Gift knitting

I didn’t plan any large gift knitting projects for this holiday season, but I do have a couple of small ones to put under the tree.

First up is this versatile piece of jewelry designed by Laura Nelkin. The pattern is Fetish and it can be worn as a necklace or as a bracelet (two different bracelet options). I’ve had my eye on this pattern since it came out, and felt that knitting for my SIL justified the acquisition of a couple findings (the hammered ring and the clasp). The yarn and beads are from stash, though.

My SIL loves this turquoise and red combination. I hope she’ll enjoy this small gift. These pieces of jewelry are so fun to make!

In other knitting news, my sister requested a lightweight beanie. She lives in a warm climate (Georgia) but sometimes it gets chilly enough that she wants a light hat when running. I showed her the 1898 hat – specifically, how the headband dips down to cover the ears – and she liked it. But making a hat like that out of worsted weight yarn (double thickness in the ear band, no less) would be far too warm for her. I decided to recreate the look in fingering weight yarn.

I worked from the top down, starting with a pinhole cast on (for a tidy look) and 8 points of increase. I totally winged it on when to start adding more plain knit rows between the increase rows. I knew her head circumference (a petite 21”). Fortunately for me, Boy 2’s noggin also measures 21”, so he served as my head model. Since my gauge was 7 st/in, I worked to 136 stitches, which gave me about 1.5” negative ease.

To knit the ear/headband part (does this part of that hat anatomy have a proper name???), I used the applied garter stitch edge technique over 10 stitches. I cast on 10 stitches provisionally onto a dpn and then attached each garter stitch ridge to one live stitch on the hat crown. That sounds more complicated than it is… it’s the same technique that created the attractive edge on this Weigh It Shawl:

I did some math to determine how deep to work the earflaps. Cross-multiplication FTW! I just made them the same proportions as on the 1898 hat, which meant they were 17 stitches deep at their deepest point. And when I got all the way around the head, I unzipped my provisional CO and did a garter stitch graft to close the seam cleanly.

I’m not going to lie – I was pretty chuffed with myself for figuring this out without a pattern. The finished hat is so wee – it only weighs about 29 grams! I’m not sure that it will fit my sister perfectly, so I have not woven in the ends. If it turns out that it needs more length in the crown, I’ll rip off the head/earband part and rework it. Now that I have all the math and technique worked out, that won’t take me any time at all. I’m packing a hat repair kit to take with me to our Christmas gathering so I can fix it right away if needed.

I think there will be another one of these hats in my near future. Yesterday before school, Boy 2 was looking for this hat. Somehow he thought it was for him. In his defense, we have been discussing making him a new hat out of sock yarn, but this particular hat isn’t for him. No matter – I’ve got it down now!