Help me choose: WIP it or RIP it?

You may recall I was all set to resurrect a WIP from earlier this year – Calyx Hat by Debbie New – to make a multi-coloured tea-cosy for my daughter’s teacher (on request!).

There was the small matter of re-jigging the maths to make it fit a tea-pot, rather than a head; but that was easily got round.

That this led to the inevitable ripping of said WIP and casting-on again of 490sts was a mere trifle! (Though credit must go to MazzleDazzle’s patience and tolerance, as she sat through un-ending  and repeated counting with great humour: casting-on copius stitches at knit-night is not conducive to chatting – or so I’ve learned.)

Once the cast-on stitch-count was triple-checked (with stitch-markers in place like there’s no tomorrow) the actual knitting was very quick: one evening’s sitting, in fact. The sewing-up was an altogether different matter, however; but we’ll come to that later.

The lobes come together

After I cast-on I showed it to my closest friend at work. Her initial reaction was that it was one very big tea-cosy! When I explained, quite literally, the “ins” and “outs” of all the lobes and the stitch-markers to her, being an architect she noted that it was just like how insulation was indicated in Construction drawings:

Which, we agreed, is quite appropriate, considering a tea-cosy is insulation for a tea-pot.

A stripe too far

So far, so clever. Then, that minx, Hubris, came to the tea-party and spoiled all my fun! As I was happily sewing-up the lobes, I created a mathematical imponderable – a twist that would not go away.

At the same time, I fell out-of-love with how the Noro striping was becoming a murky melange over such a large stitch-count. You know when you’ve made something really clever in plasticine and then the mean-kid comes and mushes all the colours together so that it looks like muck? That was what my hat was like.

It was an easy decision to rip and start again. Same wool, I decided – after all “multi-coloured” was part of the Brief. My pattern choice should instead let the striping of the yarn play with a shorter stitch-count giving deeper stripes. I went for a classic: the “traditional” fluted tea-cosy pattern. My sister knit one of these when we were in Primary School but I never got the chance. You may be surprised to learn that I didn’t automatically know how it was made – I had to look it up.

Some judicious searching on Ravelry… a bit more maths to convert the gauge to my bulkier yarn… and I was off again. Only now I’m not so sure of myself. Once bitten – twice shy, as they say; so now I’m less gung-ho about this project. I need your opinion to help me decide:

1. Am I making something with bo-ho chic / rustic charm / grungy cool
2. or… Just plain FUGLY!

Fancy a cuppa?

Opinions below, if you please…

WIP Around

Thinking Cap On!

It’s official: I AM insane!

I’m about to cast-on 490sts for a tea-cosy.

I’ve done me Sums (readers in the US would call this Math); I’ve measured me tea-pot. I’m about to start me Mad Hatter’s Tea-party. (Readers in the US should not read too much into my use of *that* phrase!)

See if this makes sense to you: C = no. of sts in Crown height; R = no. of rows, inc. bind off; R = no. of sts in Crown top, also. So overall no. of sts for a half-crown = C+R.

Follow? Yes? Good.

R is – thirdly – the no. of rows in each lobe section – there’s 14 lobes in all; so R is determined by measuring the head – by which I mean tea-pot – circumference; dividing by 14 and using a gauge swatch to determine how many rows I need to make the resulting dimension.

Still with me? No? Me neither.

Anyway, unless I’ve mis-calculated – which is entirely possible – C=24, R=6 and my cast-on row goes something like this:

[CO: 1+C+R/2, PM, 1+R/2+R/2, PM, 1+R/2+R/2, PM, 1+R/2+C, PM] 7 times. OR…

[CO 29, PM; CO 7, PM; CO 7, PM; CO 29, PM] x 7. The first round will involve pouring a stiff drink, me-thinks! The beauty is, five rounds later and I’m binding-off!!!

As for other insanity I’ve been indulging in lately, I ran the Women’s Mini-Marathon last week. I actually ran it – and survived! – much to my own surprise.  Even more surprising for me, my time was just under 80mins – 1hr 19mins 48secs, to be precise. Before the event, the longest I’d run non-stop in training was 25mins. I decided I would follow two pod-casts for the C25K programme back-to-back, to keep me going. So I started with a 5 minute walk and easily ran 25 minutes without stopping. The hard part was negotiating around all the walkers; they were spread out and there wasn’t a lot of room to manoeuvre. Then I walked for 10 minutes before starting the next 25 minute run. The funny thing was, when I started to run again I found I had to over-take many of the same walkers all over again! Obviously my walking pace was a lot slower than theirs.

I felt great after the run; really thrilled with my achievement and my time. More importantly, I’ve been out running since. I think I’ve really caught the bug: I’m thinking of trying the “Bridge to 10K” programme next. I’m not sure when I’ll get time to run 10k in the morning, however; as it is I get up at 6 and the 5k run takes 40minutes or so.

It’s not too late to support the worthy cause that I was running to raise money for: CMRF stands for Crumlin Medical Research Fund and is the Fund-raising vehicle for Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland. They’re the people who fixed my fab nephew when he was only a few days old and set him on a path to life-long health and happiness. They have amazing staff at that hospital and it is woefully under-resourced and under-funded by Central Government. They *need* all the fund-raising they can get to keep doing what they do so well.

So if you’ll pardon me having a Whip-around (see what I did there) please donate a skein’s worth to a worth cause by clicking on this link: http://tinyurl.com/32fmuzu

The money goes straight to CMRF; nothing goes to me but self-righteous Pride! And you all know how well I thrive on that!

Tour of Duty

Being a knitting-mother of school-going kids I believe I am honour-bound to produce a knitted item as presents for their teachers. It’s a duty I take very seriously but, over the past two years, what should be an opportunity to create a unique present – that is appreciated and cherished for its one-off exclusivity – becomes yet another lesson in hubris for me as the resulting item is (more-than-likely) greeted with quizzical look or received with forbearance.

This year, because I now have two children going to school, it should mean I’ve twice the “fun” in store. In fact, I have high hopes that I will succeed this year. Not only do I expect I will produce gifts that the recipients will like, but I won’t be stressed out of my head about how long it is taking me to make them.

Or… I’ve yet another module of “Hubris and How It Builds Character” to complete a practical exam for my Life-studies course at the University of Life. So why am I starting out feeling so confident? Why should this year be any different?

First of all, DD – precocious and forth-right girl that she is – asked her teacher what knitted gift would she like me to make for her. Word came back “I’ve loads of scarves and hats and gloves; but what I would really love is: a multi-coloured tea-cozy”. Thank you Ms Cusack – that’s exactly the information I needed. I’m delighted with this because

1. at least I know I’m knitting something that she might actually want and use,
2. it’s a fairly small and manageable project, so time-wise it won’t take most of the coming month and
3. I’ve never knitted a tea-cozy before and it’s something I’ve wanted to do but needed an excuse to get on with.

Hedgehog Fibers

For Bonus-Points, I realised that I can dust down a WIP I started in a bout of Startitis earlier in the year: Calyx Hat by Debbie New in Noro Big Kureyon. If I judiciously omit to sew up the seams – at the right places – hey, presto: my hat’s a tea-cozy.

Then, I showed DS my copy of Whimsical Little Knits 2, by Ysolda Teague. I was thinking Snapdragon Tam or Scoll Lace Scarf. I should have guessed: naturally, he picked out Smith – the Hedgehog pattern – for me to make for his teacher.

I’m pleased with this selection too, since

1. it also shouldn’t take too long and
2. I’ve been wanting to make this pattern for a while.
3. I’m on Double-Bonus Points because- surprisingly – I have brown yarn!
4. What’s more, this pattern will teach me a new cast-on: Triple-Bonus-Points!!!

So, sorry Ms Daly, if you weren’t expecting to get a stuffed hedgehog this year; but this knitter is hoping for Kudos not Hubris, this time!