Finished Object!

Hey, here's another finished project that I first posted in-progress pictures of back in November. You know, of 2006, since that seems to be the theme around here these days.

This is a souvenir pattern, from a trip to Washington, DC in 2004? I think? Maybe 2005? It's getting hazy. Anyway, I went to a knitting shop in Georgetown and picked up a pattern book from Colinette, and of course decided I had to use completely different yarn. Sorry, Colinette, but my heart belongs to Malabrigo.

The yarn was left over from the earflap hat (which was knit at a vastly different gauge... I think the earflap hat was on size 11 kneedles and this was on size 5s, but details, details). There is a tiny bit of accent yarn in there on the brim, and that might be Cashmerino, but might be something else. That ball band is long gone, so the world may never know. There's still quite a bit of it left, which as you will see is good news.

Because the one problem with hats that you knit from the bottom up, when the interesting part of the hat is on the bottom, is that you pretty much get only one chance at getting the size right. And I trusted my gauge swatch just a tiny bit too much, and got impatient, and it turns out that the hat doesn't quite fit the way I'd like it to. It's a bit too short, and a bit too small, and a bit disappointing.

But very pretty! So I'm chalking this up to experience, and thinking of this hat as a practice one, and it is one that I can wear in spring and fall, just not when my ears need extra to stay warm.

Also, since I have used up most of the remaining Malabrigo to do sweater swatching, I can tell myself that I'll just buy another ball of Malabrigo to reknit this hat (on larger kneedles) and use up the Conceivably Cashmerino. I have also figured out how to make a matching scarf, but that will be far in the future!

And finally, just for kicks, here's what my mom and I got up to on the day after Thanksgiving.

My family has a long and storied history of exchanging various gifts with my godparents' family, all variations on the themes of turkey, moose, or wolf.

This time around, Mom and I both opted for edible turkeys (although I cheated and bought mine from Moonstruck). She found the recipe in a magazine somewhere. It's a cheese ball, decorated with pecans and frosted crackers, and a bit of red pepper. For us, this is the kind of thing you do once, for a special treat, and then never again. Life is too short to mess around with ridiculous decorating, especially on things you're going to eat immediately afterwards.

Next up: Stitchy-Swatchy, or a look at what might happen if Mrs. Wishy-Washy ever decided to knit a sweater. "Just look at you!" she screamed. "You're not the right gauge! Into the (garbage) tub you go!" (Or possibly not...)