Once upon a time, I made a cute baby hat, but it was too small, and by too small, I mean it wouldn’t go on a 6 month old baby girl, much less the lady it was intended for (no, I didn’t do a gauge). So, I made a second hat with the hook size recommended for the adult hat….and I could tell it was still too small. I ripped out the single crocheted edging and went up from an H to a K hook and crocheted the edging again. no dice. Ladies and gentlemen, I went up to a size N. That did the trick.

It fits!
 

Pattern: Cloche with Small Flower #40464-1C by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn (hat): something like Vanna’s Choice in purple
(flower): Vanna’s Choice white
Hook: H, N
Regrets: I wish I’d done another row of DC before starting the edging and a few more rows of SC. I’m still pretty happy with it; this little lady makes it look good.
Ps. Iknitarod update: I’ve finished 29 of 42 points on the Hitchhiker shawl and Martin Buser has arrived in Anvik with Mitch Seavey, Jake Berkowitz, and Aliy trying to catch him.
Pps. Check out what others have finished at Tami’s Amis and Wisdom begins in Wonder and Natural Suburbia

This is my second year to participate in the Iknitarod. You may recall last year’s effort. The goal of the Iknitarod is to pick a project and start with the mushers and finish before the last Iditarodder crosses the finish line (and the red lantern is awarded). I cast on for a hitchhiker shawl Saturday March 2 with the ceremonial start as planned, but it was a near thing.
I knew that I was knitting with sock yarn and have a wide variety of sock-sized needles. What I neglected to realize is that socks are knit more tightly than shawls. I really didn’t need a gauge, but I didn’t want the shawl too big because I’m hoping to get all 42 points of the shawl out of the one of a kind yarn I’m using and not have to bind off with fewer points. So, a gauge it must be.
Rat on a stick! 3.5mm are too big. I will knit another gauge on 3.25mm needles. Um, yeah. I need to be knitting with 3.25mm and I’m smart enough to realize I do not to want to use 3.5mm and try to knit REALLY tightly when I’m already deadline knitting (I have my moments.). So, I dump needles all over the guest room bed in my quest for 3.25mm needles longer than the dpn’s I’ve used for the gauge.
Addi clicks start at 3.5mm and go up.
Straights that I’ve purchased begin at US6 and go up.
My circular needles are smaller than 3mm and larger than 4mm. Great. Who is running this outfit?!? oh yea, me.

Then I recall that my good friend, Sam, bought an arseload of needles at an auction and was kind enough to share some with me and I have all those in yet another needle case. WINNING! There’s a nice slick pair of 3.25mm Susan Bates straights to get me through the weekend ’til I can hit a LYS in town Monday and get some circs. I was able to avoid a broken sled and pulled out with the other teams after all. Crisis averted.

Now, I’m 1/3 of the way through the race. Martin Buser has had an amazing couple of days and I’m pulling for Aliy Zirkle (in 2nd Tuesday night).
MUSH!

Ps. To see what other folks are working on, go check out Tami’s Amis.

Here are the directions I used for self-striping yarn.
I started with 50g of superwash bare wool sock yarn. I was pretty pleased with myself when I pulled this out of the microwave. I can follow directions like a good little yarnie….until I realized that the yarn between the bags must not have been wet enough because the dye did not travel up and there were white spots.

So, I put kool aid in salsa bowls and added HOT water.


And then I was feeling better about things until I pulled it out to wind it and realized, WHAT THE DEVIL?!? Where did all this yellow come from?


So, I took a note from the pros and broke the yarn and removed the extra yellow…as much as I hated to, it was the right call.


I will be quite a bit more relaxed about yarn breaks in future. I shall imagine that they tell a story about a dyer that was overcome with delicious kool-aid fumes and lost track of what they were doing.
Ps. Happy Anniversary to my lovely parents!!!