Introducing Intarsia: The Boston Bruins Hat

Although I finish a goodly number of projects in the course of a year, the bulk of them fall solidly into the category of 'things I've done before and can knock out with a minimum of grief'.  The challenge lies in tailoring the project to suit the taste of the recipient, trying new patterns using known techniques, or figuring out useful and attractive ways to use up materials on hand. But from time to time, I want to try out something new and see if I can add another useful trick to my repertoire. 

Thus, when one of my coworkers was describing his ideal sports-fan winter hat, I thought, 'huh, sounds like a good beginner intarsia piece'. 

After poking around, I couldn't find any patterns that suited the weight of yarn I had available, so I took an image of the Boston Bruins team logo, spent an eternity fiddling with it in Paint, and generated a pattern that would fit into the number of stitches I estimated would be available on the front of the hat.  I found that having prior experience with stranded colorwork was a help.  After approximately 10 milliseconds of messing with bobbins, I went with the online tip about just cutting a yard or two of yarn and letting the ends hang free.  They tangled, but it was easy enough to free them up periodically, and much less annoying.


Results- acceptable.  The hat surface was reasonably free of puckers, the back was messy but not completely chaotic, the ends were numerous but not overwheming.   My coworker is delighted with it.  And I'm filing intarsia under, 'useful but not worth seeking out unless a project I really want to do absolutely demands it'.

And that makes two of the three projects I wanted to have done this week complete.  Yay!  (The first one was Secret, so I won't be showing it off until next week.)

I Blame Mike Brown

Okay, so it's not actually Mike's fault. Mike did not make me buy a whole stack of used books in Dallas (we shipped them home, they arrived last week). Mike's book wasn't even one of the ones from Dallas, it was loaned to me over the weekend. Mike did not make me shove the knitting to one side so that I could read book after book after book like a junkie going after the latest fix (that's 9 books in the last 7 days, for the record). I never said it was his fault, I said that I'm blaming him.

See, last night, when I had intended write a blog post, I found myself with Mike's book in my hands. And I could have put it down- in fact I did put it down- to eat dinner, and then go to the library to return a DVD that was due back today. And then I got back home and picked it right back up again. I ignored the dishes, forgot the laundry, and only absentmindedly rearranged my lap for the evening procession of cats (who inspected the lap and then went and curled up elsewhere, probably because I was too absorbed in reading to Properly Attend the Cat).

Not that they were especially distressed. Cookie went and struck a goofy pose on the floor:


And Biscuit ensconced himself comfortably in the castle and enjoyed the view:


Where was I? ...oh, yes, the book. The book is How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown. He's an astronomer at Caltech, and the book is a charming mixture of astronomic history and biography levened with a generous dose of humor. It explains what astronomers, do, why it's exciting, and delves into the controversy over de-planeting Pluto, and yes, Mike Brown's part in its murder. Admittedly, I have both an interest in and more than a general grounding in science, but I think that this is accessible enough that anyone would find it fun. And while I'm still mildly inclined to say grumpily, "When I was a girl, we had nine planets.", his arguments against Pluto do make sense. I highly recommend it.

So, you're wondering, has there been any knitting at all? Well, some. There's this nice soft ribbed hat, destined for the 'give away' pile.:


And these mittens, also destined for recipients unknown:


And in a fit of ambition (between books) on the weekend, I swatched with the blue yarn my mom and I dyed, and discovered somewhat to my dismay that the yarn really wants to be knit on US size 2 needles. At which I said, and I quote, "Urk!" And then did the math and cast on for a largish sweater. On size 2 needles:


The plan for this sweater is that it's going to be a gansey (or Jersey or Guernsey, choose your spelling) style affair- the sort of thing that will be light and warm, and yet not add excessive bulk to the figure of a gentleman friend who is perhaps a tad sensitive about a certain middle-agedness in his midsection.

As for the pattern-- well, I know what the bottom half looks like- ribbing (which I couldn't resist throwing a few little cables into, just for fun) and then miles and miles and miles of stockinette. Then a change to light patterning just below the armscyes. The actual patterning... is TBD. I have a book of traditional patterns, which has given me a few ideas, and I figure I'll have plenty of time knitting stockinette to think about the patterning before I get there. Plenty of time....did I mention this sweater is going to have 300 stitches around the chest? On size 2 needles. I think I'll blame the size 2 needles on Mike, too.