12/29/09 10:00 pm… Cast-on using size 7 circs and a knitted cast on. Switched up to 8’s at row 1 of chart. Made it through row 4 of chart.

12/30/09… Notes for future - Needle up at round 8, down at round 24 of chart. Only 1 round of 2x2 rib after completed chart. Omit ALL even rows of crown shaping through round 10 - in other words, k2tog every row. I really don’t like the way this decrease pattern looks and next time I knit this, I’m going to work out how to make the cables mesh into the shaping. That would be ever soooo much nicer. But I was in a hurry this time around - so….

Yarn notes: This yarn reminds me of working with old newspaper… the colour rubs off onto my hands and needles and every once in a while you find a ‘prickle’ embedded into the yarn that must be pulled out. It’s also quite ‘splitty’. Don’t know that I’d use this again. DH choose it, for colour more than anything I think, and next time, I think I will try to steer him in a different direction - aka 100% alpaca!

02/21/10 - Well, DH wanted me to give this another try, so he ordered the City Tweed in Orca and I hammered out a new pattern for the decreases at the top since that was one of the things that I really really didn’t like about the original pattern. I’m much much much happier with version 2.0 - as is DH.

I needled up on round 8 and down on round 24. That seemed to work wonderfully. The way the decreases are in version 2.0 has the ribbing end in nice peaks and forms a star-like pattern at the top.

PICTURES: The first four pictures are of the Yeah project… the last three are of the ugh project… FYI