March 21, 2007
Crossing the Great Divide
The Mysterious K and I always joke about how different we are. Okay, I joke and she says I'm wrong, but I think, all in all, it holds true. Watch:
Her: Mac
Me: PC
Her: Fried hotdogs
Me: Boiled hotdogs
Her: Home decorating—flashy, designer colors
Me: Home decorating—whites, creams, sissy greens, blues and yellows
Her: Pictures—hung off-center or at a jaunty angle
Me: Pictures—Hung exactly, precisely in the center
Her: Corgis
Me: Borzoi
Her: Quarter horses
Me: Arabians
Her: Western saddle and barrel racing
Me: English saddle and dressage (er, not that either one of our fat arses have been on a horse in, pardon the pun, donkey’s ages)
Her: Coffee
Me: Tea
Her: Rock
Me: Classical (and country, if you force me to admit it)
Her: Eggs—yolk not broken
Me: Eggs—yolk broken
Her: Diet Coke
Me: Regular Coke
Her: Driver
Me: Passenger
But, occasionally, projects come along that perfectly combine both our interests and tastes. The first was when we designed, planted, tended, harvested and used the natural-dye garden very much together. It was one of our best summers. Great good feeling abounded. Not once did one of us yell at the other, “You are not the boss of me!” Or maybe I just didn’t say it loud enough for her to hear.
The second was the recent making of the Chocolate Sauce hat. We both knew the pattern was an instant gold-star winner when we saw it, so we had an impromptu and fun, shoulder-to-shoulder huddle over the magazine page, followed by an enjoyable bout of fiber-y teamwork to make the hat a reality. (TMK did get a taste of the infamous Patented Princess Glare when, as I was starting to cast on for the hat, out of the blue, she launched into a little lecture about…I still can hardly believe it…how I should cast on. The details are already a little vague but I believe somehow she thought it safe to inform me that if I wanted to cast on loosely, I should use larger needles than the ones I was actually going to knit on. Hence, the Glare, and a short, sharp, clipped reminder about just how damn long I’ve been knitting and how many damn projects I’ve cast on during that damn time, and I know very damn well how to cast on, thank you very damn much.) But that was a very minor blip on the project radar. The rest was a wonderful, arm-in-arm, walk in the park.
The finished results:
I can’t tell you how little justice these photos do to the hat. Because of the fuzz and the lovely, chocolaty brown, both of which get lost in the photo, it almost looks alive. Not in the going-to-skitter-across-your-dining-room-table-jump-on-the-floor-and-have-an-accident-on-your-new-carpet alive but more…how do I explain this…it seems to embody the essence of the earth, of living things, of nature, of simple handwork. Even though it’s small, this hat oozes character, soul, heart. I suppose perhaps I’m just discovering the wonder of homespun yarn but I’d like to think it’s more than that, perhaps a chi thing. Of course, won’t I be freaked out when it runs under the couch, tears a hole in the bottom fabric and makes a nest up in the springs.
However…you know how we knitters talk about how our yarns “tell us” what they want to be? Sure, I’ve experienced that, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad. Right now, for example, one project which told me it wanted to be this…
…and then told me it wanted to be this…
…is now screaming to the rafters that it wants to be a baby kimono sweater. God help me.
But what do you do when a ball of yarn is telling the Creator of the Yarn that it wants to be one thing and the User of the Yarn that it wants to be something completely different? TMK says that the leftover Chocolate Sauce is telling her it wants to be another hat for me, identical to the one I knit for her so we can be, nauseatingly, hat twins. The yarn is telling me it wants to be a pair of cabled fingerless mitts for her which match the hat. We each have a claim on the yarn, she as the Creator and I as the User, so who’s right? (As the blog mistress and the knitter, I get to add: Y’all know I really don’t want to knit another, identical hat. Just sayin’.)
Easy peasy: Make the fingerless mitts, and she spins more yarn for an identical but different colored set -- hat and mitts -- for you! Twins, but not nauseatingly so; similar items but not such that you can't bring yourself to make four mitts; and more excuses to buy and use fiber!!
Man, I'm a genius.
Posted by: MaryB in Richmond on March 21, 2007 10:57 AMPerhaps it does need to be knit into typing toasties for you.. then if you leave them at her hosue she can borrow them.. and she leaves the hat at your house you can borrow it???
I love the kimono sweater.. altho I use the one from MinnowKnits.. b'c well.. that is the pattern I have. But all parents LOVE it and wish I would make a grown up size JUST for them.
Posted by: anj on March 21, 2007 10:58 AMYou don't want the same hat. If one gets lost (maybe making its home under someone else's sofa) then whose hat was it? There is potential for much strife and accusations of stolen knitwear. I'd go with the mitts and either the same hat in different yarn or the same yarn and a different hat.
There's nothing like knitting with handspun, nothing at all.
Posted by: Caroline M on March 21, 2007 11:03 AMwait wait wait....
Did you say....
"we designed, planted, tended, harvested and used the natural-dye garden"?
Um... does that mean you grew things that you then used to dye yarn with????? How'd you do that? Where can I learn?
If that is the case... VERY COOL! Please tell me more. Have. To. Know. More.
Posted by: Kris on March 21, 2007 11:10 AMKris, the first year of my blog has lots of detailed entries about the natural dye garden. The first few entries even describe what books we used and how we decided which plants to use. The subsequent entries contain photos of the growing garden, the materials I used to dye, and the results. Go have a look!
Posted by: Ryan on March 21, 2007 11:17 AMI have an idea similar to Mary B's: knit the cabled fingerless mitts for yourself, so you'll have a similar pattern in the same yarn, but not exactly the same item. You'll be Twins, but not Nauseatingly so. :)
That hat really is scrumptious! And Tropical Juice really would be gorgeous as a baby kimono, though it is also lovely as a diamond blanket. But it does need to make up its mind!
Posted by: Julie on March 21, 2007 11:20 AMI agree with Mary B -- plus after you do the fingerless gloves for her set you won't mind doing the set for you in a different color.
Posted by: rho1640 on March 21, 2007 11:40 AMDude, you used the Princess Glare when you had actual evidence that she's taking interest in the PROCESS OF KNITTING?! Am I the only one who noticed that? Jay-zus, why are you not nurturing that bud?!
BUT, once the Maker has given the item away, it's up to the recipient to do with it what she will. If TMK wants it to be a hat, then mebbe TMK should be the one to knit the second one...
The hat is wonderful, I'm really inspired by your joint project. I agree with the other commenters, fingerless mitts in that soft, pretty yarn would be divine.
Posted by: Elaine on March 21, 2007 12:10 PMI think it would not be a bad idea to point out to TMK that dressing alike is two of the Seven Deadly Sins of Love. That's right, two. It's so deadly it's listed twice.
Posted by: Mel on March 21, 2007 12:10 PMListen to the yarn. Yarn is a lot smarter than we give it credit for.
Chocolate Sauce looks great.
Posted by: Kat on March 21, 2007 12:29 PMWhat's nauseating about twins?
Just sayin'....
I do, however, like the fingerless gloves idea. Such soft, cozy yarn would be lovely knit into gloves. And I am easily bored, so making another hat doesn't appeal.
Posted by: Peggy on March 21, 2007 01:13 PMMaryB., definitely a genius. Carrie, also a genius, very astute observation. And since I'm an enabler (or so my mother says), I'd be pleased to proffer TMK her first set of Addis.
Make the gloves out of the divine Chocolate Sauce yarn for TMK, do another set for you in another color. That yarn is so gorgeous...I'm way too jealous for words. I haven't seen anything that comes close to what you work with here in my local LYS's. I swear I'm going to sneak my way to TMK's house, bribe Frankie with snackies, and filch as much yarn as I can carry.
Posted by: Nancy O. on March 21, 2007 01:24 PMGosh, the hat is gorgeous. I'm not even a brown person, and I like it. I'm with the person that said to have her spin up a different yarn for a similar hat and to make her the fingerless gloves. I think it is fitting that the Creator should get to wear their bounty every once in a while.
Posted by: Seanna Lea on March 21, 2007 02:05 PMI'm still dealing with (and relishing!) the image of the hat nesting in the sofa springs :) If you make another just like it - isn't there the possibility of breeding and, as a properly concerned citizen, is that something you want to be responsible for?
On the other hand, carefully supervised, I suppose you'd never have to knit a thing for Dulaan again.
You'd have to be careful though. You wouldn't want unwanted hats roaming around the alleys, getting run over by cars and foraging in trashcans :)
Posted by: Robbyn on March 21, 2007 02:37 PMRobbyn, ever since all those tail-less raccoons showed up in TMK's yard, all bets are off about what's living--and breeding--around there!
Posted by: Ryan on March 21, 2007 02:42 PMHey, if the hat is going to make a nest, maybe it will have little hat babies! That is one way to get Dulaan items together...
Sorry TMK, no hat twins. It numbs the maker and decreases the value and uniqueness of the original hat. Fingerless mitts it is!
I love your description of a 'living' hat. Let Frankie check it out to make sure it isn't dangerous. How awesome would it be if we could knit up 'attack hats' to wear to the mall, just in case we tangle with a mugger or worse?
Definitely fingerless mitts to match that beautiful hat.
And a matching hat and mitts for you, the humble knitter but please in a different color. Identical items of clothing on a couple are kind of silly, the couple isn't a set of twins. But the same hat and mitts in different colors would be cool.
Oh say it ain't so....country??
ewwwww.
I'm just sayin'.
Posted by: Lisa In Oregon on March 21, 2007 05:43 PMHmmm...maybe THAT's what's rustling around in my sofa springs, that muffler that went missing--I think it ate my #7 12-inch circular last week. Had point protectors on it too.
That hat is a wonder; I suppose since TMK spun the wool that you made up the pattern? :sigh: I'm one of those "great at stockinette"-type knitters who secretly dreams of trying something like that one day. (I make voyageurs' toques - I love making 'em, don't get me wrong. But they're all stockinette.) *Authentic* though.
I'm for the fingerless mitts. In fact, I'm going to make me some out of self-patterning sock yarn. I did it once before. (And they're mostly stockinette..) Oh oh - there's that rustling again.
Posted by: Dale-Harriet in WI on March 21, 2007 05:55 PMI'm trying to comment, but Mel's got me laughing so hard I can't...
gasp...
anyway. Spinning good. Knitting from it better. Wicked spiritual experience. Amen.
(listed twice...buahahahahahahaha)...
Posted by: Lee Ann on March 21, 2007 07:00 PMLovely hat! I would love to be able to side with TMK as the mighty yarn-maker, but I have to say that I'd prefer fingerless mitts as well. Could you get her some more alpaca to spin?
Posted by: EricaLynn on March 21, 2007 07:15 PMYes, please listen to Mel! No matchy-matchy! Ugh.
Posted by: Kristen on March 21, 2007 08:50 PMDefinitely what Mel says....the hat is gorgeous, and if it does next in the springs of the couch, will it then be producing 'cappies'? How cool would that be.
Definitely, yarn talks to me, tells me what it wants to be, it took me a month to knit a pair of socks...lace leg..had to do one completely over.. and all because this beautiful yarn wanted to be a lace shawl....I asked the recipient if she'd kindly lay them across her shoulders every now and then....
Again, beautiful hat.
I love Robbyn's comment! Why can I see packs of feral hats running, playing and snarling at the first sign of the "hat catcher"? And why can I see skeins of yarn from my stash running in a rival pack, running, playing (reproducing at a rapid rate) and snarling at the first sign of a set of Addis? But that does explain those funny noises I hear late at night........... :)
Y'all sound like look a like is sickening! Yup, I agree, sooo, do the mits, and stop the couch multiplications. I am southern, so I can type this way.!
Posted by: cyndie on March 22, 2007 08:48 AMthe hat? it's a greenman thing. animated, but a part of nature at the same time. a duality that breathes and lives, and yet is stationary, like a tree. sorry, it's after midnight here, and i think i'm rambling, and the toilet is r unning, and i think i'll go now before you really think i've lost it (and i gotta fix the toilet)
Posted by: minnie on March 23, 2007 10:09 PMI agree with the idea of making TMK mitts to go with her hat, and then doing coordinating (but different) ones for yourself. None of the matchy matchy stuff.
But, what is it with y'all and country music? *shakes head sadly* It's good stuff!
(and I'm from Texas, so I can talk like this too ;-) lol)
Posted by: Anne on March 24, 2007 12:13 AM