knitting in the dark

On my list for Rhinebeck was yarn to make the man I’ve been dating a hat (upon his request). I had not yet picked a specific pattern, but I have always admired the Koolhaas design (ravelry link). Wait a second - “always”?!? - didn’t it come out just a year ago? Ha! Moving on… I am, however, decidedly NOT a fan of the library building in Seattle that inspired the design.

At the back of a bottom shelf at the Oak Grove booth (ravelry link) I found a lovely merino/angora blend (which they don’t seem to make anymore) in an almost-solid midnight blue called “ink.” It was a perfect match for the Koolhaas pattern and not at all itchy for his clean-shaven head. I was pretty sure it would only take the 150 yards found in a single skein, but I decided to buy a second… just in case. But what if I wanted to knit a second hat out of the same lovely yarn? I ended up buying all three skeins on the shelf; they were very reasonably priced and are the perfect color to make hats for persons with fair skin and blue eyes (which just happens to include the man and my entire family and myself).

During my first week in Baltimore we had our evenings off, which meant plenty of knitting time in front of the TV in my hotel room (a double treat since I don’t have a television at home). I finished the hat in just two days. Then I tried it on. And it hasn’t left my head since. It’s not masculine enough for the man anyway (he confirmed this when he saw it yesterday), which means I’m keeping it and knitting him something plain and based on a hat I bought at J.Crew eight years ago and still wear frequently. And the third skein will become a duplicate Koolhaas for my mother as a birthday or Christmas gift. I wonder if she stops through here regularly enough that I just ruined the surprise… I guess there’s only one way to find out!

pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood
size: smaller
yarn: Oak Grove 25% Angora 75% Merino, color: Ink
needles: 3.75mm INOX dpns
started: 23 October 2008
finished: 25 October 2008
notes: I didn’t change the pattern at all; it’s perfect as is.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 8:47 pm and is filed under knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.