No, Really, It Was a Swatch

* Newly annotated for non-knitters and other aliens *

Last night, I ripped out the nearly-completed monster hat. I'd been knitting along for a while, la-la-la-ing with my fingers in my ears over the fact that it was only barely big enough around, even before I knit a liner to protect the head from itchy, itchy Aura*. Monday night at PurlyGirls, though, I started the crown decreases**, and suddenly it wasn't so much a hat as one of those hemispherical popping toys - you pull it down over your head, and it sproings off and lands across the room. (Note to self: stop knitting by the seat of your pants just because you've done a bajillion hats before. At least pick a pattern to riff off of. Unlike good jazz, good knitting is not improvisational.)

I could have ripped back my decrease rows*** and knit some more length into it, or just finished it up and then picked up along the bottom**** to add some length, but the I really wasn't confident of even being able to find the stitches with the Aura fuzzing everything up. Better to start from scratch and fix everything.

I taught myself the crochet cast on*****, which will make it much easier to knit the liner once I've finished (hooray for Montse Stanley******, by the way). I added eight stitches to my cast on******* and knit a few rounds right before bed. It's a pretty fast knit anyway, so hopefully I can get back to place at Knitting Guild tonight.

The good thing is, ripping it out didn't leave little shiny, fluffy bits everywhere, so it's unlikely to shed once it's done. Here at Zeitgeist, all of our handknits are rigorously tested for your comfort and convenience.

---

* A type of novelty yarn made of little plastic shiny whiskery bits. Suffice it to say, you really don't want it next to your skin.

** The part where the hat gets smaller, so that it can eventually become a hat, rather than, say, a tube that you've put on your head for no good reason (snowboarders, I'm looking at you!).

*** "Decreasing for the crown;" "making smaller;" "non-tube;" see above.

**** Grabbing bits of yarn from the brim edge, which is now a closed system, and putting them back on the needle, in order to knit in the other direction. Fiddly and boring at the best of times.

***** Getting the yarn on the needle in such a way that stiches along the brim edge can later be returned to the needle - for knitting, say, a liner for an itchy hat. Negated the need for ****.

****** Author of The Knitter's Handbook, a comprehensive guide to everything you might ever want to do with yarn. Not exactly a gribbing read, but an invaluable reference.

******* This makes the hat wider, to counteract the sproinging effect mentioned earlier.