Just a plain old hat

After I finished knitting up the Skull Isle Hat and Hutchin, my oldest boy requested a hat, too. He was very specific in what he wanted, a black hat with a double layered brim to keep his ears warm. I asked him if he wanted stripes, or colors, or cables...but no, just a plain old black hat.

Despite its plainness, the hat was pretty fun and easy to knit up -- the perfect project for multiple episodes of Broadchurch. I think it could easily made into a stripey hat.

In the language of the great Elizabeth Zimmermann, here are my pithy directions for this hat.

A Plain Old Hat:

SIZE
This particular hat was knit for a 10-year-old boy, who has the same head circumference as my own, a pretty standard 22 inches. If you want to size up or down, change the needle size accordingly.

YARN
I used a nice standard worsted weight wool, Cascade 220 (220 yd/3.5 oz)

NEEDLES
Size 6 (4 mm) circlular needles with a long cable

KNITTING IT UP

Brim - Using a provisional cast-on technique of your choice, cast on 96 stitches onto a circular needle. Begin a 2 x 2 rib in the round using a magic loop technique. (A 2 x 2 rib is just as it sounds, k2 p2, all the way around.) Continue rib for 15 rounds or about 2 inches. Purl next round. Continue in rib for another 15 rounds, or the same amount of rounds you did before the purl round.

Body - Now fold the provisional cast-on edge toward the inside of the hat, so that the purl row now forms the bottom of the hat. On the next round, knit together the stitch that is on the left-hand needle with one provisional stitch from your cast on row. Keep working the provisional stitches into the stitches on the left-hand needle as you knit all the way around until you have completed the round and there are no more provisional stitches. (Count your stitches to make sure that you still have 96!)

Continue knitting in the round until the hat measures about 6.5 inches from the bottom of the brim.

Crown shaping -
Round 1 - *K14, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 2 and every even round - k all stitches
Round 3 - *K13, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 5 - *K12, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 7 - *K11, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 9 - *K10, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 11 - *K9, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 13 - *K8, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 15 - *K7, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round (48 sts)

Round 16 - k
Round 17 - *K6, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 18 - *K5, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 19 - *K4, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 20 - *K3, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 21 - *K2, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 22 - *K1, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 23 - *k2tog, repeat from * to end of round. 6 sts remain.

Cut yarn and thread through the last 6 stitches. I like to go through twice, to make it feel more secure. Weave in the tail and fasten off. There -- you've got yourself a new hat!

Another Hat: the Hutchin by Brooklyn Tweed

Despite the fingering weight yarn and the cabling, this might be my quickest knit to date! I cast on a couple of weeks ago and finished Friday, a day late for Mr. Elvy's birthday.

I absolutely love this pattern. I am ambivalent about the yarn. The pattern is Hutchin, by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. The cabling looks complicated but was actually quite easy. The pattern diagram was excellent.

The yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Loft in Birdbook, knit up beautifully. However, it had a tendency to break easily when pulled. I accidentally sat on the tail once and broke all but an inch off the tail, which made it difficult to weave in at the end. Also, when I was tightening up the hole to finish off the crown, the yarn broke, again leaving me with only an inch with which to work. I had to make an ugly knot to have enough yarn to weave into the hat.

All in all, though, this is my favorite hat to date. Eventually, I'd like to make myself one in cream. That will have to wait, as my 10-year-old has also requested a hat. His request is for a black watchman's type hat. You wouldn't know it, but it's somewhat difficult to find a nice quality yarn in black, but that's my next mission.

A little fall knitting: the Skull Isle Hat

My almost 8-year-old requested this hat in these particular colors. I previously knit the same beanie in black and green for Mr. Elvy in December of 2007. Can you believe it? Seven years later the first hat is still around and well-worn, sometimes by the 8-year-old who was barely a year old then. Mostly it's worn by his dad, which is why the boy had to ask for his own.

This time around, I knit a small with a finished circumference of 20 inches. (I should have knit a medium, as it's almost too small.) The pattern is from Son of a Stitch 'N Bitch by Debbie Stoller and is called Skull Isle Hat, pattern by Chelsea Fowler-Biondolillo. The yarn is from my LYS, Happy Knits, and is a very serviceable (i.e., washable) wool sock yarn, Regia 4-fadig.

The hat isn't perfect; some of the skulls are slightly misshapen. You can see the worst of it in this picture. Figures, shoulda had the kid turn around for a different angle, but it was a miracle he let me take the picture in the first place. Most of the knitting was done on the go. I am finding that as the boys get older and have more activities, several times a week I am left cooling my heels while waiting for them. This particular hat was knitted over several twice-per-week sessions at Academy of Kung Fu. I have Hutchin on the needles right now for Mr. Elvy.

BTW, the scarf was knit by my mom. The boy likes to wear it "cravat" style, as he says.

On the needles

I've been trying to squeeze in some knitting this winter break. Knitting is great for those times when I'm with the boys and have a little free time, but can't get to my sewing machine or the cutting table.

This is Traveller's End, a cardigan pattern by Stolen Stitches. It's knitted top-down, my favorite method of construction. The collar and button band are knitted on at the end, so it's also seamless. The yarn is also lovely to work with (as with all Debbie Bliss yarn) and has a soft but substantial feel.

Happy New Year!

Autumnal Knitting: Rocky Coast Cardigan

The rain held off for morning soccer (#2 made his first goal, yay!), but now it's coming down in buckets. So just in time for the wet weather, I have a knitting finish to share!

This is my version of the Rocky Coast Cardigan. Looking through my Ravelry page, I figure it took me almost two years to knit this thing!! My last finished sweater was in September 2011. As the primary incentive for finishing a project is to start something new, I'm pretty sure I started this one fairly soon after I finished my Leaflet Cardi.

For the longest time (yes, months!) this sweater sat with just one cuff to be knitted. For some reason, I could not force myself to do it. There's something about an un-blocked, mushy bunch of knitting, with all those loose threads hanging about, that is immensely unappealing to me. I finally picked it up the other day, and it took me all of a few minutes to knit the few rows required, and maybe 20 more minutes to weave in all the loose ends.

Now I'm happy. I like having a new sweater. My 6-year-old wonders why I always make cardigans with no buttons (what's the use in that, he says). He asks next time, will I just make the buttons, please. I say yes, but I know that I won't, because I hate making buttonholes and sewing buttons.

So this, the Blank Canvas, is going to be next project.  Or maybe Shift of Focus? I like them both.  What do you think?

The yarn, by the way, is Malabrigo Worsted, in Emerald (although it looks teal to me).  It's a lovely yarn to work with, and I previously made a hat out of the same yarn for Mr. Elvy.  With wear, the yarn tends to felt up a bit, which gives it a little more strength, IMHO.

Star Fish Hat in Red Wool

I finished this hat a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time to photograph it. It was a really quick project knit in a basic worsted weight red wool (Paton's Classic Merino Wool).  The pattern is from the book "60 Quick Knits." 

The semi-slouchy silhouette is cute.

My favorite part of the hat is definitely the starfish motif on the crown.  I think if I knit the hat again, I might try to omit the bobbles though.  It's a fine design element, but I have never been very good at making bobbles.  The bobbles in the pattern look round and plump, where mine always turn out flat and misshapen.

Star fish motif on the crown of the hat.

On Habitat and Economy

This is my third Habitat by Brooklyn Tweed.  If it hasn't become apparent by now, I love this pattern.  This time it only took me about a week to knit, although I had to knit it almost twice.  I started with a left-over ball of Princess in a beautiful orange-red -- I had just a little less than one ball, maybe about 130 yards where the pattern calls for 135 yards for the M/L size.  I ran out of yarn with just about half an inch left of the crown.  So I ripped the whole thing out and knit the S/M size.  I had about two yards of yarn left.

I won't say I regret my effort at economy -- after all, I ended up with another hat and absolutely no wasted yarn!  The only downside was I lost about a week's worth of knitting time.

Leaflet Cardi in Eco Wool

With the cooler weather setting in, I've gotten back into knitting. There are several things I love about knitting. First, the yarn: I.LOVE.YARN. Wool yarn. Almost as much as I love fabric. Second, the portability of knitting is a big plus, especially when you're following two boys around pretty much everywhere. I have a framed knitting bag that holds all my knitting supplies, including needles of every possible size, all in one location. Third, I love the process -- there's something rhythmic and relaxing to knitting, but it requires just enough concentration to occupy one's mind to be an absorbing past time.

Now, to the project. This is Leaflet, from Knitty.  If you have never heard of Knitty, it is an on-line knitting magazine that offers free patterns from independent (a lot of them very commercially successful) knit-wear designers.  This cardi is my fourth or fifth Knitty project, and I've liked all of them.

I knit this cardi in record time, based on a combination of a fairly simple pattern and big aran-weight wool yarn.  I think it took me about two to three weeks of sporadic knitting in the evenings.

When I asked my boys if they liked the leaflet pattern in the back, they told me the top one looked like a Clone trooper helmet, so this is also nicknamed my Star Wars tribute sweater.  I'm not sure I see it, but I'll take their word for it.

The yarn is a 100% Peruvian Highland wool called Eco+ Wool by Cascade Yarns. It was actually frogged from another (very complicated) project that was two-thirds completed, then I put it away for a while and was hopelessly lost when I tried to figure out where I was in the pattern.

I think I might knit this again as a long-sleeved cardi without the motif in the back.  That's how much I like it!

The Six-Year Knitting UFO -- Finished!

This baby blanket has been in my pile of UFOs for so long, I only have remote memories of the details. I started it about five or six years ago, when a friend announced she was having her second baby.  Well, the birth came and went, obviously, and the blanket sat for many years mostly finished.  Recently, I needed the size 7 circular needles that the blanket was on, so I forced myself to knit the two rows that required fixing.  It took all of half an hour, which is the story of my life and many defunct projects. 

I do remember the pattern came from a book (that narrows it down, huh?), but flipping through my knitting pattern books, I couldn't come up with the pattern. The yarn is a 100% cotton worsted weight, either by Rowan or Debbie Bliss.

Detail of intarsia color work.

I knitted the rows straight across on a size 7 needle, using intarsia knitting.  I don't like color work much, because of all the skeins of yarn left hanging about during the knitting process, so this was about as complicated I was going to get with color knitting.

This is a seed stitch heart detail, but it didn't show up well in the picture.

If I come across the pattern, I'll definitely post it so I can add it to my Ravelry page as well.  I have another cardi finished but still damp from blocking so I'll post on that next time.

I like the color combinations of gold, red, cream, pink and blues.

The blanket is now destined for a fundraising auction for No. 2's former preschool.  I almost hate to part with it, because the yarn was so expensive and the knitting so tedious -- in addition to not liking color work, I don't like knitting with cotton.  But, my peer group is getting to the point where we're not having very many babies any more.  Plus, it's going to a great cause.

Spring Ribbed Cardigan by Knitbot

I love this cardigan and am glad I was able to finish it in time for the early fall.  Ironically, we are having our first heatwave of the summer here in Portland with multiple 90-plus degree days in a row. 

The pattern is by Knitbot and is called Spring Ribbed Cardigan.  I used a Jo Sharp alpaca, dk weight yarn frogged from an ill-fated project started way back when.  The pattern is super easy, but I had to make some modifications because I was running out of yarn (shortened sleeve and shallower front band).  I might try to make this cardigan again in a less textured yarn without any modifications so that the rib pattern shows up more too.

I like how the ribbed pattern echos through the sleeves.

Winter hats

I haven't been doing too much knitting lately. I seemingly lost my zest for knitting last spring and summer. I don't know if it was the change to warmer weather, but I still haven't regained the enthusiasm I once had for knitting. I once jokingly commented to my husband that I had more yarn than I could knit in a lifetime, and I think that it hit me this past year: yes, I do have more yarn than I will ever knit up, at least in MY lifetime. Sort of a bittersweet acknowledgment of mortality, I guess.

Even so, I am not one who can sit with my hands idle, so I did manage to complete two hats. The one below is from the latest Knitty.com (Fall 2010, Issue 33) and is called "Brambles." It was super easy and quick -- took me a few evenings of knitting. I used a worsted weight alpaca/wool blend yarn by Berrocco.


This next one took a bit longer. I actually started it last spring in an attempt to motivate myself but it just never happened. Anyhow, this fall I forced myself to complete it. The pattern itself was easy -- from Vogue Knitting Magazine (Fall 2009) but because the pattern called for fingering weight yarn, it took much longer to complete. The yarn is Colinette's jitterbug.



Both hats are destined to be gifts, most likely. I always plan on knitting one for myself, but the reality is that I'm not a hat person. Plus, for some reason, my almost-4-year-old always demands I remove hats and scarves when I put them on. Funny.

Saving up the FO's! First up, Shedir Hat...

I was updating my Ravelry page, only to discover that it's taken me almost one year to finish this hat. I worked on it last winter and finally picked it up again last week. It only took me a couple of evenings to finish up after having let it linger for quite a few months. So, here it is!

It's another Knitty pattern, part of the mini issue in support of breast cancer awareness. I knit the hat using one ball of Rowan Calmer on two size 3 circular needles. It was a so-so project process-wise, but the I love the result. I tried to post the link, but it wouldn't work. However, you can just go to knitty.com and do a search for "shedir." Have fun!