It's Really Winter Now

One of the roomies has gone snowboarding. The other's gone jobhunting. John's putting in a few hours of work. I'm home alone!

Here's the scene from our bedroom window...

Winter's finally (really) here. It's hovering around the freezing point today (0C up here above the 49th parallel) and is forecasted to go down to about -13C by Monday. We'll be using up some of the firewood this weekend, for sure! All the knitting I've been doing lately will be put to good use. And speaking of knitting, there's this stitch pattern that's been floating around the back of my mind for a long time. I've drawn out a sweater pattern that incorporates it, but there's also been an idea for a hat swimming around in the depths, occasionally surfacing. This week, it moved from the depths to the surface again.

It made the leap to the needles. It's not perfect; it's a little smaller than I'd like (I was running low on patience and the fight with the circular needle I was using didn't help the patience levels at all), but I like the general idea. It needs some tweaking. Yes, I'll show you.

My model (very patient, reliable and always at hand) doesn't look the greatest this morning. It is, after all, Saturday morning and little attention has been given to appearance. The hat is meant to be the true star (*cough*) of the shots.

I'm thinking of calling it the Diagonal Rib hat, as the rib pattern is.... wait for it.... a diagonal rib! At least, it is on one side. The top picture shows the diagonal rib side, more commonly known as the right side. The inside of the hat, though, is also quite presentable. That's the second picture. I tried to make the hat completely reversible. As I said, though, it needs some fine tuning, including more depth. As well, I'm not really happy with the bottom edge. It's a rolled edge, but it looks better on the inside of the hat. If you have some constructive criticism, please feel free. Constructive criticism, please. No comments on the model.

For those of you wanting details, the pattern is my own, not yet on paper (and won't be until I can get it right). The yarn is one ball (100 grams) of Paton's Decor, worked on 4.5 (US7) circular needles, moving to dpns for the top.

Tomorrow, I'm going to post a picture of some yarn I have in my stash. Laceweight. Silk. Gorgeous. I've had it for about two years now; it's been languishing in my stash; now and then I take it out and fondle it, admire it, ask it what it wants to be. I have no answer yet. I want input. Details tomorrow. For now, I think I'll take the camera for a walk and then I'm going to attempt to finish John's wristwarmers. He wants a pair just like mine, in black. Now, there's another story!

Tomorrow.