sunflower tam and headgear madness!

What with the Big Storm 2008 (this is what the media is calling it. I'm hoping they didn't jinx it for the rest of us, frankly!) I went stir hat crazy this weekend!

First, I knit the Coronet on Saturday.

Then I tackled the Sunflower Tam from Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan!


I love this book, although this is actually the first pattern I've knitted from it thus far.

In the book, Norah gets into all sorts of geometric designs found in nature.)

This one is based on "phyllotaxis" (Greek word! We're everywhere!) which is one of three basic patterns found in the plant world, apparently.

(I wish Norah had taught science at my high school! That way, I might have actually learned something!).

According to Norah, in the phyllotaxis arragenement, leaves grow in double spirals around a stem, travelling clockwise and counterclockwise. Cool, eh?


Not only that, but the average between one leaf and the next averages 137.5 degrees. This according to the Greeks (!!!) who called it the "golden angle".

(Too bad I don't have a protractor any more... otherwise I would try to test this principle against my Carmen Miranda headdress...


...the only source of flowers in my house at present, really.


I wonder whether this works with fake flowers from the dollar store? Oh well, it doesn't really matter - I never figured out how to use that %#*$(@&#*$( protractor anyway.)

Anyway, the top pattern of this tam is meant to represent the phyllotaxis of a sunflower, daisy, or cornflower. Hence, the name.

It's knitted in Cascade Pima Silk on 5mm needles - all in the round using the two circular needle method. Lovely stuff, but next time I wouldn't go with a silk/cotton blend as it probably needs a firmer fabric to be at its best. Next time, I would also do a swatch - bad bad bad! - because the resulting hat is a tad large.

But it was a fun knit - and much easier than the complex design of the top would belie - although this didn't have to stop me having to frog knit backwards for about 20 rows on the top because I wasn't paying attention. Oh well! I guess if I were perfect, everyone would hate me... that's what I keep telling myself, anyway.

Here is the requisite geeky photo of me wearing the hat:

However, it too is by now winging its way southward to Amy in Oklahoma...

Not this one, though - this puppy is staying right here in TO!

This is a little headband I also whipped up this past Sunday... using Cascade Fixation from the stash.

(The rest of it, you may recall, was used in my Party Frock Top last summer.)


So, here's my geeky bad hair day hairband shot:



Maybe I need to stick to full hats... hmmm. How can I have had the same exact hairstyle for 37 years anyway?!


Hmm. Time to change hairdressers?



Hey, how do you think I pay for all that yarn anyway? By leaving my hair care to Vidal Sassoon? Sheesh.

But I digress. So, what's on the needles right now?

Well, the SOTSii, which I will be recommencing work on tonight - Clue 8!

Also, in light of the grand success with my Stormy Weather triangle, my new priority has become another scarf with the second skein of Camelspin of recent purchase (but not the last, I can assure you):

Which colour of beads do you think, buttercream or clear?? Please advise.

What pattern shall I use? That, my loyal readers, is a secret. Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, the Icarus and the Bespoke languisheth. I am so unfaithful. Sigh.

Happy Tuesday!

there was a queen and she did sing, c-c-c-c-c-c-COLD!

That's me, lounging around the castle last evening.

I've showed you pictures of my house before, right?

It was snowing outrageously all day, so I generously let most of the staff go home early. (After all the pots had been scrubbed, of course:)

My chief and most loyal serf, JJ, stayed behind to take photos:

But the snow has finally stopped!
It is rather pretty, I must confess. Apparently we had some visitors last evening...

Hey wait... I thought all the birds had flown south by now? Man, this global warming has a lot to answer for.

And - rarely seen proof of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster!!!
(JJ advises me that the Loch Ness Monster was actually an old-time chief of his own clan, who had too much of the malt one day and slipped into Loch Lomond, never to return in human form. He should really be a tour guide - I actually believed this for 45 seconds or so! The whisky was a good realistic touch, mind you).

And as if there weren't enough ice around, I brought home some of my own:

Pearly seed beads! Hard to tell from the pic (especially since idiot old me thought it was a good idea to photograph them on top of the snow), but half are opalised and half are plain white. The opalised ones are intended for my SOTSii! Stay tuned...

Oh, and I had to snap up these as well, even though I already have another 23,000 or so beads in the house presently:

Why, oh why, did I go out into an ice storm to the bead shop? Because...
Oh - and I received a little "giftie" at the office yesterday from a swap on the knittyboard. In exchange for some extra 3mm needles I had hanging around, Goknitgirl generously donated the following to my stash:

Koigu Painters' Palette sock yarn!!! Almost enough to make me want to take up yarn knitting. (And no, Amy, you can't have it.)

I leave you with this parting thought (the images, by the way, are by Anne Taintor and come from last year's daytimer):

Hmm... replace the apples with hanks of yarn and the basket with a blog post and that well could be me touting the benefits of Handmaiden, Malabrigo, etc... I should be in advertising!

Happy Saturday...