Hats! Hats! Hats!

Just because I'm not posting often does not mean I am not knitting, folks. I am a busy bee.

Especially where hats are concerned.

Basic black seaman's cap. Yes, another one. This one is in superwash merino for my friend, Bob, who was expecting one last winter before I was derailed by all that X-mas knitting. Sorry, Bob!

The only X-mas knitting I am doing this year (Really! I mean it!) is this cabled version of the seaman's cap for my dad, a project that has been largely motivated by my suspicion that my dad has not hand washed the seaman's cap I made him last year, but is still wearing it, nevertheless. This is a humanitarian effort.

If you're at all interested how I worked the cables, leave a comment and I'll post the instructions.

Other stuff
These are not the only hats I've made. I also made a hat from one skein of Noro Silk Garden which I am going to post separately with the pattern.

I'm also still working on the boyfriend sweater, which is an incredible bore. Endless black stockingette! Ugh. I will finish this thing, if just to have it over with finally.

Socks are also happening. The purple Artyarn socks are done, but not mailed, and I've made myself several socks that don't match eachother using the One Sock at a Time Theory of Sock Making that I got from Jeanette this summer - that is, embrace your reluctance to knit that second sock and move on, because you can always get back to the the second sock later when it seems novel again. This worked wonders for her and I'm hoping it will do the same for me.

On the crochet front, I finally have the right yarn to make that 1920's dress. A bit of research revealed to me that it was originally done up in something a lot like embroidery floss. So I took a risk and ordered a 1 lb. cone of 8/2 black weaving tencel - US$25 after shipping for 3360 yds! (You may wonder what I would do with over 3,000 yds of fingering weight yarn if it didn't work out, but unfortunately I do have a few ideas up my sleeve. More than few, actually.) The dress is size 36", with 3 mesh stitches = 1", and the tencel worked up on the same hook to about 3 1/2" mesh stitches = 1", which is what I was hoping for since I am a 34" chest. The tencel is 2-ply, slightly prone to splitting, and slippery as hell. (I admit there was a bit of cursing yesterday when I started, but not enough to scare the cat.) I chose the tencel because it is supposed to have a good drape and sheen and is lighter than cotton. I'm still on the hem of the dress - I'll be there for a while - but I can already tell that this dress will be awesome. I hope to have it done by the office X-mas party since that is the only event I go to all year that is practically black tie.

Crochetting really has an undeserved bad reputation, in my opinion. Of course, I crochetted before I knit, so you could say I have a slight bias, but I'm sticking by that statement. Any craft or technique can create crap. With the possible exception of macrame, this isn't the craft or technique's fault. (I say this because it seems to be about 10x harder to make something tasteful from macrame than, say, knitting or beading. Please correct me if I'm wrong.) Which begs the question: Why is it that the only patterns in crochetting magazines these days that are halfway decent are mainly knitting? Why? Why? Perhaps I should embark on a personal crusade to improve the name of crochet, eh? Right after this dress. And all those knit socks. And the darned boyfriend sweater.