I hadn’t knit a hat in a good long while — I’d almost forgotten how satisfying they are. Vivian Aubrey’s snappy little Gridlock design caught my eye when she released it last month, and the timing was perfect because I needed a quick birthday present for my cousin Asa. Unfortunately, it was knit and gifted so quickly that I didn’t even get a photograph, but luckily I turned around a made a second Gridlock.

It’s Noro: Cash Iroha and Silk Garden (the colorway that also contains lavender and a splash of turquoise, but I didn’t get that far into the skein). I knit it a little bit too long. You’d think someone who’s been knitting for, what, eight years now? and has knit all kinds of lace and sweaters and designed her own stuff and whatnot could have mastered Hat Depth to Crown Shaping by now, but apparently you’d be wrong. I used to start the decreases too soon and the hats wouldn’t cover my ears, and now I seem to be over-compensating. So I’ve had to turn up the brim at the nape of the neck… here’s hoping my friend Caroline won’t mind wearing it that way, because it’s for her. Maybe I should knit more hats. Or, you know, use one of my several perfectly functional measuring tapes and start the decreases when the pattern says I should.

(I do have my next hat project picked out, though. I bought a copy of Westknits Book One today and it’s either Westward or Skinny Skid, depending whether I decide to favor myself or my husband. He’s mislaid my favorite rooster hat and his own Windschief, not to mention both pairs of gloves I’ve made for him, so I’m fairly sure he’s just not trustworthy with accessories and I should leave him to make do with whatever’s commercially available. But we definitely need more hats in the hat drawer.)

This has been finished for almost a month… my friends are pointing out that I’ve been a negligent blogger lately, and it’s the truth! I love this shawl, though. It’s another Akimbo — I knew I wanted one for myself as soon as I tried on my brother’s. I still had plenty of Socks That Rock in Pond Scum for the edging; the teal is some flydesigns Monarch that’s been marinating in the stash since… oh, probably 2007. Back when you could get it in 660-yard skeins, anyway.

I went up a needle size to US #7 to achieve a slightly larger size, and I think it was a good decision. I also think I should stand in front of orange walls while wearing it as often as possible. (Especially if those walls stand in proximity to amazing scones.) Although it’s nice against brown, too:

In other knitting news, I’ve finally picked up the Tomten jacket I’ve been knitting for the last eighteen months in an effort to finish it for my nephew’s Christmas. I decided it needed some jacquard patterning at the shoulders a la Franklin Habit, so more on that soon. (Pssst… how do you make an accent grave in WordPress?)

I’m now fairly certain our most prominent scientists are overlooking some very compelling evidence that time is not as linear as we’d like to believe. This is either because not enough of them live with three-month-olds or because a three-month-old creates its own event horizon, within which it’s impossible to do science or anything else that could later be duplicated or even accurately recalled. But here are a few shards of the past few weeks that have somehow endured.

- My daughter can laugh and crow like Peter Pan, she’s been to her first cyclo-cross race (not as a competitor yet; we were just cheering for Uncle Daniel), and she makes a pretty irresistible ladybug. She can also grow stinky cheese in the folds of her fat little neck, which is somewhat less appealing.

- There’s been knitting, mostly with this:

Yum. It’s Luster — 75% Bluefaced Leicester and 25% tussah silk — a yet-to-be-released yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm and the first installment of their Pro-Verbial 2010-11 club, to which I treated myself. It came with a new pattern by Stephen West; I hardly need to tell you how exciting those are. The Luster is like nothing else I’ve knit. It’s unusually grippy on the needles (this may be partly due to the indigo dye, which doesn’t finish fixing itself until it’s been knit and stains one’s fingers a bit in the process) and its two-ply structure creates a stippled, textural fabric with a high sheen from the BFL and the silk. The result is an intriguing blend of luxe and rustic that’s a perfect expression of AVFKW’s aesthetic. It’s verby and I love it.

- There was this comical episode with a poached egg. In my most inept kitchen moment since the time I used warm tap water to make tea for my sick mother (I was five or six), I cooked breakfast for my visiting parents. Having botched the timing of the toast and the eggs, I ladled the eggs onto the plates and tried to carry them to the toaster rather than bringing the toast to the stove to await the eggs. Nothing is more slippery than a poached egg. One of them promptly flew off the plate and splattered all over the floor, whereupon I stepped right in it. Thank goodness we have dogs.

- I’ve done a fair amount of seventh-grade algebra text work during baby naps. If you like logic puzzles, you can take a crack at this one and tell me whether you think it’s any good:

Six knights gathered for a jousting tournament. Work out the ranking of the knights, the color of each man’s horse and lance, and the Order he represents.

1. Sir Palamon did better than Charles the Bald.
2. The knight who rides a gray horse carries a purple lance.
3. Charles the Bald placed two spots below Don Quixote, who was not as good as the knight on the chestnut horse.
4. The knight who rides a white horse finished just above the knight who carries a green lance.
5. The knight with the roan horse finished last.
6. The Black Prince finished higher than the knight from the Order of the Barking Deer but lower than the knight with the purple lance.
7. The knight from the Order of the White Bear rides a chestnut horse.
8. The knight from the Order of the Chafing Garter placed third, which was better than the knight with the striped lance.
9. The knight on the white horse finished two spots below the knight from the Order of the Silver Parrot.
10. The knight on the black horse (who is not The Black Prince) finished second.
11. Sir Roland carries a blue lance.
12. The knight on the bay horse finished above the knight from the Order of the Armored Codpiece but below the knight with the red lance.
13. The knight with the red lance was not the champion.
14. Sir Bedevere finished two places below the knight from the Order of the Golden Fleece.
15. The knight from the Order of the White Bear was better than the knight on the gray horse, who was better than the knight with the yellow lance.
16. The knight with the yellow lance finished behind Charles the Bald.

Do you suffer from that pathological crafter’s condition where you realize you haven’t organized a present for someone whose birthday is in three days and you figure you’ll just make something from scratch? I do. This wouldn’t be a big problem if my craft were baking or cartoons, but knitting is time consuming. Unfortunately, common sense and practical experience of the space-time continuum as we know it are no remedy for this condition. And that’s how I found myself turning to Stephen West (how long could a jaunty neckerchief take, really?), rummaging in the stash for a skein of Malabrigo Sock and some Socks That Rock leftovers and casting on for Akimbo on August 24th.

No, I didn’t finish in time, especially given the need for blocking and shipping to New York. But Fortune handed me a cookie. Essentially the same hour I cast on this quick something for my brother, his wife went into labor. This meant that he would not exactly be watching the mail slot for his birthday present. And all that garter stitch was ideal — I needed something meditative to focus my nervous energy while I was waiting for news. Alas for my sweet sister-in-law, I was nearly done with the neckerchief by the time my wee niece made her appearance, and I am not holding any records for knitting speed.

I did try to get Akimbo out the door as fast as possible, though, and that’s my excuse for not having staged better pictures. I “borrowed” this little scarf for a cool morning’s walk to the coffee shop and liked it so well I’m going to have to knit another for myself. I’d basically like to have the entire Stephen West design collection in my closet for fall…

Akimbo, by Stephen West

Malabrigo Sock in I’m not sure what color… maybe Indiecita?

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in Pond Scum

NB: STR Lightweight is significantly heavier than Malabrigo Sock. I’ll be wary of combining these yarns in the future.