To Instant Gratification & Back Again

Oh, but here's to instant gratification.

You see the pattern while looking during the day - you go and buy the yarn that night, and by the next morning you have cast on & knitted this much:


And the next day (only taking as long as the next day because you're really, really tired & can't stay up more than, oh 10 rows worth after 10:30 PM) you cast off. Only to find that due to your sheer animal greed & inability to wait more than five seconds your gauge is a wee bit off. And the thing is flippin' HUGE. HUGE. So what do you do - have your friend (R - she of the clapotis) try it on & rip back as much (or as little, she's got a LOT of hair!) as needed and fix it?

Heck no, what you do is put it on the back burner until the next time you see R (rather than go & actively seek her out for a head-fitting) and instead cast on for a second Calorimetry for yourself, instead out of this - Paton's SWS in I forget which colour:

But this one, instead of following the pattern (hey, I may be animalistic & greedy, but at least I'm not COMPLETELY witless!) and knitting the 16 rows or suchlike of all the same instead I knit until I thought the sucker was half big enough and then started the decrease section. And because I couldn't help myself and had wanted to try out the stitch for ages I did the entire middle swath of the hat/headband in Grumperina's Shifting Sands. And now I'm completely enamored of S.Sands and am dying to try it out in more of a....laceweight. But I'm wondering how much of the pattern beauty would be lost in something so thin.





So I like my new Calorimetry very very much, and am hoping to meet up with R in the next week or two for some coffee/tea/chatting and a hat-try-on-session. It's a bit itchy, though. I'd like to knit a liner - but it would have to be something VERY VERY thin (which means loads of stitches & tons of time to knit it - which means UGH in my book!), so I'm wondering if that's actually going to happen.

But moving on in the Instant Gratification thought mode, I also have this to show:


This is my brother’s hat* (Swell – pattern from Knitty) done in both Paton’s SWS (Natural Denim, if memory serves) and the black yarn is just plain ol’ Lions Brand felting wool. Hey - the SWS felts readily enough if you apparently look at it the wrong way, so why not add in a little more excitement to the mix?

*post-blocking pictures coming in a day or two.

I’m quite pleased with it – a bit bummed that I have so many annoying tendrils to weave in (anyone out there who knows how to take two knitted ear flaps & gracefully/perfectly cast on the appropriate number of stitches without screwing it royally up about a dozen times PLEASE tell me the secret to your magic!) but meh – after all they’ll be covered by up the knitted lining anyway (knitted out of a highly-contrasting L.Brand felting – it isn’t nearly as itchy as the Paton’s plus it’s solid which is what I want for the lining… I’m thinking the lining will be orange (burnt umber-ish) or green (acid kiwi-ish) but don’t know which. There was the whole question as to which my brother would prefer, but as this is no longer for my brother it is now a bit of a moot point.

What’s that?

No longer for my brother?

Yeppers. That’s right.

No no no – we didn’t have a sibling spat. No no no – he hasn’t suddenly gone all Chia-Pet on me & sprouted a thick head of hair rendering himself suddenly one of Those Who Don’t Need Hats - rather it's that I knitted it in a size M (who knows how big a M is for this hat, and who knows how big his noggin is?) only to find when I'd finished that indeed a size M in this hat is just about right for...............................me. And I know one thing for certain - there's no way that a guy who is 6'6" has the same-sized head as 5'7" me.

So now the hat is for someone else - hence my indecision on the lining colour.

...............but you know, today I actually **was** personally asked to donate something knitted to a silent auction by my local county arts council raising money for the basic art programs in the area.

What does everyone think - a snazzy knitted lining fit in there and some fun ties (Ooh! Maybe even a fun tassel????) - would that befit a silent auction? The theme is "Dinner with the Bard" (honors William Shakespeare) and they expect to host about 150 people. A ear-flapp'd hat with wavy swooshes on it isn't exactly Shakespeare-themed, that's for certain. And it would be painfully embarrassing to find out that my hat was the only thing not bid on.........

...........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........................I dunno' about this one................

Any suggestions/bright ideas?