Not Running Outta Yarn Anytime Soon...

No, I have not gone "stash" enhancing.
Nor have I won any yarn contests.
I've even been knitting...boy have I been knitting...just go ahead and ask me about what happens when I'm just about finished...

It's a sickness.

I can't stop ripping almost finished things back to cushy little wound up balls of yarn. There are many reasons: dropped stitches, don't like the look of the thing, wrong color, and the latest? Would not fit a smurf, much less the intended recipient.

Really. Andy's hat? The one I mentioned a million years ago? On my nightstand as half-wound skeins and even only quarter-wound cakes of yarn. I'm wondering if I'll ever get back to it. I thought I'd have enough yarn...and I would have too, if Andy's head was ten times smaller. Yep, TOO DAMNED SMALL. The problem is simple, I was working solely from the delusion that all sock yarn is the same width, and the swiss cheese I call my memory.

All I was trying to do was knit him a "copy" of his current hat, one I made him what feels like a two million years ago. The secret is knowing what sized needles I used. Remind me not to become a knitting detective when I grow up. It took me three tries (a couple different kinds/balls of yarn even) to remember I STARTED knitting that "series" of hats with the 3.0mm needles I'd bought in Mexico. They were the only needles I had at the time.

But that selection of finished hats went something like this: First one, to my nephew as it was too itty bitty. So I tried again with more stitches...that one went to my niece. It really was "third time's the charm."

Right, cuz that's how long it took to realize that I needed to cast on 144 stitches using size 2 .75 mm bamboo needles for Lorna's Laces yarn. Oh and by the way? Right, all this time I was cursing myself for not noting what sized needles I used? HA HA HA, I am such a loser: it really is all listed in this ancient POST.

All would be well in the world if I just took out some Lorna's and US2s then, right? Only well, I don't have any and I am lazy and I'd already started it with something else. Might as well continue, or something, blah blah blah, all sock yarn is about the same size, right?

Let me clue you in on a secret here, not all fingering yarns knit at the same gauge. NO REALLY! It boggles my mind at times that I hold a Master of Arts degree from Stanford and miss that little tidbit thus far in my knitting career.

And yup, that's right, even using the 3.0mm needles...somewhere between a US 2 and a 3 were still TOO SMALL and that's why, unseamed, when I tried stretching the hat out on Andy's noggin' tonight? HA HA HA HA! No dice. Do not buy a lottery ticket, your luck stinks!

For the life of me, I cannot find my US 3s...or rather, could not. I just realized where they are, this very second. So let's rewind:

For the life of me I could not find my US 3 straight bamboos (I knit these hats flat) so I had convinced myself I did not own US 3s and therefore had to HAD TO use US 2s or, if willing to use some form of metal, those aforementioned 3.0 mm ones. Simple logic, Occam's razor, etc. so forth; I can do it! All I need to do is knit, um LOOSER!! That can't be too hard, right?

Lemme tell ya' about my tight knitting... You could carry water in the socks I just knit Andy.

So yeah, just minutes ago I dug up a 16" circular US 3. I've given up on the whole "knit it flat an seam it" strategy. Those extra 2 stitches may become the deciding factor in whether or not they fit Andy's head. I swear, he's made it grow bigger just to spite me, yes, that must be it!

Urgh. Must sleep now.