can you believe we’re still harvesting greens for the table? the last few nights we’ve seen temperatures dipping down to 32 degrees and below though, so i don’t know how much longer they will last. yesterday, when i went out to pick this basketful, a gentle snow was falling. not hard or even consistent—the kind you see in those interactive email christmas cards.
but still . . . snow.
anyway, my hands were numb by the time i was finished, even with mitts on; i was more than happy to hightail it indoors to get a pot of chili going. the colorful swiss chard on top will get added to a quiche, the green below will go int a batch of lentils and greens (like my grandma used to make me, yum), and the zen greens buried at the bottom went into the black bean chili along the chard stems and a few last jalapeño peppers. with the addition of tomatoes and squash from the freezer, and a few items from the fridge, i netted a big pot that will last a few meals with enough to put a few in the freezer.
that’s a lot of good eating from one late-fall trip to the garden.
(looking at the photo, i just realized i forgot to add the corn; oops).
i don’t have a whole lot of new knitting to show you today—i’ve been working on the hat to match my mink scarf for the last two days. though i generally favor snug, fitted caps because they stay on my head better, i really wanted a soft, poofier beret-type hat this time; something with a little more charm that wouldn’t flatten my hair so much.
i thought this style would encourage me to wear a hat more often with dressier outfits. i had a lot of fun mapping out the cable pattern over the increasing and decreasing shape. i enjoyed knitting it very much—it took two evenings to complete
i love the cabled fabric—the super-lightweight mink yarn is put to great use in a pattern like this, where you want cables, but not the extra weight. it allows the hat to remain lofty-looking and airy, despite the density of stitches.
really, everything went fine until i tried it on.
i dunno if you can tell, but that hat is perilously close to slipping right down over half my face. if i stop smiling, my eyebrows won’t hold it up any longer. it’s a little too much hat for me, heh. sigh.
it would fit any other normal person’s head perfectly well.
i’d stop right here and give it to someone for christmas, but then they’d have the hat and i’d have the scarf and that wouldn’t work too well for me. i WANT a purple hat that fits and this is all the purple yarn i have for it. i guess i’ll be ripping it out. arggh (who knows, i might just cave and buy another skein.)
oh well, it’s just a hat and two evening’s work—not that bad. luckily, this yarn rips back and recovers its full beauty like a champ—for all its fuzziness, it cooperates really well, unlike mohair or angora. and as kathleen wrote to tell me, this project is particularly frogalicious—able to be ripped back using the ball winder, thus reducing trauma.
you know what makes me really mad at myself though? you aren’t going to believe it when i tell you—i actually started the hat at the smaller size and tried it on when it was just past the brim. it seemed a little small (how i could have assessed any hat to be too small for me is beyond my comprehension right now; was i on crack??), so i talked myself into ripping back the smaller hat to start this bigger one. i even tried this one on about halfway through and felt it was a little loose, but then proceeded to finish it. ah, me.
while i had it out this morning though, i took the time to pin out the equivalent of one pattern repeat and try it on again
that’s more like it. more what i had in mind—just a little beret action. and maybe i’ll make the brim a few rows deeper to ensure it stays put.
meanwhile, my scarf is flowing along beautifully, providing hours of late night knitting relaxation
i joined my second ball of yarn on just before stopping last night—can i just say again what a surprising amount of yarn is on each skein? i decided to knit up two full skeins for the scarf and will end up with a respectable 54-inch length from that amount and a luxurious 11-inch width. nice.
and that’s all i have to report today. beckie is coming over to knit tonight (TGIT); i’ll try to get a picture of her sweater (and maybe put the hat on her). we’re eating black beans and rice for supper, mmm. i can’t wait.
24 thoughts on “it’s just ripper”
I have purple mink extras. I bought one purple skein in early October. I knit the ivy vine cowl with it, so there is plenty left over from my original skein. Can I send it to you? It would be my pleasure to do so.
Since you’ll be re-knitting anyway, you may want to rethink the pattern a bit. I think the beret would be more flattering on you if there was more fabric just above the brim and you brought that fabric forward a bit to make a brim, rather that all the fabric falling back from your forehead onto the side.
There are lots of beret pictures here:
http://photobucket.com/images/beret
And there is a picture on page 2 of the website that shows the idea I’m suggesting. Two views of a pale aqua knitted cap. Whereas the woman in the green scarf on the same page…not as flattering.
Just a thought. I love the fabric and the color on you is smashing!
I’m not sure which is prettier, the color or the cables.
I suppose it’s too late to mention that I seem to have a freakishly large head, and that I think that hat juuuust might fit me?
🙂
Everytime you post a picture, I just fall into that purple cable scarf. Its so beautiful! I hope you publish the pattern eventually. BTW I just finished my Caricia and then cast on right away for my second Rivolo! Love your patterns!
purple-icious! That yarn is sooo yummy!
I just ordered some Safari yarn for my Hayrick socks. I tried and tried to find the right thing in my own (ahem) copious stash, but nothing was earthy enough (either too pink/purple, or too busy, or too dark).
Dinner looks perfect for a steel gray November day!
A few rows of elastic thread in the brim? Just a thought. Or what if you put a fold in the brim and attach a button? I hate ripping out…
Is that a dk weight yarn? The mink that is. Love the hat.
Super jealous of the greens! Our little garden isn’t doing much of anything. Sorry about the hat too. It seems that the second guess is always the one that gets us.
Oh, I hate it when I second-guess myself and turn out to be wrong! (Which I usually do…) That color is gorgeous on you, though, so it’s worth the extra work!
I knit a red angora beret (elsebeth lavold, yum) which I don’t wear because I actually made a hat too big for me. I tried it on toward the beginning and also thought it would be too small. Such are hats, I guess!
Yummy. I have been harvesting a lot of spinach from my garden too.
Is it just me, or did the font change on the blog? I could be imagining it, it’s late and I’m loopy lol. Love the hat, you and I have the same problem, my head is always too small for them!
Oh please buy yourself another ball of yarn for yourself and gift your mom or another dear in your life with that wonderful tam.
It just looks so LUSH
Great shot of the garden goodies. Oh, the hat drama, what a drag. You will surely enjoy the weekend righting the mistake.
as much as i love the knitting, what I really want is some of your recipes for your soups and stews!
yep, the hat is a wonderful idea, I hope you get it the way you want it, but please, may we have guidelines for your version of the chili? it looks wonderful! thanks in advance.
Your food pics always make me hungry!
and I am so-o-o-o in love with that purple colour!
The yarn is soo yummy, I love it! I have a hard time ripping projects out but I’m learning that it is an o.k. thing to do in knitting. I still makes me cringe though!
OK, this is going to sound insane with that beautiful yarn, but if you are going to get another skein anyway, how about felting the hat? I wonder what that yarn would do when felted.
I just wanted to say that I think it very generous and open of you to tell us about your trials and errors. For most of us, it’s a fact of our knitting lives, and to hear that such an accomplished knitter and designer has occasional problems is reassuring.
I don’t feel nearly the dunce that I may be when I read that you, too, have problems!
i am not caving in and looking at that mink yarn (repeat 50 times)
Snow? You said snow. That’s a dirty word. We live too close together for it to not be heading this way. *whimper*
You’re a better woman than I am, Anne. I would have give the hat away, or begged for more yarn, rather then rip back. I guess that’s why I’m not the designer!
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