In order to face the week, I needed blackberry pancakes. (Mondays can be tough!) I ate them for breakfast and lunch, and they helped, like they always do. Moving on…
I knit this over the weekend for my friend H. (of wedding shawl fame) because tomorrow is her birthday! I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I gifted this yesterday, which means there is absolutely no danger of spoiling the surprise. I used more of my Hello Yarn Five Plum Pie handspun, and I still have about ten yards leftover — truly, a never-ending skein.
Calorimetry was one of the first patterns I attempted to knit — and while I finished it rather quickly, my skein of filatura di crosa 127 print (or whatever the pattern calls for, because I had not yet learned to substitute) won the day, and I finally understood why gauge matters. My first calorimetry was enormous! This time around, I read up on the pattern and followed some common modifications:
I cast on 88 stitches using size 6 needles, and worked only as many (decreasing stitch count) short rows as seemed like half of the width I was hoping for, and then completed the same number of (increasing stitch count) short rows to get to the other side, being careful not to run out of yarn.
Yay! I tried this on to take some pictures, and now that my hair is longer, I really like this. I may need to make one for myself.
I did manage to ply the polwarth. Here’s what it looks like before washing/thwacking:
This may be the softest, squishiest yarn I have ever spun. It is hanging to dry in the kitchen, and I can’t help but pet it each time I walk by.
In keeping with “hat-tober,” I cast on for yet another handspun hat — Cosy’s Super Hero Helmet Hat. I won the pattern on her blog a few weeks ago, and I am knitting it out of some of my earlier wheelspun: AVFKW Woolly Wonders corriedale in The Candle’s Nimble Flame. I’m using size 10.5 needles, and I love the squoosh of the garter stitch.
Apparently Boh also had a very busy day. (While I read, wrote, cleaned, knit, plied, grocery-shopped, cooked, etc., Boh moved bones back and forth from his box, growled at the electrician through the window, took notes on squirrel movement, and perhaps dreamed of rabbits, chipmunks, and deer.)
barefoot rooster 
Hey, all that strategizing on bone placement can take a lot out of you!! And he protected you from someone who dared invade his territory…. And dreamed of all the meals he could provide for you, his beloved human!! That is a long doggie day. :-)
Pancakes! They do make everything better. I just wish I had thought of that. I love all of the stuff you’re getting out of your never-ending skein! Alice had a tough day, too: window monitoring and snoozing is serious kitty business. The new hat looks super soft …
I am becoming convinced God told the dogs and cats a secret he forgot to tell us!
Mmm, love pancakes.
Hats are one of my favourite things to knit. I’m planning on casting on for another tonight after work too. :)
Oh Boh, it’s a dog’s life. You’ve got it made.
I love it! I saw this at H’s house and recognized your handiwork immediately. I love the way your handspun made the headband divide into a front half green and back half purple right along the turning rows; I made calorimetry in Print for my sister, but like how yours came out even more.