Hat in the Making

A while back, I took this photo of the frost on my car window, inspiring a colorway.

Here it is in batt form. Llama with small amounts of kid mohair and glitz. This will be up for sale, but the true color was hard to photograph in batt form. So I stole a little, and spun up a mini skein. Here it is as a singles on my ball winder. This llama(Ollie) has a natural sheen to his fiber, and there is a bit of glitz for an extra sparkle here and there.

The color above is pretty true.

I couldn't stop there, though. I also did a slightly bluer, lighter version. The batts will be up for sale too, but again I stole a little and made up a mini skein.

The skein on the left is the lighter version, the one on the right the first version. The white skein at the bottom is the natural color. They are resting on a batt of the lighter version. I think the batts, spun finely, would make a beautiful Ice Queen.

I am picturing a hat, with the bulk of it knit out of the gray, but with a band of colorwork using the natural and the two mini-skeins. I've never done Fair Isle knitting, and I'm not about to start quite yet. I want to use the Garter Slip Stitch III pattern from Volume One of the Harmony Knitting Guides. I would show you, but I might have the copyright police on me, since it would show the instructions. It has a lot of speckles and interesting color changes, without having to knit stranded. It is a 4 row repeat, changing colors every two rows. It is written for knitting flat, so I will have to convert it to knitting in the round. I'm not exactly positive how to do that, so experimentation will be in order. It calls for a multiple of two, plus 1. I'm thinking I just drop the plus 1, and on the even rows, purl the knit stitches. Any more experienced knitters want to confirm this, or point and laugh at me for thinking it might be that easy?

This is a all in preparation (practice?) for a bigger project. I want to attempt knitting a yoke sweater, like a Bohus, but not. Like the Cobblestone, but not. I want to knit it in the round, stockinette for the body and sleeves, but the yoke in the Garter Slip Stitch III pattern with 3 colors, and steek (for the non-knitters, you cut the knitting up the middle)it to make a cardigan, with a zipper. With all the learning going on, I think it will take me all of 2009 to do. I think this is as close to a New Year's resolution as I'll get.

Speaking of Bohus, the American Swedish Institute is having a Bohus Exhibit, complete with talks and knitting workshops the opening weekend in January. I would love to attend the workshops etc, but I'm sure that won't happen. I'd even be happy to get to see the Exhibit sometime before it leaves in March.

I went to bed with tickle in the back of my throat, and a sense of dread. I woke up with a slight tightness in my chest. I looked up whooping cough online, and put a call in to the doctor. As a preventative, Mom and I will start antibiotics as soon as I can get to the pharmacy today. With whooping cough, antibiotics are only helpful in the very first stages, usually before the cough even starts. I really need to prevent that cough, for both our sakes.