knitwear isn't perdu just because it's not brand-new - i don't suppose i knit just to record it here and then throw it on the heap. i like to take a look at things a little further down the road in their lives! and here we see a very handsome man wearing a handknit sweater and a handknit hat. what is he looking for on the river? eventually, we saw it all. then i was in a david hasselhoff video!
progress on the ZLOTT! hat has been somewhat slowed, for the nonce.
i'm moving quickly on the zlott! hat (at least on swatching it - this isn't the real hat itself) - for now. i accomplished the shading while sitting at rosie's yarn cellar this morning, and was even able to ask some strangers if they "saw" the zlott!... they did, and we think this is working, and is about the right size. (there's about six and a half inches of zlott! here, and i'll be making one edit, in removing one green stitch and making it orange, where the z and l meet.)
the hat will be knit "side-to-side" rather than from the bottom to the top, so the shaping will be done at the start of knit rows and ends of purl rows, to decrease for the top. this is because i charted the zlott! sideways - it gave me a better way to work with the angles, gave me more stitches per letter to work with, and therefore more definition, and it means that the fabric will pull the design together more than apart, when the hat is worn.
so what's next? for me, nothing, until my friend deems this adequate, and then gives me the measurement of the circumference of his big stupid head, and then also the measurement from the top of one ear (or wherever he wants the hat to sit at its lowest point), up OVER the TOP of his head, and around to the same spot on the corresponding side. (as in, the way the headband of deely-bobbers would go over the head.) (john, please go get someone reliable to help you with this. maybe trish.) (or, go to rosie's yarn cellar and get somebody there to do it.)
this is such a joyless task. the recipient's gratitude will be short lived if detectable at all, and he will soon resume his campaign of untrammeled malevolence upon me. but i'm still going to win - if i get a picture of him wearing this hat. he's made a long, slow, painful life of it so far, letting me win, and i don't see the tables being turned any time soon.
i've talked before about the onomatopoeia of batman and how attractive i found it. i mentioned this to a friend who thought he might wear a hat with a zlott! on it, but wanted it in the coloring of the biff!!!
it's important to note here that i'd do this for just about anybody, and love of this particular friend should be in no way equated with this effort, nor does it really enter into it, or exist. frankly, he and i know enough about each other that if we had any sense or shame we'd not speak anymore at all and just try to get on with new, less embarassing, revisionist versions of our lives.
from june 1992: (click to enlarge and view the true measure of abuse)
he hit me with so many pies that day. so many heavy, hurtful pies.
in removing the zlott! from its habitat, i lost the shading, and had to reapply it by hand, albeit in a primative fashion. the shading is still too subtle to work directly into the chart, but will be accomplished later, hopefully, with overstitching. not sure what anybody's monitor shows, but the manos del uruguay is a good color match for the biff!!!!
the chart is pretty close, and swatching it once or twice should clarify things, then i'll try the overstitching for the shading. it's going to be just a simple watchcap, but chances are there's no room for a turned-up brim, so instead i'm going to make a huge floppy leghorn-brim, because everyone knows that's lovely.
ben has always been my "person of interest", and with this hat, i guarantee that the rest of america will see him as one, too! i can hear the security cameras swivelling towards him now...
he really needed a summer hat. the bucket hat of a few years back looks like a rag -- we use it to cover up the display on the clock radio in our bedroom. that's its whole function now; i won't even let him put it on his head. i liked the pattern, but we chose the wrong yarn, i think, and it was just not suited to ben's rather tough wear-and-tear.
the winter toque has held up beautifully though, and just suits him so well, this was the obvious answer. the lighter yarn is euroflax linen, the black, a cotton/silk/ramie blend. it definitely feels light, should wash well, and won't get too floppy - i knit it as a pretty tight fit.
here 'tis from the back. still damp, but he says he's hot, so he's wearing it happily while eating banana bread. i was so wifely today.
i got the idea for a big tall hat made with my handspun akuta's 'owl noodles' and the plan to make a hat more wearable than a very pretty one in my possession. the inspiring hat is one made by my friend betsy, and actually belongs to my sister, but is for some reason in my house. it's a lovely hat, but nobody ever wears it. except my father, when he's pretending to be sun ra. the betsy hat is lovely, but it has never been comfortable to wear, nor does it provide much protection from the elements.
i thought, a big, wedding cake-height hat made of handspun -- and augmented with a rhinestone brooch or some such -- would be more suitable for me, and would actually get put on when i left the house.
here's what i came up with. the "brooch" on the hat now is in fact an earring with no match -- the shape of both the hat and the ornament evoke something rather military for me (whose military, i do not know.)
of course in the long run we realize this hat and betsy's hat have almost nothing in common other than being light-colored, brimless hats, but we don't go through life trying to recreate point A.
you may be noticing the "wall of tarot" behind me there. that's in the den. it's one uncut deck in two sheets. tarot makes great wall art.
here's a funky in-the-mirror shot.
it's a nest! it's a cake! it's military! fashion buzzwords for february 2005.
a quick preview of a larger project that you'll see in the fall.
it would be great if i could get around my head and show you each of the charms on each leaf, but i can't right now.
okay, into the drawer it goes, away from prying eyes. whew, it's heavy to wear.
more anon.
you may remember the baby bleu cheese hat, for which i spun the yarn, knitted, dyed with indigo from my garden, and felted. here it is, at long last, on a human baby named taariq.
smashing!
here's my dad in his new hat. he picked out the yarn and approved the pattern. (this is a pattern purchased from the girl from auntie. she lured me in with her freebies, and this one, i bought!) i like the "longshoreman"-style fit.
i haven't knitted anything with a cable in so long. doing so made me realize, i could use a little more of a challenge in my knitting. it's an issue of: Making The Thing I Want (which for me will often be a very plain thing) vs. Making Something Challenging and Engaging (that i will probably need to give away.)
well, anyway. this looks pretty great, i think.
according to ben, his mother and sister were not sure, upon receiving their hanukkah gifts, whether they had been given hats or bowls. those were bowls. this is a hat. it's exactly the same thing, knitted exactly the same way, but it's on me.
how can you tell the difference? take one of these, and put it on your head. if you find that you're wearing a hat -- you are. if you find that you are walking around with a bowl on your head... take it off.
this is in manos del uruguay, in black, and what i believe is called "flame". also pictured, my well-worn noro "iro" moebius, which doesn't even have a post on this blog, because it is so completely incorporated into my being.
there are those of you reading who know me well enough to know that bleu cheese is a very, very important part of my life.
i can't remember exactly when i said to myself "i wish to knit a baby hat that looks like a small, artisinal bleu cheese," but i definitely said it.
in this case, not only did i knit it -- i spun it, i felted it, and i dyed it with indigo from my own indigo plants using a semi-shibori technique. (do you hear the implied "beat that!" in that statement of fact?)
i thought i might have to wait awhile for a progressive enough set of parents to come along to put this hat on their baby boy (i wanted it to be a boy's hat). i didn't have to wait long at all. this is going to kori and herry's new baby, who last i heard wasn't named yet. i am hoping they will like it. i know i'd love to see the baby in it. i do realize that my current model -- now nicknamed "murder baby" -- is a little on the stephen king side. anyhoo, i think i'm finished with my baby hat knitting spurt.
alex is a very tall, blonde, reubenesque artists' model who also works in the office where i work. it's a pretty big office, and sometimes if you mention alex and just say "alex", people aren't sure who you mean -- until you say "big". then they know.
she just had a baby named mya grace, and i wanted to make a hat appropriate to what i knew about alex. since the last time i saw her she was morbidly pregnant and wearing a purple shag sweater, i decided to use some of my "secret stash" handspun -- and a "button pie" button that i had been saving for something good.
i haven't seen alex or the baby yet, so the hat is being modeled by a doll i have had for many years -- known affectionately as "that doll" or "oh my god that thing scared the crap out of me" by people who are just running into her -- having made the wrong turn looking for the bathroom, perhaps. okay, she's kinda spooky, but she doesn't eat much. and if a hat fits her, then it's a baby-sized hat: i don't get more specific than that.
yeah, and i see, my doll's arm is coming off.
here is most of the white jacob wool that i had been spinning -- turned into a little white hat. i felted it some as well. am i finished yet? no -- the coupe de grace has yet to be revealed. watch this space!!!
this hat has always made me feel, alternately, like audrey hepburn or arlo guthrie. and it isn't the hat's looks themselves that cut that wide a swath. suffice it to say i had an arlo day today. here's the hat.
and here's the bindoff. i thought a kitchner stitch or graft would be unseemly -- and likely not to be as invisible as it "ought". rather than find out the hard way, i went with the three-needle bindoff and am satisfied with it.
see where i'm going with this?
haaaaaaaat... baaaaaaaaaaaand!
...for my summer straw hat. not too far along right now. i cringe to tell where this yarn came from... it is from habu, and it is some of what did not get chosen by
ben
for his paris sweater -- the tsumugi silk. but, one may remember, everything i bought from habu was plied. i spent most of last week's on-my-ass time not knitting, but unplying, because i thought i would get more use out of at least some of it that way.
this is the first thing i've knitted on size 0 needles.
to ben's ramie/silk bucket hat, i added a cotton sweatband along the inside. it helps hold the hat on his head a little better, particularly in wind, and it has its practical applications in that it soaks up sweat.
here he is. it took less than 36 hours to knit this hat -- hats, for me, are always a breakneck project. i like to do them fast.
the color on the photo of ben here is a little off -- the yarn is berroco's denim silk and it is, like so many yarns ben picks, a bluey-grey.
only bad thing about making this -- the weird fish emulsion smell of the silk yarn!
not only did i refer to this in the post about my sister's scarf yesterday, but i spoke to ray yesterday, who remarked that while she loved it, the weight of the scarf tended to pull the hat right off her head. not the perfect balance between concept and function. i frequently find myself making such choices (and seem often to side with "concept". maybe i should try going the other way more often.) this photo was taken in manhattan in june of 2001, at the council of literary magazines and presses literary magazine fair, where i had to speak on a panel sharing a mike with george plimpton, who had a neat wristwatch. ray came all the way out from brooklyn, on rollerblades, to support me! that's why i make her impractical knitware.
after the holidays, sean and luta came by, wearing the devil hats i had whipped out in october. it's only a week into this "year of selfish knitting", and i already miss making stuff for other people! i think that's my favorite thing to do.
a true triumph.
ben
will now wear a hat. this lovely hat for which he helped choose the pattern and yarn. (it's an anna zilboorg toque in rowan kid classic, and noro kureyon, but i know not many actual knitters read this page, so who would care?) the important thing is, it's lovely, it's warm, and he loves it.
this hat, by the way, kicks off The Year Of Selfish Knitting. we decided that, in 2003, everything i knit would be for the two of us or the house. we just got a new couch that needs pillows and afghans, and we are going to paris in the fall and need to be, if not drop dead fashionable, at least comfortable and serviceable. i love to knit gifts, but i never know when to stop -- and for all i know, everyone's SICK of my knitted gifts! so this year is for us, and this hat starts it all off.
that title says it all: i read that warren was terminally ill, knitted up a devil hat for him right quick, and
ben
was a big help in figuring out where the horns went. this devil hat is a joy; red heart yarn was the right tool for the job, cheap and strong, the cockroach of yarns. (i'd love to see it in handspun, this hat, and i'd love to see it sequined.) in fact, three hats came from this endeavor; i kept the slightly loose-fitting prototype for myself, this one went in the mail to warren's record company, and i made a little one for luta.