Hats. Wowee.

I’ve been down with a case of the “not feeling so good”, so I’m blogging to you live from my couch, wrapped in my owl blankie, sipping mint tea with a candle burning in hopes of eradicating the “aroma” produced by Cheech and Chong next door (note: it’s not working) . I made a silent New Year’s goal to get back with the blogging on a more regular basis, since my little corner of the internet is so quiet I’m not even getting spam comments anymore, but this week has not been so very kind to me. Stomach revenge and a service light shining brightly on the Coche dashboard, not so much fun. Anyhoo. We all come for the finished objects, right?

The Cabled Beret has been finished since the Great Blizzard of Ought Eight, about a month ago. It kept my head warm during numerous mornings waiting at the bus stop while the snow was falling, and didn’t let my head get wet when the snow melted after I got on the bus. A fine hat, indeed.

I’ve been told not to apologize for my cooking, and sometimes I think that sentiment should extend to other aspects of my life, but not this photograph. I apologize profusely for the blurry, odd angled, emo-kid-with-a-web-cam-ness of this pic, but it was the only one I took that got the whole hat in the frame, so there you have it. I’m a horrible self portrait photographer. Alert the press. But allow me to point out the reasons I love this hat. My head is apparently huge (22 whopping inches in circumference), and I have a hard time finding a hat to encompass my ginormous bobble head, so I’m pleased that this hat covers my head and my ears. Nice. Also, I think the cables to be quite nifty. Even if C did say it gave me a mushroom head.

A better view of the hat? As you wish.

This hat was so well liked by a similarly large craniumed co-worker that she requested one of her own. Who am I to refuse hand knits to solve a problem, especially one I know so well?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture the color of this one, an aptly named “Italian Plum” colorway by Cascade, but trust me, it was so juicy and purple I wanted to take a bite. Are specs really necessary? Ok, fine.

Yarn: Cascade 220 in some green color and “Italian Plum” (yum!)

Needles: Crystal Palace Bamboo DPN’s US size 6 and 8

Pattern: Cabled Beret

Mods: none

Another Cabled Beret is in the works for another big headed co-worker (Sisterhood of the Buffalo Skulls, anyone?), and after that I think I’ll have to stop with the made to order knitting. It’s a bit draining when I can’t call my knitting time my own, and I think that’s a lot of the point with knitting for me. It’s time to call my own.

I have a few other projects in the works, but I do have a touch of the startitis right now, and keep thinking distracting thoughts of lace, while I already have the Lace Ribbon Scarf over 2/3 complete, and having daydreams of cables when I’m over half way done with the Druid Mittens (lazy lazy Raverly links, I know).

Bulletts: Tuesday edition

• The cold isn’t going away. I managed two days trudging over ice glazed sidewalks without, I repeat, without, falling on my ass. Beauty. My time is coming, I know.
• I have a wardrobe problem (insert tragic fashion sense joke here). I mostly wear skirts and dresses, and with 20 degree temperatures all week…umm, no. I only have two pairs of jeans, one “not great but okay” pair, and one ugly pair I only wear when desperate. I’m desperate. The okay ones have been worn and worn this week, and I can’t drive to Brother’s house this week (ice + inexperience = Stacey dead in a ditch) to do my laundry like I normally do. I had to wear the ugly jeans today, and it looks like I’ll have to again tomorrow. Should I risk frostbite and wear a dress for the sake of fashion? Or continue to wear the ugliest, most uncomfortable, ill fitting jeans known to mankind? They accentuate the belly, for the love! And give me bulgy hips. Take that into consideration before you tell me frostbite horror stories.
• I wore Le Slouch again today, all day. I want to get my new hat done tonight so I can get hat hair from a different accessory.
• When did I become so concerned with my appearance? This from the girl who wore blue and pink plaid old man golf pants  and a Dukes of Hazzard t-shirt in high school. (Loved that shirt and still have those pants.)
• I figured out how to use the ancient radiator. Turn the knob until heat comes out.
• Another after work outing, this time to Dublin Bay, with my lovely coworkers. I’ve designed mittens for a beloved coworker and needed to pick up the yarn before spring. I got some Dale Bably Ull, the same I used for the Squirrel and Oak mittens, for her mittens, and grabbed some Jamison Double Knitting for the Druid Mittens from this fall’s VK. Those ones are for me. I’m in danger of being mittened out, but I’m on the crest of the wave right now, and those things happen. And how lucky am I to work with people remotely interested in a yarn shopping excursion after work?
• I may have been born 30+ years late to be “true” Bob Dylan fan, but I woke up today with “Mr. Tambourine Man” in my head and listened to it innumerable times at work. (I can work with an earbud in one ear with no adverse side effects and the boss doesn’t care.) I’m a late to the party with love for this song, but that’s fine when each time I hear the line “but for the sky there are no fences facing” my heart feels a little lighter than it did the moment before. Also on the Bob-love rotation today, “The Girl from the North Country” off Nashville Skyline.  Bob, Johnny Cash and the song for which the phrase “heartbreakingly beautiful” was coined.
• Forgive my impertinence, but is it worse to be have no one interested in you (providing one wants someone to be interested) or to have only the socially inept and all around weird interested? I’m thinking the latter, but that’s just me. I don’t want just anyone checking me out, I want someone good. There’s your daily dose of honesty. (And yes, C, I am that disturbed by it.) And I worry over the implications. What does it say about me that I only attract weirdos?
• I have a wee amount of Christmas knitting to do and I’m stalling on it, just as I’m stalling on sewing up the last of my felt ornaments. Is anything else expected?