The other night I was commissioned to knit a hat for my friend "Joe." Joe is a pretty particular person and had some strict guidelines to follow:
1. The hat is to be tight but not too tight. Not slouchy but not a skull cap. Indie chic. Joe helped me out by trying on all the hats at the table and showing me the different ways they fit his head. I think I have a pretty good idea of size.
2. Yarn thickness. Thick when you squeeze the edge of it but not too thick of yarn. I've decided to use a thinner yarn and just double up on it to make a nubby look. We'll see how it goes.
3. Design. None of those fancy lines or shapes or anything. Just a basic knit. Sweet, I can do that.
4. Color. Here's the hardest part. I received this picture via facebook chat:
Apparently he googled "ochre" to get this picture. So I had to match the yarn to these shoes. That means a trip to...the YARN STORE! Here is the yarn store:
I took "Mindy" to the yarn store with me, which is in a small house converted into a thriving business. We walked in the door and were greeted by a short, curly-haired woman who called, "Hi you guys, lemme know if you need anything!" as she walked into another room of the house/store. We wandered through all the rooms of the house looking through the different yarns to find something to match the shoe picture. There are so many kinds of yarn! They were all divided by types, I guess, because above each shelf was a sign that said "Sport Weight" or "Baby Weight" or "some other kind of weight." These categories must make sense to someone but to me it just meant that I had to walk through every room of the house looking for the right yarn.
When we walked through what used to be the dining room we saw a man sitting at the table knitting a really long yellow and red striped thing, just kind of hanging out and knitting. Cool, bro. It's totally sexist but it's surprising to see a man knitting at all and even more surprising to see him hanging out and knitting in a store. Maybe it felt all cozy because it used to be a house- I don't know. I'm judging.
Eventually we decided to consult the expert curly-haired woman. I showed her the picture of the shoes and told her the thickness/weight of yarn I needed. Then she went into crazy yarn-nerd mode and rattled off brands of yarn and weights and order times! "Oh, we should try Debbie Bliss or maybe Gedifra or I would say Needful Yarn but Needful Yarn takes so long to ship" and disappeared into the basement. Those were real yarn brands omg.
Turns out I would have had to order 2 skeins (those are rolls) of Debbie Bliss yarn at $16 a skein so I faked having to consult Joe and busted out of the house/store. JoAnn Fabrics had everything I needed for $3.25.
Also, you can knit lingerie, like a knit thong. Eew!
We'll see how the hat goes. As for thongs, there's no way that's worth the trouble or anywhere near comfortable.
yeah, not too ochre Ann, but I trust ya. should still feel like something a dude could rock.
ReplyDeleteOk, first-- you should have called.
ReplyDeleteSecond, you never want to go to hilltop unless you're absolutely certain that you know what you want and that you want to spend more than 50 dollars.
Third, you should have called.