Maple Leaf Do Rag

The leaves are turning here.  Some have already turned orange and fallen off, but the maple trees near my house are slower to change.  They can be green and yellow and orange all at once.This weekend, I made a very seasonal hat for S1.  The yarn is Harrisville Designs New England Highland in color “High Gold.”  It’s a woolen-spun 2-ply yarn a lot like Shelter.

The pattern is Melissa LaBarre’s November Leaves, which calls for Shelter, so I knew this substitution would work well (both yarns are spun at the same mill in New Hampshire).  I got a different gauge (her pattern calls for 5 st/in and I got 4 st/in), so I had to modify the numbers – but my mods worked perfectly.  I made the “beret” version, but it’s worn as a slouchy hat……or kind of a do rag, to keep one’s hair under control on a windy day!  With apologies to Scott Joplin, I’m calling this one the Maple Leaf Do Rag. 

In other knitting news, I was the very lucky recipient of a pair of Steven’s Woodland Winter Mittens – the October version.  Look how pretty!

These will be so cozy when the temperature dips lower.  I can actually wear them in my climate!  They fit great, and I love them.  Thanks, Steven!!!

Manhattan, New York

During the entire course of my lifetime, my Aunt Georgia lived in Manhattan, Kansas.  Everyone knew that’s what you meant when you said “Manhattan” (not New York), and everyone knew that’s what you meant when you said “the little apple” (not that you were a doofus who really meant “the big apple”).  This weekend, I made a Manhattan AND a New York: These knit up super fast in Knit Picks Swish DK on size 4 needles.  The red is color “garnet heather,” the green is “moss,” and the brown is “bark.”  Using the classic Ann Norling Pattern #10 (Kid’s Fruit Cap), the little apple was knit with the 6 month instructions (CO 72) and the big apple was knit with the 1 year instructions (CO 80).  You would expect them to come out smaller than their intended sizes, as the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn… but I think they are plenty big.  Boy 2 (small for his age, but still) is modeling the Manhattan here: Quick gift project for some apple-y people expecting babies.  I really do like the heathered yarns from Knit Picks.

Possibilities

It’s high apple season here in south central Pennsylvania. There’s a chill in the air most mornings.  The leaves are beginning to turn.  And it’s time to knit some fall hats.

The yellow: New England Highland, color “gold,” 100% wool, 2-ply, 100 g, 200 yards.

The red: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, color “long johns,” 100% wool, 2-ply woolen spun, 100 g (total), 280 yards (2 balls combined).

There are 12 slouchy hats in my Ravelry favorites.  Which one will be first?

Tricorn Baby Hat

I’ve whipped up a baby hat to take with me to Sock Summit.  It would be rude to show up to a baby shower without a gift!  Appropriately, this hat is knit from sock yarn.  Look, it’s a tricorn baby hat (tee hee):

This simple pattern is from the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book, which is chockfull of quick patterns that could address my sock yarn stash quite well. This hat took only 32 grams of yarn (including the tassels).  The yarn was left over from Boy 1’s Circle Socks (also going to Sock Summit).  I still have 57 grams of this yarn left – it has more to give. 

Yes, this hat required more stitches than a baby hat knit from worsted weight yarn (the CO # was 120), but the result is so cute and I didn’t have to buy any new yarn to make it.  Also important: the yarn is machine-washable.  I insist on that for my charity knitting projects.

Mods: I knit the body of the hat a little longer than the 5.5” specified in the pattern because I thought it looked a little skimpy (remember, my first child had a HUGE head).  The model above is Boy 2, now 6 years old.  He’s a little small for his age.  I think the hat will be fine on most babies and even many toddlers.  I hope it brings a smile to a Portlander’s face.

Countdown to SS: 9 days to go.  Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Hats off to fall

I finished my warm, wooly hat made with patent stitches.  This is a total copy of the hat I made for Ed last Christmas.  It is a donation for the Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve Annual Auction, which is in October.  Can’t you envision someone striding down a hiking trail wearing this?

I learned this patent stitch technique from Merike Saarnit at Knitters’ Day Out 2009.  It is really cool.  The resulting fabric is squishy and smushy and very warm.

The yarn is Malabrigo Worsted, which is a very, very soft singles yarn.  It should feel great on someone’s head.

…and I still have more yarn!  This hat weighs 73 grams.  I have 38 grams remaining of the light green yarn, and 29 grams of the dark green (total 67 grams).  I could probably squeeze another hat out if I made it just a bit shorter or narrower.  That’s great value from my original two balls of yarn.

FO: Cozy Oregon Hat (patent stitches)

I finished Ed’s hat today and am really pleased with the way it came out!  Here’s my in-house hat model:

I had a hard time reclaiming the hat from Boy 1 after our front porch photo shoot, so maybe he needs one of his very own.  I have plenty of yarn left – the finished hat weighs in at 64 g.

I spent a fair bit of time yesterday playing around with the decreases.  I learned that the pattern looked best when I only did decreases on the light-colored rounds (which are more knit-y than purl-y), and you have to do some fancy float dropping on the patent stitches to make the line of the light yarn nice and straight.  The decreases go down by 2 stitches each time, also in order to preserve the two-color columns.  And to get a nice rounded crown, I began the decreases every 4th round and then sped them up to every 2nd round, ending with 8 stitches at the top.  It took me a bit of swatching to figure all this out – here’s the evidence: But I think the end result is worth it – check out the bird’s eye view! I love how this turned out.  Did I say that already?  I feel so clever and want to cast on again for another one right away.  But… Bada Bing calls.  I also need to finish up some Christmas tree ornaments.

And before I know it, it will be time to pack away some sock yarn and plan appropriately interesting-yet-simple projects for travel knitting.  Any suggestions?

A Hat Experiment

Back in September, I took a class on Estonian patent stitches with Merike Saarniit.  This technique is really interesting; it creates a reversible, cushy, smooshy, warm fabric with lots of air pockets in it.  I decided to practice by making a hat for my friend Ed, who needs a warm hat to keep his (not very hairy) head warm when he’s in Portland. I don’t have a pattern.  I’m using the Two Color Full Patent Stitch for this hat.  One of the interesting things about patent stitches is that they create a fabric that is very different in gauge than “regular” knitted fabric.  I’m using Malabrigo worsted (a single ply 100% merino yarn that is very, very soft) and I would classify it as a “heavy worsted.”  My needles are size 5, and I only cast on 64 stitches for this large adult hat.  It’s big enough, though. Ed specifically requested a hat with enough length that you could fold up the bottom and double the fabric around the brim.  I think this two-color pattern will look especially nice folded back.I’m not exactly sure how I will create the crown decreases.  I have a practice swatch I started to figure out some details at the beginning – I guess I’ll go back to it and practice some decreases before doing them on the hat.

This technique is really quite captivating.  I recommend it!

Piggle

Piggle is done!

My sister-outlaw suggested this pattern for her older daughter, Allie, who is two-and-a-half and always wears pigtails. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn. I used some sportweight sock yarn from my stash. When asked what her favorite color was, Allie replied “green yellow purple red green.” I figured multicolor was a good choice.

This hat is a lace pattern. Normally I would never use a self-striping yarn with lace, but it sort of works for a child’s hat. The lace makes the hat very stretchy, which is good.  Hat holes are also good if you live in a warm climate like east Texas!  You can really see the lacy holes in this photo.

I used one entire 50 g ball of this yarn plus just a bit of the second ball.

I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off on the pigtail holes – this technique originally appeared in Knitty.com.  Here’s a video by Cat Bordhi that shows exactly how to do it:

If I knit this again, I would knit the waste yarn for the holes in stockinette, not in pattern. It would have been much easier to pick up the stitches that way.

Merry Christmas to Allie from her auntie!  And many thanks to Lily for being such a great hat model!  (It was actually kind of hard to get a photo of the hat holes, because she instinctively turns toward the camera!)Now I have one more hat and the Bada Bing sweater to finish, and that will wrap up my Christmas knitting for 2009.  Bada Bing has issues.  We’ll talk soon.

Flower Power

I just adore this wee hat that will be a Welcome to the World gift for my newest niece, who is expected to arrive around Christmastime.  This pattern is called the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap (see Ravelry for tons of photos, and the pattern is here).  This pattern appeared after my own boys were babies, or I would have been all over it then.  I love the vintage feel.  Not vintage.  Maybe “classic” is better.

I used some Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in color “Spring Tickle” left over from these socks:

I really like Dream in Color Smooshy, especially these early colorways with no pooling.  Spring Tickle is my absolute favorite.  I may need to buy myself another skein to have in reserve!

I was convinced to use a semi-solid yarn and inspired to add a flower by this version. 

The hat’s total weight is only 24 grams, even with the yarn-hungry crochet flower and long (16”) i-cord ties.  I still have 30 grams of Smooshy left, so I could whip out another one!

There are at least a thousand patterns out there for crocheted flowers.  Here’s the video I used to make mine:

I have to say, I really enjoying crocheting this little flower.  But there is something about the way I hold a crochet hook that immediately makes my wrists hurt.  If I were to seriously take up the hook, I would need to address that right away.

A quickie

Boy 2 Pom Hat
Originally uploaded by JLW in PA

When a knitter's adorable 4-year-old son asks his mother for a hat like his brother's, specifically "the one with the pom on top," what is said knitter to do? Drop everything and knit the boy a hat, of course!

We had this conversation on Friday night when he wanted me to knit rather than reading him a bedtime story. (Interesting.....) We have a little swatch that we have begun to knit together. It doesn't hold his attention for long, but he likes the rhyme we say together: In through the front door, around the back, through the window, and out jumps Jack. Sometimes he puts his hands on the needles and I put mine over them. More often, he orders me to knit and either watches a little or bounces around nearby.

Anyway, we were doing this little routine, and all of the sudden he began talking about a hat. Being a reference librarian, I immediately went into reference interview mode to learn more. I finally determined that he wanted a hat just like his brother's and that the pom pom (or "pom," as he calls it) is really important.

Naturally, I went into yarn selection mode. He wanted green (his favorite color). I pulled up some photos on the computer. We looked at the Dream in Color line. Did he like Happy Forest? I showed him my Happy Forest socks to gauge reaction. No... that wasn't quite right. What about Spring Tickle? No... What about Shiny Moss? YES! (This color looks great with his eyes - the kid has good taste.) I was prepared to order immediately.

But he still had some ideas of his own. He led me to the closet where my stash is kept and pointed to a box of yarn. I pulled it out. It was my box of felting yarns. We found every ball of green or greenish yarn in the box and laid them all out. He picked Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in color "Fern," which is a nice mossy bottle green kind of color (and, incidentally, the very same yarn we've been making our swatch out of). Fern is left over from the felted flower bag of Christmas '08.

I measured his head posthaste and the rest is history. Children do like their pom poms!

Successful FO, or bloody brains?

So Kristina and I started Brooklyntweed's Habitat hat on a whim. A little nutty to start a knitalong in the middle of another knitalong (Must Have Cardigan), but we were both up for it. I made mine out of Julia in color "geranium" on size 7 and 6 needles. Here it is, on my favorite hat model:

It looks pretty good. I messed up one cable cross early on and was too scared to ladder down to get it, but I can live with that. The only problem is that it doesn't fit the intended recipient. Her hair is... voluminous... and the hat practically pops off her head because the hair wants to push it up. Oops!

This whole project started because I wanted to use my Coopworth handspun for Habitat, but the gauge was too big. I went back to my Coopworth swatch today to try and make it work for another popular Brooklyntweed hat, Koolhaas. Stay tuned for a report on whether that works. It'll be a while... I have to order different needles.

This top view of the hat, when viewed above the skeleton t-shirt, makes Habitat look kind of like bloody brains, don't you think? Spooky!

My weekend with Julia ...

... and Kristina. As you know, Kristina came to visit this past weekend. We planned to do lots of knitting and, specifically, we wanted to begin a quick knitalong on Jared Flood's Habitat hat. I originally hoped to use my grey Coopworth handspun for this project, but it was too bulky. I decided to try Julia instead.

Julia is a 50% wool / 25% alpaca / 25% mohair worsted weight yarn designed by Kristin Nicholas. She loves color, and the line includes many beauties. Kristina and I first became aware of this yarn several years ago when a sweater of Kristin's appeared on the cover of Interweave Knits ("Colorwork Classic," Winter 2004, Ravel it or see the magazine cover here). Kristina was smitten. At that time, the yarn was more difficult to find than it is now. She scored enough for this sweater while visiting her sister in North Carolina - an LYS carried it. Now my LYS, The Mannings, carries it, and I wanted to try it.

I picked this deep red, called "Geranium," for Sharon's hat. Kristina is knitting hers out of Knit Picks Andean Silk (55% superfine alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino) in color "Merryweather."

We arm-wrestled our knitterly friend Kris to go to The Mannings with us on Saturday (it wasn't too hard). Kristina and I both found buttons for our Must-Have sweaters. Kristina also got a button for a felted bag. I got Julia, and some reinforcement thread I intend to use for the heels in my Harvest Socks.

Then we got MORE Kris time on Sunday when she came over for knitting in the afternoon. And we began the hats. Okay, so there's not a whole lot to look at yet, but the cabley goodness is emerging.

I finally got to use my pumpkin stitch marker. And note how tidy Kristina's tail is - it's wound around a bread bag thingie. Don't throw those out, knitters!

FUN WEEKEND. Hope yours was, too!

Endangered Habitat

There hasn't been much posting, because there hasn't been much knitting. The sweater goes slowly, I'm fighting with a new sock, and I've been swatching the grey Coopworth handspun for Habitat. You know, that new cabley hat pattern by Jared Flood aka Brooklyntweed.

I think my Habitat is endangered.

My handspun is quite a bit thicker than I thought it was. I guess that'll teach me to eyeball it and say "it's worsted weight!" I swatched on a US7 needle, knitting in the round, and got 3.75 st/in. It makes a nice fabric. I definitely do not want to go down a needle size (or two, or three) to get a smaller gauge, or I'll be knitting armor. The Habitat pattern calls for 4.5 st/in. Big difference.

Want to see the math? The main body of the hat (not counting the ribbed brim) has 120 stitches. 120 stitches divided by 4.5 st/in = 26.67 in. The pattern says the finished hat circumference is 21". I know that cables pull in a lot, so I get this. You lose about 20% to the cables (if I'm doing my math correctly).

If I do the same pattern at my gauge... that's 120 stitches divided by 3.75 st/in = 32" minus 20% cable shrinkage = 25.6" circumference finished hat. Now, Sharon has big hair, but not THAT big. That's a big hat.

The pattern repeat is 24 stitches and you repeat it 5 times (24x5=120). What if I removed one of the repeats? I would have 96 stitches in that section. Let's do the math again... 96 stitches divided by 3.75 st/in = 26.5" minus 20% cable shrinkage = 20.48" circumference finished hat. Her head is about 22", so that seems small.

Do you math people want to weigh in? Just TELL ME if this is the wrong yarn for this project. I'll just go shopping so that K and I can cast on this weekend. It wouldn't kill me. I'm interested in knitting with some Julia, a yarn I'm considering for a sweater in our future. Knitting Habitat in Julia would be like going on a first date with her. This would not be a waste of time.

Convertible Reversible Double Warm Mystery Hat

Yep, that's the official title of the pattern! This was a fun, quick, and easy knit. It calls for a full skein and a half skein of Jamie's 70% merino, 30% angora, 2-ply bulky worsted yarn. Here are the cakes:

Then you knit this thing that looks like a two-headed hat. Mine is about 19" long from tip to tip:

When you're done, you tuck one half into the other half, and you get two hats out of one thing. It's super thick and smooshy and warm. I got my favorite hat model to try it on this morning before school:I probably should have made it a tiny bit longer so that I would have more cuff. I thought it was longer, but I guess I was wrong. Still, this will do nicely for winter. I might not have to cuff it at all on me.

Now all the yarn I purchased at MDSW 2008 is knit up. Hooray! I feel pretty good about that.

Next hat: Habitat. Maybe I can swatch the handspun tonight to see if I have the right needles and can get an acceptable gauge. K is coming to visit in 9 days, and we plan to knit Habitat together, in person!

Caps for Kids

Today I finished the hat that is part of my Knitters' Day Out registration - I read the fine print on the registration materials and the organization that distributes them is Caps for Kids. I think I linked to the right Caps for Kids, coordinated by the Craft Yarn Council of America. My KDO booklet says that caps are distributed to local children in need.

This hat is knit from yarn leftover from a toddler-sized sweater I made years ago. I still love this yarn. It is superwash merino in a worsted weight, dyed by Tess' Designer Yarns. I bought it at MDSW, of course!

I had a question about how I made the pom pom on the Slow Burn Hat. All my pom poms are made on the Doodle-Loom product (which refers to pom poms as "pom pons" - I don't get that).

Knitters' Day Out is only 2 weeks away. I realized that I have some more homework to do before then.

My Friday night workshop is called Sock Party, taught by Carol Breitner, owner of Carol's Sockery in Falls Church, VA.

Supplies: (1) Two or three completed pairs of socks that you knit yourself. If not available, bring photos of them; (2) a sock project in progress; (3) Extra yarn and needles for practicing techniques. Smooth, solid, light-colored yarn, partial skein(s) for swatching, appropriate dpns or circs. Yarn can be sock weight, mid-weight or worsted, anything you can work with comfortably.
Homework: A written list of two or three sock-knitting questions or problems and two or three of your favorite sock tips or techniques. These will be collected at the beginning of class.
Material Fee: None
Prerequisites: Experience knitting many pairs of socks

My Saturday workshop is called Seven Things that can “Make or Break” a Sweater™, taught by Margaret Fisher (one of the 2008 "guest teachers").

Supplies: Homework swatches, needles and yarn used to make swatches (smooth, light colored worsted weight yarn and appropriate needles), basic knitting accessories.
Homework: With smooth, light colored worsted weight yarn and appropriate needles, knit swatches as follows:
Swatch 1: Cast on 18 sts. Work in k1, p1 ribbing for 2". Place sts on a stitch holder.
Leave some yarn (several yards) attached.
Swatch 2: Cast on 23 sts. Work in st st for 2". Place sts on a st holder. Leave some yarn (several yards) attached.
Swatch 3: Cast on 10 sts. Work in k1, p1 ribbing for 2". Place sts on a stitch holder. Leave yarn attached.
Materials fee: None

I signed up for the sock class because I make a lot of socks and I'm always eager to talk with other sock knitters. Charlene Schurch is going to be one of the guest teachers at KDO '08, but I surprised myself by not signing up for one of her workshops. (You are limited to one workshop with a guest teacher.) I signed up for the sweater workshop because Sharon has requested a handknit sweater, and I decided to try making the pattern myself, ala EZ or Maggie Righetti. This is going to be FUN!

Weird Week

This week has been ... atypical, owing to many expected things (mostly related to the start of the academic year) as well as one key unexpected event (an ankle sprain in my family). Hence, a week's gap since my last post.

That's not to say that there's been no knitting, though. I motored on through the Slow Burn Hat (mostly during meetings at work) and finished it. This one is going to be sent to the 7 Long project organized by Stash & Burn's Jenny. The colors are pretty bright, but not quite as garish as they appear in this photo. I took this on a rainy morning and could not prevent the flash from going off. The turned-up cuff is knit in uneven rib and the rest is pretty self-explanatory. The yarn is superwash merino and should be very soft on some child's head in California.
I mentioned last time that I bought some Coopworth roving at The Mannings after my spinning class last week. The bag I chose was a light, neutral gray. It's so different from the other wool I've spun so far. This was stickier; you can see the crimp when you pull off a piece. This quality makes it far less likely that the thread will break during spinning. Or, maybe it's that I'm getting better at not letting it break? I don't think I've had a single break so far with this fiber! Here's how it looks on the bobbin:

I still don't understand how to change hooks often and regularly enough to get a nice smooth bobbin fill like other spinners do. Do they need the WooLee Winder to achive that? Or just a wheel with a sliding hook system (like Majacraft and Lundrum wheels have)? Or, will I just get better in time? Weigh in if you have an opinion.

I need to read more of The Joy of Handspinning website. There is a lot to explore. This is what it says about Coopworth:

Medium / Crossbred Wools

These wools are best for beginning handspinners to use. They are a good all purpose wool, which will spin into a medium-thick yarn, for knitted, crocheted, and woven, garments and fabrics.

Blue Faced Leicester, Border Leicester, Coopworth, Corriedale, Jacob, Romney
Crossbred with Merino wool
Moderately soft
3 - 5 inches staple length
Easy to spin for beginning handspinners
Good for felting
Spin medium-thick yarn
Spins woollen or worsted

One final shot of the fiber and the thread outdoors. This was taken on the same rainy morning and so the flash washed out the shot a bit. I'll try to get better photos on another day. I refuse to complain about rain - we need it desperately here. My blog comes after local crop health!