Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

I have found myself these last few days longing for the winter months. I am not a child of the summer, and Eskimo Mimi was made for the snow, and the wind, and the cold. I like to wrap up warm against the cold, to envelope myself in warm and soft layers of comfort, rather then find myself in a hot and sticky climate that I cannot escape from. You can always put more layers of warmth on, but levels of nakedness are definitely finite. And there are laws against that kind of thing.

So last night, pining for the months I love most, I cast on Thermis.

Preparing for the winter

It’s a simple knitted cowl, started with a number of rows of 1×1 rib.  I usually avoid single rib like the plague as I find it the least attractive rib, but as with my Warden Bay socks I have elected for a twisted knit stitch in the ribbing which neatness things up considerably as well as adding a good deal of definition to the ridges and furrows.  Other than that I will probably stick to the pattern as written and enjoy a simple, no thinking necessary knit.  Roll on winter.

The Blue Winter hat is gathering pace as it approaches the finishing post.  Despite being a nice, simple hat, this project represents a few minor firsts for me.  For a start, I never knit with, or wear, blue.  So, why did I buy this yarn?  It was really cheap in a local closing down sale

Secondly, I have never knit a slouchy hat, and I keep worrying at the prodigious length that this hat has reached already.  I can put the hat on, draw the needle through and cinch the top, and it fits fine – but I am going to press on with the remaining one and a half repeats of the charted pattern, because I’d like to add a new shaped hat to my winter wardrobe.

I'm going to carry on and embrace the slouch.

Thirdly, twisted stitches – how have I just discovered thee?  Well, that’s not quite accurate – I knew that they existed and the thinking behind them, but have never before used them.  I wonder how they compare in look, function and ease of completion with simple 2 stitch cables, made without a cable needle?  If I have any remnants from the project and experiment may be in order.

I’ve knit with Rowan Pure Wool Dk several times before, and always found it a nice, basic yarn, but I do seem to have a lot of problems with pilling as I knit.  Though it seems to wear pretty well,  I often find fuzzy bits working their way off of the yarn before I even reach them with my needle, and a close-up detail of the brim shows the slight problem:

take a close look at the very edge of the brim

So, that’ll be one for the old clothes de-fuzzer once it’s complete.

I’m looking forward to getting this finished and piling all of my hair inside it on bad hair days (sure to be especially frequent during the blustery March ahead).  Let’s just hope that blue doesn’t look terrible on me…