Post-Christmas 2016
A very dear friend of mine has begged me to resume my blog.
The fact that I have fallen Completely Behind on things like hashtags, twitter, instagram (and so on): this had left me feeling that even if I might have Something Useful To Say, I'm way too clueless on how to say it to a more au courant audience-- these things my dear friend dismissed ("pfft") and said, just write.
So.
I have had all four children home for Christmas-- which has been a joy.
Of course, everything out of their mom's mouth needs pushback.
I am not sure this will ever end 🙄.
Yesterday we drove, en masse (yes, 6 grown-up sized people, and one dog, in one car) to Long Island to see grandparents.
Technically, we live less than an hour and a half's drive from them (70 miles by road, and probably 40 by eagle or crow, if that were actually an option)
...but between standard Long Island/Manhattan congestion and the various choke points we go through (George Washington Bridge I am SO looking at you) the drive time is wholly unpredictable.
Yesterday it was long.
Raining.
Accidents and backups.
Those six full-sized individuals and dog jammed together.
And apparently 4,286,795 trucks within a mile of us.
Frankly, the Cross Bronx (the part of I-95 that goes from the George Washington Bridge through the Bronx) is not my favorite road, and even my standard heavy traffic occupation (knitting of course) was of little help yesterday.
Apparently every diesel fume in the state of New York was in our car as we meandered along at 3 miles per hour: frankly it was a little hard to do anything other than groan.
But I was trying to work on this:
--a hat for one of my sons.
It will be reversible, essentially two hats joined at the bottom: stuff one inside the other to produce a reversible hat with double thickness. It is really really warm.
Hence its original name, Very Warm Hat, from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book Knitting Around.
I had knit a hat based on EZ's original design for my husband for Christmas:
Christmas morning, son #2 (who has some constraints on what he is allowed to wear at his college) -- tried on his dad's new hat.
His eyes lit up a bit and, "Wow. This is really nice... and warm.... if it were all one color I could actually wear it... but... I know that is really boring knitting for you..."
How is a mother/knitter to resist that?
I do prefer this particular hat as originally described by EZ: worked Fair Isle style in two-color stranded knitting. The warmth is truly astonishing: two layers of knitting (because of hat-within-hat), and extra warmth from having the two colors stranded on the inside of both sides of the knitting.
Since I had to knit #2 son's in just one color, I compromised by knitting with two strands in places, in the Fair Isle stranded manner, to increase the warmth factor, and added a bit of texture for knitting interest.
I am going to use alpaca on the inside, once I get past the possible turned-up-edge section, as the warmth and softness of alpaca are lovely.
I will say that the hat makes great car knitting... as long as you are not diesel-fume-swamped.
Here you can see, on my husband's hat, the two hats, with the inner one pulled out:
There was joy yesterday, though.
Not only did we get to spend time with beloved grandparents, and laugh together in the car along the way.
On the drive home in the afternoon/evening, finally free of the diesel and (most) of the stop and go traffic, we came out of the rain to see these colors:
The fact that I have fallen Completely Behind on things like hashtags, twitter, instagram (and so on): this had left me feeling that even if I might have Something Useful To Say, I'm way too clueless on how to say it to a more au courant audience-- these things my dear friend dismissed ("pfft") and said, just write.
So.
I have had all four children home for Christmas-- which has been a joy.
Of course, everything out of their mom's mouth needs pushback.
I am not sure this will ever end 🙄.
Yesterday we drove, en masse (yes, 6 grown-up sized people, and one dog, in one car) to Long Island to see grandparents.
Technically, we live less than an hour and a half's drive from them (70 miles by road, and probably 40 by eagle or crow, if that were actually an option)
...but between standard Long Island/Manhattan congestion and the various choke points we go through (George Washington Bridge I am SO looking at you) the drive time is wholly unpredictable.
Yesterday it was long.
Raining.
Accidents and backups.
Those six full-sized individuals and dog jammed together.
And apparently 4,286,795 trucks within a mile of us.
Frankly, the Cross Bronx (the part of I-95 that goes from the George Washington Bridge through the Bronx) is not my favorite road, and even my standard heavy traffic occupation (knitting of course) was of little help yesterday.
Apparently every diesel fume in the state of New York was in our car as we meandered along at 3 miles per hour: frankly it was a little hard to do anything other than groan.
But I was trying to work on this:
 |
| Son#2 hat in work |
It will be reversible, essentially two hats joined at the bottom: stuff one inside the other to produce a reversible hat with double thickness. It is really really warm.
Hence its original name, Very Warm Hat, from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book Knitting Around.
I had knit a hat based on EZ's original design for my husband for Christmas:
 |
| Rich's Very Warm Hat, his favorite side facing out |
 |
| Very Warm Hat for Rich, other side facing out. |
Finished it early on Christmas morning after some frantic high-speed knitting for a couple of days.
The blue yarn is Karabella's Aurora 8 merino; the creamy beige is Indicieta sport weight alpaca, held double. The alpaca has a very soft, warm feel, and the super stretchy merino provides memory and stretchiness. It is a delightful, comfortable and very warm hat.
 |
| Very Warm Hat- inside folded up to show the reversible nature of this delightful hat |
 |
Christmas morning, son #2 (who has some constraints on what he is allowed to wear at his college) -- tried on his dad's new hat.
His eyes lit up a bit and, "Wow. This is really nice... and warm.... if it were all one color I could actually wear it... but... I know that is really boring knitting for you..."
How is a mother/knitter to resist that?
I do prefer this particular hat as originally described by EZ: worked Fair Isle style in two-color stranded knitting. The warmth is truly astonishing: two layers of knitting (because of hat-within-hat), and extra warmth from having the two colors stranded on the inside of both sides of the knitting.
Since I had to knit #2 son's in just one color, I compromised by knitting with two strands in places, in the Fair Isle stranded manner, to increase the warmth factor, and added a bit of texture for knitting interest.
I am going to use alpaca on the inside, once I get past the possible turned-up-edge section, as the warmth and softness of alpaca are lovely.
I will say that the hat makes great car knitting... as long as you are not diesel-fume-swamped.
Here you can see, on my husband's hat, the two hats, with the inner one pulled out:
 |
| Rich's "Very Warm Hat" |
Not only did we get to spend time with beloved grandparents, and laugh together in the car along the way.
On the drive home in the afternoon/evening, finally free of the diesel and (most) of the stop and go traffic, we came out of the rain to see these colors:
Yup, the driving was stinky-- but the sunset on the way home was stupendous.
Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to all.
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