Blue Koolhaas

Sorry, but I wasn't able to get a photo of the commission that I finished. I showed it to my co-worker who requested it on what was quite possibly our coldest day here, and she said it was perfect and that she'd use it right away. So, I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wanted to take it home to photograph. Oh well. I'm considering knitting one for my mom, so I may still get a photo of it up yet.

In other news, I've started my version of Koolhaas in the Malbrigo. Here it is in its unfinished glory.

Excuse the odd yellow cast to the photo. I wanted the stitch definition to show, so I turned the flash off. As per my comment to Adrienne's last post, I'm not going to build any fancy contraptions in order to take better photos, so I think all my pictures will forever more have that yellow tint to them. I might play with Photoshop later tonight to see if I can cook up a formula to get rid of it, but for now, I'm going to leave it. In case you're curious, here's what it looks like with flash.

So, what do you think? Flash, or no flash?

The Malbrigo seems great, except that it knits up a bit taller than gauge. For the record, I didn't knit a gauge swatch. Why not? Well, they the gauge in terms of the lattice pattern, and since the pattern is written in the round, I was too lazy to convert it to flat. Also for the record, I'm a believer that gauge swatches should be standardized to stockinette. So, I didn't really notice the gauge difference until I was reading the pattern and it said 10 rows of k2 p2 rib should be about 1-1/4". I had knit about 7 rows in order to get that height. In conclusion, I think I'm going to do one less repeat of the lattice pattern before starting to shape the crown. I don't know if that will leave me with a hat that fits, but again my laziness prevails. I don't want to figure out how to alter the pattern if I only wanted to half a repeat less. I'm just going to toss my lot with the knitting gods and see what happens. Even if the hat doesn't fit me, I'm sure there's someone out there who has a head just that size, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I know this seems like a super long-winded post already (this should totally be considered two posts), but I just wanted to write a little rant about my thoughts on cables. I'm a little torn about what I think about cables. I love the way they look, but find the whole process of having to deal with the cable needle a bit cumbersome. I don't know I'm feeling this way because this hat requires you to use that cable needle, like, every other stitch, or if this is how I will always feel about any and all cables. It might just be this hat in particular because I don't remember being this annoyed when I was knitting that black cabled hat for Jamie. Or maybe I'm just forgetting any annoyance I might have had because the project is done. Also, I'm still wrapping my head around the 'physics of cables', if you will. Somehow, it doesn't seem as intuitive to me as lace knitting, but I'll probably get it after a while. Maybe at that point I'll feel more confident, and able to alter the pattern so that I can do 4.5 lattice repeats instead of 4 or 5.