Hoard or squander?

The children and I got back from Florida last night and I now have TWO DAYS to prepare for the Medieval Fair. Last year I had big plans but the remodel swallowed up so much time this spring that I have done almost nothing up until now.

The weather report promises low 60's & pleasant on Friday (day I can go by myself), mid sixties, breezy & rainy on Saturday (day I was planning on taking the kids), and 58 degrees with a north wind on Sunday (only day we can all go together). I am thinking that we need better cloaks:


Mine is a nice piece of handwoven fabric destined for chair cushions but doing just fine as a cloak. It needs hemming, though. George's is his favorite fleece "robe", carefully folded to hide the head-hole. He might want to wear that again because he loves it so, even though it's very inauthentic. I love the look of Dean & Charlotte in plaids but those are blankets! Dean's in particular is very heavy and far too short.

So I am thinking of running up some quick cloaks. Standard Viking cloaks were just plain rectangles of cloth, so it wouldn't take long, just a little hemming. I was ready to head off to the fabric store when I remembered a stash of wool fabric passed on to me by my mother 10 or 15 or maybe 20 years ago when she decided she wouldn't use it in Florida.

Oh, these are lovely fabrics! Wool flannels in various dark colors, a couple of tweeds, a lovely blue herringbone, and a pretty little pink plaid that Charlotte would love. Several have price tags showing that they cost $6 per yard; I can't quite imagine what they would cost now but I have a feeling it isn't anywhere close to that.

Part of me wants to save them -- I am finally sewing more, and wouldn't these make wonderful jumpers / vests / pants???? Part of me wants to use them --- they've been in this cedar chest for umpteen years, wouldn't it be better to be using them, even if they get dragged in the mud? And all of me needs to decide by tomorrow!!!!

While I'm thinking, I'm also planning on making undertunics for Dean and myself, and maybe a hood for Dean. Oh, and some more trim, and Charlotte needs a belt ......

Applied i-cord

Fooling around with methods of applying i-cord as edging for pi are squared shawl. Color sometimes contrasts but usually doesn't. Needs to stay stretchy for blocking. Want to have this ready to take on vacation with me, don't have much time to spend on it. Anyone have suggestions?

Am currently using three stitches: k2, slip one knitwise, pick up & knit one stitch, psso, pick up stitch for next row, slip to beginning, repeat forever.

Tried the version where you slip a stitch, then yarn over, then knit the body stitch & pass both slipped stitch & yo over knitted-up body stitch, but it is very difficult to do with lace weight yarn -- that yarn over won't get on the needle. I cannot fight my way through a million rows, I want to do this on vacation while chatting. Bad enough that I need to keep picking those stitches up.

Geek hat

I recently had the very enjoyable experience of knitting a hat on commission. A friend liked my robot hat and wanted a duplicate for her husband, until we started talking about other possibilities. This is the design we worked out, using Christine Dumoulin's lovely charts from her Binary scarf.

The hat is just a basic toque, with a turned up ribbing & eight decrease points forming a swirl.


You can see the round ends -- it also shows you where to start reading, if you can read bits. Probably I should have done the green lines jogless, but that's not a technique I've used much.

Here's the hat flat:


I would make a few changes if I were to do this again. I'd either eliminate the plain rounds between the ribbing & the green line so it could be worn with the ribbing down, or I'd put in a fold line. I think the turnup isn't crisp enough. And if I did plan for a turned up ribbing I'd use one or two more plain black rounds, because the ribbing is just slightly longer than the black stockinette section as it stands.

Here's the hat with the ribbing down -- sadly droopy looking.

Much better, but it would be nice to see the bottom green line.

I used June Hiatt's Double Needle Cast-on (p. 133 in Principles of Knitting) which was pesky to do but just wonderful once finished. There's no constriction in the lower edge at all. I'll be using this on my next pair of top-down socks for sure.

quick project

Quickie hat for someone who needs a warm head now! That someone has a much bigger head than does my model, but if I made this again I'd make a smaller brim, and probably not switch to maroon until I started the robot chart. I'd also use a different yarn -- this is red heart (black & white) and walmart house brand (maroon) but I was housebound by an ice storm & needed to start Right Away. It'll do to be getting on with.