I haven’t got anything pretty or cute or nice to show you today- I’m in-between personal knitting projects and neck-deep in super secret work knitting. I had thought about writing about some cute knitted pumpkins I saw the other day. Or maybe looking up spider-related knitting patterns (my kid is currently obsessed with the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, or as he calls it “Pider Pider Pider”). Or maybe writing a quick warning that we’re just under 2 months away from Christmas (which we are, so if you’re doing any Christmas knitting, you’d better get moving).
But no, instead, I will tell you a spooky Halloween story. A tale of a real live cursed hat, and the person who must live with it (me).
Because, you guys, I’m totally and completely cursed.
So, a couple months ago, I came across a call for a design, and I came up with an idea for a really cute cabled hat (I’d love to show it to you, but it’s currently embargoed. Don’t worry, though, once it’s done I’ll be excited to share it). “This will be an easy job,” I thought to myself. Oh how wrong I was.
It’s a simple little cap, with a handful of semi-complex cables all the way around. Nothing too crazy, but getting the sizing right on something like this is kinda tricky.
So, before I even submitted my proposal, I knit up the following:
- Swatch #1: The cable didn’t look the way I thought it was going to. Ripped out.
- Swatch #2: The cable looked closer to what I was imagining , but needed some tweaks. But, I figured I could do the tweaks on the hat that I was going to do next. Ripped out.
- Hat #1: Got about 3 inches into the hat and realized it was a hat for a giant. Ripped out.
- Hat #2: Got about 4 inches into the hat and realized it was a hat for a toddler. Ripped out.
- Hat #3: Made it all the way to the crown, but ran out of yarn about 5 rows from the end. Ripped it out.
- Hat #4: Made the pattern slightly smaller, and made it to the end with about 3 feet of spare yarn. Turned out cute! Fit! Yay!
I wrote up the proposal, and figured, “Hey, if it gets picked up, great! I have the pattern essentially figured out already. And if it doesn’t get picked up, I’ve got a cute new hat. Win-win.”
A few days later, I got the news that the pattern was picked up (Yay!), but they want it knit in a different yarn (Oh no). So the process started over again.
- New Swatch #1: Looks good! Right on the money, gauge wise (which is shocking, since my prototype yarn and actual yarn are quite different).
- New Hat #1: This hat is killing me. It’s taking forever, it’s super slow-going for some reason, and making my hands ache. I can only knit on it for an hour or two at a time. But then…
Last night, I sang a little song of triumph as I got to the crown. I decided to stay up past my bedtime because I thought I might be able to finish! I pulled out the US7 DPNs from my knitting bag, and switched them out for the circular I had been using. Suddenly, the knitting felt weird. A little too easy. A little loose.
Y’all, I had been knitting the whole dang hat on US5s, instead of swithing to US7s after the brim.
There were swears.
So, I’m going to go rip out the hat. Again.
Talk about a true Halloween horror.
Have you ever worked on any truly cursed projects?
Then I did a once-over for any holes or snags. I noticed a little hole near the collar of this guy. It’s not so bad, so I’ll leave it for another day. But, if it was worse or in a more critical spot, I’d fix it before I washed it, to prevent making the run worse.
Now it’s time for a bath! I folded the sweater, and lay it in a nice, warm, soapy bath. I like 
I never swish the sweater around or anything. Remember, wool + agitation + water = felt, so I keep the agitation to a minimum. I just push the sweater down into the water, squeezing out the air.
Then I let it sit for… a bit. I’m sure there’s a rule about this, but I usually just let it hang out until I get bored. At least 5 minutes or so (more, if you’re like me and wander off and forget).
And this is the best/worst part: Look at how gross the water is!!! Yuck!
I let the water drain away, and carefully wrung out most of the water (again being careful not to agitate too much). Then I rolled the sweater up in a towel or two, and squeezed the sweater burrito to get out even more water.
Then it’s off to the drying rack! I like using these big (clean) window screens. (They were originally used as drying racks for hops, back when my husband grew hops for his home-brew beer, but now I mostly use them for my knitwear.) You can also use your regular blocking boards or just lay your sweater out on more clean towels. Just make sure you’ve got it blocking to the right measurements, otherwise your sweater might end up clean, but lopsided!
Now I just have to repeat the process for my other two dozen sweaters…
I think my favorite part of this sweater is how wearable it is. Who would have thought? A short-sleeved, cropped sweater? Really? Past Allison would have laughed at the idea that I would wear something like this.
I’ve been wearing it over dresses, tank-tops and jeans. And once it cools down (fall’s right around the corner), I think it’ll be cute over long-sleeved tanks or a nice buttondown.
The kid seems like he likes it too. (How cute would a baby one be?!)
It’s named after the Olympic Peninsula, the gorgeous part of Washington between the Puget sound and the Pacific Ocean. It’s full of lush forests, misty coastline and snowy peaks. (And it’s where Twilight was based, if that gives you an idea. Though I imagine that people that live over there don’t love that reference.) It’s the perfect place to traipse around in a woolly cabled pullover.
This sweater is beyond simple- dropped shoulders mean almost no shaping, and everything’s worked in pieces and sewn up, so it would make nice travel knitting. Plus, the cables look super-complicated, but once you get them established, they’re pretty simple. 
It’s a long-sleeved yoked pullover, made with 
I will say one thing though- the neck on the sample in these pictures ended up kind of funny, so if you want to make a Piper’s Creek Pullover (which I highly recommend), here’s what I would do to avoid the weird neck. First, make sure that you’re only doing the number of short rows called for in the pattern, or maybe even reduce the number by one or two, just in case. Second, make sure to work the colorwork nice and loosely (tight shoulders will make the neck funnel up, like it is in the pictures). And third, make sure to block the sweater so the neck goes nice and smoothly into the shoulders. Worst case scenario, if the neck ends up terrible even with all those precautions, you can always rip it out from the top down (or cut it out), 
It’s a delightf
I noticed reddish ribbing on the bottom, then a row of… maybe blue and white circles, before a row of white triangles and red circles… and maybe some green on top with black dots? It wasn’t too clear, but I had a little time in my knitting schedule and some of the kid’s crayons to try to chart it out, so away I went.
But halfway, through, I realized the red, white and green shapes weren’t just shapes… they were turnips! (Or maybe radishes? It’s hard to tell the difference.)
Now that I was this far, I had to keep going- And another swatch later, I’ve got a very cute little radish design. I’d change the colors so the contrast is there, but it’s a good start.
Now I’ve just got to decide what to use this for. Right now, I’m thinking a little pullover for the kiddo. Maybe with a light blue background “above ground” and a nice chocolate brown heather for the dirt. I think I might stagger the dots and the radishes, and the leaves still need a little work, but I like where it’s going.
On the Needles 