The First Step Down a Long and Scary Road…
Thank you, all, for your suggestions as to what hat I might have conjured up in my little brain. And thank you for reminding me that I really want to knit both Odessa and Shedir (PDF), though frankly Shedir scares the bejesus out of me – that chart gives me hives.
However, it seems that the hat in my mind’s eye really is a figment of my imagination…some weird amalgam of the two aforementioned hats and a hat I saw knit by Susan over at I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can (I can’t link to the individual post, but it’s the May 8, 2006 post).
There are a few things a knitter can do when faced with a dilemma like dreaming up a hat that doesn’t exist. She can put her faith in those more experienced that she, and knit a hat that is almost what she wanted. She can say “fuck the hat” and finish the Mother’s Day present shawl that is quickly becoming a birthday shawl.
Or she can try to get the hat out of her head and onto the needles.
It’s scary, I’m telling you. Yes, yes, I know…it’s just knitting. And fer fucksake…it’s just a hat. And I’m a competent knitter – I know what the stitches do and that I have to balance the YOs with the k2togs lest I end up with a very pretty Frisbee. I know.
But math is not my strongest suit. It’s not even that I’m bad at math (though I am), but more that I’m lazy. Designing requires either a lot of precision, or a lot of patience as you knit and frog and reknit, and I’m not good at either. And yet, here I go, making a hat with only a vague picture in my mind and a skein of Plymouth Encore I don’t mind wonking up if the whole thing goes to shit.
Heh. At least my camera’s broken – if the hat turns out nightmarish, there will never be photographic evidence. All mentions of the hat will just disappear, and I’ll be displaying my lovely new Odessa. If that happens, you know…don’t bring it up, okay?
1Sydney
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 7:07
Go for it! It’s only a hat. Hats are usually quicker than sweater and don’t take a lot of yarn. Besides you might end up making a hat so beautiful that we’ll all want the pattern for it.
2Mouse
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 8:13
I know all too well about the items that never make it to the blog because they are such a horrible nightmare.. If that happens we’ll all just look at each other and go.. ” what hat?”. I’m sure the results will be gorgeous though.. and you can’t possibly suck as bad at math as I do!
3Kristi aka Fiber Fool
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 8:39
It’s not as scary as it seems. Especially with smaller projects like that. You’ll do great!
4Chris
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 8:49
How much are you willing to pay for us to not bring it up?!
Go for it!
5Chris
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 8:49
Ack, forgot to change my url to my new blog address in that previous comment…
6janna
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 10:29
Although I admire you for designing something — and I admire everyone else who designs stuff for me to knit — I’ve pretty much decided that there are lots of pretty patterns out there, so my job is to knit other people’s patterns. That’s not saying that I don’t ever make my own little modifications, of course.
So — if this hat turns out, which I’m sure it will, share the pattern, and I’ll knit it!
7susan
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 10:30
OK, I think I know the hat you’re talking about. Is it in the May 10th post on Beth’s blog?
http://biggeek.knitblog.com/blog/archives/2006/05/index.html
8Elisabeth
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 14:20
I understand about the math. Still, I think you should go for it. Can’t wait to see what it looks like (if you like it, if you don’t like it, I’ll pretend you never even spoke of a hat, in fact, I’ll ignore hats altogether–hat, what’s a hat?).
9Norah
wrote on 23 June 2006 at 17:00
Good for you for starting the hat! I’m sure it’ll turn out beautiful, and if not, like you said, at least there’s no photographic evidence. But I’m betting it’ll be nice.
10Birdsong
wrote on 24 June 2006 at 9:26
So what if it’s “just” knitting? Taking chances is always at least a wee bit scary, but that is what makes the results so exhilarating. I am eager to see how it goes for you.