Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Hooks and Miters

Sounds like a kids' board game, doesn't it?
Anyway, I worked up a couple more mitered square hats, this time, alternating yarns.
I used some Fritidsgarn that I've had sitting around for years. It wasn't exactly leftover, in that I had 3 full skeins of it. I just never found a use for this multicolored yarn. It's bulky, and not soft, and it's reputed to be an excellent felter. It called to me the other night when I was stash diving, so I brought it downstairs and gave it a whirl. I like how it looks with the Evergreen Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (which was leftover). When I finished this hat, I still had a lot of the Fritidsgarn left.
So I knit another, this time with a Plymouth Boku as the alternate yarn.

The difference between using the lighter and the darker secondary yarns is pretty amazing.
When I finished those two hats, I still had a whole ball of the Fritidsgarn left, so I got out the crochet hook,

and made this hat. I don't crochet often, and I misjudged the size- it came out way too big, so I hand-felted it. For a yarn designed specifically to felt easily, it took a good 15 minutes of scrubbing to get it to shrink.

Unfortunately, I don't know if anyone will ever want this hat- it's pretty homely. And it serves as a reminder of why I usually knit.

On the other hand, the darker mitered square hat found a home even before it was off the needles. As Mary discovered with her Ady's Socks, sometimes the right person for a project pops up without even looking. But the crocheted hat will go in the BTo'KT, and someone, somewhere, will want it, I'm sure. I think. If not, I'll wear it myself- I wouldn't want it to feel left out.

3 comments:

Diana Troldahl said...

It looks like a perfect dog-walking hat. The kind you won't mind if it falls off by accident and needs a scrubbing :-}
I'm playing with a hat pattern this week (after I finish a hug-monster for my godson). I love the contrast of the darker hat :-}

Mary Keenan said...

I would flip the problem hat and make a strap for it live life as a knitting bag or purse, or two short decorative handles on the sides, for life as a planter cover :^)

Brandy said...

I didn't think the crochet one looked that bad, but the planter cover is a cute idea too. My crochet is usually felted as a potholder.

I like the black and colored one!