Mitered Baby Hat

This was another hat from the Hat Madness challenge. The major technique people seemed to be employing were to focus on super bulky hats, often crocheted for greater speed. Sometimes I just have to be contrary though, and this is case it expressed itself in a hat knit in sock yarn with 22 ends due to the 10 mitered squares around the edge.

Pattern: Jewel by Sockpixie (free)
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Needles: US Size 3s / 3.25 mm

Modifications: I worked the body of the hat in just one yarn since I feared that any more of the bright yellow, misleadingly named 'mellow yellow', might burn out parental and pediatric retinas. Also I worked the deceases differently, mostly out of absentmindedness, since it made sense to me that since there were 10 miters that there would be 10 sets of decreases... I was wrong, but it looks ok. (Please do not mind the wear bump on the left side of the hat in this picture. Apparently I had tugged at it or something before the picture, and didn't notice it looked weird.)

Errata: If you cast on 16 sts for the first miter, and then each subsequent miter had you knit 20 sts miters that would be weird. Take your pick of 16 or 18, but I think you will be happier with just picking one. Given the hat body is done with 90 sts total, I recommend you use 18 per miter.

I have been really wanting to make this pattern since Julie of Knitpickin' made one
Seriously, how awesome is this pattern? AND it is free. AND it is a great way to use leftover bits of sock yarn. That is all win, people. I will definately be making this pattern again.

Two Fleecy Brim Hats

Wow, so years ago now, the Boston Yarn Party group on Ravelry had a yarn swap in Somerville. It was loads of fun and was a great idea. One of the yarns that I took home in decent quantity was several colors of Knit One Crochet Too Fleece. Have any of you heard of this yarn? I hadn't, but it is very fleecy and nice in the skein. After a failed attempt and knitting with it, I found that it makes a much nicer fabric when crocheted.

Then, one of my Ravelry groups had a hat challenge, to make as many hats as possible in 24 hours. (So you will see the results over the next little while.) Here are two made from the fleecy yarn I got from the Somerville yarn swap.


After the first one, Chiquita announced she one just like it, but slightly bigger and in blue instead. Done!

Pattern: Beanie Brim Cap by Hannah Levine (a free Rav download)
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Fleece
Hook: 6.0 mm (J)

The pink version, I crocheted as directed. Given the fact I have some tension issues, this one turned out a bit smaller than the average adult head. Even on me (who has a small head), it was pretty snug. So when Chiquita requested a blue one that was bigger, I just did an extra set of increase rounds before working straight. Also the brim of the pink one was worked with no 2dcs in the brim, while the blue one does.

Super cute pattern! The pattern is really good, and the pattern sheet itself even looks really professional. The only minor complaint I had was that I would have liked a suggestion about where to put the 2dcs in the brim beyond 'to shape to your preference' (not a direct quote). The nice thing about crochet is that it really is that it is really easy to play around with different shaping options for something like this though. If I were to make this again, I might chose a less textured yarn to see the seam details better.

Silk Garden Sweater

Knit from the top down, I took advantage to use every last yard of this yarn that I had (6 skeins, 816 yards). This yarn had been sitting in my stash since about 2006 (I found the postmark with the yarn). Then it only took a week exactly to finish, since the Noro is a lot of fun to knit. And now the sweater has actually been finished since March. Apparently the knitting is the short step in this process.

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite in colorway 2023
Fiber Content: 45% Silk, 45% Mohair, 10% Wool
Yarn supplier: Carodan Farm Wool Shop
Needles: US 4 - 3.5 mm
Pattern: Margot by Linden Heflin
Size: XS with modifications

Modifications: (You knew there would be some right?)

In order to maximize matching, I set aside two balls that clearly had well matched color repeats. I knit the yoke, and then worked the sleeves so that I could fudge the color sequence best with the rest of the yarn if I needed to. Then once that was done, I knit the body. For the whole sweater I made sure that whenever I added a new ball that I chose an end that would blend color-wise so there would not be a hard transition.

I know I used a different number of increases in the yoke, but I just kept trying it on until it was as big as I wanted it. Similarly, I added a lot more waist shaping than the original pattern, changed the length of the waist section, and added slightly more more increases for the hips than there were decreases for the waist. Slightly less ease on the bust is after all more flattering than on the hips. Also sleeves were lengthened and given some shaping after the elbow.

The beauty of this sort of knitting is you can try it on as you go and customize for your body. The result? One of the most wearable sweaters I have knit.

Gore Place

This past weekend we did not head off to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival unlike many of my knit blogger friends. The weekend before that though, Salvbard and I spent some time together wandering around the Sheep Shearing Festival at Gore Place.

Salvbard took lots of cute animal pictures for me. There were alpacas:

And baby lambs:

So cute!

And tiny baby goats:

We avoided any stash enhancement, although I had been thinking of picking up some locks to play with spinning. I was super happy to see Lucy of Minds Eye yarns (and associated etsy store). It has been far too long! I was hoping to pick up the latest Vogue Knitting Magazine. I guess the fact that they had run out is just a good excuse to stop by and visit sometime soon.

Day 6: Revisit a past F/O

Bring the fortune and life of a past finished project up to the present. Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted…

I have actually been doing this for a bit in my recap series, looking at how socks in particular that I have made have held up. The pair for today though hasn't worn any holes yet though. They are the sienna socks I made last summer. Unfortunatley they were too long in the foot, so they hadn't gotten much wear.

This picture shows one sock with the toe ripped back and re-knit and the other marked to where I needed to rip back to. They fit a lot better now, which hopefully means they will get worn more often.

Cascade fixation is a funny yarn because of just how much it stretches. Normally I knit with only a tiny amount of negative ease lengthwise (if any), but this is the second pair I have made to the length that I would have with a wool yarn, only to find them too long. Apparently I just need to take more negative ease into account with this yarn. Between that knowledge and the fact that I am happiest knitting it on a significantly larger than expected needle size I think I am ready to tackle another pair of socks in this yarn (which is good since I have a bit of it stashed).