BRRRRRRRRRRRR
As my husband and I settle more and more into our new home, we are for the most part very happy with it, despite a huge amount of work looming in front of us for a long time to come. The one exception is that the house is just plain cold. Really cold. Apparently, the windows were installed by brain-damaged monkeys. At some point, something major will need to be done about that, but not now in the middle of winter. The house also has crawl space underneath, which makes for very cold floors. Then there's the hole in the wall in the kitchen that brings the cold air rushing in from the garage. Oh and did I mention that the kitchen and dining room are lacking any heat source at all? There's a vent between the kitchen and dining room, but it's just a vent that goes nowhere. What it's doing there, I just don't know. The house doesn't even have a central heating system, so why there is a vent there will remain a mystery.
Living with this constant chill has put me in the habit of wearing a hat indoors much of the time. I now have permanent hat-head. It's quite sad really. I decided to let my short hair grow out again several months ago and I've been trying to hold off on getting a haircut as long as I can, so that at least there will be a bit to work with when I finally go in for a haircut. It really looks quite awful. Add to that the constant hat-wearing and my oh my, I'm quite a sight!
Rather than lamenting my hat-head woes, I decided to focus instead on making myself a new hat to match the fingerless mitts that I made a couple of months ago. I used the same yarn - my FF Sportweight Superwash Merino in the Butterscotch colorway. Only the yarn and color match. The stitch pattern is entirely different.
Now before you go thinking that this hat looks pretty small, keep in mind that my head is the size of a peanut.
This was rather fun to knit. I've used this stitch pattern a few times before and I really like it. It's very easy to memorize and track, and has a nice flow of undulating waves. The fun part was figuring out how to handle the shaping at the crown while keeping the pattern flowing as long as possible rather than simply switching over to stockinet.
Here's another shot where I tried to capture the stitch pattern a bit better by stretching it a little so you can see the yarnovers. It's not a great photo, but the best I could do while using one hand to stretch the hat over a bowl that's even smaller than my peanuthead and using the other hand to take the photo.
Now that I look at the photo above again, it really makes the hat look quite funny! Imagine if my head were that small?! Obviously, that's just an illusion. I'm stretching a small portion of the hat around a small bowl, to try to show more of the stitch detail.
As my husband and I settle more and more into our new home, we are for the most part very happy with it, despite a huge amount of work looming in front of us for a long time to come. The one exception is that the house is just plain cold. Really cold. Apparently, the windows were installed by brain-damaged monkeys. At some point, something major will need to be done about that, but not now in the middle of winter. The house also has crawl space underneath, which makes for very cold floors. Then there's the hole in the wall in the kitchen that brings the cold air rushing in from the garage. Oh and did I mention that the kitchen and dining room are lacking any heat source at all? There's a vent between the kitchen and dining room, but it's just a vent that goes nowhere. What it's doing there, I just don't know. The house doesn't even have a central heating system, so why there is a vent there will remain a mystery.
Living with this constant chill has put me in the habit of wearing a hat indoors much of the time. I now have permanent hat-head. It's quite sad really. I decided to let my short hair grow out again several months ago and I've been trying to hold off on getting a haircut as long as I can, so that at least there will be a bit to work with when I finally go in for a haircut. It really looks quite awful. Add to that the constant hat-wearing and my oh my, I'm quite a sight!
Rather than lamenting my hat-head woes, I decided to focus instead on making myself a new hat to match the fingerless mitts that I made a couple of months ago. I used the same yarn - my FF Sportweight Superwash Merino in the Butterscotch colorway. Only the yarn and color match. The stitch pattern is entirely different.
Now before you go thinking that this hat looks pretty small, keep in mind that my head is the size of a peanut.
This was rather fun to knit. I've used this stitch pattern a few times before and I really like it. It's very easy to memorize and track, and has a nice flow of undulating waves. The fun part was figuring out how to handle the shaping at the crown while keeping the pattern flowing as long as possible rather than simply switching over to stockinet.
Here's another shot where I tried to capture the stitch pattern a bit better by stretching it a little so you can see the yarnovers. It's not a great photo, but the best I could do while using one hand to stretch the hat over a bowl that's even smaller than my peanuthead and using the other hand to take the photo.
Now that I look at the photo above again, it really makes the hat look quite funny! Imagine if my head were that small?! Obviously, that's just an illusion. I'm stretching a small portion of the hat around a small bowl, to try to show more of the stitch detail.
All in all, this was a fun little quick-knit project that yielded a hat that will get plenty of use.
Hope everyone is having a great week and staying warm!
Hope everyone is having a great week and staying warm!
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8 comments:
I love your hat. Is that
the koolshat that is in the interweave gifts book? I like it
better in your yarn. When you
are finished will the spaces still
show when someone wears it? I have
been wanting to make the lookshat
for a while now. I just need to
find the right yarn that I want to
use.
Just me, popping in to answer Baby Face's question ....
No, this is not a hat from Interweave. It's one of my own design. I tried to find one from IK that looks like this, but not sure which one you were thinking of. I saw the Koolhaas ... I think that's it perhaps? (Although I must say I prefer your "koolshat" name :)
From the photo I saw of the koolhaas, it doesn't appear to use any yarnovers, so you would not see the spaces as you do in my little nameless hat. The spaces from the yarnovers do show when I wear it. Perhaps if I can catch a moment when my husband isn't working I can get him to take a photo of me wearing it.
Glad you ilke it!
I still love that Butterscotch color - it's gorgeous. When our electricity was out this past December because of an ice storm, wearing a stocking hat was one of the only things that kept me warm, that and two pairs of alpaca socks, so I totally understand what you are going through.
My living room is over my unheated garage so it's also very cold, but I got one of these: http://cozywinters.com/shop/rug-heat.html and it's helped a lot. (I've also used the little heated floor mat as a solution for cold places such as under desks.) You can even put them on timers.
I bet the vent between the kitchen is to let warm air from the kitchen heat the dining room. It's common to find no heat in a kitchen on the theory that using the oven/stove will heat it. I've never lived anywhere that had a heat source in the kitchen. Not so useful if you don't cook though.
Dear Deb,
Thanks for answering my question
about your hat. I am not well and
sometimes my brain does not work
as well as it should. I'm sorry
about spelling the name of the hat
so badly. I was a very well educated person and now I'm just sick. I love your
hat. It's better than the one in
Interweave Press. Thanks again.
I also love your hat! So far, I am good at knitting hats that others have written patterns for, but stumble when considering how to use a cool stitch pattern to make my own! I will gobble up any notes you would share, as yours is adorable! I have your butterscotch with plans to make mitts. That color is just fantastic!! :-)
Clear plastic sheets taped over one of our notoriously drafty windows have made at least a 5 degree difference in our house...it might be worth a try. Stay warm!
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