The tale of a hat: Newhaven (FO)

I'm a hat knitter and a hat wearer. I'm wearing one now - sitting at our dining table, typing on my lap top - sitting inside. It's a bit chilly, and I'm going out again in a short while, so I decided just to keep my hat on when I got in. 

I seem to come from hat wearing stock. My dad used to wear tweed flat caps in the 1970s and 1980s when I was growing up, and my brother wears something on his head most days, usually one of the scrap hats I have made for him.

To go back to the story: I wear hats a lot in the winter, and over the last few years I have made quite a lot of hats for other people. My own hat stash was wearing fairly thin. I have a green, striped scrap hat - the original prototype and starting point for my scrap hat recipe (but the tassle fell off last year) - and a lovely red hat, knitted in a soft red yarn (Rowan Kid Classic) using a pattern from a dim and distant Rowan magazine.  If it's cold I wear them both. 

Some time last winter I decided that I need to augment my hat collection. I wanted a blue hat to work with all of the blues in my wardrobe. I put it down on my shopping list for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, and came home with a skein of completely on-message Wollmeise DK and a copy of Ysolda Teague's Newhaven hat pattern. Tick and tick. 

I also snagged a skein of Ysolda's kitten soft yarn, Blend No. 1 which I bought at the same time as the pattern. Naughty, but very nice. 

Obviously, as the grey yarn wasn't on my shopping list, I wound that first, and then used that to make my first Newhaven hat. The hat has short rows and charts and texture, but before you know it you are at the top and trying to work out how to turn the thing inside out for the 3 needle bind-off. 

Once I figured that out, I put it on my head and I haven't really looked back. It's my new favourite. I can't remember if I have washed or blocked it yet (why bother?!). 

I was wearing the hat the other morning when I saw Ysolda herself, having her morning coffee. I waved and pointed at my hat, and she waved back and gave me a thumbs up. Then she wrote about it on her blog. Ah. Light and love and things to cheer us up. Happy knitmas one and all. 

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016

I had the briefest, fleetingest, shortest imagineable encounter with the Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016 on Friday, and I was utterly charmed. 

I wandered around the yarn market for an hour or so, with a stop for tea and most delicious cake part way through. It wasn't really long enough to do the place justice, or really have a good rummage and browse for the things I wanted.

I spied a few well-known faces from knitterati: Tom, but no Kate, from Kate Davies Designs, Ysolda, Stephen West - who was impossible to miss in his extraordinary outfit. I was trying to describe it to the jelly bean (age 6). She didn't believe me!

I stayed mostly on-message - with some rich blue DK yarn from Wollmeise to make myself a hat. That was definitely part of the plan. 

I also picked up some gorgeous DK weight yarn from Skein Queen - also part of my me-made plans. Stupidly I convinced myself that 2 skeins would be enough! It might be close, but I doubt I'll manage either of the two patterns I have at the top of my queue.  And, as you can see in this photo, the two skeins I picked seem to be subtly different in tone/colour. That is probably the fault of the 'show' lighting in the Corn Exchange - I did have 4 skeins to choose from! But it's not insurmountable. 

The extra thing I brought home was this little haul from Ysolda - two patterns and some of her kitten-soft silvery grey undyed yarn. 

The other pattern is her blank slate sweater. I had to pet the yarn a little bit yesterday, and hand wound it whilst drinking tea and chatting to the little bean. It's seriously nice. Silky and soft, and a lovely pale grey. I'll be casting on for that hat as soon as I can find the right needle, and, I can see a blue version coming along just behind it. 

Mending Monday #8: hat it again (or what knitting taught me this week)

It doesn't seem possible that my house/life has quite so much mending in it, but I am not making it up, people. I live with ruffians I tell you. 

I saw my brother recently and he presented me with a very sorry looking hat. It is one of the three scrap hats I have given him over the years (he wears a hat most of the time, even in the summer. No, I don't understand it either). One of the yarns I had used had started to disintegrate with the result that the hat was developing organised holes in various places. I say organised because the fabric and stitches around was intact, so picking up live stitches seemed fairly straightforward.

Here you can see one of the smaller holes.

This hole was a bit more dramatic. As there was a complete round or two of dodgy yarn here, it soon parted company with the rest of the hat. It looked very scary, but I did my best not to panic. I cant possibly comment on rumours about gin. 

Anywayz, I made a start with some duplicate stitch over the top of some of dodgier areas, and to fill in the gaps in the smaller holes near the top of the hat. 

Once that was all fixed, I moved onto repairing the body of the hat. I ripped out the dodgy yarn and picked up stitches around the bottom of the hat. I needed to add some length back in to compensate for the bits lost through dodgy yarn and felting. It was all going so well. I was bossing it big style. I added a few more rounds and then set about grafting the new live stitches to the old live stitches of the brim. 

Me and old Kitchener are great friends, and I am sure (although I have never tried) that I could successfully graft a sock toe in near darkness. I set about the great graft. I took it steady, working on groups of 10 stitches at a time just to break it up a bit, and allow myself an opportunity to drink tea, wrangle children or put it down occasionally. I didn't think I would be able to guarantee a whole 6 hours of uninterrupted grafting that this would surely involve.

I did half of the grafting and then stopped for some family event (dinner maybe). After bed time, I picked up the hat again. I was going to nail this mother. I grafted and grafted and grafted. I sipped my drink, I admired my work. It was looking so good. I was down to the last 30 stitches, the last 20, the last .... 

Um. Something didn't look right. I looked again. I stopped. The knitting demons laughed and laughed. 

The remaining numbers of stitches did not match. It wasn't a fudgeable 1 or 2 stitch discrepancy it was EIGHT - 8! Eight whole stitches had somehow disappeared between the brim and the rest of the hat. 

I should have counted my stitches. I should have counted my stitches. 

There endeth today's lesson. 

to be continued... 

Itty Bitty Hats (FO) (warning: contains images of very small & cute hats)

Yo ho ho me hearties.

As you (both? all?) know I have a healthy stash that I try to keep tamed and somewhat under control. Ahem.

Now and again I get the urge to use up a few scraps of yarn and make some baby hats using my common or garden baby beanie pattern. Sometimes I make the hats for people and babies that I know, and sometimes I make them just for the hell of it. After all, what's not to like about knitting round and round a few times, making an itty bitty stalk and ta-da! a hat appears? 

I kid myself that I'm stash busting when I do this, but really? Each hat probably uses 20g of yarn, so it aint going to make much of a dent. But do I mind?

Not in the slightest.

4 of these dudes have sprung off my needles lately, although I can only find pics of 2 of them. They share a colour palette, and have consumed the last remains of some sock yarn used for other projects, like these, these and this. 

I'll be donating these to the folks at the Pregnancy & Parents Centre to help them raise funds. 

Knittember

September turned out to be all about knitting rather than sewing after all. Autumn is here, and the morning school run is getting cooler. We've started thinking about hats and scarves again, and last weekend we got them all out of the cupboard for a sort out. 

Much to my husband's disgust we each now have our own bag for hats and gloves etc. Last year there were two bags - and I was the only one who could find anything! And, since I am keen to foster independence, the move to one bag each should mean that the children can find and, importantly, put away their own things. 

While we were sorting things out, the jelly bean persuaded me that she needed a new hat, so we went shopping in the stash and something sprang onto the needles. I don't have a pattern, I just made it up as I went along. 

Unfortunately it turned out a bit bigger than I anticipated, so it's turned into a hat for me (yay!). A smaller one will surely follow....

Scrap Hat (FO)

The year is getting off to a good start. The first FO has already sprung off the needles, and I managed a productive sewing session on Saturday (although nothing I can show you yet....) 

Here is the first FO of 2013, a scrap hat, which has been stolen by given to my dear husband. 

Pattern: scrap hat (own design)

Yarn: various oddments from the stash

Time taken: about a week

I made a similar hat as a Christmas gift for my brother - although the colour palette was almost entirely blue - and I failed to photograph it. It was his third scrap hat, and this is dear husband's second. I've got one too, and so have both the children, and my dad, and a few other select friends... There is something very satisfying about making these, and they go really quickly once you get going.

I'll set out the recipe sometime, so you can make your own...

Hats Off (FO)

Despite the blog silence there have been a few FOs here lately. Among them these sweet hats, made for my cousin's twin girls that arrived two (TWO!) years ago. 

Pattern: Fair Isle hat by Zoe Mellor in Nursery Knits

Mods: adapted the number of stitches to suit my gauge; knit one flat and the other in the round

yarn: 4-ply from stash (various)

dates: started and finished in October 2012

As identical twins, they have been colour coded from birth by their parents. One is red and the other blue, so I made hats which are (virtually) identical except for the bobbles.... 

The jelly bean has taken a fancy to them, and has requested one of her own. She did quite a good job of modelling don't you think? 

WIP

Things are happening here. Big things. Things that have been planned and thought about and discussed for some time. In fact, I knew I wanted to do some of these things when we first saw the house (7 years ago!)


We have builders in. We have a temporary kitchen (aka the batcave) and many boxes. There are tiles and lights and worktops and all sorts waiting to be unpacked and installed. 


It's an exciting thing. We've just moved beyond the slow structural elements of the build, and into the quicker and more palpable progress of wall finishes and kitchen installation. Yesterday the kitchen arrived in a myriad of boxes, and this morning the joiners arrived to start putting it together: a three dimensional puzzle of components. 


It feels very grown up, although we are not thinking at all about the grown up bill that will also arrive shortly. 

 the jelly bean tidies herself away in the old kitchen

The contractors have been great - tidy, considerate and punctual. The gaffer, is a very likeable man who says things like 'no problem', 'we can do that' and 'its all pretty straightforward'. We like him. 


There is knitting here too, of course. Hat no #9 sprang off the needles yesterday and no #10 is just being cast on. Tonight it's a knitting night, so I'm planning to take Deli for a night with the girls. Hopefully it'll be her last night as a UFO!


In other news, some sunshine and the long jubilee weekend meant a wee bit of time in the garden. The chiddlers helped me plant the rather wizened seed potatoes that had been waiting to be planted. And, the wigwams for our climbing french and runner beans are also up. Must plant the seeds now!

Hat attack (FO x 4)

Here are some pics of those baby beanies I've been knitting... so cute. The top one is made with a really nice sock yarn. I can't decide whether to use the rest to make some socks, or another hat (or two).

Clickety Clack Hat (FO)

I've got another one of those bugs. You know the sort.

When you know you should be knitting something else, you just have to keep on scratching a particular sort of itch. 

At the moment it's hats. Not just any hats, baby hats. Plain and striped baby beanies are springing off my needles one after the other after the other. I'm on no. #7 now. 

7!! I've hardly managed any FOs all year, and then there's a blizzard of them... I also managed to finish those birthday socks, and gifted them a week or so back, (but failed to take any pics, doh). 

The first beanie is for my babylost friend and her new rainbow baby (kisses to you all x o x ), and the others are all for the Pregnancy and Parents Centre. If my premium bonds ever come in, then they'll be top of my list for a large donation for the quiet work they do with parents across Edinburgh. I used the centre during both of my pregnancies - attending yoga classes there and their home birth group. But it's not all yummy mummies and yoga classes, they have breast feeding support and international groups and nearly new sales and counselling and all sorts. It's a great place, always in need of funds and volunteers. And I'm hoping to help by making a few wee hats for a few wee heads. I'm just using my baby beanie recipe and any odds and ends of 4ply/sock yarn (of which there are plenty - so we all win!) I'm planning to make about 10 or 12 and then drop them off for the PPC to sell. 

In other news, I've started plodding away at Deli's endless lacey trim. I have devised a method for knitting this *onto* said garment and not knitting it separately to sew on late (seriously? sew it on?) I'm still only about a third of the way round though....

Heads, fingers and toes (FOs)

A quick post to catch up on some of the little things that have recently made their way into my gift stash.

These are girl socks for the jelly bean, knitted with sparkly Berocco sock yarn. See those sparkles?

Followed by handwarmers for my dad, knitted with some mystery grey 4 ply. I think this yarn came from grandmothers house. There were several partial balls which - as you can see - were clearly from different dye lots. I hope the subtle difference in colour is not too noticeable when being worn! It feels like quite a woolly yarn, and it has bloomed and softened with washing. I improvised the pattern based on the ones I made for myself a few weeks back, but using slightly more stitches to accommodate a manly hand.

Last and not least are two very weeny baby beanies for those twins. Anticipating smallish babies and smallish heads, I adapted my baby beanie pattern, using 80 stitches rather than 100... Oh, and rather than an i-cord stalk with knot, I made wee circles instead. Cute huh?

Announcement (and FO)

We interrupt this blog to announce that forthwith the drinking of tea in the vicinity of laptops is strictly forbidden. At. All. Times. (Without. Exception).

I should explain. There was a small incident last week. One involving an almostly completely drunk cup of tea and a laptop. Despite my best efforts (tip laptop upside down, shake vigorously, blot any remaining moisture with hanky, swear even more vigorously, keep fingers crossed and leave laptop in warm place for a day or two) said laptop has taken ill and is with matron in sick bay. Not sure when she'll be back - and of course, until she is I can't do any work it's a bit tricky accessing photos and files.

No matter. I might have missed this week's making monday, but there is a wee something - or even fourteen wee somethings to show instead.

A small bevvy of hats for this year's Big Knit, which I parcelled up for Age Scotland. These hats will shortly grace the tops of Innocent smoothie bottles and each hat sold generates a donation for Age UK. The target was 650,000 hats!

In other news: I have been WIP wrestling, and got Deli (aka the cardigan of doom) out of hibernation. Since I had 4 of the 5 pieces already knitted, I thought I would block what I had and go from there. So, two sleeves, one back and one front were all washed and ready for blocking. As I got to work with the pins I noticed a hole, and then another and another. I'm not sure I can even say the word: m o t h. Apparently one has been nibbling at my knitting. So, there has been ripping and grafting and gnashing of teeth as I repaired and reknitted the three of the four pieces which had holes (and installed anti-moth measures in all my stash boxes). At the weekend I started knitting the second front (the last piece) and was gaily decreasing for the armhole when I thought I had better check that it matched the first side. It didn't. It wasn't quite as far out as the yarn harlot was, but it was still out, so there'll be more ripping and reknitting, and I daresay some gnashing of teeth too. Still, I did manage to finish my first handwarmer last night (after abandoning the cardigan of doom in disgust). I'm wearing it now. You know. As you do. Just to see.

FO: Purl Scarf

We've been tidying up and rationalising and getting rid of a few things here and there. A parcel of baby/toddler clothes for a friend, a bag of old work shirts for the charity shop (I had first dibs and have kept two for repurposing), a few toys which are a bit young for our two beans now. Perhaps because of this, and perhaps because a work colleague is knitting her first scarf, I had an itch to scratch. Some immediate knitting and stash busting gratification was called for. I knew exactly what I wanted to do - another of the purl scarves from last-minute knitted gifts. So, I reached into the stash and pulled out a super chunky jumper (another charity shop find) that I had partly deconstructed a while back.

I snipped and ripped and frogged and wound myself a big ball of the creamy yarn. Then reached into the stash for something hairy - a mohair yarn (bought in a charity shop years and years ago), and something smooth - a ball of unnamed DK (?Sirdar). I set to and knit and knit and knit - all through Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1 (twice). And then I finished, and I put it in my box of gifts, ready for a birthday or other deserving event/recipient to come along and claim it.

Pattern: Purl scarf, from last-minute knitted gifts

yarn: various from stash

Mods: omitted fringe

time taken: Friday 28 July - Sunday 30 July 2011

And, I made a dent in the stash to boot (half a jumper, plus three balls of mohair and one of DK yarn). There wasn't much left.

Other projects are coming along here and there. Drew is almost up to the armholes (again), and there has been quite a lot of sock action too. Husband sock no. 1 is finished, but no. 2 not quite cast on. The seriously stripey sock experiment was ripped (but I learnt what I need to learn) and is being reknit. And, then there are the innocent hats. I saw this the other day and realising that I live nobbut a stone's throw from Age UK's Scotland office, I thought I would join in. I've knit 4 so far, and as they take hardly any time I think there might be a reasonably large pile before too long...

Last night I got my sewing machine out to tackle the pile of mending/sewing bits and bobs which is threatening to take over the dresser. I finished another nappy (no. 6), repaired one pair of shorts and one pair of trousers (both belonging to the bean) and redecorated one of the jelly beans t-shirts to cover up the mysterious spots/stains which appeared recently. DH was pleased by the reduction in stuff/clutter, and I was just pleased to get a few more things done. Tick. It's satsifying, isn't it?

FREE Pattern: Baby Beanie

While the chicken stock is bubbling on the hob, and a new sock has sprung onto my needles (the twisted sock wasnt working, so has been ripped in favour of a plain sock knitted with the rest of my crazy zauberball sock yarn...), I thought I would share this with you.

It seems too grand to describe this as a pattern, but rather it's one of those unvented and unoriginal set of instructions for a wee hat.

To fit: 0-3 months

Needles: 2.25mm dpns

Yarn: 4 ply/sock yarn, you'll need roughly 25g

Gauge: 13 stitches to 5cm (knit in the round)

Instructions

Cast on 100 stitches, divide evenly between needles and without twisting, join the first round.


If you would like to make a stripey hat using the grumperina technique (e.g. stripes with no jogs), then I use both colours for the cast on, alternating colours for each new stitch. Work the first round in the colour of the first stitch, and then when you return to the place at which the second yarn is languishing, pick that up and work a round with that instead. As always the rule with grumperina stripes is to always work with the *lowest* yarn available. If you dont want a grumperina stripe then knit plain or patterned as you will.


Knit in stocking stitch until the work measures 11cm or so, then start crown shaping. You can work the decreases in any way you like (e.g. ssk), but I have written it here as k2tog.


round 1: [k8 k2tog] rep till end, 90 stitches
round 2: knit
round 3: [k7, k2tog] rep until end, 80 stitches
round 4: knit


Continue in this vein until you are decreasing every 3 stitches (e.g. your decrease round is going k3, k2 tog). From this point on, decrease on every round.


Work until 4 stitches remain.


Now work a short i-cord stalk to finish the hat. Transfer all of the stitches to one needle, and work until the i-cord measures the desired length - I normally aim for about 8 cm which allows me to make a single knot. You can stripe your stalk, or leave it plain.


Cast off and weave in loose ends. Wash, dry gently and apply to the first wee head that crosses your path. Enjoy!

 [This pattern is shared in the spirit of craftivism, stash busting and generally living a goodly life. Please do *not* use it for commercial gain or profit. Thankyou]

Round Up

Time for a little catch-up. Here are a few of the FOs from late 2009 and early 2010.

Scrap Hat (own design)

Child's banner - one of several birthday present projects for small boys in our family. Made with upcycled shirts, an old dress and some felt....

Green socks - generic top down pattern with grumperina stripe

Yarn - mainly Yarn Yard olive with some scraps of other green sock yarns to make up the pair.

Definitely non-identical twins.

Child's Cardigan (Rowan Family Collection)

Progress?

We're having quite a nice summer this year - one with warmth and sunshine and a bit of rain here and there. Despite various hiccoughs this weekend, I managed to get a few things done:. One baby hat. Tick. Dolly(cardigan) knitted and now blocking. 3 jars of pink grapefruit marmalade. Tick. A batch of lemon and raspberry muffins. Tick. Haircut. Tick.

Maybe its the late pregnancy nesting kicking in, or just the weather, or just the cricket.... but I'm in a domestic frenzy at the moment, constantly thinking of the next thing to finish, to start, to do - whilst at the same time entertaining an energetic 2 1/2 year old who needs regular watering and feeding and constant potty encouragement.... (I wont mention the episode in the post office).

Just while I'm on the pregnancy thing: the very good folk at the Pregnancy and Parents Centre in Edinburgh are fundraising at the moment. The PPC (formerly Birth Resource Centre) is a very good thing - they offer lots of different types of support and activities for pregnant women and parents with young children. I find their antenatal yoga classes really helpful - and did last time I was pregnant too - and have had good support from local women including doulas and midwives through their homebirth support group. They do lots of other stuff too - baby music, birth preparation workshops, breastfeeding support.... check out their timetable for details and pass on to anyone you know who is pregnant or lives with small people....

If anyone is inclined, then you can donate directly via their website, or you can email them if you have any bright ideas about helping them to raise some cash. I've made one or two suggestions, and if you live on the southside of Edinburgh, then you can 'vote' for the PPC in this month's community matters draw at Waitrose. Shoppers spending more than £10 can receive a token to place in the box, and at the end of the month £1000 will be divided between the 3 local causes depending on the tokens they receive.

Eco-buzz

For some reason reading the ecologist and greenfutures always invokes a feeling of urgency and a need to do something that minute. It's an energising thing and I love the eco-buzz.

Recently I've found a few corners of the blogiverse that share in this need to take action. Wardrobe Refashion and Sew Green are just two that keep cropping up. Perhaps I should take the wardrobe refashion pledge? I'm not far off it really - I havent bought any new clothes for about a year, although I have been given some new things for birthdays & christmas (thanks mum!) . But I have bought plenty of charity shop things, and I turned a ripped pair of my jeans into a cool pair of toddler trousers for the bean. I've also been making a conscious effort to wear a greater variety of the clothes that I own already.

Last week I had to go to London for work, and travelled on the train (>4 hours in each direction, and I went down and back in one day!). On the way down I worked and on the way back I knitted. I managed to finish one baby beanie and get most of the way through another (brim to start of crown shaping). As the stash of baby hats was almost gone, I thought I would use up a few odds and ends of yarn. I'll post the pattern sometime...

FO: Rainbow socks & baby hats

Finally, here are my lovely rainbow socks, knit with yarn from Natalie at the Yarnyard. They are just ordinary, plain jane top-down socks. I knit them quite short in the leg because I like them that way (and in the hope I might make my skein stretch to two pairs). Given the loveliness of the yarn I didnt think I needed to choose a fancy pattern. I love the mini rainbows that appeared magically underneath each heel.

I've also been busy in a frenzy of baby knitting. So frenzied that I sent two items without taking any photographs. One was a pair of 'tranquil' bootees from the Rowan babies book, sent to Australia to celebrate the birth of Charlotte. Congratulations to mum and dad, Angela and Damien. The other item was a small hat destined for baby Elizabeth, born on Good Friday, to Susan and Simon. Mum Susan deserves an extra special congratulatory mention for managing to avoid a c-section by persuading her midwives to let her have one last push. Well done you.

Inspired by the smallness and quickness of those items, I motored on with a couple more baby hats for my gift stash. We know of at least 3 more babies due this year to friends (and countless others to work colleagues and friends of friends). Another hat is on the needles.


This is just a made up baby beanie pattern, which can be knit flat or in the round. The stripey version was made following grumperina's instructions for stripey socks, and worked fabulously as a means of using up some oddments from my stash of baby 4 ply. I started with three colours - green, white and very pale green (it's very, very pale). Just as I got to the shaping for the top, the very pale green ran out, which is why the stripes change here.