Monday, March 05, 2007

will the real Slouch please stand up...

...or flop down.



pattern: Lopi pattern book #24 (hodd)
yarn: Alafoss Lopi #9962 (ruby heather) & #9970 (raspberry heather)
needles: 12 mm (US #17) bamboo circulars

This is probably the fastest knit on record. I think it took me less than two hours. Not only is it knit on giant needles, but it's knit using two strands at once for half the hat, so it went up very fast. Provided no one has a problem with "itchy" wool I can see myself using this for a number of Xmas presents this year. A couple of things I would do though is probably shorten the number or ribbed and straight rows. It's VERY floppy. Far floppier than le slouch that I'd made earlier. maybe "floppy" is the wrong word, actually. BIG or chunky might be better.

I knit the entire thing on circulars which became incredibly challenging the last couple of rows. Do you think I could find a set of size 17 douple pointed needles anywhere in this town? nope. ebay? nope. yarnmarket.com? yes. They were 18$. Shipping was $20. No thanks. At one point I actually contemplated elastic-ing (not a word, surely?) two or three sets of smaller DPNs together to finish it off with, but then just thought better of it. So I went as far as I could on the circs and then just kinda winged it. Next time I should probably just grab a couple of branches off the tree out back and whittle my own.

ooo, arty:

(image deleted)

noo, lazy. How lazy? I really wanted to show the floppiness of this hat on me, but could not even drag myself away from the computer to take a proper photo. The computer wasn't. even. on. Also I'm home with a broken neck (well not really) today, and simply could not muster up the strength to put any make-up on for a photo. So, that's what you get. A photo that at first glance looks like a black screen. But that said, I'm way happier with how this hat looks on than any of the other hats I've knit recently, though it is very warm. If I ever wanted to climb Everest in style, this would be the hat.

5 comments:

Julia said...

I had the same DPN problem when i knit my big fat beret. I just kept shortening the cord on my interchangeable circs and then just fenangled things the best I could for the last couple of rows. Your hat looks great - aren't bulky knits awesome?

Sarah said...

I like the way you sort of appear out of the blackness of the photo at second glance.

The hat looks fab and am noting down how quick it went for when the Christmas gift panic strikes.

Reckless Glue said...

Julia --that's genius, tho for my interchangeable needles I didn't have any that big. ---but i did just snag some size 19's on ebay, I should probably get some 17's as well just to have them. I feel like I've spent a million dollars on needles this year! (and most of them were still hand me downs). Bring on the bulky knits!

Sarah..just let me know if you need a copy of that pattern for when the gift knitting frenzy begins --I'm your gal!

In other news today I tore out flair and have started all over. argh. I'm back to the same inch I had before :(

Sarah said...

Poor Flair, I'm sure you'll get there in the end though - think I might stick to Moonlight for the mo though - sounds more straightforward :)

Reckless Glue said...

well now that I've cast back on again it's coming to me. I'm just not used to knitting everything all at once, I think spatially I can't wrap my head around it!