Wednesday, January 19, 2011

a break from the mittens

I'm still constantly knitting mittens - they are this year's go to mindless project (except ofr the charted Deathflakes - not so mindless there...)
But I took a short break to knit myself something.
To preface this - you should know I hate wearing hats. Winter hats, that is - give me a good baseball cap in summer and I'm happy, but in winter, I'm not a fan of the toque. Never have been. I'll pull up  a hood or just wear a headband to keep my ears warm. but I really hate having my hair flattened down on my head.
So, since I'm good with hoods, I knit myself this:


A Moebuis hood. It's the Kombu pattern from KnitPicks. (theirs in knit in cotton, but I used Cascade 220 for mine - its Canada, I need wool.)
It also works well as a cowl, and keeps the neck nice and toasty:

Here's a couple of better cowl pictures - taken last night...



It's very comfortable, but a couple of knit-picky things...
It's a touch tight at the neck. Not annoyingly so, and it will stretch when I block it out, so this isn't really a problem.
Now that it's complete, I get why, but towards the end of the pattern, you knit a bunch of short rows. No explanation as to why or anything. (they are to make the front of the hood a bit bigger over the forehead.) I just think it would be nice to explain WHY I'm doing something. Moebuii aren't exactly easy to check out while still on the needles. Just sayin'...
The biggest beef I have is that the pattern requires you to use Cat Bordhi's Moebuis cast on. No problem, I have Cat's book with the instructions, but what if I didn't? I didn't find this out until after I had bought the pattern. Yes, I know Cat's instructions are on YouTube, but what if I had wanted to start this somewhere where I didn't have Internet access? I'm not fond at all of patterns that require you to have access to other resources in order to knit it. If it had been a free pattern, different story - you take your chances, but this was purchased, and I would have liked it to have been spelled out before purchase that you will need to know the cast on, as well as a cast off found on Knitty (Jeny's super stretchy one). I actually didn't use this cast off, and didn't find it a problem.
With all that being said, I do love this hood. I wore it today (with my new gold Ponte tunic!) and it was very warm and comfy. Not a great wind break, but whatever. I'm very happy with it. I may try to deconstruct it and actually sew one out of a windproof fleece for the cottage...

7 comments:

TracyKM said...

I hate that too! Esp. since it wasn't a free pattern. I can see them not including the instructions (copyright and all that), but to not mention it? I recently bought a shawl pattern from them and THEN found out it wasn't charted.
I wonder if a hood would suit my mother who doesn't like hats either. I made her a headband, but that doesn't do much to keep the head warm.
I recently made some scarves on my LK150 that I thought you'd like to see....ruffles...lots of ruffles...on my blog :)

Unknown said...

I agree with your pattern issues - those notwithstanding it's beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

Apart from the needless extra steps,it turned out great. I love the Cascade 220!

Carol said...

I just knit myself a cowl too. It's Canada. I want to be warm! I agree a purchased pattern should be self contained, or have a clear disclaimer. I'd be pissed if that happened to me.

Knit and Purl Mama said...

Great cowl!

I finished a cowl last night. Waiting for it to dry on the blocking boards so I can wear it. Just checked it - still damp. Damn it! Wanted to wear it out tomorrow. Maybe I should put the little heater I have in the room where it's drying to speed things up! LOL

Saren Johnson said...

Very nice! Agreed on the pattern should have came with some sort of warning.

Brendaknits said...

I'm there with all those other comments about patterns lacking info and disclaimers. And I really dislike it when blind instructions are given. tell me where you are taking me. tell me why I need to do it, then I'll listen better.