So here’s the thing. This season’s Knitty? Flop

I don’t really like any of the designs. They all feel like they were designed for old people or by old people (FOPBOP). I do, however, really like some of the featured articles, namely:

• Knit Like a Man by David Demchuk. I’d heard of the boyfriend sweater curse before, and it sure was a useful thing to know. I will keep all these suggestions in mind. I knitted something for Les (see here) a little while ago and I made sure to get his exact style and colour preferences and made him choose the fair isle pattern. If I hadn’t, I’m sure disaster would have struck. Amusingly, yes, it was a chullo. Men are too predictable.
• Some cool business about dishwasher dyeing that’s shaking up the blogosphere. I’m horribly terrified that it would destroy my pots if I tried it. Then again, I am a student and my housemates scraped all the teflon from the pots years ago, so why would I care? Also, I don’t own a dishwasher.
• I’m excited to try the magic cast-on for toe-up socks as soon as I actually buy some sock yarn to do so. Knitty is also graciously providing us all with some useful care instructions for our hand knits. I’m terrified of washing anything I’ve knit, even the acrylic things, so this is douple plus good. There’s also a cool thing about length alterations.

Okay, so some of the patterns aren’t bad. Mesilla is really nice, and Anatolia and Hedera. But I’m a pattern hoarder and will probably not do any of them.

I found a whole bunch of tutorials for building a light tent. I’m not sure when I’m going to get around to making one, especially since I prolly wouldn’t be able to fit anything but the smallest box in the new room I’m moving into. Here are some of the better links:

• Light Box / Light Tent Photo Gallery by Bill Huber (photoset on Flickr)
• Super Simple Light Tent via Instructables (using a small cardboard box)
• Jyoseph (this is a hard version that might be more work than is necessary)
• creativepro‘s tutorial is more about how to use the light tent, but it offers some great advice.

I may do something like this, or I may just take a little kid’s table and gut it. I’m sure I could find a white sheet at a garage sale for negative two dollars. Fortunately, I have at least 3 halogen lights so I’d pretty much be set.

I’ll be finishing off my aunt’s mittens while watching The Constant Gardener tonight, so I’m starting to plan the hat I’ll be knitting next. I’ve bought a pretty blue wool for it (70% merino, 30% possum!), and I’m going to try some new fancy stitches. I want to make a wide brim for it, which means I’ll need to buy some millinery wire so it’ll have some support. I have NO IDEA how to do this. (To support the hat, I mean, not buy the wire.)

I’ve found a thread at craftster with a few hints on how to do it, but nothing specific. The thread also concerns crocheted hats, which is a completely different process and likely doesn’t translate well to knitted hats.

I’m feeling pretty clueless.

So I ripped back the first mitten I knit and made it a bit narrower and shorter. I just finished the second mitten; all I have to do is weave in the ends and knit the thumb.
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