Controlling the Weather

I have magical powers, readers. Magical powers. I have singlehandedly mastered the ability to change the weather. I brought springtime to Northern California five weeks early. It's been at least sixty degrees and sunny for all but one day in the last month.

And all because I knit a hat.


Details

Pattern
You Don't Know Our Women. I loved this pattern when it came out, and have been shuffling the printout around on my desk for a long time.

Yarn
Rowan Big Wool- 65.3 yards, Manos Del Uruguay - 70.4 yards, held double. That's two colors of Manos, one at 26.2 yards and the other at 44.2. In total, that makes it about a hundred yards of bulky yarn.

The Big wool was left over from a hat I made several years ago, and the Manos remnants were from an Absolutely Fabulous throw that I made before I started blogging.

Needles/Notions
Addi Turbos, US11, and wooden double-points, same size. The Addis are 16" circulars, and that turned out to be, well, not such a good idea.


Time
About six hours, give or take. I carried it around in my purse for about a month, and had to rescue it from a dog's mouth and restart it a couple of times, but once I cast on the last time, it was only a few hours of solid work to finish it.

Modifications
First off, there are the stripes. About halfway up, I knew I wasn't going to have enough Big Wool to make this thing. I didn't realize that I didn't have a full ball of it, and I didn't bother to weigh it before I started. Hey, it still had the ball-band! Why would I have done that with half a ball? I went digging in the oddball bin for some compatible options, but nothing jumped out at me. Luckily, the Manos looked pretty good with the Big Wool, so I plowed forward.

A couple of rows from the next cable cross, I ran out of yarn. I decided that having the color changes happen on the cable rows was more important than the cables being uniform from bottom to top, so I shortened it up. Brilliant! Except...

I didn't have as much of the mustard as I did of the plum, so that section ended up being even shorter. I didn't have enough of the grey left, so that section was shorter than the very short mustard section, and so on. I think it might actually make my head look larger, because it makes the top of it look like it's farther away than the bottom, like you're standing on the sidewalk, looking up at a really tall building.


Conclusion
The problem with the short cable needle was that I really hurt my hand knitting this hat. The extensor tendons running down from my second and third fingers are so irritated that sometimes I can't fasten buttons. It's not much better now than it was a month ago.

"Suzanne, what did you do now? Why is your hand wrapped up like a burrito?" I'm asked this question at least twice a day, which is a lot, since I don't get up from my desk much.

"Knitting injury," I reply brightly.

"Did you stab yourself with a needle?"

"Don't give me any ideas. You know my luck."

Even with the hand injury keeping me on the knitting sidelines, I'm in a good mood about this hat. I love that it came out a little long, so it'll cover my ears. I used some yarn that I've wanted to destash for years. It's going to be super-warm when I need it to be. Probably next December.