Tadpole Tuesday: almost Wednesday

I was going to put off writing this week's post until tomorrow. Mr. Tinks and Frogs and I were watching an old episode of Lost and I was too enthralled by Stripe Study (ten stripes!) to put my knitting down and write up a post.

But the show has moved from tame expository episodes to incredibly well crafted suspense sequences. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm still too caught up in thinking about the latest cliff hanger that I really don't want to go to sleep on it. So blog post time it is.

I suppose this installment should have been titled "How did she get so big?"

A couple of months ago, I knit up another aviatrix hat for Tadpole. It was way too big on her - so big that it kept falling over her eyes when we weren't looking. So I set out to make a replacement until aviatrix v3 fit a bit better.

This was aviatrix 1.0

I had plenty of Anzula Cricket yarn from the first aviatrix left in the stash so I picked up another skein in a lovely charcoal grey from my LYS to make a colorwork hat.

Three attempts in I realized that not only had I screwed up the short rows on the ear flaps and forgotten to attach the foldover hem (those were attempts one and two) but I just didn't like the color combination. I did the only logical thing - I went and bought yet another skein to contrast with the grey. So much for stash dieting on this project.

I needed a stationary model

The fourth time was the charm. I'm always amazed at how quickly stranded colorwork knits up. Perhaps it's because I just want to see what comes next. Or perhaps it's that I knit with one color in each hand so it feels like I'm doing more with each row.

I finished the hat up in no time and it was a perfect fit.

 All my indoor shots are "take it off!" action shots

Once it gets chilly, hats are fine

But then Tadpole wore it again this past weekend and the hat was already looking too small. Babies grow much too fast! Thank goodness I have so much of that yarn left - I can eaily make another hat in the next size up.

Yes, that's snow (and three teeth)

A quick note about the pattern and then I've really got to get some sleep. (I've linked to the exact pattern on my ravely project page). I got this from the book "Hats Off" by Charlene Schurch, a fabulous collection published by Down East Books. The designs are interesting and look great knit up. But here's my favorite part: the designer never talks down to you. She just assumes that you know what you're doing and gives instructions accordingly. I love that! Sure, I tried a few different ways to work the short rows on the ear flaps, but her directions told me exactly what needed to happen so that I could figure out how I wanted to make that work. The big picture was always clear. I wish more knitting patterns were like that.