novamade

the mad hatter

There is something about making hats.  They are so quick and you can try out different techniques and design features without too much commitment.  I pulled this pattern from Hats On!  I have said it before, but I will say it again, this book is a great little book of hat designs.  This particular hat was a birthday gift for Special K.  He needed something understated and knit in one color; but for my own personal interest, I needed something to keep it engaging. 

Cables keep things interesting enough, so I chose this pattern.  Very easy cabling with a nice result, I think.

I like to try and learn something new with each project, when possible.  With this hat, I learned how to do a yarn over tubular cast on.  It was kind of tedious, but it was also sort of fun.  It's not like I got it the first (or second) time around, but after a few tries everything worked out and now I have a new skill for making a clean cast on edge for stretchy garments.  Good stuff, no?

Aran Watch Cap

Pattern:  from Charlene Schurch's Hats On!

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Fog, 2 Skeins

Needles: Bamboo Circular and DPNs in US 6

Modifications: Shortened the crown pattern

Start Date: January 25, 2007

End Date: January 27, 2007

If I just went with my first cast on, this hat would have been done the day after I started it; but, I wanted to make sure it looked good.  I started the project over three times, I wanted to make sure I was doing it right (you know, the yarn over tubular cast on, it's no joke).  Also, something to mention, I pretty much ran out of yarn.  The pattern calls for 220 yards of worsted weight yarn, and that is what I had--exactly--but it technically was not enough.  I knit the crown one inch shorter than called for by the pattern (and it wasn't even the largest size) to make sure that I could finish, it worked out okay and it looks fine, but if I had made the largest size I would have been out of luck.  Oh, and if you are wondering, yes, I got gauge....weird, right?

After finishing the hat, I returned to Arwen, just like I said I would.  I am not holding on to any false hope of finishing this sweater by the end of the month (I am learning that being realistic is a healthy thing, really); but, I can get a good chunk of it done if I just concentrate on that sweater alone for another couple of days.  Project monogamy, it's a beautiful thing...

monogamous knitting

I have been doing a great deal of thinking about monogamy when it comes to knitting.  There are some poeople who stick with one project until it's all done before starting a new one, knocking out projects like dominoes all lined up in a row.  And then there are those who have any where from two to ten projects going at once and they tend to plod on, finishing in fits and starts.  I am part of the latter group.  I have often thought that I would be more efficient if I just worked on one thing and completed it before starting something else, but, I think I would get bored.  Also, things come up.

It was my intention to give Arwen my complete focus this month (even though I started it half way into the month, details...),  I put off other things that I thought would be interesting because I knew I would probably get side-tracked, so I was rather well behaved, sort of.  I did pretty good, I think, only putting down Arwen when a gift-giving occasions presented itself (or finishing gifts from gift-giving occasions from last month, same thing...), and well the seamless hyrbid?  It couldn't be helped.  It was so close to being completed it didn't make sense not to finish it. 

Last night I cast on for another project, I thought I would be able to finish it in one evening; but, after a while, sleep seemed more important, so I will probably finish it up tonight (it's a hat, how long could it take, really?).  But then after that, nothing else for the rest of the month except Arwen.  Just me and Arwen...  It's not that I don't enjoy kntitting the sweater, to be honest, I am curious to see where it goes.  The sweater construction is facinating.  That Kate Gilbert knows how to design a sweater, I tell ya.

The thing that most intimidated me about the pattern was the cabling.  Those beautiful cables that look so complicated...  They aren't complicated at all.  Time-consuming, yes.  Complicated?  Not so much.  The cables are actually...fun, no really.  The yarn is a little rough on the hands, but it's producing a beautiful fabric.  I like it.  So after my brief fling with the hat, I am going to be committed to Arwen (well, until February, then all bets are off because I plan to participate in Project Spectrum in a major way, but more on that later).   

So all you amazing knitters out there, don't you tempt me with your gorgeous colors for small projects or delicate design features like scrollwork  knit in scrumptious yarns.  And please, no more fantabulous socks, that scream, "knit me."  I just can't do it, not right now.  For the rest of this month, I am going to be a one project kind of girl.  It's only 5 days, I think I can show some restraint.  Or, I can, at the very least, try... 

istanbul (not constantinople)

Turkish-Patterned Hat (aka Istanbul)

Pattern: from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca (50% wool, 50% alpaca), 1 skein each black and khaki

Needles: Bamboo Circular and Straight dpns, US 4

Modifications: None

So I made this hat for Special K.  I wanted it to be extra warm and as soft as possible so I went with an alpaca mix.  I actually purchased a skein of sport weight Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Alpaca to line the hat with; but, Special K thought the hat was warm enough so I left the lining out.  I don't usually like knitting with alpaca, I am not big on knitting with halo-y yarn, but Special K loves an alpaca hat I knit for him a few years ago and the BUA was soft to work with, really nice (though it is a light worsted and not an actual worsted weight as called for in the pattern).  And because the yarn is so soft, the inside of the hat (or the floats, as it were) isn't scratchy at all.

While I did the second pattern repeat for the extra-large sized hat, I felt like the hat was getting too long.  I was tempted to rip back but Special K assured me that longer/taller hats are all the rage on the slopes (being one who does not ski, snowboard, or whatever, I would have no way of knowing this), so while I think the hat is too long, Special K (the recipient) thinks it's perfect, so what do I know?  Well, I do know that I love the Twined Herringbone edge cuff, it's brilliant, truly it is:

Special K is a fan of the whole hat, and if he is happy then so am I.

I really like the patterns in Hats On!  The patterns are easy to work with, pretty stright forward, charts are clear and... it's a book of hat patterns, how can you go wrong?  Special K has a birthday coming up and since he is all about functional items, I will probably knit him another hat that isn't so long (things like this bother me like you wouldn't believe).

With the hat done (it was a quick knit, actually- 6 days of sporadic knitting), I can try to tackle Special K's other (belated) gift knit.  I spent most of last night ripping the first saddle shoulder of the seamless hybrid sweater, at some point I lost stitches and the only thing to do was to rip back, sadness.  I pulled it out again because all that I have left to do is the shoulders and a collar, so maybe tonight I can get a huge chunk of it done.  I would like to finish by the weekend so I can spend some time on some Zimmermann mittens (stranded colorwork, of course).  I have an unreasonable deadline for the mittens, but if I don't finish the sweater now, it just won't get done.  We'll see how it goes.

for cuteness sake

Small Hat with Stars or the Orange Snowflake
Pattern: from Small Sweaters: Colorful Knits for Kids by Kolstad and Takle

Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style in Butternut and Asparagus

Needles: Bamboo Circs and DPNs, US3

Modifications:Yarn substitution, pattern calls for Rauma Strikkegarn

At some point during decreasing the crown of the toddler hat it occurred to me that this hat serves no functional purpose at all.  It's just cute.

Being of the practical sort, I was kind of annoyed with the impracticality of this hat at first.  It doesn't cover the ears, it hardly covers the head for goodness sake... And then taking another look through the book I noticed that the author very clearly notes that some of the hat designs "do not cover the ears" and in the modeled picture of this hat, it barely covers the kid's head (no, seriously it looked like it was about to fall off!)...  This hat is truly small, but it's supposed to be that way, I guess. 

I had to agressively block this hat to get it to fit a human head, pre-blocking, I couldn't even get it on Little Sir's head.  Using a (very practical) mixing bowl I was able to stretch it to a size that is just a tad bigger than Little Sir's noggin.  Don't let the baby face fool you, he is a tank...and really, he has a freakishly large head for a baby (it's cute, but it's large--maybe this means he'll be a genius one day?).

So anyway, this was my first colorwork project (and my first project for the Stranded KAL), and if you look closely, you will see that this was clearly a "learning piece."  I tried knitting with two hands and then with one hand picking up and dropping strands as needed...and I learned that I am a very (no, a VERY tight knitter), but this was good for the learning of the knitting craft... To be honest, most things I have made up to this point are learning pieces; but, this one was especially so.  The Orange Snowflake, as I am calling it, is actually a Christmas gift for my niece.  During a visit in October she mentioned that her favorite color was orange.  I was skeptical at first, but she said it with such conviction, I had to attribute her certainty to her genuine like of the color and not so much the pumpkinish climate of October.  So, I hope she still likes orange...and green for that matter, because that is what she's getting on Christmas day!

A word about this book, it was translated from Norwegian and it has more charts than written directions (good thing I learned how to read and use charts last month)...  So there are a lot of charts and not so much handwritten instructions, which is okay if you are good with charts.  The book is full of (as one would assume from the title) colorful sweaters for the wee ones (older kids too).  It's an older book (printed in 1996, so not that old), so one would have to use one's own discretion about how fashionable or stylish they are, some of them are simply there...for cuteness sake.

eat your veggies

Or knit with them...  The yarn colors for my current project (one of them) are Asparagus and Butternut.  Everything else in the pile of colors I had to choose from were flowers or spices, but I opted for the veggie colors, mostly because of the orange...more on that later.  So, I am doing a little stranded colorwork here.  It was slow-going at first; but I have figured it out and I love it.

That's right, orange snowflakes, or butternut snowflakes, take your pick.  It's a small hat for a toddler.  I figured this would be a good size garment to test the waters of colorwork, and for me it is working out well.   I have tried out both two-handed and one-handed knitting and can't decide which I like best.  I am definitely faster with two hands, but I also knit much tighter that way....very much so, actually.  I have already made a mental list of all sorts of ambitious colorwork projects.  I am not sure why I was so intimidated by colorwork at first, because now (like I said) I love it.  In any case, fun stuff. 

Some not so fun stuff?  Special K's seamless hybrid.  I am so miffed with this sweater I can not even photograph it for you.  I just can't look at it right now.  So close to finishing and I drop an uncertain number of stitches.  Elizabeth Zimmermann would not be pleased and neither am I.  Everything was neato-keen till I started the saddle and some of the stitches fell off the needle without my realizing it...so while the sweater is in triage, I leave you with pictures of Little Sir trying to figure out this thing called Christmas...

He doesn't understand it; but, he likes it!

last minute knitted gift

After my experience with the Swallowtail Shawl (thank you for the lovely comments), I realized that babies have been born, and I have been remiss in my gifting for them.  A friend of mine gave birth to a little girl at the beginning of October...I can't remember the last time I made anything for a girl!  So I needed something, quick...last minute...knitted... So naturally I turned to LMKG, this little hat is great!  A quick easy knit and supremely satisfying when you weave in the ends.  Because the baby is in Florida, I figured cotton was key, so I used the specified yarn (if you haven't used the 1824 cotton, I highly recommend it, it's scrumptious...for cotton.  I think the hat took me 5 hours,  and that was only because the i-cord ribbon took so long and I checked the internet to find corrections that I didn't feel like figuring out on my own...gotta love the internet--why reinvent the wheel?

Children's Cotton Hat

Pattern: from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts, with corrections courtesy of Alison

Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton in Coral

Size: the middle size for a baby--kind of big, but she'll grow into it

Needles: Bamboo Circular, US 6; Susan Bates Aluminum dpn's, US 6

Modifications: Just encorporated Alison's corrections

This is a super easy pattern, once you are aware of the corrections you need to make for the larger sizes.  For whatever reason, I didn't read through the pattern and just started knitting.  Very silly, when I know that the book has errata all over the place... but it's pretty obvious when you get to the yarnovers to make the holes for the ribbon.  This is a cute pattern and it knits up ridiculously fast.  Which is perfect when you need a last minute knitted gift!

Totally unrelated to the hat and knitting, books...so I haven't changed my "look what I am reading" section for a while, though I have been reading other things.  I found the True Story of Hansel and Gretel somewhat depressing but a rewarding read, all the same.  It was enlightening to read about the Holocaust from the perspective of children(all be it a fictionalized account). 

And then there was Sarah Waters' Night Watch...What a waste of my time.  I usually LOVE Waters' books, I have always been a fan of her understanding of relationships and her attention to historical detail; but, perhaps it was the attention to historical detail that had me snoozing through this book.  I just couldn't take it, and because I can't just not read a book that I have started, of course I slogged through it.  If you like historical fiction, you might enjoy this book.  If you like historical fiction that moves past the pace of a trickle of maple syrup, this book is probably not for you.  1940s London has never been so dull for me...and I love historical fiction and I am something of an Anglophile...I just found the book a bore which surprised me since, as I said, I am a fan...

Knitting continues on the Seamless Hybrid, just a bunch of stockinette still, so nothing uber-facinating to flash.  Finishing up Hedera, for Lacevember this time (you know, since Socktober was such a success for me); I am also casting on for the Shetland Triangle Shawl in Wrap Style, for myself...because I am worth it.  And then there is the Christmas gift knitting...

what all the fashionable kids are wearing

Yesterday when I picked up Little Sir from school, I realized that all the other kids had hats on.  Connecticut has some chilly weather going on and I was caught unprepared.  So I needed to "get a hat" for Little Sir, because as much hair as he has, it's just not enough to keep his head warm in the New England chill.  So while Little Sir slept last night, I got him a hat...or rather, I knit him one...because that is what mothers-who-knit do, apparently. 

 

It was a quick knit, four hours and voila, he had a hat to wear this morning.  It is a little on the light side; but, it's good enough for the fall.  I think I will make him another one and knit the yarn double stranded for extra thickness (and warmth) for the winter months.  If there is any yarn left over after that, maybe I will knit him some mittens too...because baby mittens, they have no thumbs!

I rarely like variegated or hand-dyed (multi) yarn for anything other than socks, but I thought the colors were fun and for a kid's knit, it works; and, it makes Little Sir oh so fashionable, don't you think?  I mean, is this kid "fierce" or what?  Yeah, I knitted during American's Next Top Model last night...

Little Sir likes it!

Basic Hat for a Baby

Pattern: Taken from Ann Budd's A Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns

Yarn: Some superwash hand-dyed merino I picked up on vacation in Halifax, Nova Scotia last summer..."brandless"

Size: 6-18 months

Needles: Bamboo Circular, US 8/5.0 mm; Bamboo DPNs, US 8/5.0 mm

Modifications: None, I just followed the given guidelines and picked and chose options accordingly.

An easy knit that took no time at all, really.  It's a hat, not so hard.  Knit one for someone you love today!