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

Weekend in Sweden

Sweden, Öckerö, a small island at the coast of Göteborg.
A weekend spend with a bit of very interesting work, but otherwise just relaxing with very good friends and fantastic weather.


Some people asked me what I did with the yarn. Basically I followed Knittys directions for dying wool with Kool-Aid in the microwave. Only I didn't use Kool Aid, but Dr. Oetkers food colouring. I guess, basically, that the dye in the food colouring is the same as in Kool Aid, the difference is: no taste (not necessary) and no acid (necessary). To make up for that last ingredient I added citric acid (in Denmark, you buy this at the supermarket - it's used for making home-made lemonade and other such things). About two teaspoons per bottle of food colouring - I have no idea whether it is the right amount. Actually I was a bit worried, because a lot of colour came out of the wool after I did the procedure. But enough to make a very deep rich colour was left, so I am happy.