11 February 2009

Taking a Mulligan

I'm trying to make the lining for the hat that will match these mittens.

I went to DC last week to visit some friends and take a little mini-break. Through a perfectly normal series of plane-delay happenings -- which seemed rather surreal due to a significant lack of sleep the night before -- I managed to get stuck in Kennedy airport during the first half of the Superbowl. And what else can you do when you're stuck in an airport during the Superbowl but sidle up to the bar, order dinner and a large Cosmo, and watch the game and halftime show?

Oh, yeah. You can cast on for a hat, too.

Now, I did my math well. I did my math sober and after a good night of sleep, even. And I double-checked that-there gauge. I was supposed to cast on 140 stitches of this Cashsoft for this hat, and that's what I did. Twice, in fact. The first time, during the Superbowl, I managed to twist my stitches, and only discovered the mobius-strip quality of my knitting the next day. So I frogged it, and made extra-sure (no Cosmo this time) not to twist my stitches when I cast on my 140 again. Two days of travel-knitting: in the car, in the DC Metro, in Jennie's living room while watching movies... came to the end of the ball... aaaannd the darn thing is huge. The above photo is me, wearing the hat lining over my glasses. It fit quite comfortably that way, thank you. A little hard to see, though.

I did attempt to salvage the work by trying out my friend Tara's serger -- not on the Cashsoft, thank goodness, but on some spare knitting scraps that Tara had lying around her apartment. (And forgot to take photos, of course.) The serger idea didn't so much work, so...

Into the Frogpile with you!
There goes all the travel knitting from my time in DC.

Ah, well, frogging builds character.

Then again, I forgot to recheck my gauge before I frogged, so I just had to guess. I cast on 126 stitches last night, and hopefully that'll be a better fit.

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