Web Log for 10.19-20.25

I didn't plan for this to be Arts & Crafts Day. It just happened...

Art 

Since some readers read my poem about the original painting, some readers may be interested in Tom Cox's father's revisiting of a classic English painting...

He sent that "time-travelling cat" into other historical paintings from around the world. To see the series, and buy postcard-sized prints, go to 

https://michaelcoxmoredaysthansausages.bigcartel.com/

Visual art seems to run in TC's family; some pieces by father, mother, and son are at

https://www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-room-2/

Craft 

Summer before last I inherited someone's yarn stash. It was a real knitter's time warp with oddments of yarns from the 1960s on. This summer I set out on a project to make one hat from each skein, using leftovers from large skeins to add to small skeins in multicolor hats. And someone with a decent cell phone camera kindly photographed the hat collection, spreading out handfuls of hats on a jacket on the back of her car:

They're all fairly simple hats created by plugging Annette Mitchell's stitch patterns, which range from simple to basic, into the basic 72-stitch hat pattern. 

Yes, the pink ribbed cap that draws in and looks like a mitten, and the red-green-white-and-brown garter stitch cap that draws up like a beanie, were made with the same number of stitches and rows...and they'll fit the same heads. Almost everyone will be able to wear the ribbed caps though they will fit snugly and crush hairstyles.

The autumn-leaves-on-pavement colors cap used up two small skeins.

Knitted lace caps are a lot warmer than people expect. The "holes" provide some ventilation but the thick fabric still traps lots of air inside your hair where your body heat warms it. If you wear a lace cap in falling snow, the snow will form a crust over the lace.

Sometimes plain ribbing along the border spreads out below a tighter rib stitchabove; someetimes it pulls in below plain stitch or lace stitches above.

The black, brown, and white pattern is a detail from a larger pictorial pattern that wouldn't fit onto a hat. 

Yes, you can tell by my interest in football when a friend's child is on a team. Go Big Blue! That blue cap would be good to wear to a game.

You wouldn't believe the narrow pink cap at the top right will fit the same person who could wear the red and blue caps below, but it will.

There's more yarn in the stash so, as these hats are sold, there will be more hats. They cost $10 each.