Summer Knitting

It's almost too hot to knit. Almost.

Alaina (my youngest daughter) asked me for a lavender coloured beret for Oceanna. I managed to do that in spite of the heat (30C at least).

The yarn is one strand of Sirdar Snuggly DK and one strand of Alessandro Kid Seta (I think that's right) held together. The pattern is based on one in Ann Budd's "Handy Book of Patterns", but adapted slightly. I first knitted it as written, but the top ended in a point, making it look almost obscene. I frogged it to halfway through the decreases and redid the final shaping. In the book, the decreases are worked every other row. I did it that way, then, when I had half the original stitches, I worked the decrease on every row. That worked out MUCH better!

My thanks to my very patient model... a spaghetti squash. So much easier than trying to find a real model with the right sized head.

If you look at my Finished Objects 2006 page, you'll also see an entry for two facecloths and a soap sack from a FiberTrends pattern. I didn't take a picture of them because they're on display at the store. I used Evelyn A. Clark's "Bathing Beauties" pattern. I'd recommend that one to anyone wanting to experiment with technique. The round facecloth uses Emily Ocker's circular cast on (based on a crochet cast on) and the square facecloth uses a provisional cast on. I did one of each. The soap sack uses a regular cast on for knitting in the round, but in order to save on sewing it up, I used Judy Becker's Magical Cast on (found at Knitty.com). It's nice to have some lacy things that will eventually be for myself. I'm allowing things to get far too masculine around here.

Now, I need to find a way to beat this heat. A jump in the lake is sounding very tempting at this stage, no matter how cold the water may be.