Warty Bobbles

The Hipster Hat

(I have been on Planet Family for the past week!  And when I am there, I don’t seem to get into my blog – it is not just a matter of time, I think I use up all my words when we are together!)

 

Sasha and Dave were here for 5 days last week.  It was good to spend time with them – and there was wedding business to be done.  Anyhow, the first evening she was here, we had this conversation:

 

Sasha:  Mom, there’s something I would like you to knit for me.

Me:  Okay, what?

Sasha:  A hipster hat.

Me:  Okay, but what exactly is a “hipster hat?”

Sasha:  A hat that sort of sits on the back of your head and kind of hangs down the back…

Me:  (pulling out the pattern for the Montera Slouchy Hat – which I called a “Portland tam”) Like this?

Sasha:  Yes!  And I would like it in pink – rose, really.

Me:  (pulling out the rose/pink hat I had begun earlier in the week) Like this?

Sasha:  Yes!

Me:  Well, when I finish it you can see if you like it.  And if you do, I will give it to you!

 

I finished it while she was here and she put it on and loved it!  What are the odds that I would happen to randomly start knitting the exact hat she wanted in the exact color – just before she came?  And since it was all started (and it is a pretty quick project), I was able to finish it before she left.  Well, my friend Sandy said “That’s a God thing” and I agree.

(By the way, I am taking another trip to Planet Family – and this time it requires a plane flight to North Carolina to see Sarah, Max and Gwen!!)

 

 

 

Slouchy Hat

I seem to be knitting a bright pink slouchy hat.  It just kind of happened.

Classic Elite Yarns’s “Montera Slouchy Hat” pattern showed up in my email one day last week.  I thought:

 

Hmm.  How interesting.  I have a friend who was interested in knitting a hat like this.  I think I’ll send it along to her.  It is a good-looking hat.  Why, yes it really is a good-looking hat. And, wow, quick to knit with bulky yarn on size 11 needles.  Nice hat. 

 

Well, next thing you know I was printing it out for myself (I did send it along to my friend too!).  A pleasant little lace pattern.  And I have been wanting to try one of these “Portland tams” (my name for them – since they seem to epitomize the distinctive style of young urban Portlanders!).  It seemed like a perfect project for the Araucania alpaca yarn in my stash, too.  I had a choice of the pinks/purples mix or the sky blues/purples mix.  I chose pink – thinking it would look good in autumn as well as spring (the other sings “Spring!” to me too much for October wear).

 

Okay, I kinda blame the cold gray rainy weather.  I mean, who wouldn’t want a warm and cheery hat in this weather?!

 

I think the idea of “whipping something up” sounds appealing too, as I plod diligently along on the 1000-stitch rounds of seed stitch – the border of Owen’s “Yzma Blanket.”  My lace sharf is not exactly an “instant gratification” project either! 

 

And I get to use the exquisite Araucania alpaca yarn!  I call their yarns “puppy yarns” because each skein of a colorway is distinctive and you have to choose each one like you would a puppy.  I am using 3 skeins for this project (shades of light & dark pinks, violet, grape, even a soft warm brown) and discovered that one of them is more vibrant than the other two.  So, I decided to start with that for the brim and work to the top of the hat with the lighter skeins.

 

It is a whimsical project started on a whim – and it makes me happy!

The March Tam Revealed

I finished The March Tam in March (just barely!), but did not get photos done til now.  Since I am planning to write it up as a pattern (to be called "A Tam For All Seasons"), we had to do a proper photo shoot before I start wearing it out in the wind and rain!  April is proving to be as cold and wet as one could hope a March day to be, so the tam will get good use this Spring.

My plan is to make up the tam 3 times more -- summer, autumn, and winter versions.  It uses a terrific slip-stitch pattern utilizing 3 sport-weight yarns. The possibilities are endless.

Silly Little Things

Still chugging away at the alpaca blankets!   I think I will finish Geoff’s this week.  It is huge and heavy – like having an alpaca on my lap while I knit.  And turning the work at the end of the row is like wrestling an alpaca.  But it is gorgeous and that makes up for a lot!

 

Perhaps it is the constant blanket wrangling, though, that has me kind of obsessing over knitting little things.  Silly little things – like vegetables for Sasha.  And leaves and flowers from Nicky Epstein’s books Knitted Flowers and Knitted Embellishments.  The vegetables are just fun little gifties for Sasha to get in the mail.  The leaves and flowers, however, have either a more serious or a more silly purpose – depending on your point of view.

 

Stitches West is coming up next month – Sarah and I are already excited, thinking about the classes and the yarn market and all the knitters!  And we are busy getting our knitted “trousseau” in order – ya gotta wear your best knitted stuff at Stitches!  So, I have resurrected the Bella Bella Capelet and have grand intentions regarding The Batwing Thing…and I am knitting little leaves and flowers.  For barrettes.  Hair adornments.  For me to wear (this is where you get to vote for serious or silly…).  Since my hair is long enough for me to where clips now, I thought this would be a fine opportunity to knit little leaves and such to wear on my head.

 

Granted, it sounds a bit silly when I write it out like that.  But hopefully they will be such charming hair adornments that they will be seriously chic.  I am doing the knitting and then Sarah will help me arrange them artistically on hair clips.  That’s the plan.

 

Meanwhile, I have photos of the Christmas Candy Tam to show – and so you can see I am already practicing wearing something seriously silly on my head!

 

Two Finished Projects!!

I am delighted to say that my "check off the circle" approach to working through my knitting projects is paying off.  I have checked off 18 of 50 steps and have completed 3 projects of 9!  I have made significant progress through some of the "go on forever" steps too (tho they are not quite to the "check off" stage).  Most of all, I am am feeling less overwhelmed (there is probably a better way to say that -- more "whelmed" being not it...).

And, without further self-congratualtion, some photos:

The newest tam -- it is purpler than the photo shows, I think, and the brownish bits are more raspberry.

And the Autumn Socks

PS  Thanks for the comments on my last post.  I love my friends!

Tam Progress

I promised a status report on my tam and here it is: nearly 2 inches tall.  Yep, that’s it.

But it has been an interesting 2 inches.  Nice slippery yarn on double-pointed needles.  The Channel Island cast-on was an adventure – a crazy thumb-waggling dance that left my hands shakey as jelly!  Anyhow, once I had cast on and got my ribbing established, things went quietly for a while.  And then I started the little cable pattern and that went smoothly  too – for a while.  Until I realized that I had screwed up the pattern -- having purled stitches that should have been knit.  Four rows back.  Nuts!  (Double-darn-snarkin’ Nuts!).  I was in a moving vehicle at the time, so decided I would put it aside and stew over it. 

I stewed and bubbled and burbled over my options:

1)      Just let it be – after all, it was a subtle pattern in a variegated yarn – but it looked like a gobbedy-gook of knits and purls, not like any sort of pattern at all, subtle or otherwise.

2)      Rip it back.  Yeah, rip back 4 rows of slippery yarn (184 stitches per row) and hope I get it all back onto the dpns without something catastrophic happening (and, no, I had not put in a lifeline – sigh)

3)      Variation of “2” – pull out one needle at a time an rip back.  Less loose stitches to deal with at once (kind of brilliant, really – I was sort of proud of that one). But still risky.  And, blast it all, I would still have to re-knit the rows I had pulled back.  And even tho I am a firm believer in tinking or ripping back to fix mistakes, it really gets my goat to lose a lot of rows!

4)      Work across the next row, dropping down to turn the purls into knits.  It would take some time – and would be a bit tricksy with those tiny stitches in slippery yarn – but I would avoid pulling the needles out and then having to get them back in again.  And I would not lose those 4 rows!

So, that evening, I sat down with my “Darth Mal” crochet hook (it has a hook at each end, one a size smaller than the other) and started in. 

The process was thus: knit 4 sts, *drop the next st  4 rows catching up the tiny purl and changing it to a knit, crochet up the 4 rows, slip the st onto the left needle and knit it onto the right needle* then do the bit btwn the *s 3 more times and begin again with the knit 4. For 184 stitches. 

I got better at it as I went along, swinging away with the “Darth Mal” – since dropping sts worked better with the smaller hook and crocheting up worked better with the larger one since it did not split the yarn as easily (oh, there was still some yarn splitting – as well as a few harrowing moments when the tiny purl seemed to melt away before my eyes…).    

Each 8-stitch section (4 rapid knits and then 4 columns of sts that are dropped, corrected, and re-worked – 16 re-done sts in each section) was a little triumph.  It took me over an hour to get half-way round (an intense hour) and I called it a night at that point.  I took it up again the next day and finished, without incident, about an hour later.  It was kind of fun, in a sort of fussy, surgical way.  More fun than rescuing a slew of loose slippery sts.  More fun than re-knitting 4 rows.   Not so much fun that I would want to do it again.  But I am glad I fixed it – it looks smooth and pretty.  And I have this perky little “hey, I did it!” feeling.

 

Knitting Tams

My friend, Joyce, asked me for a tam pattern – I almost typed “recipe!”  But, actually, my preferred method of knitting tams is more a recipe than a pattern.  Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns gives me all the numbers I need to customize a tam to the gauge and size I want.  So, I can choose a yarn, swatch it up to the density I desire (more on that in a moment!), figure the gauge and just plug in the numbers of stitches, rows, decreases, etc. from Ann Budd’s nifty charts! 

So, for the gorgeous purply-mauvey variegated fingering-weight yarn I bought at the Fair (Pashmara in merino/cashmere/silk – mmmmm), I simply hunted out a couple of fun stitch patterns (“Domed Check” which is a field of little rounded cable triangles and a lace motif called “Orchid Pattern”) and swatched it up so that it had some body (not floppy, but was not stiff either).  7 sts/inch.  Then, I double-checked my head measurement (by myself – which I do not recommend, but I was home alone and determined to get started!) and started writing up notes based on the charts for “medium adult” in that gauge. 

 

I also measured a tam I like that is knit of a yarn of similar weight and made a few adjustments to the number of rows I would do before decreasing.  And then I charted up the lace pattern – which was the most confounded beast of a conundrum!! as I wanted to use a double-decrease (which would match the double-decrease in the lace motif)  instead of two individual decreases and could not, for the life of me, get it onto graph paper!  A tam is worked in segments of a circle (6, in this case) with a decrease at the beginning and end of each segment on every-other-row.  It makes a symmetrical triangle.  Piece of cake (it even looks like a piece of cake!). 

 

But try putting the decreases together at the beginning of the segment (with no decreases at the end) and making a sensible graph and – augh!  It all goes wonky and the simple possible looks impossible and a grown woman will resort to waving sheets of graph paper in her husband’s face at midnight and demand that he do any better!  I finally decided I would just work from the cake-y version (which shows a decrease at each side) and just sort of wing it with the double-decreases.

 

But none of this has anything to do with Ann Budd’s directions – which are fabulously clear and reliable.  And she even gives you the double-decrease option (so I know it’s possible!).  It was me having to fuss in a lace chart that added the challenge. 

 

A word on yarn choice and density (which I said I would come back to).  I think the way a tam fits and sits on the head is determined mostly by yarn choice and density of the knitting.  Thin yarn worked loosely will yield a drapey tam that will sort of slink down one side of your head rakishly.  While one worked in a thicker yarn done more densely will sit atop your head pertly like a dollop of whipped cream.  Since a tam is basically a tube finished with quick decreasing that pulls it flat, you can make it larger in circumference by knitting more rows before beginning the decreases.  If you lessen the number of rows (tho I would not lessen them much), it will draw in – more like a beret.  I can never  really gauge where the crease will be until I get into the decreasing – so I would recommend a life-line in case you decide to pull it back and change the number of rows. 

 

The cool thing about the “recipe” technique is that you work with whatever yarn you choose at whatever density.  And you can add in texture or lace or cables or colorwork.  A great little design project.

 

That said, if you prefer to work a from a complete pattern, I recommend the following books:

 

Hats On! by Charlene Schurch (good basic hats in a variety of styles)

The Knit Hat Book by Nicky Epstein (fun, distinctive hats in a variety of styles)

Knitted Tams by Mary Rowe (a fabulous workbook for Fair Isle tams)

 

Now that I have got my own Autumn Tam written out and (sort of) charted up, I am ready to cast on!  I will let you all know how it goes.

 

 

 

My Dad's Cabled Hat

My Dad was quite pleased with his cabled hat.  He wore it several times during Thanksgiving weekend and I hope he will continue to enjoy wearing it on his walks at home.  It is a warm hat – all those cables doubling up the insulation. 

 

He commented on how soft it is.  My Mother had said the same about her hat.  And Emilia and Oliver admired the softness of the kimono I knitted for their baby.

They seemed so surprised – but, then, most people have little contact with hand-knit woolen garments.  Cotton, acrylics, microfibers, mostly.  People shy away from commercially-made animal fibers, too, because they have the reputation of being itchy (except for silk and cashmere – which are usually reserved for luxury wear).

It made me realize that I have become so accustomed to knitting with good quality wool (and alpaca and wool blends that include silk and cashmere!) that I expect knitted garments to be pleasing to the touch.  In fact, I have pretty high standards!  I found myself frowning over the wool (blend) socks I found at Nordstrom – too thin, too stiff, the cuff seemed like it would be binding.  “I should just knit my own socks!”  I huffed to George.

And certainly I could!  (Don’t tell Sarah that I am even thinking about knitting socks for myself…

The Hat That Went To Portland

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my Mother asked me to knit her a hat.  Actually, she was looking at a photo of my grand-daughter Gwen in a hand-knit (by Sarah --- who is still kind of obsessed with baby hats) hat and said “It would be nice to have a warm hat like that.”  And I said “Y’know, I could knit you a hat like that.”  And then I asked about colors and she said “Bright colors, like that one – but with ties.”

Gwen Wearing Her Hat

 

Okay.  Doesn’t take much more than that to get me knitting!

I got some yummy cashmere/silk/merino yarn and a fun accent yarn.  Sarah helped with the design (including the tail – which is the signature detail to this particular hat).  I did a little intuitive knitting to make tabs for the ties – wanting a sturdy join (ties to hat) that would not look like big earflaps.  And I “finger-knit” the ties (it’s one of those things one learns at camp, but I also found directions in Charlene Schurch’s Hats On!).  

My Mother's Hat

The Two Hats

My Mother loved that hat -- and she looked darling in it (I must say!).  Interesting how it came out so Scandinavian -- but my daughters say that is because it is on a "little old Finnish woman."

I hope to get photos of Great-Grandmother and Great-Grand-daughter together in their hats at Thanksgiving!

 

 

The Hat That Went To London

In our last episode, the Wartybobbler had (almost) a week to design and knit a warm yet cool hat for her son (who is studying abroad) which was to be sent along with her daughter (who was flying to London to visit the son – which, oddly enough, sounds like something Pussycat, Pussycat did in a nursery rhyme, but we digress).

And so, TA-DA, we present The Hat That Went To London!

 

(modelled by a family member who is not in London and who wishes to remain anonymous)

I thought I might write about the agonies I go through as I try to get a hat to fit “just right.”  And the inexplicable irony that one can walk into a department store and buy a hat marked “men’s” and it will fill any guy well enough – but try to knit a hat specifically for a guy even if you have a good idea of his head measurement and can try it on a variety of family members who also have heads (which you can pretty much guess are slightly smaller or slightly larger than that of the intended recipient)….Well, Sarah says that store-bought machine-made hats are stretchier. 

Anyhow, I only had to rip back the hat twice. 

Once when I, knitting it in the round, apparently failed to “join being careful not to twist” and had a charming wool mobius going.  And since I had to start over anyhow, I flapped about in agonies over the size and added cast-on stitches (which turned out to be the right thing to do – so I forgive the mobius). 

Once when I had finished the hat and started trying it on random family members.  And it was too short. 

 

Okay, except on Gwen!

 Grrrrrr.  This was Monday night and I had been feeling almost smug because I (thought I had) finished 24 hours before the hat was due to fly to London. Sarah actually ripped it back for me and I worked on it that evening (after we taught our knitting class) until I was too tired to continue. 

So, there I was Tuesday afternoon, madly knitting away -- gritting my teeth and glancing at the clock.  The usual routine.  And 20 minutes before we had to leave for the airport, I cast off and wove in the ends.  And we stuffed it onto the head of the nearest family member we could find (who wishes to remain anonymous) and took a few pictures.

And then, The Hat Went To London!  In the “ta-da” knick of time.  As usual.