What's in a name?

I haven't written here since the beginning of November. So hard to get near the computer at home, but I'm off for the day and I have the time to write and knit. Hooray!

The (Maximalist) Minimalist Cardigan lies in a heap on the ironing board. It is finished. Blocked, sewn and ironed. I am still in the denial phase. I'm telling myself that maybe it doesn't fit because I accidentally knit one size too big. This is true. But maybe it's because I didn't set the sleeves in right...or, it just occurred to me now - maybe I knit the back in one size and the fronts in a smaller size! No. I can't bear it. This will have to be a story for another day.

After the sweater disaster, I got down to knitting hats for our guild's community knitting effort. I had promised to knit some small hats in dark colours so gosh darn it, that's what I did. I knit two plain tuques in black Cascade 220, all the while thinking about Jared Flood''s (cool-ass) Koolhaas Hat from IK Holiday 2007. 

Rationalizing about community knitting and chastened by the (Maximalist) Minimalist, debacle I knit my first Koolhaas in Canadiana Sayelle (cost - 49 cents at the Sally Ann). The Yak called for by the pattern appears only in my dreams and is also apparently beyond the realm of the practical for many others. Many people have been knitting this hat in Cascade 220. A few have mourned that their hats turned out too big. Say no more! I worked out that this pattern is based on repeats of 8 stitches. I cast on 88 stitches instead of 104 or whatever it is and had at it.  I produced a very nice navy blue hat for a toddler and set out to take a few photos. 

Wouldn't fit on on my head. Looked stupid on bowls. But look what a good cosy it would make for a large sized margarine tub!

Cosy you say? How about this cool-ass tea cosy! Thus a new bit of slang has entered into my vocabulary.

Inspired, I got out the remaining skein of black Cascade 220 from the stash and, after looking carefully at the pattern, cast on the requisite number of stitches. I switched from dpns to a circular need sized 4.5 mm. I've already done the ribbing plus two of 4 pattern repeats. Reading Jean Miles's blog last night, I got to thinking about cable needles.

Personally, I've never used one, preferring instead a specimen of one of the better classes of wooden toothpicks. Well, "preferring" is not the right word here since I've never actually used a commercially produced cable needle. The idea seems to be that because of the dip in a cable needle, it helps keep the stitches that you're slipping from stretching out. With the (cool-ass) Koolhaas, this is very important because of the wandering twisted stitches that are crisscrossing over the place. Your technique is very exposed on this hat and you want your stitches to look uniform. I think that's the idea anyway. Maybe I will try it one day.

Meanwhile I'll stick to the toothpick and get that cool ass hat done today!