There it is -- I finished the Viking Crown Hat last night, and it's on my head this morning while I enjoy a Sunday coffee and update the blog. This looks complicated, but it's not, really. Once you get the cable down, that part goes quickly, and the crown of the hat is just stockinette with increases and decreases for shaping. Even on my huge head and pile of hair, it has a nice pouf and slouch, and I can pull it down over my ears. I think I have my light winter hat for the year.
Last year I made the Icelandic Beret from Piecework Magazine (November/December 2011) -- the one that used fair isle technique for color, and used Lopi yarn. I made it with what I call Flagstaff colors -- blue and gold for Northern Arizona University (one of my alma maters) with a green background for the pines that characterize that city. Well, I think I need to make one with my current school's colors -- black and gold, with some orange to spice it up. When I do, I'll put it up here. As I recall, it only took me a day or two to knit that hat, and it's a warm one.
While we were in the Large Metropolitan Area last week, I did look for a quiet food processor but everybody only stocks the noisy one I gave away. I've had a food processor for so many years now that I can't remember what I did to make pie crusts before I had it -- yes, I remember now, it was so much work that I hardly ever made them, and when I did they weren't very good. I wanted to make some hummus this week, and started to buy ingredients but then remembered that I still didn't have the processor. Aargh!
When we were in the Southward Slighly Large-ish City in September, the Emperor and I each splurged on a Nook. I felt that if I were going to tout the benefits and pleasures of reading electronic books to my students, I should be prepared to do so myself, and bought the Nook Tablet. I wasn't sure how much I'd like it, but I'm surprised -- I love it. I've purchased a subscription to a news magazine that I like, and have picked up some Georgette Heyer and similar books for nighttime reading, and have discovered that I can get some maritime classics for pennies. I'm trying one of my knitting magazines on Nook as well, to see if that format works for me. I'll check back with more commentary when I've tried this out for a longer period of time, but so far I love the idea of carrying a lot of reading material around without the bulk and weight of the actual article.
Now I'm trying to get the materials together to make protective covers for our Nooks. There are lots of great instructions all over the 'Net, but it's a matter of finding a few of my tools that have gone into hiding since the big move. The Emperor wants his to have a denim cover, and I've got some old jeans fabric that will be perfect. I'll line it with some bandana paisley, and it will have black elastic serving as the infrastructure. Mine will have some black and grey floral fabric on the outside, and the lining will be some steampunkish clock fabric.
I have cast on for the Emperor's Secret Christmas Socks at least three times now. I'm using a self-striping yarn and had a hard time figuring out which of the color sections was long enough to make a good rim at the top of the cuff. I like to start my socks with a nice rim, because that kind of gives them a color base. After that, the sock can be as stripey as ever can be but as long as there's a good rim, they seem (to me, at least) to have a cohesive look to them. More often than not, the toe ends up being the same color as the rim. Anyway, I've got it figured out now and have cast on for the first sock. However, since then I have been just carrying them around, first to the professional conference and now back and forth with me to school, without continuing for the first row. But at least I have this hat to show for it. I'd better get my act together! With that said, I'll sign off from here and pick up the socks. Once started, they should move pretty quickly, because the Emperor is distracted by his Nook and doesn't seem to see what I work on.
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