Yes, I Can

knit a hat. I think.

The Hat Attack project has rejuvinated my love of hat knitting - I suppose I'm somewhat inspired by the seemingly instant gratification of a simple pattern and a whole day devoted to knitting.

But any hat should knit up quickly enough. I need a new hat, and I've been wanting some sort of Barack Obama gear to wear every day. So, inspired by Carla's great hat, I've decided to put together my own. This project begins on a good note because the red and white yarns are from stash. I thought I'd be able to pull two blues from stash, too, but then finally remembered that I'd actually used that yarn on another project. So the stash is good for something.


Here's the beginning of the hat - I'm actually using six needles - which is the sort of set you get when you have a dog who eats needles. It works out nicely because there are five repeats of the brim pattern, which has turned into this from my original plan of having some sort of staggered garter stitch design.


So my plan is that the brim will fold up, and then I'll have a simple stockinette hat with the Obama logo. I've been debating how to do the logo part - I was really leaning toward intarsia in the round, but I think I'm going to go with duplicate stitch. It might not look quite as nice, but sooner or later it gets kind of weird to wear candidate apparel - especially if the candidate you want wins, I think - and I'd like to be able to wear this hat after November. So duplicate stitch for now, and then after Inauguration Day it can become a plain blue hat. Hmm...maybe it needs some white to make it look more springlike - perhaps I'll be adding some I-cord before this is over.

Yes, I can make a hat. I can make a hat, and ignore any concerns about gauge, and completely forego swatching, and fiddle around with the design as I go along, and still have something that I want to wear every day for months. I hope.

By the way, I realize that friends who want to know what I'm knitting, or what sort of bad things the dogs have done, may not be dying of curiousity about what I've had for lunch. But I can't resist the bento pictures, so I've created a new flickr pool so I can keep them off the blog. Two new bento boxes are on their way, so you'll have to venture over to flickr if you want to see the "little fishies happy together," or the Bullet Train cartoon character. (Ok, he may wind up here. I reserve the right to assert the coolness of public transportation anyplace.) I've also joined the Bento Boxes group in order to have an audience who shares my obsession. Some of my favorite bento makers are in that pool. Is it way too weird that I have favorite bento makers?