Wool For Brains

There’s a bit of work still to do on the hat: icord, tassels, a second ear flap, duplicate stitch noses and the elimination of that mane down the back (weaving ends in as I knit gives me a pain in the back of the hand with the tendon issues so I no longer weave as I go). I would no doubt be further along except the hat has spent two days in the naughty corner while I addressed the problem of the white yarn. I knew from the start that there probably wouldn’t be enough, it was the one that I made first and it was a bit thicker than it should have been with correspondingly less yardage. After the first round of polar bears the ball of white was looking very small. Before I could knit any further I had to decide whether to start another set of bears with the remaining yarn and then have to risk starting another ball of white part way through a bear or whether to leave the rest of the white for the ear flap and start the bears with a fresh ball. The deciding factor was that I didn’t have another ball of white so (after two days consideration) I went for broke and started the bears. It would have been quicker just to make the next ball of yarn, I could have had it spun and plied in an afternoon and dried overnight.

While the bears were in time out I found something else to occupy my knitting time. This is the start of the Victorian Christmas stocking, I’ve made it before and I always intended to make another. Dan gave me a box to “keep stuff in” and I went through all the various places that I keep beads and brought them all together. That was an interesting exercise, I have no idea what I ever intended some of them for but I certainly have enough to keep me going for a while. One set of mystery beads were prestrung so I’ve come close to casting on with them at some point although I can’t recall ever seeing them before. I could see they would work with some sock yarn that had come to the end of its time in the shop. (You might need to click for the big photo to see the beads) It’s a long winded way of tidying up the beads but it works. I’d like to say that I’m hiding another five inches of work off the bottom of the photo but that is all there is at the moment.

I’d already started knitting the second set of bears with the ever decreasing ball of yarn when I realised that the undyed sock yarn I was using on the stocking was about the same shade and thickness as the yarn that was living in the other bag with the hat. As it happened that small ball of yarn was enough for the bears and the three rounds with white in the next chart too. The remaining work on the hat is not exactly exciting but I still have some pressure to finish it seeing as it snowed again last night. When the choice is between knitting with beads or sewing in ends it’s hard to work up any enthusiasm for the needle with the eye so being cold keeps my mind on the need for the finished product. (Did that sound as if I was trying to talk myself into spending some time with the hat?)