Sep 8th, 2007
Goldilocks and the three hats
Once upon a time, there was a knitter named Goldilocks (who really had brown hair, but hey, who says fairy tales have to make any sense?). She went to Vermont and while she was there purchased lots of handspun super-bulky yarn, some one hundred percent merino, and some mostly merino with a bit of tencel included.
One day, she decided to knit a hat. She carefully wound the blue yarn in a ball, cast on 36 stitches, and started to knit it, with size 13 needles, in garter stitch. She opted to make a brimless hat, and when she neared the top she sighed, “Alas! Surely I am screwed because I lack double-pointed needles in this size.” Luckily, her good friend Pat heard her call for help (kind of hard not to, when she’s sitting right there at the same table in the coffee shop) and taught her how to use two circular needles to finish the hat. The finished hat was too big for the knitter but fit her husband (who likes blue and doesn’t like brimmed hats) just right.
Two days later, armed with this new technique, she set out to make another hat. Using size 13 needles once again, she cast on 32 stitches with purple yarn. After a while, she switched to magenta yarn, then back to purple. The finished hat was too small for the knitter but fit her daughter (who is mad for purple and doesn’t care about brims one way or another) just right.
The next day the knitter sat down with red yarn and size 13 needles and cast on 36 stitches for another hat. After knitting the fold-up brim she switched to a multicolored yarn with predominantly red tones and never looked back. And the finished hat fit her just right!
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Let me just say that when you’re jonesing for project-completion satisfaction, few things can take the place of knitting hats with big yarn on big needles. Each of these took less than two hours to complete. It doesn’t hurt, either, than the yarn was a real pleasure to work with.
So now Sylvia, Jan, and I all have hats that sort-of match each other but are unique. Sylvia loves hers but gets annoyed when Jan or I try ours on. “Those are for winter!” she scolds. While waiting for winter to get here, she’s using the hats as hiding places for her Schleich toy animals. Go figure.
4 Responses to “Goldilocks and the three hats”
Too funny Goldilocks!
NICE! Alas, my needles are sitting by the wayside as I somehow developed an allergic reaction to my current WIP! No joke: I got real blistery and peely and itchy and pretty darn uncomfortable–exactly where the yarn came across my fingers! So I stopped and have been healing (slowly), but it’s pretty depressing. Possible culprits: yarn brand (though I’ve used the same before), this particular (dye) lot, or (scarier!) wool altogether; but it could be anything, really. When I get better I will try with cotton or another type/brand/weight of wool; wishmeluck! P.S. I’m crazy sensitive to more and more things each day, it seems, but have you by chance ever heard of such a reaction?
Blisters? No kidding, JD? Wow, that is some reaction. I sure hope it’s simply a question of strange dyes and not a new allergy to wool in all its forms! I’ve heard of multiple chemical sensitivity, which can start to affect someone at any age, but I think that’s usually associated with chemicals like cleaners, perfumes, etc., not yarn fiber.
I love those hats! And the color combinations are just magnificent together. Are you going to send that pic to Joanne?