i need a hat. no biggie, right?
heh-he.
i have a horrible time getting the right hat for my head, whether i use someone else’s pattern or make up my own. it’s the depth. i have a very small head. well, it’s the curcumference too; don’t get me wrong—my head is tiny all over. oh, and don’t forget the hair thing—most hats also slide right off my fine hair.
so, i need something that will A) fit and B) stay on and C) look like it belongs on a grown woman’s head—that is to say, stylish—not so easy if one is fulfilling the first two requirements. the list of hat styles that look bad on my head is practically endless, and includes just about all the classics. each year i attack the situation with revewed vigor, and each year i give up, having failed to come up with anything that really works.
and now it’s cold again. i mean really cold. i need a hat.
my newest idea is to try a no-longer-than-shoulder-length stocking cap. not so long that it would be pulled off by its own weight, but just long enough to add some visual weight and height to the cephalic area. maybe even just chin-length. maybe even with color-stranding . . . we’ll see.
ok, i just had to get that out about the hat. i thought about it all weekend while i worked, and i was afraid that if i didn’t talk about it now, i would go find some yarn and start one right this minute.
which i do not need to do right now. i do not need any more distractions. i can wait a couple of days for the hat. i think i can anyhow . . .
i’m afraid my weekend knitting was limited to socks—both days i didn’t even start knitting til well after midnight, and then felt too wired/too tired to work on anything precious.
(i know this looks like the same picture i’ve been showing you for weeks, but i swear, i started this sock saturday night.)
and besides today is recharge-my-batteries-and-catch-up day (and seemingly also using-long-hyphenated-phrases day). i had classes to teach, but also got to knit while i did that. then i came home and got some bookwork out of the way (i.e., i called the bank to set up one little password for an account i opened saturday and it took three calls and over an hour to get one that worked).
i knit on the starlight wrap for a couple of hours today, which i’ll show you tomorrow because it was too dark for a photo by then.
and time to eat
(short break while david and i devour some pasta con il cavolfiore)
ok, i’m back. have i mentioned that i love cauliflower? and why? it’s rather light on flavor, and yet, i crave the stuff. hmm—maybe it’s the anchovies, hot pepper flakes, and parmigiano that go with it.
i’ll tell you what i DID do after work this weekend—spinning. it soothes my soul, and does not strain my eyes at all. i just use my hands and my ears (to listen to a book). it’s ni-i-i-ice.
friday night i finished spinning my gray romney and i plied the pink-and-gray twist yarn. after a washing on sunday, it looks like this
i’m diggin’ it. and can i say; yarn dries SO much faster in january than july . . .
saturday i knitted, only i can’t remember right now what i knitted . . .
then sunday night i worked SO late that all i felt like doing was some predrafting. totally mindless, but you end up with pretty-looking stuff like this
i did a bunch of it, too—i had several bags of dyed roving from my friend deb.
this stuff is not included in her product line or anything; just something she toyed with a while back and sent me to try.
it’s nice soft roving which feels like pretty high-quality merino to me, though i think deb told me it was mixed 54s wool. the colors are her usual genius—close tones of red/rust/plum? in one, and blue/purple/pink in the other.
even though it was already 2am by the time i finished predrafting, i wanted to try spinning some.
it took me a while to adjust to it—it truly spins like buttah and i had a hard time controlling what was happening at first, after working with the tackier romney fiber only the day or so before. this should make a gorgeous yarn—a rich periwinkle-with-streaks (really, i AM sorry about all these hyphenated phrases, i keep thinking i’m done, but then another one pops out!),
one thing i did work on (and i know dave will be happy about this) is my desk sock. while my docs relinked, and while i made PDFs, i picked it up and knit a needleful here and there. then today i realized the darn thing was a good three inches longer.
too bad it wasn’t a hat . . . .
26 thoughts on “i need a hat”
Your post has me all excited!!!
First, I am so excited to hear that you’re thinking about a hat! I can’t wait to see what you come up with because I too suffer from pea-head syndrome. (I will never forget the time someone said to me: “You know, you have a very small head. It really makes your body look larger than it really is.” Geesh!)
Second, I am so excited by your pink and gray twist handspun! It’s just gorgeous. I can’t wait to see what it becomes.
Third, I’m so excited to see that you’re spinning the roving I sent you. I forgot all about that. And you are right. It is 100% merino (superwash). I think I did mention to you that I also have some 54s, but your experienced hands are correct … that’s merino that you’re spinning 🙂
And finally, I’m so hungry that even your cauliflower has me excited!
Oooh, the pink & gray looks beautiful!
Awww geesh, I never getta have any fun…it sucks to not be able to see pink and brown 🙁 Although, I know from experience that Anne’s handspun is really pretty so I’ll think of that instead:)
Nice to see the socks isn’t getting too lonely. The hat sounds intriguing! Course, by now you’ve probably finished it. 🙂
Nice brilliant colors.
If only I thought a desk sock would fly with my colleagues at the office…
Love the pink and brown together. And I love Deb’s colorways too; nobody does browns like she does. How about this for your hat? I found it yesterday – it cracked me up.
http://monstercrochet.blogspot.com/2007/01/chicken-beanie-pattern.html
check out the pattern “Hats that fit” by Nancy Lindberg. It uses a formula based on your measurements to calculate size, using any yarn, any gauge and it has many different styles so you basically design your own hat. I have used it several times for different size heads and it works really well! I hope it helps!
I love reading your blog! Thanks.
Oh, I looooove the pink and gray twist yarn!
And Deb’s stuff is really pretty too. I keep going to her Etsy shop to have a look at her yarns, but since she says she only ships in the US, all I can do is hope I’ll win some in your contest! 😉
You’ve used all the words! All I can think to say is pretty… pretty….
Wah! I’m tired. Give me the pretty yarn to hug when you tuck me in please.
Oh man. A hat should be so easy but when it’s not… it’s decidedly not.
Your fiber can instill some serious coveting… pretty pretty.
I love the pink and gray handspun. It is beautiful:) I am really wishing I already knew how to spin…but I haven’t found a teacher and am a little scared to just try my spindle by myself. I will have a wheel (my Nana is giving me one) eventually – I hope to be able to spin as well as you someday!
You must share with us how you predraft…maybe a tutorial for us hoping to spin as well as you..I so love your blog…I just cannot say that enough!!!
I hear you about the head thing. I usually end up looking in the children’s section for glasses. We found a woman who makes lovely felt hats, though of course none fit. When she measured my head she loudly exclaimed about the measurement then proceeded to write it down with the order. Two weeks later when the hat arrived – it was too small! I sent it back, with my head circumference written for her. A couple weeks later another one arrived, this one’s still a touch small but it works and I figured there was no convincing her that my head isn’t quite as small as she thinks. sigh
That periwinkle/purple merino is fabulous.
The desk sock yarn would make a perfect hat.
MAN! I got all excited thinking deb was going to strat dying roving!!
(Love the math socks! Have a math geek they’ll be perfect for when I catch the time…)
Hey anne! Your pink/brown looks really great!!! I have problems with hats too; I look like a total Dork in them. So I just wear a hoodie when it gets chilly!! (but I think you’re talking about SERIOUSLY cold out there….)
Beautiful pink and grey Romney! Do you have plans for it?
Hats, I find them also the most difficult thing to knit. My head as well is small, and I always end up having them cover my eyes and nose as well. But I admire to no end hats!
Anne, those rovings and your spinning are simply stunning. I want to reach out and touch!
The fiber and handspun looks wonderful! Are those 4 oz bags? The pink handspun looks so delicate and glowing.
This entire post is a feast for the eyes!
I wish I could spin just HALF as well as you do–that pink/grey twist is so lovely and even! And the pure pink looks like it could just float away. Absolutely luscious!
Oh, and I agree, you need a hat. It’s much too cold to go without!
Ooh, the pink/grey is so nice! It looks great.
Can’t wait to see how the starlight wrap is coming, I was wondering about it the other day!
that is a lot of fiber – her colors are amazing!!!! that silvery yarn you spun is beautiful – has a great shimmer to it!
All the yarn is so pretty!
I also suffer from small-head-syndrome. That wards me off from making hats right now as my hubby suffers from big-head syndrome. Maybe I will wait for our children and see how they turn out!
Grumperina just made a smashing beret for her grandmother recently. Very adult looking, and it looked like it would be very flattering.
Just “drooling” over all your spinning and roving. But had to comment on your pasta al cavalfiori. I lived 20 years in Italy, and pasta al cavalfiori is just one of my very favorites. I learned to do it with pasta mischiatta, several pastas together with the long ones broken (you use up the ends of all your packages) which cook at diverse rates and give you different textures. Overcook the cauliflower, mashing and browning it in olive oil with lots of pepper. Bought a cauliflower yesterday to do it. Works with broccoli, too. It is a heavy winter dish, but total comfort food. My significant other was from Naples, so this was probably Neopolitan style.
Hi, Anne –
I have the same trouble with hats (only, I have a huge head) looking odd on me and go through the same thing each year…. still working on it this year but I borrow occasionally from my hubby (when I need a hat and I don’t care how I look lol).
Love reading about your projects, and your spinning is wonderful.
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