Long time no post! I suppose that's the problem with university, no knitting time. I don't think I've picked up the needles for over a month.
I will have to put some of the school work aside soon though. Christmas presents won't knit themselves.

The Classics Society (of which I am a member) is having a Secret Santa this year. I have to find something for a good friend of mine. She was begging me to knit her a "Jayne hat" earlier in the year, so I think I'm obliged to make it for Christmas. This is fine, because it won't take me more than a day to finish, but I really hate the pattern. The hat is supposed to look like one worn by Jayne on the SciFi show Firefly and this hat really looks like it was the character's first project. I keep looking at it and going: "If I knit a seed-stitch border, the edge would lie better." "I could decrease at the top so that it doesn't bulk up like that." "The earflaps  would look much nicer if they weren't stst and had a little more shape to them." Unfortunately, if I made all the improvements I want to, it wouldn't be the same hat. It would lose it's character. I guess I should just bite the bullet and knit it like it was meant to be knit.
Does anyone know how to make a gathered top like in this picture? Do I just knit a tube and gather the top? It seems too simple.



I'm also making the Vlad the Impaler hat for my sister for Xmas, assuming I can find the time. I'm more excited about that one. There are some interesting techniques incorporated into the pattern. The I-cord border on the earflaps makes them flip out in points. Cables make the shapes of impaled people around the edge. You can find the pattern here.

As for the tank top I was working on at the end of the summer, I think it has been shelved until the spring. It's been deceptiveley warm for a Canadian November so far, but it is still the time of year to be thinking of hats and mits. Hopefully I will find the time to knit myself a hat or something too. I suppose that's the curse of any knitter though. Everyone is always asking for something, you forget that you can knit for yourself too.

And now back to the studying!