Tag Archives: Odessa

I went above and beyond my March goal regarding this project.

Pattern: Odessa by Grumperina
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK in color #508 (Ballad Blue)
Needles: US4 Crystal Palace DPNs for the ribbing, US6 Clover DPNs for the pattern stitch
Other: 110 size 6 Darice glass beads (purchased from Beverly’s; one tube is more than enough)

The hat blocked out slightly longer than I’d anticipated, as you can probably tell from the way it’s folding at the nape of my neck. If I were to knit this hat again, I’d probably knit to 5.75″ before the decreases (yes, I’m being a bit nit-picky now, but sometimes a quarter of an inch makes quite the difference!). For me, that would require doing beaded stitches on different decrease rows, as 5.75″ puts me right in the middle of a pattern repeat.

I’d rather have a hat that’s too long over one that’s too short, though, so I still like this hat and will get good use out of it.

It’s a really easy, quick knit, and it’s not hard to modify if you need to. However, as my previous post indicates, if you’re using the recommended yarn, one ball may not be enough if you knit, say, 6″ before the decreases.

In general blog news, I recently did some sidebar and archive cleanup. According to my site stats, people don’t really use the monthly archives, so I reduced the number of months displayed in my sidebar and made a nice archive index instead. So they’ll still be available for those who care, and as a bonus, there are even direct links to the entries themselves.

I also realized that the list of FOs will eventually be a bit unwieldy, so now my sidebar displays five (random) links and a link to the main project index. I’m not completely sold on the project index yet, but it definitely works, and hey, if I change my mind, it’s not that hard to tweak the code.

The project index reminds me that I never did take a final picture of my tipless gloves, and I could use a better picture of Falling Leaves as well. I’ll probably get around to both those photographs later this month (I need to take the gloves home from my office and wash them anyway).

I got bored with the second cable-and-bobble hat, so I started Odessa. I’d tried on Jessica‘s hat and decided that it was too short for my tastes. So instead of knitting for 5.5″ before the decreases, I knit 6″.

Unfortunately, that meant that I didn’t have enough yarn for all of the decrease rows…

…as I’d only bought the one ball specified in the pattern.

Needless to say, I was a bit annoyed. Obviously, I didn’t want to rip back and start the decreases earlier, because if I’d wanted a hat that short I would’ve stuck to the pattern completely as written. And who wants to buy an additional ball of yarn for just six rows? Certainly not me.

But then I remembered that Jess and I had picked out the same color of yarn when we were at Knitting in La Jolla, so I asked if she had any left. And she saved the day!

Okay, so she just saved the hat. Whatever. Close enough, right?