Creation on Impulse

On Sunday, 7 November, sort of late in the afternoon, I had a brainstorm. I can knit for Grant, and I do, and I will, but why not knit for his mom, too, so she has something nice to remember me by until we can visit together again?

I didn't think she would want a watch-cap. Something to keep her warm, since she is very slender and gets cold easily. I spent a little time thinking about possible color/fiber combinations, and with help from my daughter, Daphne, I chose these four. The white and dark green are, I believe, acrylic, but the red and blue-gray are a wool and/or mohair blend of some sort. (With mill-ends, sometimes one has to guess.)

I wound one strand of each color together on my ball-winder, and came up with two enormous cakes I thought would be enough for a shawl, and cast on 63 stitches. I used the basic 3 knit, 3 purl prayer shawl stitch and knitted until it was long enough to wrap around myself, then did a knitted-on loop fringe from Barbara Walker Volume 2.

The flash made the colors look a lot brighter and sharper than they actually are, but I must say, I'm just thrilled with the way the whole thing came out, especially the fringe! It really adds a touch of elegance.

This last picture is a slightly more true representation of the colors. I'll send the shawl, and some little gifts for Grant, too, in plenty of time for Christmas.

Grant's Red and Black Botanic hat turned out a little closer to an actual yarmulke than he wanted, plus it was a little tight, circumference-wise. "So, if I send it back, you can add more, right?" he asked, via telephone, sounding slightly anxious.

I took this as a positive sign. He liked it enough to want to have it revamped, so he could wear it.

It's so easy to fib to a non-knitter. "Yeah, yeah," I assured him. "Piece of cake!"

Yesterday evening, I cast on for the replacement, using larger needles, and now I'm close to done. More of a piece of cake than re-doing the first one I sent. I'll just keep the smaller one for myself and send the larger one to him. I bet he'll never guess it's a whole different hat.

The thing that makes me sad is he's gone off on tour without the knit-love. Or...well...he's gone without the knit, anyway. Maybe he'll take his Windschief, and all the love, luck, and blessing that went into it last winter.

As I said to Himself, with a rueful sigh, "That's what I get for being too silly to ask if I could measure your head when I had the chance."

I'll be sure to take care of this detail next time, and see if I can get him to surrender his feet to the measuring tape as well.