The New Normal

Life becomes busy. It happens slowly. Dishes stack up. The vacuuming has not been done in a week or more. Then a day passes when there has been no time to sit down and knit. Then suddenly one is told to stay home. One catches up on all the delinquent cleaning. One looks at the knitting sitting in piles in every room. It was time to take control of the WIPs. I made a list of all the WIPs, Walking through rooms, looking through baskets, into re-useable canvas shopping bags, even a plastic storage bin. I found 19 WIPs in various stages. Even I was a bit surprised.

before the ends were woven in

Yes, I will start projects and then lay it aside to knit something that catches my eye. Look at the Toph hat I have been wearing all winter. I knit that hat in a few evenings. Then I remembered the Orfeo Hat. That hat was going to be my winter hat. (see post from November 1, 2019). The Orfeo Hat was easily found, nicely gathered in a lovely zippered project bag and the bag was sitting on top of the color chart, all nicely labeled on a magnetic pattern holder.  And that was the problem, the color chart. I love knitting corrugated rib. It is fun and easy to knit. But you can only do so much corrugated ribbing. The color pattern began and my interest dropped in direct proportion. The project bag with the Orfeo Hat was neatly placed on a shelf and I knit Toph with gusto. Toph is also color knitting but it is a totally different type of color knitting.

Toph, designed by Woolly Wormhead is knit flat in segments and is all about short rows. I love short rows. I like short rows so much that I teach classes about knitting with short rows. Short rows are fun and fascinating and Toph fit into my idea of fun knitting. The fact that it also used two colors did not even faze me. I used Bohemian Gothic in Jekyll and Dorian. Technically, the pattern calls for DK wool but my gauge using the worsted weight Bohemian Gothic was not that wide from the required gauge. I adapted by knitting the smaller size. I also adjusted the fit by knitting one less wedge then called for in the pattern. This is my favorite hat ever. It is warm and stylish and I wear it everywhere.

progress on April 10

Ah, the Orfeo Hat? In this time of “safer at home”, I have made an effort. I am becoming more adept at color knitting. I am discovering the fun of seeing the pattern gradually appear. While I am progressing, let’s be honest, I won’t be wearing this hat until next winter.

Snow on Halloween!

The Orfeo Hat, beginning stage, before winter arrives.

There was snow on Halloween in Wisconsin. That blew me away. OK, so maybe I am in denial about being on the cusp of winter. I am still in autumn. Halloween is supposed to be crisp cold air and crisp, crackling leaves under foot. Halloween is not supposed to be four inches of wet snow. I had to shovel a path for the perspective trick or treaters. My jack o’ lanterns were not scarily lurking in the grass. The jack o’ lanterns were plopped in the snow. I had to brush snow off the jack o’ lanterns, scoop the snow away from the eye sockets and toothy grins. The only advantage was one did not have to worry about the candles being too hot and burning the pumpkin, pumpkin isolated in snow. Like I said, snow on Halloween was just too much for me.

I have been knitting myself a new hat for winter. And of course, winter cannot arrive before the hat is finished. The hat is way cool, a color work design that begins with corrugated ribbing and flows into curls and twists. The Orfeo Hat is the perfect design (link to pattern) for Bohemia Sport, which cries out to be used in color work. There are 24 colors of Bohemia Sport, do not let the pattern decide your color choices. Be bold. I chose Arsenic for the background and Tiffin for the fancy work. It is bold. However, I only have the ribbing and nine rows complete. So clearly the snow on Halloween is an aberration. It will take me at least two weeks to finish this hat.

Winter cannot arrive until the hat is finished.