Woolgathering Dot Net

After leaving BUST, I went down to Seaport Yarn to acquire the appropriate materials for my newest project: Ron's Animal Cracker Hat from Prisoner of Azkaban.

This is a still from the last trailer of Ron roaring like a lion.

Posted without permission from Warner Brothers

If you look closely, you can see his really fabulous knit hat:

Ditto

At Seaport, I wandered around for at least half an hour, checking out all the solid colored yarn. In the end, I opted for some Debbie Bliss Merino Aran. I think in regards to texture, it is appropriate in size. Plus, the colors were as close as I could get them. I think the two greens are spot-on. I believe the bottom color is a very dark eggplant, topped with a fuscha. I could only find an appropriate dark eggplant in some Zara yarn, so I decided to go with black and fuscha. Debbie Bliss' white is a bit off-white, which is good, but not off-white enough compared to the ecru in the hat. I think that's forgivable. I'll probably utilize the pattern from Stitch'n Bitch, the Hot Head Hat, for the basic structure and decreases for the ribbing. I think I've kind of figured out the pattern.

I will need to swatch it, to see if it looks correct. Hopefully. Hehe. I'll work on it after I finish Salt Peanuts. I expect to be done with the sleeves by this weekend and then I can jump all over this one. I am tickling with anticipation!

Note added June 11th, 2004: Ron's knit hat in the Hogsmeade scenes looks like a chullo, in either a very dark brown or black. I'm leaning towards the dark brown, but I'll need to watch the movie again to make sure.

After a few more hours of staring, I think the pattern I originally published was incorrect.

Does this look better?

Those white diamonds are clearly smaller than the white triangles. I think this is closer. It's still not right, though. Notice that the white diamonds are close to touching in the enlarged photograph. Perhaps the white diamonds are flatter (and thus, smaller) than the triangles.

Or, perhaps the hat is decreasing by that point, which would make it much more difficult to recreate the pattern. Right now, I am making the assumption that decreases begin after the design. Hrm. I think I'll be mulling it over and staring at it for a few more hours.

To distract me from my tank-top bad feelings, I swatched for Ron's Animal Cracker hat.

A couple of things:
1. I know I knit it up on WAY too large needles. US10. Even though I knit tight, it was very loose. So, I will try it on US8s (which is the recommended needle size) and see how it looks then. I stopped by a not-so-LYS and picked up some Addi US8s.
2. I need to pick up an issue of Interweave Knits Fall 2003, to read the article on seamless intarsia knitting (in the round, I think). I am unhappy with the placement and size of holes between the color changes, which are very frequent and, seemingly, unavoidable because of the purl/knit nature.
3. When I do a color change, I don't like how the colors mix together with the purl ribs. I have no idea how I can avoid this, but it makes me a bit unhappy. Thankfully, one doesn't see them too clearly.
4. It still doesn't seem right. The pattern, I mean. I need to watch it again. Or get more stills. Many more stills of the hat, as seen from many different angles.

So, I'm soliciting for any suggestions on how I could improve the pattern. Perhaps it will look better once I reswatch it. I have the feeling that the decreases happen pretty soon, which gives the white diamonds a smaller appearance in the stills I've seen.

I want it to really look perfect. Hmmmm.