I-Cord Tops on Baby Hats

Two of my friends are becoming first time grandparents this summer. I picked up some cute yarns on my April shopping spree (a skein of each of these two at 3 Kittens) that said baby girl to me. I pulled them out last week and got to work.

Regia

The Regia hat is from Little England Designs and is called the Fool's Fair Isle Baby Hat. I looked around the internet but didn't find it. It is intended to be knit with one of those nifty fake fair isle yarns, but I used a random stripe skein. The hat is finished with two strips of i-cord. (Decrease until there are 8-12 stitches remaining. With half the stitches, create a 4" I-Cord.  Repeat to create a second tail and tie them together.)

I wasn't thrilled with the hat, but I think a gentle blocking might make a difference.

Panda Cotton

The second hat is out of Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Cotton from a modified free pattern. The pattern was originally written for Crystal Palace Bamboozle (which has now been discontinued). Both yarns are bamboo, cotton and nylon, but the Panda Cotton is 6-7 inches to the inch on a 1-2 and the Bamboozle was a gauge of 4.5 stitches to the inch on a 9.

Two things about this pattern made me willing to adjust and rewrite, the rib is unusual and I liked the pattern the double decreases created. The 'rib' of seed stitch is possible because of the stretch the nylon adds to the yarn.  The decreases at the top of the hat are worked in 4 double decreases.  The pattern is written to be re-sized with the equation 8x + 12.

I made a couple modifications:

• needle size: 1 for cast on & seed stitch section, a 3 for the stockinette stitch.
• Change the 12 to 13. (By casting on an odd number, the seed stitch appears seamless.) At the end of the rib section, slip the last stitch as if to knit, (lift the marker off the needle), knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch. (Put the marker back on behind the decreased stitch.)
• My x=8, so I cast on 77 stitches.
• I knit 1.25" of seed stitch and 2.5" of stockinette to the start of the decreases; so my hat is a little shorter than the pattern, but mine was also about 12" in circumference
• Decreases: Instead of round 1 starting with K7, it is actually Kx, which in my case was 8.

I was so happy with the Panda Cotton Hat (and there was about half a skein left), I made a second one!

Adding a New Skein -- Circular Knitting

If only all yarn came on giant skins with never a knot or imperfection to sully it's grandeur.

However, that is not to be!

When adding a new skein of yarn I am a member of the no knots camp.  (Temporary ones are acceptable at an edge to be seamed, but it should, in my humble opinion  be removed before the seaming.)

If there are to be seamed edges, I always try to add my new yarn at the edge.  When working with a cardigan in one piece or sometimes a shawl or scarf, having a tail to weave at the edge is not ideal.  When working in the round, there are no edges.

This, then is my favorite way to add a new ball of yarn.  It leaves no ends to weave in, no holes, and no tension issues.  It doesn't always work on bulky yarns, but in most cases, I am happy with this method.  It works best in stockinette stitch, but can be adapted for other stitch patterns with a little experimenting.

When there is only enough yarn to knit another 12 to 16 stitches, pick up the new yarn and catch the end, much as you would when working a two color project. (I am using a blue yarn for this demonstration.)

12 to 16 stitches left on old skein

Knit a stitch with the 'old' yarn, catch the new yarn in the next stitch and repeat a couple of times.

This is how it will look from the Wrong Side

Now alternate knitting with the new yarn and the old yarn for 4 to 8 stitches.

Finally repeat the 'catch and knit' sequence with the old and new yarns swapping places and knit forth!

Right Side

Wrong Side

Because of the pattern to this cowl (purl & slips every other row), I worked another full row before using the same catching method to take care of the little tails left behind.

Final product (after I removed the blue yarn and redid with the green):

Wrong Side

Right Side

Can you tell a new skein was added?

Yarn, Yarn Yarn!!!

Recovering from a GLORIOUS weekend filled with friends and yarn.

The shops we visited met or exceeded our expectations. A list of my purchases:

• 2 skeins of a hand-dyed green (Lettuce Wrap) from Sweet Georgia to make into my second Honeycomb Cowl
• 3 skeins from Skacel, Simply Worsted.  (I saw a sample in a shop of a little girls hat that I loved, a free ravelry pattern.  I grabbed this yarn to make it and then found out after we left the shop that it was crocheted!  I should have known, but it was in the shop window and I didn't look as closely as I should have.  As soon as I looked a the picture more closely, I kicked myself, but I am a poor crocheter, so now I am not sure what will happen with these three skeins.)
• 2 skeins or Louisa Harding Amitola for a cowl
• a skein of panda cotton for a baby hat
• a skein of regia for a baby hat
• 3 skeins of a Minnesota raised and spun alpaca for a poncho (pattern I picked was designed by a MN woman that works in a shop vending at Yarnover)
• 6 skeins from the same owner, but a different alpaca for a future shawl

And when will all this get knitted?  Who knows!

I have started the Lettuce Cowl.  I accidentally left my knitting bags at home and so had to borrow some needles and break into my new yarn right away.

Knitting Weekend

This week, I am prepping for my knitting group's annual weekend away.

This is our 17th year of taking a three day, two night trip to the Twin Cities for yarn shopping, knitting, and food.  When we began in 1997, Rochester didn't have a yarn shop, so having a chance to check out the yarn shops was a real treat.  (Catalogs and web shopping are nice, but getting your hands on a skein of yarn is so much better.)  Of course in the last decade, knitting interest has exploded and the yarn offerings close to home have greatly increased.  The number of shops in the Minneapolis / St. Paul metro has also increased, so we visit some old favorites and some new shops each year.

This year we are planning to check out Northfield Yarn, Knitter's Palette, Bella Lana, Lakeside Yarns, and 3 Kittens.  We are also attending the market at the Minnesota Knitting Guild's Yarnover.

We'll stay at a B&B, and, since someone else will be doing the cooking & cleaning, we'll have time for knitting.

Adding 2nd Skein - Hawkeye ShiBui

I avoid knitting in ends as much as possible.  When working in the round, it is especially nice to add a new yarn with a 'knitting in' method. (future blog post as I can find no videos or pictorials to explain my method)

But sometimes for the good of the work, that just won't do.  For this infinity scarf, I took that approach.  When there was about 4 inches of black yarn left, I set it aside and picked up the next ball, and continued in pattern.

Ready for second skein of main color

Second Skein of main color added

When my knitting is finished (although with this project, I could do it at anytime) I will go back with my yarn needle and weave in the ends.

As the black yarn doesn't lend itself to tutorials, I didn't try to post pictures of the join, but I still wanted to show my progress on the scarf.

Hawkeye ShiBui

This scarf specifically instructs the knitter to use the long tail cast on and with 320 stitches, estimating enough but not too much yarn for the tail is difficult.  The first time I cast on (cringe -- I'll tell the story!) I had excess yarn in the tail, but only a couple yards, so not horrible.

Can you see the twist?  Neither could I!

And then the ubiquitous join being careful not twist got me.  The other instruction in this scarf  that I had gleefully ignored, was to use a 29" to 40" circular needle. I have 16" and 24" circular needles (and one 9" when I wanted to try the new, at the time, HiYa HiYa needles).  I scoffed at the longer needle as nothing but a waste of money.  When 320 stitches, of a black worsted weight yarn, are crammed onto a 24" needle, it is difficult to see the twist. It's difficult to see the yarn.  After 2 rows of the pattern, I began to have a bad feeling and I grabbed a second 24" needle on which to move my work and see it with some room for a better view.

Sure enough -- Twisted!

So before I could feel too sorry for myself and those 320 stitches, I ripped back and pulled up google for a two strand long tail cast on I knew I had read or heard about. The Two Strand Long-Tail Cast On worked like a charm.  I used 2-24" needles for the cast on and reviewed my work very carefully as I joined.  (Black yarn, winter evening -- not a good mix!)

The next night after work, I stopped and bought a 32" circular needle -- it was worth the 15.99 I forked over!

The Vacation Winner is . . .

The ShiBui scarf!

The forecast suggested there might not be much poolside time, so I brought the ShiBui scarf along for the ride. With the highest highs in the mid 60s, our outdoor time was spent in long sleeves, not swimsuits.

I didn't knit much once we reached our destination, but I did knit for most of the plane ride.