Possessed to Knit

Lace Rib Watch Cap

 I completed this hat today to send to the Dulaan Project.  It is the Lace Rib Watch Cap from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch.  I used size 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo needles (16" and 32" for the crown using the Magic Loop) and some leftover worsted weight yarn.  This hat starts with a tubular cast-on.  I found the whole thing to be a bit fiddly.  I didn't want to start the hat too tightly, but I think I could have made it a little tighter as the ribbing edge is not very stable.  The ribbing felt like an eternity, all that k1, p1 over 120 sts.  I find that my gauge is very similar to hers so I just start off with whatever needle size she used.  I like this book a lot except some of her patterns (such as this one) decrease too quickly for the crown giving it a gathered look.  I did not have the inclination (or much yarn) to redesign the decreases for this cap.  I have adjusted the crown on some of her Fair Isle hats and was much happier with the results.  I'm just glad to have this cap done in time to send it off to Arizona before July 1st.

Felted Hats

I had about 6 oz of my handspun Icelandic yarn leftover from the raglan sweater and I decided to give felting a try.  I've never felted on purpose before and I found this free hat pattern from Crystal Palace yarns.  These hats were very quick to knit on size 11 needles and I used my Denise needles (which I bought for the rare occasion that I need a larger size needle).  These hats were so huge before felting, I thought I had done something wrong.  I put them in hot water in my washing machine with some Euclan woolwash.  There was hardly any felting after the first 15 minutes.  I then added a pillowcase to the mix and felting took place much more quickly, almost too quickly.  I rinsed them in cold water and then placed each one over a plastic bowl.  I put them out in the sun this afternoon to accelerate the drying process.  Now I have two felted hats to add to my Dulaan Project donation.  I am clearing out some of my stash, too, creating a win-win situation. 

Hand-dyed Hats Completed

Here are two hats from my hand-dyed worsted weight Brown Sheep yarn for A Loose Knit Group's February project.  The hat on the top is the Fishtail Hat by Gail Bable from the Knitter's Pattern-a-Day Calendar.  I used size 8 needles and 80 sts.  The pattern repeat is 10 sts and 8 rounds.  I decided to decrease the crown more slowly than the pattern recommended so I left out an 8 round repeat to compensate for the extra length.  It looks more like a child sized hat instead of an adult sized hat (that it was supposed to be).  To make one for myself, I would use 90 sts and work 5 eight round repeats and then decrease the crown in the same manner.  I could try to use size 9 needles, but I like the how the stitches look with the size 8 needles. 

The bottom hat is the Touch of Whimsy hat.  It took a long time to knit the bottom piece even though it was just back and forth over 30 sts.  This hat turned out to be on the large side, maybe I should have gone down a needle size.  I enjoy seeing how the same yarn can look so differently in two different hat patterns.  I am glad to have two hats completed for my favorite knit-a-long.

Alpaca Scarf Completed

I completed my alpaca scarf last week.  It was a very quick knit, just a few days, with 3-ply handspun alpaca yarn and size 11 needles.  The twisted rib pattern was easily memorized.  I did have to watch, though, when I worked on a non-twisted stitch pattern that I did not automatically twist all the knit stitches.  The scarf turned out to be about 5 inches wide by 68 inches long.  I didn't block it as I wanted to start wearing it.  I show the scarf here with its matching alpaca hat.  With all my spinning and knitting, this is my first matching hat and scarf set.  I spun the yarn for these from Kate's alpaca Valentino.  I love knowing where exactly my alpaca yarn came from and being able to link to Valentino's picture.  It is easy for me to forget that my handspun yarns started as some animal's fleece.  Kate would include a photo of her alpaca with its fleece when she sold them, a very nice personal touch I always appreciated.   

A Touch of Whimsy Hat

Hats are our selected project for A Loose Knit Group for February.  It turned out that I did not have enough of my hand-dyed yarn to knit the vest I started last week.  The vest is 23" long and I only had enough yarn for 22.5 inches and that did not included the front and armhole edgings.  I decided I would be cutting it too close and that I have enough handspun Icelandic Chloe to knit the vest.  I could not bear the thought of possibly running out of yarn, so I started knitting a hat.  This hat is called A Touch of Whimsy Hat by Rebecca Mercer and is in the 2008 Pattern-A-Day calendar.  Here is a link to the pattern through her blog.  It is a unique design knitted sideways then grafted together.  The crown is then picked up along the slipped stitch edge and knitted like a regular hat.  I have never made a hat like this before and I enjoy knitting it with my hand-dyed yarn.

Alpaca Cable Hat Completed

I started and finished this alpaca hat over the past few days.  I used my handspun alpaca yarn from Kate's alpaca Valentino.  The pattern calls for an alpaca/merino blend, yet I prefer to use 100% alpaca.  I knitted a similar hat last year with a heavier handspun alpaca yarn.  It turned out to be too small so I donated it to the Dulaan project.  This hat weighs 3 oz (last year's weighed 4 oz) and this yarn is 12 wpi.  The ribbing was knitted with size 8 Addi Turbo needles and the body was knitted with size 9 Addi Turbo needles.  Size 9 needles may have been a little too big for this yarn, but the hat did bloom a bit after I washed it.  It is a quick and fun cable project to knit.  I worked the 4 increases in the last row of the ribbing in such a way as to keep the edge ribbing sts even as they went into the 7 stitch ribbing cable.  The increases were not placed evenly throughout the ribbing, but I like the continuity. 

Kate is currently working on a sock experiment where she is knitting one sock with her handspun alpaca and another sock with alpaca spun at a domestic fiber mill.  I recently sent her the alpaca article out of the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits and I look forward to hearing her expert analysis.

Opal Petticoat Hat

I completed my Opal Petticoat child's hat tonight.  I typically have an ounce or so of sock yarn left after knitting a pair of socks.  I have always wanted to make something out of this extra yarn to put it to good use.  I used 3.0 mm (size 2) Addi Turbo needles with a gauge of about 8 sts and 9 rows per inch.  I casted on 128 sts which seemed like a bit much when compared to the sport weight and worsted weight hats I usually knit.  I worked a k2, p2 rib for 8 rounds then stockinette for 50 rounds more till the hat was about 5 1/2 inches long.  I then started the crown decreases by doing K14, K2tog around then K each st for the following round.  The next round was K13, K2tog around followed by K each st for the next round.  I decreased 1 st less every other round till I had 8 sts left and cut the yarn and threaded the tail through them twice.  This hat is about 16" around and 8" deep and weighs 1.2 oz.  I'm not sure what size child it will fit, however, I think it will be a welcome addition to my Dulaan donations.

Droplet Hat

This is the Droplet Hat from Knitting Nature, which I borrowed from our local library.  It is a unique and interesting book, however, I have so many knitting books that I am quite glad just to be able to get some books from our library.  I spun this yarn from a Border Leicester cross fleece that I bought at the 2003 Virginia Fall Fiber Festival from the Delly's Delights Farm booth.  I also bought a drum carder there, thinking I was going to wash & card the entire 2 1/2 pound fleece.  That might not sound like a lot of fleece, but it truly is.  I washed the fleece, which went well, and then processed maybe 1/2 pound of it and finally sent the rest off to be carded into roving.  I realized I am not a big fan of carding and ended up selling my drum carder to a very talented craftswoman.

At any rate, there are a lot of bobbles in this hat and the author gives a technique that does not involve turning the work around.  The pattern is written to knit back and forth instead of in the round so I converted the pattern to be knit in the round.  The large leaf shape at the bottom represents a drop and the bobbles represent the little droplets flying from the larger drop.  I thought the hat turned out a little short, I prefer to have a hat cover my ears.  I used the recommended size 6 & size 8 needles and got just about the 4 1/2 sts and 6 rows per inch for the gauge.  I used 3.3 oz of my 3-ply handspun worsted weight for this hat.  This project was a nice break from my larger lace project.

Working Hats

Here are the hats I knitted for my coworkers, Mark & Earl, who so kindly changed my flat tire for me early one Sunday morning.  I used KnitPicks Swish for the first time and I really like this yarn!  I tried to get some Cascade 220 Superwash, however, my LYS did not have it in navy blue or black.  I used a size 7 needle for the K1, P1 ribbing and a size 8 for the rest of the hat.  I wanted a tighter gauge (around 5.25 sts per inch as it turned out) to keep the cold air out.  I switched to the Magic Loop for the crown as the Addi size 8 dpns I have are quite heavy.  I machine washed and dried the hats and they turned out to be very soft.  I will keep this versatile yarn in mind for future projects. 

Alpaca Hat Completed

I finished my alpaca hat knit from Valentino's fleece.  It weighs in at about 4 ounces.  I thought it might turn out to be too big, but it turns out to fit snuggly, thanks to all those cables.  It was fun to knit, too, with two different kinds of cables and a twisted ribbing pattern.  The thick yarn and size 9 needles made for a quick to knit hat.  There is a matching scarf included in the pattern, something else for me to think about.  I can only imagine how much a scarf would weigh and wonder if I have enough roving to consider making it.  Our temperature have been very mild these past few days, however, I am now ready for our coldest winter days.