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 I have been watching old seasons of the Great British Bake Off because this is 2020 and the warm, comfy, fuzzy feels that Mary Berry and Mel and Sue provides is just about perfect.  I am on Collection 2 as Netflix  orders in a completely odd and random way (and as they call it the Great British Baking Show), which is the season that Frances The Overachiever was on, with her jam sandwich cake in the shape of a sandwich and her hidden squirrel tree trunk cake.  She gets called out for style over substance a lot over the season, if memory serves me correctly.

Which is why I am thinking "stupid substance over style anyway, Paul" as I work on a Bob's Burgers Louise Hat for an infant.

I knit the ears rather tightly, hoping that a stiffer and thicker fabric wouldn't have quite enough drape to droop.  But I couldn't think of safe way to ensure that rabbit ears on an infant hat would be both Upright and Safe.

They seem to stay up, if held Just So.  Knees make reasonable head-shaped objects when needed, because this hat certainly doesn't fit my giant head or the dog's head.

Since infants tend to grow and I am me, I am making additional hat(s).  We shall see how many hats I can get from three balls of superwash wool.  (Baby stuff = superwash.  Most of the time.)

For the large toddler/small adult hat, I used US 6s (4mm) needles and 90 stitches.  Provisional cast on, knit 10-ish rounds, then knit the ear flaps with waste yarn while purling the rest of the round, then another 10-ish rounds before I knit the provisional cast on with the current round, to create a nice folded brim.  Standard swirl decreases for the top of the hat, and I just finished the ear flaps.  Because picking out the waste yarn also results in one extra stitch on one side, one decrease, then basic ear flap to decreases, with the last four stitches becoming the icord cordy thing that Louise has on her hat.

My original idea (from LSG, actually) for the ears was the plastic canvas for needlepoint, cut to shape.  Unfortunately, it seems that the extra plastic - which weighs about half a gram - is too much weight for the narrow base.  Sewing the ears as wide as I could, with a bend in the bottom as well, worked best, but lacking a good way to attach the plastic canvas to the main part of the hat, it just didn't quite work.  And I am not sure how well that would stand up to a kid chewing on the hat they have ripped off their head, as kids tend to do.

I'm working on the ears now for the second hat and again have dropped a needle size to US 5s (3.75mm) needles to hope that they stand up on their own.  I think laundry starch might help.

I am Annoyed because normally, I put all this shit in Rav but Ravelry TPTB are being assholes about their site redesign and I don't like adding to their database.  But that means I'm still struggling to find a good place to put yarn and needles and notes of how many rounds to knit before starting decreases on an ear flap.  

And hence this post.

I am also annoyed because I have a google photos album of knitting and yet, I cannot find it when Blogger (a google product) is looking at my google photos albums and thus, I have to dig through dog pictures to find the knitting pictures.

Clearly the solution is to make sure the dog is in all the knitting pictures and vice versa, yes?

FO: Fire Truck Scarf

 The Specs:

Pattern: Frugal Haus Knitting Fire Truck Neck Scarf
Yarn: Berocco Vintage
Amount: 1 skein
Needles: whatever the ball band recommended
For: nephew!
Notes:  Ugh. This was the project that never ended.  Too fiddly to be fun without being fiddly enough to be pleased with progress. 

I do not like how it is knit in garter stitch, as that makes it one-sided.  And it is a scarf.  I believe I have complained about this before, but time has not lessened my grump factor in this regard.

If I made this again, it would be a stockinette tube.  Still would lay flat, but would be easier to add the adornments and the like.

I cheated and used large black buttons for the wheels.  I could not bring myself to seam a wheel that was knit flat.

I ended up making an icord tube for the cab partition for the back part of the scarf.

To make it reversible, I attached a ladder to both sides, as well as truck window, headlight, emergency light, and wheels. The garter stitch part meant that the ladder rungs had to be afterthought, rather than knit into the scarf itself.  I ended up crocheting a chain up at certain parts.  I could carry the yarn across the bottom, and make both chains run up the side, so I could get two rungs with only two ends to weave in.  The icord makes for a good place to hide ends, so I was very grateful for that.

I am not super pleased with it.  It looks a bit wonky and not very polished.  Attaching the ladder sides was difficult because of the double-sided aspect and the garter stitch and not wanting to make things too lose or too taut. 

But it is for a kid who loves fire trucks, so I don't think he will much care.  Better pictures to come when I can bare to face it.  I am terrified to give it a bath and have the red yarn bleed onto the white.  Should have swatched, but I was on vacation!

Georgia On My Mind

 I have been slowly plugging away on a fire truck scarf.  I am not enjoying the process, so I have to force myself to work on it.  It is the last of the Required GiftMoose presents, so I want it DONE.  I want to mail most of my GiftMoose presents back to friends and family in the states in the next week or so, which gives me a dead line.

Fire truck scarf is knit flat, garter stitch.  Color changes to denote the cab vs the rest of the truck, and small strips of white for the rungs of the ladder.

I think, if I ever knit a fire truck scarf again, I will knit a stockinette tube.  As written, the pattern has a VERY clear wrong side and right side and that bothers me because it is a scarf.  A fire truck scarf, so most likely for children.  Which means the wrong side is going to be seen just as often as the right side.

I have figured out how to manage the ladder for both sides, but the color change for the cab is bothering me.  It is two rows of grey in a sea of red and looks great on the one side, because that ridge of garter is grey.  Not so nice on the other side.  I might do an icord tube and sew it in place. 

I am about 75% done the ladder.  So close.  And yet...

I also started a sock for a friend a few weeks ago and then got measurements and realized the sock would not fit the intended foot for said foot is giant.  So the sock has been in timeout while I brain and math and accept that I will have to frog.

Today was a Good News Day and that seemed to require happy knitting, not a project I resentfully peck away at, so happy rainbow socks came back out of time out. 

I measured our Soda Stream bottles and they are about an inch shy of the intended's foot, so I figure if I can get the sock on the water bottle and get about an inch of stretch, they ought to fit.  Since the feet are across an ocean, I don't want to knit two socks and then have to start all over.  I also don't want to knit one and ship it over and then have them ship it back so I can make sure they match perfectly.