Successful FO, or bloody brains?

So Kristina and I started Brooklyntweed's Habitat hat on a whim. A little nutty to start a knitalong in the middle of another knitalong (Must Have Cardigan), but we were both up for it. I made mine out of Julia in color "geranium" on size 7 and 6 needles. Here it is, on my favorite hat model:

It looks pretty good. I messed up one cable cross early on and was too scared to ladder down to get it, but I can live with that. The only problem is that it doesn't fit the intended recipient. Her hair is... voluminous... and the hat practically pops off her head because the hair wants to push it up. Oops!

This whole project started because I wanted to use my Coopworth handspun for Habitat, but the gauge was too big. I went back to my Coopworth swatch today to try and make it work for another popular Brooklyntweed hat, Koolhaas. Stay tuned for a report on whether that works. It'll be a while... I have to order different needles.

This top view of the hat, when viewed above the skeleton t-shirt, makes Habitat look kind of like bloody brains, don't you think? Spooky!

My weekend with Julia ...

... and Kristina. As you know, Kristina came to visit this past weekend. We planned to do lots of knitting and, specifically, we wanted to begin a quick knitalong on Jared Flood's Habitat hat. I originally hoped to use my grey Coopworth handspun for this project, but it was too bulky. I decided to try Julia instead.

Julia is a 50% wool / 25% alpaca / 25% mohair worsted weight yarn designed by Kristin Nicholas. She loves color, and the line includes many beauties. Kristina and I first became aware of this yarn several years ago when a sweater of Kristin's appeared on the cover of Interweave Knits ("Colorwork Classic," Winter 2004, Ravel it or see the magazine cover here). Kristina was smitten. At that time, the yarn was more difficult to find than it is now. She scored enough for this sweater while visiting her sister in North Carolina - an LYS carried it. Now my LYS, The Mannings, carries it, and I wanted to try it.

I picked this deep red, called "Geranium," for Sharon's hat. Kristina is knitting hers out of Knit Picks Andean Silk (55% superfine alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino) in color "Merryweather."

We arm-wrestled our knitterly friend Kris to go to The Mannings with us on Saturday (it wasn't too hard). Kristina and I both found buttons for our Must-Have sweaters. Kristina also got a button for a felted bag. I got Julia, and some reinforcement thread I intend to use for the heels in my Harvest Socks.

Then we got MORE Kris time on Sunday when she came over for knitting in the afternoon. And we began the hats. Okay, so there's not a whole lot to look at yet, but the cabley goodness is emerging.

I finally got to use my pumpkin stitch marker. And note how tidy Kristina's tail is - it's wound around a bread bag thingie. Don't throw those out, knitters!

FUN WEEKEND. Hope yours was, too!

Endangered Habitat

There hasn't been much posting, because there hasn't been much knitting. The sweater goes slowly, I'm fighting with a new sock, and I've been swatching the grey Coopworth handspun for Habitat. You know, that new cabley hat pattern by Jared Flood aka Brooklyntweed.

I think my Habitat is endangered.

My handspun is quite a bit thicker than I thought it was. I guess that'll teach me to eyeball it and say "it's worsted weight!" I swatched on a US7 needle, knitting in the round, and got 3.75 st/in. It makes a nice fabric. I definitely do not want to go down a needle size (or two, or three) to get a smaller gauge, or I'll be knitting armor. The Habitat pattern calls for 4.5 st/in. Big difference.

Want to see the math? The main body of the hat (not counting the ribbed brim) has 120 stitches. 120 stitches divided by 4.5 st/in = 26.67 in. The pattern says the finished hat circumference is 21". I know that cables pull in a lot, so I get this. You lose about 20% to the cables (if I'm doing my math correctly).

If I do the same pattern at my gauge... that's 120 stitches divided by 3.75 st/in = 32" minus 20% cable shrinkage = 25.6" circumference finished hat. Now, Sharon has big hair, but not THAT big. That's a big hat.

The pattern repeat is 24 stitches and you repeat it 5 times (24x5=120). What if I removed one of the repeats? I would have 96 stitches in that section. Let's do the math again... 96 stitches divided by 3.75 st/in = 26.5" minus 20% cable shrinkage = 20.48" circumference finished hat. Her head is about 22", so that seems small.

Do you math people want to weigh in? Just TELL ME if this is the wrong yarn for this project. I'll just go shopping so that K and I can cast on this weekend. It wouldn't kill me. I'm interested in knitting with some Julia, a yarn I'm considering for a sweater in our future. Knitting Habitat in Julia would be like going on a first date with her. This would not be a waste of time.