second time around 'bleh'

man what is it with this yarn? I frogged the hat, started a new one following the top-down-no-swatch-approach with the plan to make a beret. The top looks good, I think.























But on my head it looks like a shower cap. I think this is because the hat is to sturdy to be so big. Either it should have been more drapey, so it would kind of fall in folds at the back of my head like a real slouchy beret. Or otherwise it should have been sturdy but smaller, like the urchin I made.





Any help appreciated...


The whole idea behind the Lifestyle top down hats, no swatch needed
is totally me. Go and play with the yarn, live dangerously, design-as-you-go, try out a new stitch, knit fearlessly, ...

and end up with a shitty hat. Bugger.

Magic...

Fearlessly I started with magic looping. For hats, like this Ganome it is a welcome techinique, since you do not have to switch to dpn. Instead, you just pull the string out between a pair of stitches somewhere in your work and voila, Magic Loop.




Socks are possibly also made by Magic Looping. I started them but alas! this is not for me. The troubles with avoiding gaps and the tension in the circular needle became to much for me. I guess it is easier with a smooth cable between the needles, but I do not have a smooth circular. So I gave that up. I considered switching to doing one sock at a time on two circulars, but then I figured I just could insert one of those (short) circulars on each sock and thus knit two socks at one time on three circular needles. Hence the spaghetti on the picture. I know what I am doing, though.


Hat: handspun (not by me) found in a thrift shop, handdyed with food colouring, Elizabeth Zimmerman Knitting Almanac: Ganome hat. needle 5.5.
Socks: Overdyed inherited sock yarn, overall anatomy of sock: Yarnissimas Firestarter, twisted stitch pattern by me, inspired by Bäuerliches Stricken, needles: 2,5

Firestarter progress

We've had a lousy summer, but this year, the fall is magnificent. Colours like those behind the sock everywhere, sun on it all. I gasp now and then.

As you can see the firestarter is already close to finish. In one week.