MOVED!

New URL: http://sucka-sc.arlette.us/.

So much nonprogress!

All the crochet has been sort of sitting on the sidelines while I rip out and reknit a beanie for a friend. This has to be the fifth time I’ve knitted it after starting over, but this time the fit is just right — it’s just half an inch too short.

It’s actually pretty tricky. The friend likes very tight-fitting hats. This means I’ve had to come up with a bind-off that can stretch to twice its usual width but that still fits closely, without that horrible single circuit of too-tight bind-off that makes it feel like you’re wearing a skinny steel band around your head.

There’s a stretchy bind-off I tried that sorta works except it made the edge sort of … ripply. Almost lacy. Not a solution for a guy’s hat. But I got the idea of the bind-off; in it, you pass one stich over the next as usual, but then you pass that stitch back onto the left needle and knit it again. Essentially, it’s adding a crochet chain stitch in between the regular knitted stitches.

My compromise was a nice, neat bind-off where I worked the loops off the knitting needles with a crochet hook, and chained one between every other bound-off stitch. Stretchy, tight-fitting and neat-looking. I AM A GENIUS. Now I just need to add that last half-inch to it and crochet on the bear ears and it will be done!

Which is good, because of course the one thing my friends needs now (mid-July in California) is a 100-percent-wool hat, right?

I would post, but …

… the only thing more boring than crocheting six feet of strap for a purse would be reading about it.