cozy. I think I’ll leave it in my basket with the 1/2 finished Booby Socks until it decides what it wants me to do. I’m on to knitting a shawl. It doesn’t care what size I make it!
Just who are you people?
November 22, 2009There is just something a tad creepy about blogging. I was shamed into starting a blog when everyone around me was appalled I was so unenlightened. I thought of a few witty things to ramble on about and some friends “pimped my blog” until I amassed an average readership of 31 a day. On 6/26/08 a record 185 people dropped in for a little virtual visit. Nothing says friendship like a little pimping. Thanks guys for helping me make it to the big time!
Then came my leave of absence. Life got busy and blogging takes time. A good blog can take over an hour to produce with editing, potty breaks, and blurry vision from rubbing your eyes after forgetting you’re wearing makeup. I just couldn’t bring myself to blog about what I’m having for dinner or why I seem to be the only one with the manual dexterity to install a roll of toilet paper in the dispenser. Well, I might be able to bring myself to blog about that one. Give it time. After getting out of the habit, days passed then months and my blog grew a few cobwebs. Yet, I still had a loyal following. It seems at least five people a day visited my blog during those dark months. Given one was my mother but that still leaves four people who faithfully looked every day to see if I had returned to the blogosphere.
Now that I’m back and have committed to being a weekend blogger (I figure I can be witty at least twice a week), my stats are going up again. I’m up to a solid 16 visits a day! Now this may not seem like a huge accomplishment considering some of my favorite bloggers have hundreds of visits a day but I’m pretty pleased. After all, these are 16 people who are voluntarily wanting to know what I’m thinking. I’m a teacher. I’m used to spending my days with 58 people who do everything in their power to ignore what I’m saying!
Lately I’ve been rather fascinated by the “referrers” list. This is a list of other blogs that have posted links to your site and people have then clicked on them to find you. Oddly enough, not one of the referrers has been my mother’s blog which led me to wonder, “Who are these other bloggers who have linked to me?” This past week I’ve been clicking on them to visit their blogs (you may thank me for raising your stats by sending chocolate). I’ve found a grain of something in common with most of them but then there are the mysteries.
So, just who the heck are you people? The only one who ever comments on my blog is my mother. You’d think if others were such fans that they would put a link to me on their blog they’d at least comment with a smiley face. See, a little creepy. So let’s play a little game. We’ll call it “Fans and Stalkers”. If you’ve read this post, leave a little note. Hey, I figure if you can spend hours a day farming on Facebook you have the time to respond to my blog! Maybe introduce yourself, tell the world how you got here (here to the blog, we already know about the sperm and egg thing). I’ll keep track of how many visitors I have over the next week and how many comments are left. Then we’ll see how many fans I have and how many stalkers. Don’t you just love a social experiment? Ready, set, GO!
www.braindebris.wordpress.com
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