Hats & scarves

On the trip to Williamsburg, I made this hat, from the current issue of Knitty. It's made with one skein of Noro's Cash Laine (wool & silk, if I remember correctly) that I have had around for a while, and 1+ skein of Peru Chunky Luxury (alpaca & silk) that went on clearance at A.C. Moore. Both are double-stranded to get gauge, and boy is this hat warm. Perfect timing, since it turned bitter, bitter cold (as will happen in January & February in these parts) a couple of weeks after finishing the hat. It's getting good use. (And, in the background, is the elusive fire ox, Zeno, himself. He's so shy, a couple of friends have still never seen him, and do not believe he exists. Focus on the hat and the cat, not my puffy tired face.)

Now I'm working on Cozy, from the Fall 2004 issue of Knitty. I've narrowed it down from a wrap to a scarf, mainly because I didn't have that much yarn, but also because I do wear scarves but haven't found a lot of times to wear wraps. I'm making it with some variagated blue alpaca yarn I bought last year and have tried out on a number of projects. I tried it with Argosy, but because the yarn blotches rather than stripes, the effect was uninspiring. I did like the Argosy pattern, though, and may come back to that one. Initially I tried pairing the alpaca with a light blue angora-something blend (I've had that one for a long time, I can't even remember if I bought it or swiped it from my mom somehow). I showed a sample of that in November. But now all the possibles have been frogged and the splotchy blue alpaca will be Cozy. It's reached an acceptable minimum length now (once around my neck with a reasonable length to hang), and I still have just under a skein, so I'll just keep going a bit longer and see how it goes. Maybe some kind of neat edgings for the ends from one of Nicky Epstein's books?

Another scarf I'd like to try out: My So-Called Scarf. I have one skein of some wool produced in NY bought at North Wind Yarns in Oswego (nice shop, helpful store owners, and great dinner options nearby - the thai restaurant & the pub on the river in the town's oldest building). It's a mix of purple & teal (I also showed it in the November blog on UFOs, right now it's knit up as a possible hat). It's about the weight and yardage of Manos, so I could hop over to the A-to-Z Vacuum store and match it up with a skein of Manos. Then it's more or less knitting from stash.

Also, I finished the dragon scarf. He's orange, with red & grey snort tassles (which I hope look more like fire & smoke and less like a nosebleed), and golden yellow eyes with black pupils. DC donated the red for the tassles from her gorgeous alpaca sweater in progress & LC donated the gold from her beautiful feather & fan scarf for the undeserving.

So, on top of Cozy, Dragon & all the other scarves I already have, I need one more [My So-Called] scarf?

And thanks to everyone for showing up last night for my early birthday dinner!