i am my own test knitter

I've only put a few simple designs up on this blog, and they're all free (scroll down the sidebar here to find them). I'll never be a true designer, and I'm totally okay with that. I don't have it in me to come up with anything original enough to charge money for, or design anything complicated enough for a tech editor or test knitters (like with many sizes or bust shaping). I'm happy to come up with the occasional hat or blanket design and throw those on the internet for anyone who might want to make one. 

Long time readers of Mad Knitting may remember that years ago, when Anya was but a yearling, I published a hat pattern, Transsiberian, named after an indie movie of the same title in which actress Emily Mortimer flees a frightening man on the Transsiberian railroad and runs barefoot across the tundra, all while wearing this really great cabled hat. I wanted one like it, so I decided to design one, and with a spare skein of Lamb's Pride and my cabled stitched dictionary, I did just that.

A handful of people on Ravelry have made this hat, and several noted an error in the crown decreases. Also, since then I've acquired some charting software and a little more pattern-writing savvy. I also lost the original hat (or maybe gave it away because let's face it, Lamb's Pride is itchy stuff…I've moved on in my yarn acquisition tendencies), so about six months ago I sat down and knit another one of these in better yarn (Blackberry Ridge Mill 2-ply, leftover from my Bloody Mary test knit). As my own test knitter, I fixed the decrease problem and charted the pattern. It was surprisingly easy.

I don't know why it took six months to get a photo shoot of this hat. Life happened, I guess, and I'm tired of my junky back yard being the background for every photo shoot I post on this blog. This morning, we took the kids to a nearby park for some fall photos, so as we were leaving the house, I put on this hat with the intention of getting a few good shots in. The light this morning was a little bright; a lot of the pictures have shadows and contrast, but we got a few decent takes and some fun ones in the leaves. 

The hat pattern is still free, and always will be. This is partly because I ripped off the design from a movie, partly because there are approximately a gazillion cabled hat patterns out there already, and partly because I am still figuring out how to navigate the pro/designer part of Ravelry. I consider it a small miracle that I managed to upload the pattern pdf. I have yet to figure out how to add new photos to the design page (help??!!) and when it comes to adding a financial component…forget it. It's not worth the dozen dollars per year I'd make off this design.

A note about the yarn, Blackberry Ridge Mill medium-weight 2-ply. It's wonderful, light and wooly without being itchy and wears very well. My only gripe is that I bought it without thinking about how that medium beige/gray color does nothing for me. Maybe I should toss this hat in the Christmas bucket. What do you think?