Sunday, January 22, 2017

Chunky Inspiration

A few days ago a friend asked me to make a hat with super chunky yarn. I have been knitting a long time, but I must say that I was shocked to have to go to the craft store for SIZE 35 (!!!) needles. Even more surprisingly, I could have bought size 50 needles. I was basically lever-ing with turkey basters…


The upside of thick yarn and large needles is a hat that fully materialized in 50 minutes. The Loopy Mango merino yarn was super soft and just one twist more than basic roving, which made it very fuzzy to work with. A wonderful choice to make a very cozy and stylish hat with.


This new experience led me to contemplate the large amounts of Shady Grove Alpacas rug yarn that I have no idea how to use. So I cast on 24 stitches on those fat new needles and knit about 20 rows, at which point I decided the design was symmetrical enough and cast off.


It looks much nicer than I expected, and is super soft to stand on. The other reason I was inspired to make a rug was the terrible choice of tiling in my master bath: muddled pink marble. It is the worst combination of ugly and freezing cold, inexcusable in the face of the fact that it would have been easy to pick a different color, or at least put a radiant floor heating unit underneath.


This experiment in alpaca bath mat knitting seems to solve some of these issues nicely. I believe I shall be knitting this again to cover that hideous floor with more warm, cozy foot blankets.


The mat also doubles as a squishy rug to alleviate back pain while practicing the guitar. Bonus!


I have a few posts I need to catch up on. Hopefully I'll gain some new momentum soon. In the mean time, stay toasty!