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!

kind hearts and Coronets

Now, I don't know if you're familiar with the British movie of the same name as my subject line... if not, you should see it. A true classic. I was so chuffed when it came on TV the other night!


But, to me for other reasons, it was an obvious title for today's post. Hopefully at some point in the post I will be able to make it obvious to you as well.

Why "kind hearts"? Well, my resident kind heart...

J. "Rock, Paper, Scissors?! Bloody hell? Is this some kind of wanker British game? Ye'd think they'd have somethin' better to do wi' their time, no?" J. has abandoned me today and left me to my own devices.

(All right, all right - he had to go to work. But don't feel too sorry for him. He has been whingeing about whining worried about what he calls a "canker" on his thumb. This must be some kind of esoteric Scottish usage... anyway, a callus that was becoming painful. Then he realised last evening the cause... too much Spider Solitaire at work!!! He also made a big mistake in sharing this information with me, obviously. But I'm not bitter...!)

OK, OK... so why "coronets"?

More about this topic later. First, I want to rant about my various travails today.

First off, when we work up the heating system in the building had malfunctioned. It was 10 degrees C (50 F) inside the apartment!!! Seriously. This is how I've had to go around all morning...

Then I realised that I had not planned very well for the storm and that I actually had to leave the apartment to pick up some essentials:

Anyway, this was the walkway on my way out the door...

... and here was the sidewalk on Bathurst Street (a major thoroughfare, mind you!)

So, taking my life in my hands, I crossed the street - the pavement is like a skating rink, and I can't even skate! - only to find this sidewalk on the other side:


Not again!!!

This is what 30cm (12 inches) of snow in two days looks like, folks.

(Now, you may well wonder what compelled me to buy ice cream when I had just forged through 9 inch deep sidewalks - but seriously, could you pass up Oreo Loaded?! Huh? I didn't know such a thing existed. And, gotta love the French name:

Indeed.)

So, all in all I'm not in the greatest mood. However, there is an upside to stormy weather. I managed to whip up this little number in a couple three hours last evening!

Isn't it cute? Not my usual colourway, I know... but everything being equal it will be winging its way southward to Amy in Oklahoma tomorrow. It is intended for her friend Dona.

The pattern is called Coronet (a-HA!) and is highly recommented for a quick and fun knit. I love the cable pattern on the hat band!


It will be hard to part with it. I made it with one skein of Rowan Calmer (I LOVE this stuff! I have yet to use my hot pink blush Calmer stash, but this is making me think about it again) - it's very soft and stretchy. This version is not suitable for winter weather, which is partly why it's heading to OK (L-A-H-O-M-A OklaHO-ma!!! yay!).

(Sorry, Amy - couldnae resist. It was only a matter of time before I broke into song about your home state, really.)

I modified the pattern somewhat as the yarn I was using was much different to that called for in the pattern. I've got a list of the mods here (or if you're not on Raverly and you're interested in making the hat with Calmer, just drop me a line).

In this regard, I'm very glad for my wee hat model (as yet unnamed. I wonder why? Let's call her ... Ado Annie!)

(Man, I wish I looked like that!!! Instead, I get to be the geek in the hat:

Sigh. Good thing it's going to Dona, eh?)

Anyway, if you're making hats, I recommend you get your hands on one of these. Ado Annie cost me... oh, $4 or thereabouts. There is a mannequin shop across the street from my office... how cool is that?!?

I knit the hat on two circular needles, one long enough so that I could stretch out the hat enough to check for fit throughout.

And, because I couldn't leave well enough alone, I've started another hat!

This is the Sunflower Tam by Norah Gaughan in her book Knitting Nature. You will see that it is off the needles in this photo as I have managed to @#$(*&#(*$@ up what is actually quite a simple pattern. But that's only because I hadn't had any of this at the time, mind you:

(I have to say I'm rather flabbergasted by this coffee logo. "Jump"?!? "Extreme Energy?" Of late I've been wont to wonder just when it was that everything became "extreme" in our society. But, it's hazelnut vanilla, so I won't complain too strenuously).

And, here's a sneak preview of the other end result of nasty weather... the Stormy Weather scarf!

Hey - maybe I'll have a snow day tomorrow!!! hee hee hee

Well, that's more than about enough for now. Time to get back to knitting hats to procrastinate from starting clue 8 of the SOTSii housework. Or something like that.