Half Pipe Hat FO

Half Pipe Hat
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Here is the Half Pipe Hat from Son of Stitch 'N Bitch, on the head of Beccano. It will show up better if you look at the picture link. On Flickr there is one of it on my head, which shows the hat better but it an ugly photo.

The hat is a bit small on Beccano, but as he points out, he has a very big head. I think it will be OK on Tuba Boy. It was a pain sewing in the brim (it is plastic needlepoint canvas), but it is an interesting looking hat once it's done. I only used a wee bit of the second skein of yarn, so I think I may try to make some wrist warmers or something out of the rest of it. Such nice yarn.

I admit I didn't graft the top like the instructions said, and instead used three-needle bind off. Really, I WAS going to graft, but I had left the book with the excellent grafting chart that even I, "Suna the Grafting Challenged," could understand at home. And by the way, the illustration that finally clicked to me where I was messing up with grafting is in the new Best of Interweave Knits book. That book is worth buying for the little Ann Budd tutorials in it. They are great ways to up your Mad Knitting Skillz, as the kids would say.

Next I am going to make the Lucha Libre balaclava out of the same Stitch 'n Bitch book, for Beccano, who really likes to wear masks and odd headgear. It will be black with lime green trip. How special. We'll see if I am as skillful with intarsia techniques as I used to be, though really there isn't too much in this. Of course, intarasia in the round can be a pain, but, I am a good weaver-in of yarn ends! I have my trusty tools, so I can do it!

I am glad I got that Stitch 'n Bitch book. For some reason, the original one didn't do much for me. I really didn't like any of the patterns (I know, this will shock and upset many of you) and didn't find the instructions that helpful, either. I realize I am not that book's target audience (too skilled and too old--I just don't wear Junior fashions and haven't since the early 80s). However, many excellent newer knitters I know learned from Stitch 'n Bitch, and I know it had a lot to do with the recent upsurge in knitters and knitting, so I think it is a fine and dandy book, even if it isn't appealing to me, personally.

Reflecting a bit, I think part of it is my issue with wearing the same pattern everyone else on earth is wearing--I saw SO many of the same things on people when that book first came out! I guess I want to be the only one wearing my thing in any crowd (still, I did make those Monkey Socks, didn't I? But no clapotis, no way and never a My So Called Scarf or whatever that other new sensation is).

Hey, really, though. As long as your knitting away and enjoying yourself, who am I to say what to knit? And some people like to be one of the "in" crowd, which is why so many join KALs even when they don't really need help with a project. Oops, I did two KALs recently, but smaller ones. I really, really am glad so many people have started knitting and crocheting, and hope to see many of them continue throughout their whole lives. I'm certainly not going to stop. I kept going through the acrylic years, didn't I?