KCW: Day 2

On track so far with KCW! I made a bonnet for E. yesterday for Day 2. I made her a sun hat a while back, and while it is fantastic, we've discovered that it's much harder for her to pull bonnets off and toss them on the ground while we're in transit. I have run over that poor sun hat so many times with the stroller.

I used the same pattern for this bonnet that I used a while back for E.'s pretty floral bonnet for her costume when we went to Fan Expo. The pattern is from MAKE, and it's a bonnet that was originally designed for upcycling vintage linens. The only vintage linens we have on hand were ones my great-grandmother and great-great grandmother made, so obviously, that won't do.

Pink fabric, purple and yellow rick-rack. No, it's not stereotypically girly at all.

 However, my fabric stash has a number of odds and ends in suitable amounts, so I ended up pulling out a very pink piece of floral-printed fabric. I don't usually often sew pink items for E. because we already have so much pink in her wardrobe, but this fabric suited the pattern well, and I had coordinating ric-rac on hand (is it rick-rack or ric-rac or either/or?).

This pattern let me practice some hand-sewing--after sewing the lining and outside together, you flip the bonnet right-side out and blind-stitch the gap together. I used to be terrible at doing blind-stitch--I kept mixing it up with whip-stitch and doing that instead, but I seem to have finally figured it out.

If I make another one (and I kind of want to), I want to line the bill with interfacing to make it a bit stiffer. The first time I made the pattern, I did the ruffled brim. This time I did the flat bill option, which I think I like better than the ruffle, but lack of interfacing on the bill means that it doesn't have as much structure as I think it should.

Baby in her new hat!

 E. seems to like the hat well enough. I showed it to her and she grabbed it and wandered off across the living room, waving it over her head. Shortly after that, she got distracted by a pair of sunglasses and abandoned the bonnet next to one of the many boxes decorating our home.

On the list for today: A new Geranium. We are moving up a size! 6-12 months, here we come!

a couple of finished things

I did manage to complete a couple of knitted things over the last weekend, despite the attack of the late pregnancy angst (triggered in part by the brief visit of rain and clouds that was snatched away by cloudless skies and lots of sunshine. Irritating hot sunshine). The angst has mostly abated for the moment, but of course, it could re-occur at any time. Knitting helps. I should have tried more knitting on Tuesday, when I found out that yes, I am positive for Group B Strep, so I get to have an IV full of penicillin while I'm in labour (which is, of course, preferable to my child catching GBS from me and having to stay in the hospital for an extra week--it just means that I don't get to put "no IV" on my birth plan). That was an angsty day. I'm also 38 weeks along, frequently experiencing false labour, and exhausted all the time. And the baby's running out of room.

Anyway, I finished this hat for one of my friends. She crochets and doesn't knit, but fell in love with the pattern, so I told her if she bought the yarn and the pattern, I'd knit it for her. The pattern is Rosewater, by tincanknits, from their latest collection, Handmade in the UK. You can get the individual pattern or the e-book from Ravelry, or you can also order the print book. 88 Stitches, my LYS, has the book and individual patterns for sale, so Jules just bought the paper pattern. One-half of the Tin Can Knits team is local (I believe they used to both be local before one of them moved to the UK), so I've met them at fibre shows. The baby cardigan I knit a while ago is one of their creations, and while I don't usually knit blankets, I'm planning on knitting their POP blanket at some point, because it's awesome.

Rosewater Hat, blocking over a plate

Rosewater has one of those lace patterns which requires moving the start-of-round marker back and forth occasionally, so it's not a mindless pattern. But it's not a difficult knit, either. Since I have the pattern, and it's one of my favourite hat styles, I'll probably knit one for myself at some point. This one was knit in a heavier weight than the pattern recommended, so I knit a smaller size to compensate. Next time I make it, I'll use something more like the recommended yarn.

Rosewater Hat, post-blocking

I also knit a diaper cover. This is the pattern Tiny Pants, which is free. It's a pretty fast knit. I used some BFL handspun that I finished a while ago and hadn't made up my mind as to what it was going to be. BFL is usually really soft, so it seemed like a good choice for the baby. The striping looks a little off on the second leg and it blocked out a bit weirdly, but I really doubt that Munchkin is going to care. I lanolinized these when I finished them, since they'll be exposed to dampness once in a while. I'd never lanolinized anything before, so I looked up a few sets of instructions on the internet and went from there. That wasn't a thing on my crafting to-do list, although in retrospect, maybe it's something I should have added. I've heard it can be really nice to have a pair of lanolinized socks to wear at night to moisturize your feet, so maybe I'll do that with a plain pair of socks sometime. In this case, I did it because lanolin helps waterproof wool (which I'm guessing prevents wool from felting onto the sheep in wet weather). The material now feels a little greasy, but I think that's normal. These will probably be too warm to wear at first, but sometime in September, we should be able to dig them out and use them.

Tiny Pants, after the addition of lanolin

going to be inundated by hats

I've gone a little beret-crazy in the last week. I knit two brioche berets in the space of three days, so now I have three. This one is the Tree Beret from Nancy Marchant's website. The yarn is Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends again, in Fern and Tomato. These knit up fast because I'm using bulky yarn. I have plans for at least a couple more to use up the yarn. And I cast on a tam with some handspun I finally finished a while ago, but haven't gotten past the ribbing yet. Basically, unless I decide to give them away, I'm going to have a lot of distinctive hats to wear this fall. I can be one of those quirky grad students.

I also finished the Raha Scarf I was knitting (pattern is from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush). I had this discontinued yarn I picked up at the thrift store. It's a wool, somewhere around a DK weight. You can't see it in the picture, but the yarn has some glints of green and lavender that add a nice depth to the blue. It was a great pattern. I had it memorized about half-way through. It ended up over five and a half feet long. It's going to be a belated birthday gift for my mum.
I'm still working on the Skew socks but I'm on the short row section of the leg on the second sock, so they're almost finished. And then when they are I can hide my 2 mm circs in my knitting bag and pretend they don't exist. This is the second pair of socks I've knit on circs and I don't like it it any better this time than I did last time. I'm definitely a DPN girl. When I finish these, I'll get back to one of my other pairs of socks that's been neglected. I'm knitting Skew for SKA's April challenge, so it has to be finished by the end of this month. Maybe I'll get it done today.

need to start wearing my cloak more often

Lately, the weather has been acting like it is confused. I went to visit a friend yesterday who lives in a different area of town. The walk there took me a while (a good hour of walking) in part because I got lost and walked about kilometre farther than I was supposed to. When I'd glanced out the window before leaving, it had looked a little cloudy, so I wore long sleeves, trousers, and grabbed a sweater. And then it was warm and I was wondering why on earth I had grabbed a sweater, since I felt like I was melting. By the time I arrived, I had to drink several glasses of water just to rehydrate.

In the hour or so I was at my friend's house before having to leave to walk home, some clouds rolled in and it cooled down. I walked down the hill back into town, enjoying the clouds and the breeze that had sprung up. Then it started to rain. The wind kicked it up a notch. And suddenly I was walking into wind that was driving rain into my face with only a long-sleeved t-shirt and a cotton sweater for protection. And I'd decided, on a whim, to leave my hair down that afternoon, so it was getting whipped out behind me and soaked. All I needed was a cloak to complete the image. And yes, I do have one. It usually gets worn in the fall, but apparently late spring is also a good time for it. The wind and rain were so crazy I half-expected to turn a corner and run into Heathcliff.

I had to run a couple errands on the way home, so I went into the grocery store soaking wet with my hair a mess. When I finally got home, I changed into warm dry clothes and had some hot tea. Last night, I curled up with my knitting and listened to the wind's wailing.

And I finished a hat. This is the Yin Yang Beret by Nancy Marchant. I used bulky yarn (in an attempt to rid myself of some stash yarn...and had to buy another ball of the brown so I could finish the hat). It's knit in stockinette brioche stitch on 4 mm needles (went up a size from the pattern's recommended needle size because of the yarn weight). This is the third brioche beret I've knit (the first two were the Pecan Pie Beret from Knitty--one for me, one for a friend). I really like the beret patterns. They're fun, unusual, and easy to knit. Brioche stitch was actually my first introduction to colourwork knitting, which probably accounts for my frustration with stranded colourwork (although it's gettign easier). This took me a day to knit--bulky-weight hats work up fast. I used the Bernat Alpaca, which is a blend of acrylic and alpaca. The green was left over from Sedum, and the brown was left over from the first brioche berets I did last year.

The pattern has a braid at the bottom edge, which was fun to do. I haven't done a braid before, and now I don't have to be intimidated by them anymore.
I'll have to go somewhere today just so I can wear the hat. It turned out well. I like this style of knitting. I may have to invest in Nancy Marchant's new book on brioche knitting sometime.

a hat, some boring yarn, and food colouring

Well, since I'm waiting for some data to finish copying itself to the right folder, I figured I'd do some blogging. Pictured below is Uptown Purl's Lotus Hat, which I started on Friday. It's a birthday gift for my sister-in-law, who is turning 19 next week. I used Elann Peruvian Highland Wool for the project. This hat used just under a single skein of yarn, so I have three left. I was thinking of doing matching mittens for her for Christmas. I really like the lace pattern for this (crosshatch lace), especially because it has a cabled look to it. No actual cabling, so this was a really nice, fast knit.


A while ago, I found some sock yarn at the thrift store, and, thrilled, bought it. So I have two skeins of this Bouquet Sweaters and Socks yarn, one in green and one in yellow. I bought it without thinking too much about the colour, but to be honest, I don't love yellow. I don't own any yellow socks, none of my clothing is yellow except for part of a hat (I have more pink clothing than yellow), and the only other time I've gotten yellow yarn was for a project that I knit for someone else (the Jayne hat, although I did knit myself a Jayne hat afterwards to use up some of the yarn). I don't object to yellow as a colour, but it doesn't look good on me. So finally, I decided to over-dye the yarn. Here's the before picture:

Nice, pale, lemon yellow. Very innocuous, and a little bit boring. Here it is after I used food colouring to dye it:

A brighter yellow with bits of red and orange. Much more visually interesting, and something that I am actually looking forward to knitting with now. I've got a couple patterns in mind for it, but I haven't decided yet. It will be something from Socks From the Toes Up, for sure.

Well, data's all done, so I'd better go and do some homework, rather than blathering on about knitting.

new school year...and a hat is done!

"There is no limit to the human ability to create arbitrary categories." Mark Hale

That would be my favourite quote so far from a textbook for a course I'm taking this fall. It's really an excellent book. I think I will have to buy it sometime, rather than just borrowing it from a friend. School has started again, and it's going to be harder. They really make grad students work hard for those funny hats that we get to wear when we graduate. But I want a funny hat, so I'm going to do the work for it. (And yes, I'm there for quite a few other reasons than the funny hat, not the least of which is that I actually do want to work in analytical linguistics. Plus, I only found out about the funny hats after I applied, so they weren't exactly a factor in my decision to continue with school).

I finished the llama hat! It is done, and it is wearable, but remind me never to do fair-isle with superwash yarn again. It stretches too much when it's washed. The hat is also reversible, since it has a knitted-in lining. I might post a pattern for it, or I might just post the charts, since they'd probably fit into a standard hat pattern easily. My husband likes the hat, and it was done just in time for his birthday. The next knitted object for him will be a sweater. I'd like to knit an Aran sweater, but I don't want one myself, and he does. Specifically, he wants an Aran sweater based on the one the character of Wash wears on Firefly. There's already a pattern out there for it. I'm not starting that sweater until January or so, though.

Right now, I have a pair of socks on the needles, and I've just barely gotten started on a lace shawl. It's my first lace worked with lace-weight yarn, and I can only do a couple rows at a time so far because I haven't adjusted to it yet. I also need to start thinking about Christmas knitting. My brother wants a Jayne hat. Those are pretty much instant gratification knitting because they knit up so fast. I just have to go buy more yellow Cascade 220 first. I have enough red and orange left over from the other hats. I have one gift finished already, and another is in hibernation. I should start it again. I'm mostly doing things like hats and mittens, because those are fast and easy and I enjoy knitting them. My dad's been promised a pair of argyle socks, but those don't have a deadline. I should learn intarsia anyway, so why not knit something classic, hey?

We'll see how much knitting I can actually get done, though. Between school and work, I'm going to be pretty busy.

all done!

Pacha (the llama hat) is done! I will post pictures soon and I'll also probably post a pattern but I have to finish writing it up first. I can focus on socks and a lace shawl now!

a hat out of handspun

My spinning is getting better. I can knit with the result and produce something that looks pretty good. There's still a few bits that are too thick, or too thin, but the result is rather nice. I chose, for my first proper item knitted from my own handspun (the first one was a coaster which now lives underneath a vase on my coffee table), this hat from Knitty. It was designed for handspun. I started with this yarn:

Like the lazy knitter I am, I didn't swatch. The hat pattern knit up very quickly, and a couple hours after I started it, I took it to Knit Night, planning to finish the decreases. Everyone swiftly pointed out that it was too big. I hadn't had the greatest day and was grumpy about it. It took me another half of a row to admit that they were right. I frogged it, right then and there. I apologize to my friends for the grumpiness, and I apologize to the hat for the words I called it. I took out 4 repeats of the base pattern (2 repeats of the decrease pattern) and re-knit it on Wednesday. I magic-looped it for the decreases because I didn't want to go out and buy more DPNs. I don't think I'm going to take to magic loop for sock knitting, but I'll use it for hats, mitts, and probably sweater sleeves (haven't knit any sweater sleeves yet so this is guesswork). I found it very easy to do, and the top of the hat looks fine, so I believe I did it right. Here it is:

I like it very much. It's light-weight, it stays on my head nicely (although I did use clips to anchor it in place yesterday), and it looks pretty. I actually put it on this morning, absent-mindedly, after braiding my hair (my hair is waist-length when braided so it stays in braids most of the time), and was surprised a few hours later when I glanced into the mirror and saw it on my head. That's how light it is. And the colour is wonderful. The roving ranged from a deep, deep indigo blue to a very light, almost undyed blue. This has resulted in much of the yarn being dark blue, or a few light shades of dark blue, with a few sections that are reminiscent of denim.

I've started a new project with the rest of the yarn. They're mitts, with cabled ribbing. I'm almost to the thumb opening on the first one. They're on hold while I finish a pair of socks up for next week. Classes start next week, and I began these socks with wearing them to the first day in mind. When I finish them, you'll get the whole story. It's a long one.

and I so hate consequences

This is the story of a beret. It was a lovely pattern. Irresistible to the new knitter. And it didn't look that difficult. So the new knitter looked at some yarn she had bought a month or so earlier at the department store. Brown. Soft. Acrylic-alpaca blend. Two skeins. She'd liked it very much, and now all she needed was a different colour in a similar weight. She paid her second trip the LYS and found what she was looking for. Orange. Soft. Superwash merino. Aran weight. She bought one skein. She bought a circular needle to go with her first set of DPNs. She swatched a little with waste yarn until she figured out how the pattern worked, and then cast on. She knit, meticulously following the directions, but in her naivety, she didn't realize that the yarn weight the pattern called for and the weight she was using were different. She wasn't sure how to check gauge in something that wasn't a square. So she didn't. And she knit and knit and knit. She had to buy another skein of orange. It was too big for her head after the decreases so she added another decrease round. When she finished the hat, she put it on, and it was...enormous. Like a mushroom. Or a hairnet. She was too ashamed to take a picture of it on herself so she took a picture of it on a chair:

That's right. A chair. Notice how the hat takes up most of the seat? It was a big hat. She is a fairly small person. So she wore it sometimes and people commented on its size. She knit another hat with the leftover yarn, and this time paid attention to the dimensions suggested by the pattern and stopped increasing when it was the right width. There was even a little orange left, even though she had started with a partial skein. There was a lot of the brown yarn She gave that hat to her best friend.

She tried to think of solutions to fix the hat. To somehow make it smaller. She thought about steaming it or trying to felt it. But it was superwash merino, and a 70% acrylic/30% alpaca blend. If she could get it to felt, it wouldn't felt much. So she wore the hat sometimes, thinking, "At least it keeps my ears warm." And she went on to other projects. Other hats. New techniques. And she learned.

I was that knitter. I wore this hat the other day when it was raining. Forced to admit just how ridiculous it looked, the obvious solution suddenly hit me. Frog the darn thing. Frog it back to the set of increases where I should have stopped, and reknit it. So, I did.

I took a picture of the pile of frogged yarn to remind myself of the consequences I face when I don't pay attention to yarn weight, gauge, and adjusting the pattern accordingly.

My husband helped me wind up the yarn into two balls and I reknit the hat. I reknit for the height of the hat, stopping when it would be the size I wanted, did the decreases, and the brim, and bound off. I did take a picture of myself wearing it, and you can see it on Ravelry (I look like a racoon, which is why it's not up here). I also took a picture of the hat on the same chair. Look how much more of the chair seat is visible.

The pattern is Nancy Marchant's Pecan Pie Beret, which is done in brioche stitch. My colours are similar to the original pattern because those colours worked so well (I don't generally choose my colours to match the pattern, but the orangey-yellow and brown just looked so good together). This was my introduction to working with two colours. I find it easier than fair isle, but of course, brioche stitch produces a very specific, distinctive result. You can't do motifs with this, as far as I know, but this is what has sparked my interest in mosaic knitting, which also uses slipped stitches. You can see the edge of Barbara Walker's Mosaic Knitting underneath the pile of frogged yarn. I plan to do some swatching to learn the technique soon.

My trouble with size in knitting varies. Sometimes things are too small. More often, they are too large. I frogged a sock toe the other day and am now trying to figure out whether I should go down a needle size (which may not make this particular yarn very happy), or if I should alter the pattern a bit (the motif will not take kindly to much editing, so I'm at a bit of a loss here--I can delete 3, possibly 5 stitches from the top of the sock and the same from the sole and have it still look mostly the same). We'll see. I'm still learning. And I'm glad I fixed this goof-up. The hat was definitely worth it.

Addendum: I wore this hat on the bus shortly after posting and got a compliment on it. Frogging and fixing was most definitely worth it.