Fiery
So my sneezing *is* allergies (to what remains a mystery as of now). I hereby solemnly acknowledge my comeuppance and promise never to snigger at any of my friends who sniffle their way through spring every year. Them allergies have felled me and I admit defeat. I have spent the last month in a kind of fog, trying to type and read in between sneezes, “non-drowsy” (yeah right) meds and neti-pot experiments, my brain absolutely finding it very hard to focus.
But look! Such gorgeous, warm and fiery colour. The mercury dipped quite dramatically yesterday into the low 30s, and I brought out this lovely crimson-gold scarf a friend of mine gave me at her wedding last year. My Zauberball hat, finished last night, was a perfect match for it:
I just made up the pattern as I went along, which meant that I frogged it several times, and I could have knit four hats in the time it took me to crank this one out. I started from the brim up with size 3 needles at first, but that was so loose it would have allowed the wind to whoosh right through the fabric to my ears. Then I had the bright idea of starting from the crown out, mainly because I didn’t have a smaller 16 inch circular needle in size 2 or 1. So I started with a circular cast on by looking at this video and this one.
They not only make it easier to do this fiddly technique without flinging the needles at the wall (I did that when starting my circular shawl years ago with metal DPNS, I was clearly insane), but they also have unusual sound effects. A cat miaows in one, and a cock crows rather insistently in the other. The key to an easy circular cast on is I-cord on the first couple of rows, and it settles down into a snug, smooth centre.
Anyway, so I first cast on 16 stitches and soon realised that it was going to result in a gigantic hat, no matter how interesting the shapes in process. So I frogged back, and cast on 10 stitches, each inaugurating a kali, or section. Increased 1 stitch per section every other row, till I had a total of 180 stitches. Then I knit straight for about 2.5 inches, and then 25 rows of 2×2 ribbing.
Project specs:
Yarn: 1/2 a skein of Zauberball sock yarn
Needles: Size 1 bamboo DPNs
Gauge: 9 spi
Dimensions: about 7.5 inches tall
I think it’s a bit small, actually – fits more like a snug skull cap than a comfortable hat, and after wearing it a couple days I might frog back the ribbing and extend the stockinette section an inch or so. What I can’t decide is whether I should go right back to the increases and actually make the circumference itself a bit larger, then reduce for the ribbing.
I cannot get over the glorious red-orange-gold shades in this colourway! I feel like I’m holding a continuous, exploding sunset in my hands as I knit with it. I want to buy more skeins of it and replace my blue Endpaper mitts (seen in the pic above) with similar Zauberball mitts. And some socks; I totally fell in love with these. Maybe a small triangular scarf too? Am going back home shortly for the winter break (yes, this nightmare of a semester is finally nearing an end!!), and maybe I’ll stop by the LYS to stock up on some fiery yarn.
