Sunday, June 24, 2007

Moving On

Well, now I feel a bit silly. I'm glad that's over with. Onward to the knitting!

I guess the hat frustrated me pretty good because I just had to fix the situation. It was nothing that a trip to my LYS couldn't cure.

Pattern: Triple Patterned Watch Cap, from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch, size medium
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool
Needles: 4.5mm

I took Jim to London Yarns and Machines, walked him over the Mission Falls wall o' yarn, and told him he could pick any thing he wanted for his hat. He chose these colors and even specified which was to be the main color and which was to be the contrasting color. I don't think I would have come up with this combo, but he really likes it. It does remind me of green and blue plaid, and of the green trees and blue skies that I sat under as I knit it. I hope the warmth of these June days will warm his ears during February's frost.

This was my first time using Mission Falls and I have mixed feelings about it. I like that it is four-ply, superwash, and reasonably soft, but one of the green balls had a half dozen knots in it. That is really unacceptable, except I was driven and so I accepted it. I'd like to see how it wears and I'd also like to see it knit into cables. I'm thinking that because it's four-ply, cables would really pop. The hat took almost all of the two balls of green and just a little bit more than one ball of the blue. I also bought some for a hat for myself. If there are leftovers from my hat as well, I might put them all together for a third hat. I think it's wise to be thrifty about it since it cost me $55 for 8 skeins of yarn.

Also this weekend, I shrank Jim's sweater. He was pretty philosophical about it. He figures I owed him one because he shrank my sweater. But he did say he was disappointed because he really likes his Spiral Yoke sweater. Fortunately we had someone else it could fit.

Luke loved the cuddliness of this sweater. It's only slightly fulled, but it's really soft. There are great bison-sized pills on the hem. I don't think I'd make another sweater from this yarn, I don't care how much Jim likes it.

One last picture to share. This one warms the cockles of me heart.


The boy is catching up to his Dad fast. We're going to hug him and bug him while we can.

13 comments:

  1. Hi there. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm looking forward to starting the 'dish rag tag'. Great that there's a Canadian team.

    The hat looks lovely and should be well appreciated when the cold weather returns. Although, here on the west coast the summer hasn't really made much of an appearance yet. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that hat so much! I'm going to go buy the book. But I'm really sorry about his sweater. You worked so hard on it! =/ Looks good on your son, though. Thank you for your help with the HTML button for the dishrag tag. Code is completely beyond me - no training at all. I appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a groovy hat! I love the "arrows" braiding on it, too (I'm trying to teach myself how to do it from the Estonian mitten book).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi! Despite the knots, the hat turned out fabulous! BTW, a piece of trivia you might find interesting. Legally, there can be 8 knots per 1 pound of yarn. Usually there isn't that many, but if there are, well, it's legal. I think you got the ball that made up for the previous 6 pouunds of yarn that didn't have a knot. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love that hat! You did an awesome job on it! Too bad you shrank the sweater, but luckily you had someone else in the family who could wear it :o)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, I love the hat. The colors are great too. Sometimes even men have a sense of color. I like how the decreases work together with the pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:33 pm

    Fabulous hat! Kudos to Jim for picking great colors.

    That is the best shrunk sweater story I've heard. Hopefully it won't pill as much now that it is fulled.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:36 pm

    Forgot to say that I love the pic of your guys. What a sweet picture.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great hat! That sucks about all the knots. :( You should mention it to them, and perhaps they'll give you a new ball. (Not that it will help now...)

    ReplyDelete
  10. that hat is gorgeous. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous12:51 am

    I used the Soy Wool Stripes for a felted bag and could not believe how fast and how small it felted! So I understand how crazy careful you would have to be with a sweater you didn't want to shrink. But it must be very cozy now, lucky for your son!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your knitting is superb! I am so glad I found your blog! You have lots of eye candy on it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The sweater looked good on your husband but it looks great on Luke, who knows what was meant to be! I love the hat but you say green and I see blue. Light sky blue base color and dark blue 2ndary.

    ReplyDelete