FO- Republic Hat

My A-Z stashdown continues! Now with even more Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky!

Anyway.

I had what I thought was a full skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky in a pretty light gray. This yarn was re-claimed from my most fantastically ugly fair isle skirt:



Then I skeined up the yarn and gave most of it away. Half of it was Renyold's Lopi Icelandic yarn, which matches the brown sheep perfectly when it comes to gauge.

I cast on for the Republic hat. Just as I was decreasing for crown, my yarn ran out.



I had to make some emergency calls, but a friend who I gave some of the skirt scraps to still had some on hand. I finished the hat in Lopi, which matched color-wise perfectly. The only thing is that the lopi has a lot of dark black wiry guard hairs that bloomed up, while the Lamb's Pride has more of a silver mohair halo. I trimmed up the guard hairs with a pair of sharp scissors and I can't even tell where one begins and the other ends.



I got the giant button at M&J trimming.





This got wrapped up and shipped up to Northern Maine for my Grandma's birthday. She's a pretty classy lady, and her mother used to own a hat store in Rochester, NY. She still loves hats.

The Specs:
The Republic Hat, which is a knock-off of a Banana Republic design. It's also a free pattern on this blog. I used about 100 yards of bulky weight yarn on a size 10.5 needles.

FO- A Failure that I Don't Want To Show You

Gah.



The yarn- Elsebeth Lavold silky cashmere- was way too drapey for the pattern. This one is going into the frog pile, to be deconstructed and re-created as items that don't really need structure.

The yarn is cushy and smooshy and luxe though.

Frogged!

I went ahead and grudgingly frogged the Wilson hat:



It would be a lovely hat, really. Just not in a dark charcoal color. It makes the tiny cables too hard to see, and infuriatingly easy to lose your (my) place in the pattern. I tore it out and the yarn will be repurposed for something less cabley. I'm happy that I decided on this sooner rather than later...is this a sign of knitter maturity?

It seems like a side effect of making all these sweaters is that I'm going to end up with an extraordinary amount of single skeins and odd balls of yarn. I predict once I'm over the sweater making phase, I'll be making lots of hats and small lace projects to burn up all the odds and ends.

I have a few FOs sitting in a pile, waiting for the final touches of buttons and zippers. I haven't had the time to go to the local trimmings store yet, but I'm hoping to make a trip this weekend.

Also, I've started getting into wet-felting. Pictures and a blurb about that coming soon.

Ugly Knits. They Happen to the Best of Us.

A Biggy McLargeHuge snowstorm is being forecasted for the weekend. This can only mean one thing...it's time for me to sit inside by my faux fireplace and frog what might be the ugliest knit ever:



It's the Incredible Skirt by Wenlan, who, quite obviously is NOT a real knitter. Neither is the pattern editors apparently as it used up about twice as much yarn as the pattern called for, which is why my stripes are just about everywhere and the stripes did not transition with grace and dignity. The pattern was just all wrong.



I have a hard time walking around with my arms attached going the wrong way, which is why this skirt is much more Unflattering Earth Mother then Elegant Heroin Chic on me. Also, I weigh a bit over 83 pounds and my neck isn't freakishly giraffe-like.

Another issue is the bulky yarn. This will never flatter or hang right, but continue obeying gravity and end up pooling around my ankles like so many tears that I have cried in frustration over this. It's made of Lopi, which is a terribly scratchy yarn, but because I kept running out before the stranded transitions were through, I used some scraps and odd skeins of Brown Sheep as well. I knew as I was knitting along that this was a whole barrel full of wrong. I continued to knit feverishly, round and round and round until VOILA! An ill-fitting, nonsensically striped, scratchy long-ass skirt Incredibly materialized. I would have to wear jeans under this if I wanted to go the day without having a constant case of Itchybutt.



The fact that this has been done with for more than a year and the ends have still not been woven end is one clue that I would never ever wear this. I had great luck with the Hip in Hemp skirt, and I thought I could repeat my success in a very heavy bulky yarn.



Anyway. I have learned my lesson. Frogging this will be cathartic. I will enjoy every ripped stitch of it.