lice? not nice!

This is the Lusekofte Cap from Hats On! It is knit in deep purple wool from Blackberry Ridge and mystery gray wool left over from some other project.

Seems like a benign little project, doesn't it? When I cast it on, I thought it was an easy geometric pattern, single color ribbing, only two colors to manipulate, quickie little hat project, good for knitting at parties and during other social events. Yeah, well, maybe so for some people, but apparently not for me, not this time. I cannot tell you how many times I knit the ribbing, how many rows I messed up and needed to re-knit, how much the speckled pattern at the top vexed me. This hat took concentration from beginning to end and apparently still didn't get enough attention.

There's no excuse for most of the problems except possibly that I am incapable of following directions, counting to three, or reading a pattern. However, I do get some satisfaction in the knowledge that lusekofte means lice sweater, the speckled pattern at the top of the hat being a good example of the "lice" stitch pattern knit into traditional Norwegian patterns. Those lice? Not nice!

And to top it all off, the hat turned out too big. Any of us can wear it as a slouch style hat, and we like the pattern enough that we just might, but it's definitely bigger and taller than we would have liked. I blame it on the lice. ;-)

Knitting locations of the past week have included the beach, a summer picnic party, while visiting in a hospital room, and while we toyed with the idea of how long it might be until someone unearths the time capsule we buried in the newly poured concrete foundation as part of the ongoing supa-ugly porch renovations. The time capsule tells a little bit about the history of the house and its current inhabitants, then we each chose something representative of our interests. Sealed inside that time capsule are a handful of glass beads and buttons, some K'nex and Legos, and some handspun yarn.