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.

AIDS Walk Prize: A Billed Cap

I just got home from walking the Michiana AIDS Walk. It was a great walk, and we could not have had better weather. They moved the walk downtown this year and I liked that a lot.

For the last few years, I have knit a prize to give out to one of my sponsors (click to see the 2012, 2011, and 2010 prizes). I was a little stuck this year for what to make because I like it to be fairly generic and useful and easy to do while walking. That is a taller order than you might think!

In pattern surfing on Ravelry, I came across this hat and decided that it would do, except for the "easy to do while walking." I actually finished the hat well before the Walk, and worked on my current dishcloth while walking.

Coming up to the crowd at the Park.

And who is the winner this year? It is Mary who has been a long time supporter and surely deserves to win! (But don't all my sponsors. I know, sorry you couldn't all win it.) I have to admit I don't think I've ever seen Mary in a hat, but I hope she likes it or finds someone to gift it to who will. :)

Along the route of the Walk, they took us by the AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist office where we could see part of the AIDS Quilt.

Have you heard of this project? There's a great movie, Common Threads, about how it got started if you're interested.

Each individual panel is 3'x6' (the size of a human grave) and is made by family or friends of someone who has died. The panel is sent in and they sew them into 12' square panels, fitting together the pieces so that they all face the right way.

This was the most traditionally quilted piece
I saw. The squares look quite old, so they
could be grandma's old orphan blocks, or this
square may have seen some hard use since
it was made.

The quilt has been displayed in its entirety only three times, and that was on the Mall in Washington, DC. I'm quite sure it is far too big now to be shown in one place. Parts of it travel all over the place to raise awareness. I was involved when it came to Big Rapids, Michigan, when I was in college there. It's always an interesting and moving thing to see.

Now, about the hat: The pattern was very good. It started at the bottom and I used a version of a provisional cast on that I use for double knitting. (The video is here; yes, the one pranked by reddit.) But of course, instead of using two colours, I just used two strands of red. This time I also remembered to use one size smaller needle for the cast on because I have done this before and found it a little loose. I followed that with one row of K1, P1 (on the regular size needles) and then started the actual pattern in the round. It was a perfect stretchy, but not sloppy, cast on. (And has the nice perk of being almost undetectable!)

The hat continues in alternating panels of garter stitch and cables.

When it's time for decreasing, the garter stitch panels fade away and leave the cables to swirl together at the top:

It's all finished with the best little crocheted button:

(Much softer than a regular button with a shank on it!)

And then the hat is finished with a bill:

It's knit from picked up stitches along the edge, and then doubled on itself back to the edge for cast off. The double layer of wool gives a nice amount of body to the bill without being too stiff.

I made the hat from a wool/angora blend that I had raveled from a sweater.

Project Stats
Started: 10 Apr '13
Finished: 14 Apr '13
Pattern: Birdie Hat by Suzanne Frary
Materials: 49 grams of wool blend from an Eddie Bauer sweater (67% lambswool, 19% angora, 14% nylon)

Double Double Take (or A Hat is a Gauge Swatch)

I've started a hat I've had in mind for a while...something with a skull on it for someone I work with. (No, I don't want him dead--it's the haunted house thing again.) He always admires my knitting and extols the virtues of wool and alpaca. There's not much more you can do to make yourself knit worthy! (Ok, maybe actually buying me wool would raise you up a little higher, but that's not necessary.)

I had already decided to double knit the hat for warmth and to avoid the long floats the colourwork would require. I found two complementary shades of brown of the same yarn in my stash and set to work.

The slit in the top is from when I was working in rows.
Once the increases were done, I started working in the
round. It will be short work to sew the seam shut with
the long tails I left at the cast on.

The first start was not very successful. I started at the bottom as the pattern suggested, but the number of stitches was way off--the hat would have been huge. The double knitting part, however, was making it hard to get a good sense of my gauge. I had the brilliant plan to start over from the top so I could just stop increasing when the hat was big enough.

That worked fairly successfully. I did the crown of the hat on straight needles in the flat (i.e. not in the round). It was a new skill to do increases in double knitting, but it went pretty easily. I would increase 8 times around in the one colour on one row, and on the next row I would increase in the other colour. That way I never had to increase both colours at the same time (and I could do all the increases on knit rows instead of purl rows), and each colour got a plain row of knitting in between the increase rows.

By the time I got to the right size, I had one pattern repeat less than the pattern called for (14 sts). No wonder my first try was so big!

Then I followed the pattern's instructions and did 12 rows of plain knitting--no increases and no colourwork.

Then I started the colourwork pattern:

I'm not quite half way through the colourwork, and I can tell that this hat is going to be way too tall. (This is making me think my gauge is way different than the pattern's, but I'm telling you it does say to use worsted weight and that's what I'm using--on smaller needles, no less.) After a brief phone consultation with my hat-knitting sister, we've decided that if I rip back to where the increases end and skip the 12 rows of plain knitting, the hat should come out alright. Maybe a touch long, but that's better than short.

One side:

the other side. Double knitting makes a perfectly reversible hat. I think it's like magic...only real.

May Mulligan

Ok, so I know some of you were beginning to doubt. Were thinking that I had given up and just not told you...but no, I am still working on my March Mulligans.

...and just got one finished, as a matter of fact!! I reknit the Hat Fit for a Boyfriend that I had made for Troy. He uses it as a nightcap and it was too big, too stretched out to stay on his head overnight.

I didn't notice when I knit the pattern but it calls for an aran weight yarn and I was using a worsted. So the needle size was all wrong, for one. The 2x3 rib wasn't right either.

When reknitting the hat, I started at the top so I could just increase until I had enough stitches and knit down from there. I just used the basic formula of increasing on every other row, eight times per round.

Doesn't the centre where I started look good? I cast on 4 stitches with my favourite provisional cast on (over the tail), slid the stitches to the other end of the dpn and knit one row (like you would when making an I-cord), then did my first increases and started knitting in the round. Then when I had a few rows done, I could use the tail to pull the stitches together where I first started. Worked like a charm.

I didn't bother to ravel the old hat before I started knitting. I just unwound as I needed.

So instead of a ball of wool, I had a knitted piece as my source of yarn. Sort of like a sock blank. When I was finished I only had this much left:

(But there was no adrenaline used in the making of this hat. I had half a ball of the same colour ready in case I need it.) And of course, I was trying to make a smaller hat, so I had no reason to think I wouldn't have enough yarn. (Although stranger things have happened!)

I knit the body of the hat in a smooth sturdy stocking stitch. Eliminating the rib and using smaller needles made sure the fabric wouldn't stretch out. I finished the hat with a few rounds of garter for a simple flat finish.

Troy has tried it on and deemed it much improved. Now let's hope we won't need it for a good long while!

Getcher butt in gear

I was knitting at home on Saturday after getting home from work and a visit to Red Purl to get set up for Amy's afghan knit-along [KAL] (more on that later...). I was happily knitting on my Sahara as it was going along nicely. The Manos silk blend knits up very evenly.

I've just had one thick spot in the yarn and it knit into an edge so nothing to worry about... I got the back done as far as the armhole shaping, and then started the front when I thought that if I'm going to start yet another project then I have got to get that hat ready to send to Iraq. And circumstances were lining up so that I didn't have much time to knit at lunch breaks or times when I'm waiting. So the hat was kind of languishing. Saturday evening I decided that was going to end. I had the Sahara to a point that I could knit it away from home, and so concentrated on the hat.

Before church on Sunday morning, I had the hat done; including the finishing since I had the right tools packed with me. (Now that's getting your butt in gear!) This hat has turned out as well as the other ones like this I've done and I hope it gets much good use.

With the hat done, I could work a little on the Sahara again, and got the front also knit down to the armhole shaping. You see, the Sahara is worked from the shoulders down. The back is cast on with the crochet cast on I've discussed before. And then when it's done to the armhole, you pick up the caston edge and work the front down from that point. When the front is at the same point as the back under the arm, then you start knitting them all together.

That's about as far as I am. I have to knit another two inches straight before the waist shaping will begin. At that point I'll try is on; that's one of the advantages to knitting a sweater top down. [More pics to come...] I've adjusted the colour on this picture so it matches pretty closely to the real sweater. The colour is so rich. It's hand-dyed so the colour varies a little which gives the sweater a real depth. Lovely.

Keep the needles clacking,

christina

Caps for a Cure October

I haven't been in the Caps for a Cure group very long, but I outdid myself this month: two kids hats and three adult hats.

The kids hats were described under my favourite kids hat.

For the adult hat, I did two similar versions of Catherine Lindsay's Durango:

It was a fun crochet project (I don't say that very often), I learned a bit about following patterns in crochet, and I learned a new crochet stitch. I got the buttons from my stash of old buttons I've carried with me forever.

And the last one I did was the Amanda by Gina House. I actually suggested this one to the group and then didn't make it til the very end of the month! The yarn I chose unfortunately did not show off the very nice lace pattern, but the hat turned out nice anyway.

I made a few modifications including starting the decreases in the second lace panel because the hat was getting too long. And then I finished the decreases in garter instead of stocking.

I got all the hats sent off yesterday (Nov 6), so just a touch late but still in time that they should arrive by the deadline of the 15th.

Spurred on by that success, I've already started one for the Nov/Dec cycle and it is going very fast. Having an evening seminar this week that I could knit through certainly helped. The Foliage by Emilee Mooney from knitty.com had caught my eye in the past, and I'm so happy I have the excuse to make it. (Because there are only so many hats I need, but Caps for a Cure can use as many as I can make!)

Next up I need to catch up on some quilting for my class a week from this Saturday (I only have 5 of the "corner spike" units done) and knit some gifts up.

Keep your needles clacking,

christina

Favourite Kids Hat

Isn't this the best pattern ever! I love it. Simple and genius. I've made two of the hats and they couldn't be easier. These will be going to a cancer unit through Caps for a Cure, a group that votes on new patterns to do every month, and changes the cancer center that gets the hats every two months. I like that all I have to do is try out new patterns and knit and crochet hats!