Oh, Girl.

We interrupt our weekly Frankentank update to bring you a finished object. Everyone else can finish these in two hours except me. But I did finally finish one...and it will go out in the mail to the Dulaan project today. Finally, I do what I said I would do, which is contribute at least one knitted item to this incredible project (the number of contributions is staggering, and I'm proud to help out, though I wish I could have done more).

I give you The Fattest Hat I Have Ever Knit,
also known as the Zud hat.
You can find the pattern at Ryan's site.

Some fun little details about this project include the fact that I used the Magic Loop technique for the first time, courtesy of a set of 6.5mm Addis I found lying around in my toolbox. 6.5mm Addis???Anyway, this technique is so cool, I may never use a set of double points again. I would, however, love to know how in hell a 6.5mm set of Addis got into my toolbox. I don't ever recall buying or even needing such an animal. But apparently, at one time in my life, I was planning on knitting Fat and Fast.

That's probably why I had this yarn in my stash, too...it is Creative Yarns Klickitat Tweed, and I have had it in my stash for over twelve years. It is 45% Perendale, 45% mohair, and 10% nylon. You can't really see it from the photo, but the nylon is a tiny strand of pink. The mohair is the periwinkle part, and the Perendale is that tweedy grey-brown. The combination is really beautiful, but this yarn is some kinda FAT. And I was on my way to knitting a sweater out of it a long, long time ago in a land far, far away (um, Boston, actually), until I realised that Periwinkle Polar Bear was not the look I was going for. An "Oh, Girl..." moment: smallness in personage plus bulky fuzziness in yarn = small fuzzy bulky personage. Sexy, no? The rest of this stash, I'll use for a Twinkletoes special.

Speaking of the girl, the other thing on my needles right now is a measure of just how sad, guilty, and willing to please a knitting mother can feel when her kid is about to go away for eight weeks. Yep, it's summer visitation time, and the knitting is...uh...well... Okay, alright, I'm knitting a poncho. I admit it. And not only am I knitting a poncho, but I'm knitting it in this:

Wake me when it's over. My Pretty Pony is about to throw up
on Maman's needles. It was this or a really dead-looking yellow.
I'm just glad it's not my poncho.

Twinkletoes asked for a yellow summer poncho, but all we could find in a summer-weight yarn was baby-puke yellow, Holy-Shit-Put-On-Your-Shades yellow, or that dead yellow that looks like it should be a dishcloth. I really don't want my daughter to be wearing something that looks like a dishcloth. In fact, I'm looking forward to the day when she decides that black leather is really cool. But until then, I am stuck with My Pretty Pony Puke.

I have to resurrect this experience somehow, so I'm going to do something in a lacy stitch just to, you know, hammer home the girly girl stuff while pretending that this is not variegated, I am not knitting a pastel rainbow, I am not knitting cotton (this is Katia Arc-en-Ciel and Jet, both cotton tapes) and I do not want to cut off my hands. (Knitting cotton is not at all my idea of a good time. Love hurts.) Learning a new technique, i.e., lace, would be a good way to make me feel better. I hope.

Once she is safely off to Visitation Land, I will resume the Frankentank, because, you know, summer in Montréal is nearly over once it starts. I'd like to wear my tank before the snow flies and the bellies go into hiding. Ladies, Start Your Pilates....

June 21, 2005 4:31 PM  | Permalink  | Comments (10)  | Print