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Hi, Jan,

I am so glad you and Dale are extra happy these days. It means that when the dread pirate Wilson comes to terrorize you, the contrast will be that much greater.

I learned a lot on this hat (We Call Them Pirates, designed by Adrian Bizilia), mostly about Baby Ull. It is a lovely soft yarn, and it will be soft on Wilson’s delicate skin. (Even dread pirates can have delicate skin.) It is also very slick, which means that stitches next to carries in colorwork get rather sloppy and sometimes even nestle down into the prior row such that you can’t see them. I blame some of this on poor needle size and type choice. Having done some research after the fact, I note that many people are using US 0’s, 1’s and 2’s. I used 3’s on very slick metal circulars, on which I knit even looser than usual. I got gauge, but the fabric isn’t very sturdy.

After wet blocking, the fabric got even drapier, which is comfy but I fear won’t be as warm as I’d hoped. Also, you can now see quite a bit of the carried yarn through the fabric. Of course, I couldn’t wait for blocking to take pictures, so what you see here is before that issue arose. Still, Wilson is happy with the end result. And now I don’t have to worry about getting his cap finished before winter or amidst wedding shawl and Bohus knitting.

Karen and I cooked up a great shawl scheme. I’m hoping I can pull it off. She was not sure about the merits of a veil - expense, what do you do with it after, etc. - but definitely wanted a shawl. So why not make the shawl the veil? I’m going to mess around with designing a lightweight shawl that can be pinned, tied, or somehow attached to a comb to be used as a veil during the ceremony and transformed quickly into a shawl for the reception. She is currently thinking a slimmer profile dress, so I am seeing something with less pouf and more drape. The only downside here is it probably means going to cobweb weight yarn. She’d better hurry up and pick colors so I can get designing and knitting.

In case the earlier pirate picture was too scary, here is another look at DITF, at 8 hours and counting, to soothe your eyes.

I need to get a new portable project going, now that Skullcap is done. I’m thinking the Rivendell socks from the Eclectic Sole, out of a lovely Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn, Seduction, that Karen gifted me a while back.

Have a great week,

Love,

Ellen