all around my hats

What with the clocks going back and the weather turning decidedly autumnal, I have been knitting hats recently:

Meret Beret

An early birthday present for a friend visiting from central America.  Her birthday’s not until December but there didn’t seem much point waiting till then, when it’s cold and damp now (and in January she’s going back home and won’t have much need of a woolly hat).

pattern: Meret (Mystery Beret) by Woolly Wormhead
yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran shade 673 Cloud

I worked one extra pattern repeat, for slouch but not too much slouch. I love this beret pattern, and it looks lovely on Osiris.

Rose Red Beret

I fell in love at first sight with this pattern, got the yarn at UK ravelry day in June, and have finally got around to actually knitting it.

pattern: Rose Red by Ysolda Teague
yarn: GEM Teeswater, shade ‘Fire in the Heart’
needles: 4 mm & 3.75 mm

I love this hat, although I’m not convinced it actually suits me (isn’t wearing this hat supposed to make me as beautiful as Ysolda?) but I don’t care. Love the colour and the pattern, wearing that hat constantly since finishing it, even in the house. Haven’t blocked it yet and not sure I will, but I think I do need to reknit a tighter brim.

There’ s going to be more beret knitting in the next couple of months, both my mum and my sister have requested berets for Christmas.

And I have also been working on a new hat patterns of my own but you’ll have to wait for the publication of Bobbins for that ….

procrastiknition

I have a big project on at work that must be finished this week.  So obviously this is an ideal time to blog about some recent knitting progress.

Odessa is a great pattern and goes up quickly. I know pretty much exactly how long it took me to make this one for Mel – one round trip to my parents’ (2 x 90 mins) plus two 6 Nations matches (2 x 90 mins, yay for Ireland and boo for England).

pattern: Odessa by Grumperina (available as a free ravelry download)
yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite 2032

and then on Sunday I made good progress on my undulating rib socks while watching a third 6 Nations match (let’s not talk about Scotland mmkay?). Have the first one finished now and am love love loving the vibrant greens of this VG solemate (shade = Chameleon). In fact am very loving greens in general right now, maybe it’s a spring thing?

copy-cat

or more accurately, copy-cthulhu.  I signed up for a Ravelry Rubberneckers Swap, and my swap victim aliseknits likes dice.  Oooh, I know someone who made a geek-tastic glow-in-the-dark dice bag recently, that’s so a good idea.  So I made one too.

pattern: Chthulu Dice Bag by A. A. Leavitt-Reynolds (mods: knit the base smaller and the body over 50 st instead of 70)
yarn: King Cole Fashion Aran in black, Bernat Glow in the Dark in Green Glow (the glow is much more impressive than the picture shows, but it turns out to be really difficult to photograph)
needles: 4 mm

And I received an amazing swap package from CodeCrafter, stuffed full of yarny chocolatey gorgeous goodness, including LittleFreak yarn, a brilliant knitting mag and the cutest project bag that she made herself.

In other news, my calorimetry love goes on. Friend liked her Christmas one in Kureyon very much and asked if I would do her a more conservatively coloured one for work, which gave me a good way to use up the bit of BfL aran left over from dad’s scarf

pattern: Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf (96 st, 4.5 mm needles)
yarn: Violet Green Hand-Dyed Bluefaced Leicester Aran in chocolate

And then I realised I want one too, and I haz a ball of Kureyon in the same shades as Vladi’s one, so am knitting that now ….

sock fail

so, I frogged my Salto socks.  I tried them on after turning the first heel and had to face the fact they were just too small for my traditionally-built calves.  I will definitely make them again, either on larger (2.75 mm) needles or adding stitches,  and also shorten the leg.

Played my joker for the VG-along instead, my frosted berries hat.   I did originally cast this on before the KAL start date but have frogged it back a couple of times and the final version was only cast on after 1st Jan.  The original pattern uses two strands of yarn (one ‘plain’ and one kidsilk haze) but I just used one strand of variegated BFL.  I love how this stitch pattern works with variegated yarns, it really shows them off  (and stops pooling).

pattern: Dusted Hat by Evi T’Bolt (96 st)
yarn: hand-painted Blueface Leicester Aran by Violet Green
needles: 4 mm

Oh and now that my mum has escaped from hospital and got home to open her Christmas presents, I can finally share her Christmas socks (which she says she loves but ‘they’re too good to wear’).

pattern: Monkey by CookieA
yarn: Stroud Supersock in ‘Reason’ Violet Green
needles: 2.5 mm

My current W-i-P is the Chapeau Marnier for a friend.  It’s in the round and I’m two rounds in and already hating the circular needle I’m using.  I hate it when the stitches ’snag’ at the join between the needle and the cord.  Am in That London later this week and hoping iKnit have addis in the right size in stock ….

the inevitable knitting blog post-Christmas Christmas gifts special

Now that Christmas is over and most gifts distributed to their intended recipient I can at last show off the things I’ve been working on for months.  I actually started knitting for Christmas back in the summer (that was my excuse for slacking off studying to knit -  it wasn’t slacking off it was getting ready for Xmas).

As this is going to be long and picture heavy, I’m using the fold so click on ‘more’ if you want to wade through everything my friends and relashuns got for Christmas (apologies for some poor quality pictures due to grabbing last minute shots before wrapping)

a quickie

There are some advantages to insomnia. Having got all the Xmas knitting out the way, last night I was able to fill son’s request for his own Calorimetry.  He’s wanted one since I made the first one for Vladimir, and has been asking if each one of Christmas Kureyon ones were his. Hmmm small boys and Noro mix not, hurray for King Cole.


pattern: Calorimetry by by Kathryn Schoendorf (80 stitches on 5mm needles)
yarn: King Cole Kwiknit in 326 Pasture

how to break a knitter’s heart

Seven little words:
Mum, will you buy me a hat?

water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody

Mark Twain clearly never blocked Noro Kureyon.

I decided to make a calorimetry headwrap as a quick gift for a friend, and thought this would be a good opportunity to try out the Kureyon, a yarn which is [legendary/infamous]* on ravelry. Now, from reading around ravelry about Calorimetry I knew people find it tends to come up big.  But as I’m knitting it for a large man with a lot of hair and I know my tension tends to be a little on the tight side, I thought I’d be OK with the full 120 stitches.  And it was OK, perhaps a little large but certainly wearable by a large man with a lot of hair.  But then I showed it the water.  And got my comeuppance for risking the wrath of  knitting goddesses by ignoring their first commandment ‘Thou Shalt Always Swatch & Wash’.

I washed it very gently in tepid water and ba-boom it grew 15 %.  That’s insane.  I do love the Kureyon colours and I can forgive its eccentric spinning and occasional bits of twig.  But I can’t live with it growing that much with water.  I will use it again for small things like calorimetries and maybe felted things like tea cosies but not any kind of garment with it.

Anyways I frogged the original calorimetry and tried again with a fresh ball of Kureyon.  I went down two needle sizes to get a firmer fabric, and cast on less stitches (96 instead of 120).  After 10% + growth on blocking, it was perfect.  I hope it keeps Vladi’s head warm in the world’s colder trouble zones.

Pattern: Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf (mods: 96 st & 4 mm needles)
Yarn: Noro Kureyon 52
Needles: 4 mm straight

Calorimetry itself is also [legendary/infamous]* on ravelry.  Some people are incredibly snotty / snarky about popular patterns.  ‘Why oh why does everyone think [pattern x] is so great?‘ they wail ‘am I the only one who has never knitted  calorimetry/clapotis/monkeys?‘ For which read, ‘I am such a superior knitter, vastly more creative, talented and original than you poor sheep‘.   Yes that’s right, I only knit patterns because everyone else does.  Hmm could there be a reason these patterns are so popular?  Is it just possible that people keep making them because they are well written and produce great FOs, rather than just because everyone else is making them too?

* delete as appropriate

pattern correction: heterocyclic hat

as As You Lean pointed out in the comments, my original chart misrepresented serotonin (with an octagonal hetero- ring instead of a hexagonal carbon only one).  Then I noticed penicillin had the same octagon-for-hexagon error.  I have now amended the chart and uploaded a new version on the original pattern post.

stripy hats

I’ve made two of these so far, as end of season ‘thank yous’ for son’s rugby coaches (in club colours)

The yarn – Rowan Pure Wool Aran – is very soft and sproingy, making a lovely cosy hat. I have enough left over to make another one for Rob, to keep his ears warm on the touch line next season and have cast that on this morning. They go up quick so that can be my mindless knit, for those times I don’t feel alert enough to pick up Jeanie.

pattern: ‘Watch Cap’ by Lila P. Chin (from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Caps & Hats), size medium
yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran, shades 685 Noir & 670 Ivory