One of the good things that has happened this fall is that John is now working in downtown Chicago. It means that he is much closer to home (in other words, has shorter travel times) and that he can actually take public transportation to work (well, "can" is a relative verb, taking the car would be very expensive because of the cost of daily parking in the Loop). If you've ever worked in a big city area with a bunch of skyscrapers when the weather is cold and windy, you know that it can get pretty cold as the wind gets blocked by the big buildings, but then is incredibly intense in the areas it is diverted to. Thus, my sweetie, who normally just had to go from house to car to work with relatively little exposure to the elements, now has to encounter some pretty chilly weather as we move towards winter here in Chicago. A guy who normally would eschew hats, scarves and gloves is beginning to think that there is a purpose for these garments after all.
To be fair, for the last couple of years he has been asking for a headband to keep his ears warm when he is outdoors shoveling snow (he doesn't like hats very much because he hasn't found one that is flattering to his head shape). I made one small try using some white Cascade Indulgence, an angora blend that I thought would be both soft and warm for him (he is very into soft yarns and textures). One can argue about the wisdom of a white angora headband for a man, but John is actually quite careful with his clothes. The real problem with this project was actually three fold -- one, I made it exactly the right size (I should have made it an inch or two smaller than his head size so that it would stretch and grip properly) and two, angora doesn't really have much elasticity (meaning that once it stretched out, it wasn't going to hang on to his head very well), and three, I knit it circularly (meaning that the only way to fix it's being too big was to rip it out completely and start again).
So I kind of dumped this attempt into my closet of poorly thoughtout knitwear, and began to search for other solutions. While I was at MS&W, I ran across the solution at the Morehouse Merino booth -- a manly colored colorway (dark inky purple, deep burgandy, dark grey) in a yarn I know will be wonderful, soft and stretchy (a DK weight merino) in a pattern that is adjustable -- a ribbed band knit from end to end instead of in the round. Definitely a quick project, and something I thought I would have finished for him before the summer ended.
Heh. Ribbing doesn't always get my attention. But then it got cold downtown this week, and John says to me If I don't get a knitted headband soon, I might have to go out and buy one..... Those are the kind of words that get people in my family motivated. Is there anything worse to a crafter than to know that a recipient is open to a handmade gift, but might have to eschew it because the crafter has not been able to deliver in a time frame necessary to make the gift valuable? So yesterday, while hanging out with Julie (who is recovering nicely), I figured a knitting a little ribbed strip would be the perfect complement to the afternoon. I thought I would probably get the project finished and make sure that John had warm ears this morning.
Turns out his head is a little bigger than the average anticipated for the pattern. Even after knitting 15 rows past the suggested point, I still need an inch or two before he will even be able to get close to getting it around his head (to be fair, it's not big enough for me, either, so I think the pattern is geared to people with slightly smaller heads, or my row gauge is a little different than expected on the needle size recommended). No problem, because I have plenty of yarn. And because now he sees that I am close tot the finished project, he's decided that he can stay away from Target for a little while longer.
And this likely won't be the only winter project for John. He actually mentioned that with all the wind down town, it would probably be good to have a scarf. Lucky for me, I have some Lorna's Laces Angel in the closet all ready for this project (in nice, manly Pewter color). If he can't have an angora headband, at least he can have a warm, snuggly angora scarf (and I get a little farther along my stash reduction goal!).
