After completing the green sweaters for Trevor and myself last year I have been knitted out. It really did not help that the sweaters did not turn out particularly good though Trev likes his and Markus has stolen it now and refuses to take it off. I love my kids and they love me but that does not mean I am not down in the dumps as a kniter. Time to pick that stitch back up…

You might remember how after the sweater marathon I decided to only do accessories and only use stash yarn? Well that is kind of hard. Doable though…

Step 1: Pattern: I picked this one. It’s simple and it makes a shawl – something I have not made before.
Step 2: Pick yarn: I have a lot of yarn but not a lot of yarn of the same colour. I tried swatting a few different combinations…

some of which were terrible!

I finally decided on this combination of colours,

but not in that order.

I have some ambitions of adding pink.

If I do it will not be until the edge.

So, what do you think? Worth it or another dead end?

Remember how in a post a few months ago I was saying how I would really like to improve my sewing skills, possibly by taking a course? Also remember how once I am done working, sleeping, managing the household, playing with my boys, keeping in decent enough shape and maintaining some contact with likeminded individuals outside of my immediate family I have no time for anything whatsoever? So, no sewing courses for me. I do have a project that is complicated enough satisfactorily completing it would involve acquiring those elusive skills. The challenge: make a cycling cap I would not be embarrassed to sport in public.

Luckily, I suffer from occasional insomnia which gives me that extra 6 to 8 hours a day I would have otherwise spent sleeping. Last March, while my dad and sister were visiting, I used one of these opportune “white nights” to practice my sewing skills in making a hat.

It is supposed to be a cold weather cycling cap functionality list of which would include hiding helmet hair, soaking up sweat and keeping my ears warm (super important, I have very sensitive ears).

The hat was obviously absolutely terrible. The only reason I did not immediately trash it is because it might be a good prop if the kids ever do “Bob and Doug McKenzie” style skit for a school talent show.

My dad, not wanting to say anything about the hat in question, changed the subject by asking me to replace the liner in his winter hat.

Sure I can replace the liner, but in the process I have borrowed his hat for indeterminate period of time to attempt to reverse engineer the design and make a similar hat for myself. No, I have no desire to dress like a man of my dad’s generation, but the hat itself has excellent shaping and with lighter fabric and a single seam added between the forehead and the visor, this would make an amazing cycling cap.

Then for a while I did nothing due to actually sleeping at night. I did purchase a real cycling cap (summer version, no earflaps) to compare and contrast.

So today I was so sick I could neither go to work nor get anything done at home. It is just a cold I think, but it has got the best of me. I watched about four hours of television at which point I needed to do something more constructive or I would go crazy. It was time to do the first prototype of my dad’s hat.

Yes, that is a shopping bag that got ripped earlier this week when I attempted to carry milk from Costco’s cart to my bike. I put it in the recycling bin, but pulled it out when I was looking for strawberry container I could make the hat’s visor out of.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to take down notes on the prototype hat so I can fix it in the next edition as I am highly unlikely to remember the details without writing them down.

– The back of the hat should not end in a little triangle
– The central seam should only go up to the top of the head
– Side seams should be much more slacked
– Both top and bottom line of the central panel are slightly curved

Let’s hope that the next prototype turns out a resounding success.

One day when I was about 10 the lakes in Maksimir froze and we went skating on them. I don’t remember who I was with or how long the ice stayed or even which of the lakes we skated on (probably the Fourth…). The ice was smooth and dark and I would swear I saw fish underneath though it was probably just sticks. It was really nice.

What does that have to do with Trev’s sweater? Absolutely nothing!