Cute As !

Baby Anna had grown out of her Gumnut Hat (see last photo) so I handed over Baby Byz earlier than I was going to.

Haven't had enough cuteness yet? Here's more ...

 

The hat is based on Byzantium, which you can find in my Ravelry  projects here.

The design is very versatile - any yarn, any gauge.
Here I've done 2 x 2 rib, sections of stocking stitch alternating with reverse stocking stitch x 4, three-needle bind off at the top (inside), and soft tassels. 
Yarn was Mondial Bizzarre.

  

 Here is another version of Baby Byz, modelled beautifully by a bucket! Heh.

This was in a finer yarn, for a newer baby , Cleckheaton something ... , 2 x 2 rib, only two reverse stocking stitch sections. It was a gift, but I don't have photos of the recipient. 

 

 And here is Anna with her Gumnut Baby Hat, made to match the Baby Wrap Cardi. Both items came with her for her visit to Australia from Spokane. I was honoured and flattered that they warranted inclusion in the luggage!

H Is For Hat

Of course!
I like making hats.
For a slow knitter like me, they give a quicker reward.
I can also experiment more easily, with less time and materials lost if it doesn't work out.

This hat is the Very Versatile Toque (VVT), made for my Bag Swap swapee.
It's my own design, but really, it's pretty generic for the most part. Knit a flat top, knit the sides, felt like crazy.Here Polly models the unfelted hat. It's way too big! Unfortunately, even after three hot washes and even drying in the tumble-dryer, it was still too big. The yarn was "hand-wash". Felting really is a random event.

The VVT is basic black felted hat that can be adorned to match any outfit -dress it up or dress it down – it will go with anything!

The secret is the in-built tab. This can be used to thread a scarf or ribbon, or attach a brooch, studs, an ornament or fascinator.

The integral tab is shown here.

There is a lined top form included inside the hat. This provides a firmer shape for the top of the hat. The photos were taken with the form in place.

Here the toque is adorned simply with a netting circlet and rosette on a brooch clip.

Here the leopard print scarf is tied through a buckle and added below the netting.

A simple twisted velvet ribbon passes through the loop at the end of the ribbon, and then through the tab and tied off.

A multi-coloured silk scarf is wrapped twice and knotted around the tab.

An extra-long scarf is passed through the tab once, then twisted on itself and wrapped around the hat again. The ends are tucked in.

I don't know if my swapee liked the hat: she didn't say. I don't even know if it fitted, or if she even tried it on. Oh well. Now I know why many people only knit for themselves.

C Is For Cutie-Pie Cynthia Cloche, Part 2

The next challenge was the welts.

I couldn't get a colour I wanted in the Cashmino, so rather than wait for a special order to come in (what, me, impatient? Never!), I used a 4-ply held doubled. I purled a few rows and then knit-joined them, just like the hem. Well, actually, I didn't really purl those rows. I did a wrap-and-turn and knitted those rows, with the inside facing the outside, so the purls would later be on the public side. Then another wrap-and-turn to go back the original way for the knit rows in between the welts, and after them as well.The welts didn't shape themselves quite how I wanted - they droop down a bit. Maybe I should have used fewer rows, or put a bit of foam stuffing in them. Oh well, they are what they are.

I started doing a spiral pattern decrease for the crown, but ripped that out as being too busy and fussy, and settled for a six-pointed star. I did this by doing a double decrease at the same spot every second row.I then knitted a rosette from the cream yarn, and stitched it on a brooch pin. It can be positioned anywhere, to hold a turned-up brim, or popped on the welt bands.

I needed to block the hat to make those double decreases lie a bit flatter. This was A Really Bad Mistake. The part of the hat that I wetted went as limp as a soggy noodle!
It also grew a bit. Very disappointing. The brim is still okay - possibly because I didn't wet it, and possibly because it is double-thickness.

I've since read on Ravelry that other people have not been happy with this yarn's performance. It would be great if you wanted something soft and drapey. Not so good for a "tailored hat". Sigh. It's still okay to wear.
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C Is For Cutie-Pie Cynthia Cloche, Part 1

Here is a hat I designed last year. I started it late July and finished it late August.

I had been knitting for about two months, when I went looking for a cloche-style hat to knit. I couldn't find one I liked.

Most of the ones I came across on the 'Net were felted, and that wasn't the look I wanted. This was way before I joined Ravelry.

I wanted a very tailored look for this hat, with no colour variegation or fluffines. So, for the yarn, I chose Heirloom 8 ply cashmino in a lovely rusty colour, with a contrast band in a beigey-cream.As usual, I started by knitting a swatch for gauge. This hat was knit from the bottom up in the round. Once I had my gauge, I knew how many stitches to cast on. It was a number divisible by six - 120, 132 - can't remember.

It has a hem. Now, I've found out since then that the turned-behind part of a hem is usually knit with smaller needles or something to make it less bulky. But I wanted the bulk to help make the brim a bit firmer and stand away from the head a bit more.

I increased by 6 stitches every three or four rows. I think I did about 12 rows - my notes are sketchy at best.

Then the turn. I knew about doing a row of purl in stocking stitch to form a turn. I looked at picot turns but they were a bit fussy. Then I experimented with a stitch pattern which was the right side row of the famous "My So Called Scarf" by Stacey. I knitted an ordinary purl row, then the scarf row, then an ordinary knit row after that.

back hem unturned and first few rows of pie-crust edge

At first, I thought it wasn't going to work. That row and the next couple seemed very loose and open.

hem turned back and first few rows of pie-crust edge

Then suddenly it seemed to pull itself together, and formed this delightful edge, which reminds me of a pie crust. Hence the "Cutie-Pie" part of the design name.I knit some more rows till the length and number of decreases matched the first part of the hem, then knit-joined the two. (like a three-needle bind-off without actually binding off.)

More in Part 2
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Wedge-y Might

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.

I am now so far behind with blogging, that I don’t think I’ll ever catch up.

If I write posts for August, then I’m not writing posts for October. So I get further and further behind.

I am having so much fun on Ravelry, I don’t have time to blog.

There, I found Charisa’s gorgeous Wedge Hat and just had to try it. I started knitting it straight away!

I'm sure I didn't get it quite right. For example, I didn't know what size circumference I was aiming for at the welt. "plate" sizes vary so much! I think I may have been a bit timid on that.

I liked the way the colours knit up in this yarn - Cleckheaton Vintage Hues . It didn't seem to knit up as bulky as the one Charisa used. (Wouldn’t have any idea where to get Zitron Turmaline in Australia!) The recommended needles for this yarn are 6.5mm; I used 4mm to get the firm texture, It's such a dense fabric now, it feels almost like it's been felted. That's good - it hides all the holes!

The welt doesn't seem to have the same "presence" of Charisa’s welt; I wasn't sure if that was due to the difference in yarn thickness, or if it should have been more than just one row of purl. Or if I didn't go back far enough with the stitch pick-up.

I've blocked the top of the hat by putting a plastic picnic plate up in there, given it a light misting of spray water, and just left the brim unblocked. I rested it upside down on a towel for a while - now it's sitting on edge in front of the woodfire. The photos were taken before I blocked it. It should look more wedgey once the blocking is done.

I made the band longer so I could fold it over to give a chunkier brim.

The circumference of the welt at rest (unplated!) is 73cm (29 inches); and my head circumference (where I place hat-brims) is 56.5 cm (22 inches). I wonder if there's a magic ratio of welt:head which will make this work the best?

I learnt a lot doing this project.

I love the hat; but sad to say, I don't think it suits my head shape.

***********************

Update: I popped a bigger plate up into the hat last night, spritzed a bit more, left it to dry.

The photos are now the post-blocking ones. The top sits a little flatter with the stitches distributed better.

Then today I wore the hat out into town, and got two complimentary comments/questions about it!

I may well change my mind about this hat not suiting me!

PS: If you're an Aussie, you may get the pun in the message title ;-}

A Different Kind Of Spiral

Here are some better photos of the cloche hat mentioned here. Polly was out at the time of that post, but I've persuaded her to do a bit more modelling. This shows off the shape of the hat much better.


The photo below shows the spiral pattern made with the M1 technique described for this pattern; you know, the make one which also makes a decorative hole. If I had had a photo like this, I would have known straight away what the pattern was asking me to do.

My strange stitch style (not-quite-continental) coupled with perhaps a needle size a little bit too big, has given this an almost crochet effect. I like it.

Going To Byzantium

It's another hat!


I called it Byzantium because that's the name that came to mind when it was finished, partly because of the colour - like the light through stained glass, and partly because of the quirky shape.

It's another Katia wool - Sherpa, I think.

I wanted to experiment with making a hat out of a tube knitted on circular needles. I'm sure it's nothing new; I'm sure there are hundreds of patterns out there for such hats.
But I made up this one myself.

I swatched to get my gauge. Then worked out the circumference I wanted, and the height. My poor old calculator is getting a thorough workout from all this knitting. Who would have thought it? Maybe there's a nifty little computer program out there that does the same thing, but I haven't found it yet.


The reverse stocking stitch idea came from my 30 year old Mon Tricot 1300 Stitch Dictionary. I like the way it gives stretch in the vertical direction.

And of course, you experienced knitters out there already knew that a hat knitted as a tube will give "ears" on each side. I know it now!

They were so cute, I just had to add tassels to them. Wrappimg wool round a credit card to make a tassel worked just fine! (Probably the most benign use of a credit card ever known!)
I used a store-bought covered bead for the top of each tassel. I was really pleased to find just the right colour - it blends perfectly.


I closed the top seam using a three-needle bind-off. It's the first time I'd ever done one of those - I was pleased with how well it worked, especially given how chunky this wool is.








This is a fun hat - I have resolved to grow old disgracefully, and become truly eccentric. I will wear this one out to fun events, like the Mid-Winter Festival as per this mention, and barbeques, and anywhere I please!

A Hat-Trick

And this makes three!

Three hats finished. This beanie is for (son) JJ. It's elegantly modelled by Polly, or, as this is for a boy, should that be 'Paulie'?

It's in Katia wool, Nepal I think. The colours came out a bit of a surprise - the outside of the ball looked like it was all blue, but it shaded through to grey, white then yellow. If it had been a bigger (longer) hat, it would have shaded back to blue again.

I blocked it gently - Polly helped with that. Blocking did make a difference to how well the stitches lay, especially on the crown where the increases are.

There was no specific pattern - I just kind of made it up as I went along. I knew what my gauge with that yarn is, (oh, yeah, I DID swatch!), and I knew what length from the crown, and what circumference I needed to have at the brim. It was just maths, after that. Whoever thought maths would be important!


Anyway, now JJ has a warm noggin.


PS. In case you're wondering what happened to Polly's 'skin'; no it's not acne scars, it's the unfortunate result of an attempt to spray-paint her gold to match another hat she was modelling. The paint dissolved the polystyrene!

Cloche Encounters

I finished another hat!

I used the same pattern as the last one, but I actually followed it a lot more closely.

I also used a different yarn. This was left-overs from last time I had been knitting – over twenty years ago. I suspect it’s acrylic 8 ply, but there were no ball-bands so I’m just guessing. It went really quickly this time.

The increase pattern which had that ‘make one’, which also made a decorative hole, worked much better in the thinner yarn. It also showed the spiral pattern of those increases much better too. I will take a better photo when I can persuade Polly to co-operate.

I used these colours to match a jumper I had. I wore them both to a wine-tasting afternoon, followed by lunch at the Fairfield Boathouse. Both events were very nice; lunch was yummy.

In between rain-showers (it was Melbourne, after all!), the sun did shine, and I liked the effect of the backlight on the lavender bushes near where we dined. Of course I had my camera with me!

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Boat house without boats …

Firsty Work

I've actually finished something!

In my retail therapy shopping spree, I bought some chenille-style yarn, because I couldn't resist the soft feel of it.

I found a pattern I really liked, over here: a free cloche-style hat , and set to work.

Here is my finished hat, as modelled by the ever-patient Polly.

Now don't laugh - I know it's incredibly wonky and odd.

BUT
- it is the first hat I've ever knitted
- it is the first time I've ever knitted with a chenille-type yarn (and it too, needed 'wrangling' onto the needles)
- it's the first time I've ever used circular needles, or dpns

Here's a close up of the slightly odd texture, made that way because I knit funny - sort of a continental twist to each stitch; but I like it that way.


I really do wish patterns explained things a bit better. The pattern says to make one: m = make one, by knitting in the back of the next stitch and then knitting the st itself
but what it doen't say is that this will make a decorative hole as well as a new stitch.
I'm supposed to somehow just know that???

I frantically ripped back time after time to get rid of the holes which mysteriously appeared in my knitting. The photos on the pattern page do not show the tops of the hats, otherwise I would have twigged earlier what it was supposed to look like.

So, wonky and odd, it's done. It's a bit too big, and looks much too big on Polly's petite head. But I wear it, and it's very comfortable and warm.

When I have nothing else to do, (hah!) I will re-do it a little smaller.