Disappointment and Dinner Plates

I am a slave to academics. I truly am. I spend all my time either at school or doing school work. When you just look at the class hours, it doesn't seem like that much. But when a professor looks at you and says "wow. you're doing a lot" you realize that you're not just lazy, it really is a lot of work. And when you spend all of your time doing this it's really nice to just take some time to relax and calm your mind. So when you do take this time to knit some calm and 2.5 hours later discover that the amazing hat you were making was way too small for any adult human being and have to rip all of it out, it's really sad.

Over the weekend I cast on Urchin, which I'm really excited about making for myself. I had finished a few things for friends and wanted to do something fun. I followed the pattern, thought I had gauge, and started making the smallest size. After a while I realized that was going to be too small, so I decided to make a larger size. Then on Wednesday I was watching Selena Gomez's Facebook live chat only to discover after I finished and grafted (which involves cutting the yarn) that it was insanely too small. You know those caps that Jewish men wear? Yeah, it was like a tall version of that. So sad. So now I'm remaking it, again, on much larger needles. It's looking better and I'm hoping this time will work out much better.

I did learn two techniques for this hat. One is the w+t, or the wrap and turn, which is explained on the Knitty abbreviations page. There are no pictures, but when I went hunting I discovered it to have been the most clear explanation out there. W+T is my new favorite stitch, especially in this hat, because it makes the knitting go bye so fast and is very gratifying to look at (oh no, the writing teacher just ended a sentance in a preposition).

Even more important than the W+T is the other thing I had to learn to do for this hat-- hand winding. As you know, I bought some gorgeous yarn via Ravelry, which came in hanks. These are great because it's theoretically more yarn and it's just plain pretty looking. However, you can't knit anything in a hank, it has to be wound into a ball. So that's what I did (after losing circulation in my fingers the first time around)!



I do have some FOs (finished objects. I do knit-speak!) to show for the past month. In the finished pile are Miracle Laurie's scarf (pics to come when Frank gets it to her) and yet another pair of Bella mittens which are sitting waiting for the baby gift and beanie to be sent out with it. I also made another beret for my friend Stephanie over at La Femme Chic. I love the hat, but I must say that she totally rocks the look (and you can't even tell I blocked it on a dinner plate).