Cashmere Cap

Here's a little something I made in the late summer/early fall:

Isn't that a darling cap? I really loved the picture that came with the pattern, which made it look very much like a little flapper hat. Mine doesn't have quite that same vibe, but I still think it's cute.

I mentioned that I plied four strands of some thin cashmere I had raveled from a sweater (here). The yarn worked quite well and was easier to work with than separate strands. But not so much better that I'll be plying everything now.

The cap starts at the top and then increases to the final size.

I start with what is basically a provisional cast on over the yarn tail. Then when the hat is done, I can pull the tail so all the stitches come in tight before I work in the end. If I'm worried about the tail breaking, I may put it through the stitches a second time around before pulling it tight.

I think the eyelets are just sweet enough. Obviously this isn't a "high winter" cap, but being made from cashmere, it will be warmer than it looks.

But the real attraction in the hat is the scalloped edging:

All the scalloped edging I've ever seen is crocheted, but this is knit! It's a bit of a pain to do but I think it has great effect.

I'm worried the hat will be too short for my little niece that I gave it to. On the pattern picture, it comes down to a good length over the baby's ears but I don't think mine is going to, even though I followed the pattern measurements. I just hope it's long enough to stay on.

The hat was a enjoyable quick knit. And I learned something new!

Project Stats
Started: 22 Aug '14
Finished: 13 Sep '14
Pattern: Little Flapper Hat by Hayley Albertson (free)
Materials: Raveled Cashmere Charter Club sweater, lace weight (or less) spun into a 4-ply (21 g) ($0.40)

Making Four Into One

I saw a little baby hat pattern on the Ravelry Unravellers group a while ago and got an urge to make it recently. I considered my stash and decided to make it with some pale blue cashmere I have.

I dyed the sleeves from this sweater red, but I still had plenty of blue left. But it was very, very thin, even for a pattern calling for two strands of lace weight.

So I decided to ply a few strands together to get a thicker yarn.

Yes, I could have just held the strands together and knit with them that way. I often do. But I didn't want to in this case and considering I'm the only one in charge of my knitting, I do what I want. So after making a centre-pull ball from one of the hanks, I pulled the strand from the centre and the strand from the outside and twisted them together onto the drop spindle.

I did the calculations and thought 16 grams would finish the hat, so that's what I spun. (Or plied. I don't know if you're allowed to use the word "spin" when you're just plying.) Once I had two strands twisted together on the spindle, I wound it onto my niddy noddy (pictured above) and then wound the hank into a centre-pull ball.

Then I took the strand from the centre and the strand from the outside and twisted them together in the opposite direction. That way the twist stays put. I soaked it and let it dry and I had this:

It looked ok to me but as I worked with it, it seemed too loosely spun. I'm basing this on the fact that it would untwist as it ran through my fingers as I was knitting. I don't know for sure.

But it was still very enjoyable to knit with. The design has yarn-overs which often leave exposed yarn not caught up in a stitch and it looks better to be spun than individual strands.

I got close to finishing the hat, but I did run out of yarn. So I got out the drop spindle and did another 9 grams.

As I worked on it, I thought I gave it more twist than the first one (although I didn't want to make it too different) but it looks about the same in the picture. I'll see if there's any difference as I knit with it.

And here's a little look at the cap:

It's very sweet and I can't wait to get to the interesting edge stitch. I hope mine works up as well as the one in the pattern pictures!