too much tea last night resulted in an inability to sleep, aggravated by thoughts of a new thorpe hat color design. when i woke up this morning i made my way to belmont where my mother was still home. i saw the finished 2nd thorpe hat, this one in medium wool. nice fit, smaller, denser, definitely warmer. i showed my mother a pattern for a different hat she might be interested in knitting called the koolhaas hat (a spiral-designed cap, almost like a spiderweb); the instructions actually cost money ($4.50) but was reprinted in an old 2009 issue of interweave knits accessories magazine which i managed to get a copy of and print out the pattern for her.

after fixing me some lunch (eggs & sausages), my mother started on my thorpe hat with my new color scheme. instead of equal sized color stripes, i wanted to mix it up a little bit, dividing the orange from the red with a single band of white. unfortunately to create a single seamless row of any particular color (i.e. jogless) while knitting in the round is nearly impossible, so i had to make every white stripe 2 rows instead. it made for a chunky pattern. my mother never used such a thick yarn before (chunky weight) and made quick progress (thicker the yarn, fewer rows need to be knit). in under an hour she was already halfway done but had to leave for work.

back at home, more cleaning. i dusted under all the furnitures, particularly under my bed, where i cleaned up years' worth of dust bunnies. although i was in the mood to postpone it again, i ended up finally doing a water change on my 2 aquariums. my 2 guppies, 2 tetras, and 1 cherry barb thanked me as i gave them a treat of dehydrated brine shrimps.

my mother crocheted the strands onto the blue-black thorpe so i could bring it home and do my special braiding i learned just last night. earlier she did the braids for the green-brown thorpe, a simple braid pattern using double 3 strands. it gave a functional but rather flat braids. my 6 strand braiding technique used 3 different colors and is rounder. maybe because i'm a total amateur, but it look me half an hour to weave a 20" braid, and another half hour to do the 2nd braid.

i wore the blue-black thorpe the rest of the night. even though it's acrylic, it still keeps my head warm. i don't mind that it's knitted in a large size; even though the brim comes to my eyebrows, the longer nape of the hat keeps my neck cozy.

in what's becoming a wednesday night tradition, i heated up a brick of lasagna for dinner while watching the latest episode of suburgatory followed by modern family. i also watched happy endings while waiting for the start of american horror story. happy endings actually isn't too bad, had some funny moments. american horror story is just crazy at this point, 5 episodes into this 13 episode season. i watch it now more for shock value.