Hats for Little Heads

I mentioned about a month ago that I started a hat for my "take along" knitting.

I did indeed take it with me wherever I went. I didn't always work on it, though.

One time I pulled it out and realized I had decreased enough stitches that I had to switch to using double-pointed needles. I didn't have them with me.

The next time Troy was driving, I pulled it out again...and the same thing happened. I still didn't have the dpns with me!

But eventually, it all came together and I had a finished hat.

But as soon as I had that finished hat, I knew I had to fix it. You may recall that I had cast on with a provisional cast on and started with a (version of?) Turkish cast on. Or maybe I didn't tell you that? Anyway that's what I did because I didn't want a tough non-stretchy edge. But it was too loose. It's pretty easy for it to be loose. At least in my experience.

But it's all one continuous piece of string, so you can pull on it and adjust the tension and that's what I did. I hope you can see in the picture below that on the left side of the bottom edge, the stitches are smaller, do not spread out as much, and are more even.

I'm at the same point in the process in the next picture, but I wanted to let you see how  much yarn I had pulled out already. At this point I had made it half way around the hat, and that was how much extra length there was in the cast on.

The brim edge is still stretchy, but not nearly so sloppy.

Here is a shot of the swirling decreases:

The hat is a little small for my head. (Not surprising since I made the child's size.)

I would say the colour is the most
accurate in this picture.

Project Stats
Started: 19 Feb '16 / Finished: 10 Mar '16
Pattern: Barley by tincanknits (size: Child = 19")
Materials: 65 grams vintage Brown Sheep Co. (85/15 wool/mohair), colour 160


But wait! There's more!

When I finished this hat, I had 56 grams of wool left, so I thought I could make another hat. I would just go down a size and should have enough yarn.

But since I wasn't sure how far the yarn would go, I started at the top and knit the hat from the top down, reversing the pattern directions.

I picked the wrong increase to use. My favourite is to knit into the stitch in the row below. But if you do that every row (like you need to in the beginning of this pattern), then you are always knitting into the very same stitch every time you do that. So all of the beginning increases come out of the same stitch on the second row. That is why it is all "bunchy" at the top of the hat...except in the garter section. That is smooth because I used a kfb (knit into the front and back of the stitch) for that increase, and that has no unintended consequences when you do it every row.

I decided it was ok to leave it and just made the hat a little longer than I would have otherwise. Maybe I should have gone a little longer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When it was time to add the brim, I decided not to do ribbing all the way around again. I did ribbing under the garter section and did garter under the stockingnette section. Nice little turn-about there, right?

Since garter has a shorter row gauge (it takes more rows to make up the same length compared to the ribbing), I added two extra rows at the end on just the garter stitches. (I just turned the work as if I was doing short rows, which basically is what I was doing.)

Then I bound off with Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. (Although we're not so surprised anymore, are we?)

Now I have 13 grams of yarn left. I won't be starting another hat, but maybe it will be part of a hat one day when I have yarn that will work well with it.
Project Stats
Started: 13 Mar '16 / Finished: 18 Mar '16
Pattern: Barley by tincanknits (size: Toddler = 17")
Materials: 42 grams vintage Brown Sheep Co. (85/15 wool/mohair), colour 160


Both hats will go into the pile to be mailed to Wool-Aid.

Christmas Cast Ons

Just a warning...more Christmas presents shown in this post. I don't, however, reveal all so it's really just a little peek. You may decide if you wish to read on...

I won't tell you exactly what this project is but I wanted to write about it because it is the first time I have done the Turkish (or tubular) cast on.

I took my directions from the TECHknitter. (I love her work.) Her diagrams and pictures are well worth looking at.

I should have actually used her directions for the Turkish cast off for my last pair of socks but they were sort of done under a deadline (it was the last day of Socktober) and I was too lazy at the time to learn something new. But it was the perfect situation as the socks ended in 1x1 ribbing and the top of socks need to be stretchy, which the Turkish cast off is.

But anyway, enough about when I didn't use the technique. I decided to try it on ...well, on this current project. It is a little fiddly, as TECHknitter promises, but it can be done. She also recommends not doing it in the round because she doesn't think it's worth the extra fiddling. Of course, purist that I am, I did it in the round anyway:

Well worth the fiddling!

It's called a tubular cast on because you make a tube out of the stitches. You do a provisional cast on, then knit the stitches as if you were doing double knitting. And then once you've done a couple rows like that, you start knitting all the stitches in a 1x1 ribbing. The knit stitches are the stitches you were knitting on the front side; the purl stitches are the stitches you were knitting on the "back" side, so to speak. End result, you have stitches that continuously roll from front to back and there is no binding thread or chain at the cast on to keep the stitches from stretching.

It is very stretchy, and yet recovers very well so it doesn't stay stretched out.

I will admit that it is more time consuming and takes some concentration, but it is definitely a step in taking one's knitting to the "next level."

Now about the yarn, I bought it because I couldn't resist the colours. A very nice mix of purples and reds. A little more lively than the subtle shading on my Firestarter socks.

It's Fleece Artist Nyoni which is a mix of wool, mohair, nylon and silk. Fleece Artist is a Nova Scotia company so I have to admit I'm biased toward them, but they do make some really nice stuff. It's been a pleasure working with this yarn.

And another yarn I couldn't resist taking home with me is this ball of madelinetosh tosh DK (colourway terrarium):

I was making something else with this. Another project in which to use the Turkish cast on. After a few inches, I realized it wasn't working so I frogged it all. I was too demoralized to do the Turkish cast on again and used my dependable cable cast on. I kept at it even though it became obvious that the cable cast on was not nearly as good.

Then about half way done the project, I realized I was reading the chart wrong; I had to frog 3/4 of what I had done.

I reknit it using the right chart and got back to the same point again. It then became very obvious that it was way way too big. Time to frog again. But by then I was so angry I threw it across the room, much to Troy's surprise. I thought it was a perfectly logical reaction given the circumstances.

Both these projects were in time outs at that point. (I won't get into it, but the first project had its own hurdles.) I have since sorted out the first project and it is humming along again. Once it is taken care of, I think I will be up to the task of attempting the second project for the fourth time. This time I will take the pattern recommendations on needle sizes with a large grain of salt. And I will read the right chart. And I will use the Turkish cast on.

And I will hope it all works out. Troy doesn't like it when double pointed needles are flying across the room.