Calorimetry

Recipient: Moi
Designer: Kathryn Schoendorf
Pattern: Calorimetry
Source: Knitty
Completed: October 17?, 2007
Colours: forest green and powdery purple
Yarn: Green: Naturally Merino finé, 100% NZ merino, worsted weight; purple: Sirdar Click DK, 70% acrylic/30% wool, DK weight
Completed status: I like it!
Pictures:

2007-Oct-20

I finished it super-fast, tried it on and was insanely disappointed. It was too wide and I looked supremely dorky in it. I did briefly consider posting a photo of me in it as proof of the dorkiness, but then realised that humiliating myself on a global scale was not my idea of fun.

Anyway, I ripped the whole thing out. Then, inspired by the success of DD1's mini-Calorimetry, I restarted with just 84 stitches in the cast on. I worked the short-row decreasing until I had 26 stitches on each side, with 34 in the middle. Result: a band that actually fits me, and lots of yarn left over.

Oh, and happy ears for me.

2007-Oct-15

I kill earmuffs. Seriously. Every pair of earmuffs I've ever had (that wasn't butt-ugly) has either been lost, or I've broken it. Even those wonderful earmuff earphones that I got last year as a Christmas present from my parents? Fell out of my coat pocket later in the winter and...gone. (The look on my dad's face when I told him this was sooo guilt-inducing. My stomach still sinks into my toes whenever I think about it.)

The really annoying part about this earmuff-losing talent of mine is that I really need earmuffs, because I have seriously wussy ears. Even with just a little bit of breeze and a hint of cold air, they start to hurt and I get a headache, and it's just not a good scene.

So here we are, as the cold weather begins once again, and I have already hurt my ears being out in the cold without any earmuffs. Therefore...Enough! Is! Enough! I resolved to whip myself up a Calorimetry quick-smart before things get any worse. So yesterday at the shop I went looking for some nice aran-ish weight yarn, and I got stuck. I couldn't decide between a really nice and inexpensive merino in forest green, or a lovely dark powdery purple which was a 70/30 acrylic/wool blend (also affordable). So, what the heck - I splurged and bought 'em both. I was originally thinking I'd make two, and then I realised that I could really do my ears a favour, and make a single, reversible band with a double thickness! Green on one side, purple on the other. Perfect!

It is knitting up astonishingly fast:



Although I don't know how big a fan I am of the purple now that I'm actually working with it...it seems a bit insubstantial and fluffy, in a 'hollow' kind of way, if that makes any sense. However, attached to the green merino (which is fantastic, although unfortunately now discontinued) I think it should be fine.

And hey, is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the clicking of the needles when doing 2x2 ribbing continentally taps out the beat of the "Mazel Tov" song from Fiddler on the Roof?

(Am I too weird?)