hello, all. it's been quite a week. for those who are outside of my immediate radar, upcoming is the infamous sponsor open house, which is when the media lab goes craaaazy with nonstop demos, workshops, meetings, and talks. demo or die, as the media lab motto carries on. this happens only twice a year, one in the fall (ta-da) and one in the spring. so now everyone's in the mood to get their thing to work, where thing and work are redefined on a near daily basis. fun times. and, may i add, the espresso machine is as beautiful as ever.

it's amazing to think how september just magically disappeared. and how come no one told me thanksgiving is in a MONTH? i suppose mother nature is telling me with the encroaching cold and wet on my nose, but winter is coming faster than i know what to do with myself. except maybe knit.

now that i have the gifts for my mom, my niece, and older sister #1 taken care of (idea for sis #2 is pending), presently i'm working on the tweed peaked hats for my dad and my nephew. grandpa and grandson united through headwear. you can gag with cuteness now. it's okay. i have been thinking about this idea for a while, with an image of tweedy cabbie hat or touring cap in my head. however, i had some difficulty finding patterns that weren't (1) blatantly feminine or (2) fugly, so it came with great luck that rhonda found a hat that worked in a bunch of patterns she got off ebay. it's out of an old patons 'winter accessories' book. we might just call it total karma.

so i finished the smaller one, except i need to attach a garter stitch brim and a covered button on the top of the cap. otherwise, voila.













and on the needles to the right is the larger hat that i cast on today at lunchhour's stitch 'n' bitch. adorable to the max, no? i had a little too much fun during my mini self-portrait photo session, as illustrated by the cute-hipsters-knit-too cheeky pic, and one in which you can espy my prized nara print.

the yarn i'm using for the hats is debbie bliss aran tweed, color 07, which is a black/gray marled yarn with flecks of red, yellow, and blue. very classic looking. however, i would NEVER EVER use this yarn again for a project. even though it's fine to work with once you've gotten the stitches going (and the fabric it creates is quite nice), the yarn itself is horridly fragile and breaks superduperily easily. i'm talking about tugging it between my fingers with ALMOST NO TENSION and it just separates just like that. [i have witnesses that can attest.] i haven't yet been able to cast on completely for my project without the yarn coming off in my hands, despite my attempts to cast 'gently' on the needles. i emailed the vendor off ebay from which i acquired the yarn, just to see if perhaps the yarn i got was imperfect or second-grade which might explain the fragility, but she confirmed it was first-grade yarn. if that's true (and i believe her), then this debbie bliss tweed is completely disappointing. i tried googling around to see if anyone else had issues with it, but all i could find were glowing reviews. huh. maybe i'm just a rough-tumble-gal with my yarn, but i'll just hope that whoever wears these hats won't find themselves scratching their heads with a pointy stick too often.

one thing to remember about sponsor week: free fancy food. chin up, everyone!