I'm Ready this Time

Although today the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s, there is a possibility of snow flurries tonight. In the Raleigh-Durham area, snow flurries result in at least one day off from school. Any snow that sticks is good for at least two. We had a crazy blizzard (18 inches overnight) the first year we moved here in 1999 and the kids were out of school for two weeks! The next few days promise frigid temperatures in the teens and twenties.

Most people here are not prepared for such weather. I mean, why buy all kinds of winter accessories when we really only experience a few days a year of what anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line would call winter. On those days, I wear a Columbia ski jacket that I think I got in 1997 when we were living in Florida and went on a ski trip. The worst part about being outside in the cold is having cold ears and if you wear a hat, having your hair look really stupid when you take the hat off.

So, I present my latest creation. Unfortunately, my model refused to wear this fancy ear warmer on his ears. Maybe he heard that others of his breed have their ears surgically cropped and was worried that having something cover his ears was step one.

This is, by far, the most complex knitting project I have attempted...and I've made sweaters and cable knits and everything. But it was fun and I'm proud of how beautiful it came out! My model looks utterly unimpressed!

Di

Comments

[joAnn]

Hey, Di...tell me (who only knits rectangles - and no cables!) what made this complex. Did you have to change yarns to get the various colors? Was it the shape?

Thanks!
JOANN

[Di]

The stitch is called entrelac and the changes in color are just from the variegation in the yarn. I think that the only thing that makes knitting projects challenging is when you have to pay attention. Hats are easy because they are on round needles....knit, knit, knit...no purls. This project even got to the point where eventually I knew what to do without looking at the pattern. And really it only involves knitting, purling and picking up stitches to form the triangles and rectangles. The end result just looks really impressive and the more complex nature of the project makes it interesting to work on.

Ideally I would like to have two projects going at a time. One complex and one simple. For example, I was working on the ear warmer at the same time that I was working on a baby blanket. The baby blanket was a combination of seed stitch and stockinette stitch with a consistent number of stitches of each. So this was something I could work on while flying or watching something on TV that I was interested in. The ear warmer was something I would knit when I had the luxury of just a quiet house or when I was sitting with my husband and kids and wasn't interested in what was on TV.

I believe there are entrelac patterns that can be done with different yarns. I've seen some:

http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/afentrelac.htm (an afghan)
http://nocturnalknits.blogspot.com/2007/01/entrelac-baby-blanket.html (baby blanket...you have to click on the link in the text to see the blanket)

Here's the link to the pattern for my ear warmer. It takes just one skein of Crystal Palace Yarns Taos.

[Di]

So typical of me to forget the last link:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTquant.html

[Leigh]

You're only really prepared when you race to the grocery store to buy ONLY eggs, milk, and bread!!

[Tania]

Hey, Webmaster.
Can I get a photo from your site?
Of course, i will place a backlink to source.
Thanks.
Yours Tania