Inspired

The upgrade and redesign has not been working out smoothly and I may take the drastic course of deleting my entire blog and starting with a backup Grr. It may or may not be because I customized version 1 so much and I've forgotten exactly what I did in coding. Anyway, I'm not satisfied with this design so I may do it... probably after we return from Greece.

But let's focus on other things now. Namely, this.

Pattern: My own, to be released next week
Yarn: Dale of Norway Heilo (100% Norwegian wool; 1.75oz/50g; 109yd/100m) in 020 Cream
Needles: US4 bamboo dpns

I like to revisit patterns I've knit because there's always a clever detail, or a bit of construction, that goes beyond the pattern. Case in point, Marnie's Nautilus hat, knit from the top down. I knit this hat for a friend some years ago, and I just loved the way the eyelets spiraled down from the center. Then there were the other hats I knit, from the bottom up, whose decreases spiraled up to the top. Isn't it amazing that a simple order of decreases creates such a beautiful pattern? With Marnie's pattern was my inspiration, I had myself a project.

I sought to incorporate a spiral, and cables, into a project. A hat is the perfect form, because it's a tube with a closed end. Now, I didn't bring along a truckload of yarn to Europe, just a box with 2-10 skeins of yarn each in different weights, enough to keep me occupied for our time here. (We're on a budget, a tight one, and I've only bought yarn once since we've been here. And that was on a sale.) I dug around and found a good, reliable yarn that would suit my purposes. I did a lot of charting and swatch knitting; this wasn't a cut-and-dried project at all. A misplace decrease on the chart would render my swatch wrong. Then, having the right increase to match the decrease was the challenge. I decided on the simplest of cables, a right-leaning cable that appeared to climb the spiral to the top.

There you have it.

I've received compliments from strangers when I've worn it outside. Funnily enough, the compliments come after I've walked past people, because it's the top detail that attracts people's attention. "Sehr schön!" is what I hear the most, and these from women who normally don't look up. There's no doubt, they must be knitters!