I made a hat!
Project: Lutine Mustang
Pattern: Lutine Cap
Designer: Alex Tinsley
Available: $5.50 on Ravelry
Yarn: STR Lightweight (held double) in “Mustang Sally”
This was a quick and fun “instant gratification” knit! I give it “best use of bobbles that don’t look like nipples,” among other high prizes. I love the way the garter stitch brim frames the face AND covers my ears
This week I started (and finished) a quick-knit hat in a new Classic Elite yarn, Ava. It’s sparkly! The sparkles match the colorways! Purple rules! Here is my version of Bastille.
I also cast on for a new Sivia Harding cowl, Wild Iris. I’m using a skein of Tosh Light in Mare that I’ve had stashed for some time now.
Introducing my latest pattern: the Trinette Hat and Mitten set!
(Photos from Classic Elite!)
Pattern: Trinette Hat and Trinette Mittens
Designer: Rachel Henry (that’s me!)
Available: $6 on Ravelry, or as part of the booklet #9245 “Belle” (from Classic Elite Yarns)
Yarn: CEY Liberty Wool; MC: 7815 “Bright Olive”; CC 7865 “Violet Glen”
Design/Skills Needed:
This vibrant hat use a variety of different techniques to create playful color changes and textures.
Project: William Morris Mojitos
Pattern: riffing on Rubbish Mojitos
Designer: Woolly Wormhead
Available: £3.00 GBP on Ravelry
Yarn: Tosh Light in “William Morris”
Some time ago, this skein of yarn followed me home:
It tried to be a lot of things, but nothing worked. Eventually, I riffed on a pattern by Woolly Wormhead and made a hat … it’s not a perfect hat, but it’s warm and soft, and perfectly serviceable :).
Project: Mosaic Bucket
Pattern: A Better Bucket
Designer: Amy Swenson
Available: FREE! on Ravelry
Yarn: my handspun from Falkland Wool Handpainted Roving by Edgewood Garden Studio
This hat is made from my very own handspun. I was aiming for singles that could be plied into worsted on the hi speed whorl (16:1), and plied at 14.1. The colorful yarn needed something plain to be … this bucket hat is PERFECT. It has a turned-hem brim that helps the brim stand out. It is the tiniest bit too deep for my head, so I’ve been wearing it with the brim flipped up on one side and pinned in place with my favorite shawl pin.
The Roving:
The Yarn:
Seriously people … I think I have a new most-favorite hat ever:
Project: Sugarbunny Cloche Divined
Pattern: Cloche Divine
Designer: Meghan Jones
Available: FREE! on Ravelry
Yarn: Knit Picks Sugarbunny in Hawk
Some time back in 2011, I made mittens for a friend. In payment, she bought some yarn from my KP wish list: two balls of the limited-edition “Sugarbunny” merino/angora blend. Recently I got a PM on Ravelry asking if I’d sell a ball to someone looking to finish a sweater … I couldn’t do that without making a hat first, because I knew the hat would take one full ball and a bit of the second. Ergo: hat!
This was a remarkably quick knit. I cast on Dec 15th, and finished Dec 17th. The pattern has the entire hat knit flat and seamed, but I elected to knit in the round after the brim was complete. There were a few things that seemed overly fiddly to me — I saw no need to cut the main yarn while putting on the “tab” that “gathers” the short rows, for example — but that is a minor quibble with an otherwise excellent (and FREE!) pattern. The gathers are made with short row-shaping and then knitting the layers together to hold them in place. I made a size L (for my extra-big head) but began crown shaping at 7 inches (otherwise it would have been far to L, even for my extra-big head).
This week I cast on for the sweater design I sold to CEY. It’s worked in the round, and I knit for about 2 inches before realizing that I’d put a full twist in by accident. Sigh. Rip. I’m back to where I was, and further … just wish I hadn’t wasted all that time.
I also cast on for a hat — the Cloche Divine, with Sugarbunny. Someone contacted me on Ravelry asking to buy the yarn, but I really wanted to make this hat from it. I offered to sell her the leftovers … but to do that I had to actually make the hat! It’s going super fast — I finished all the short-row gathers for the “bow” last night, and I’m about 2 inches from the crown decreases.
I’m so pleased with my Sheep Head Hat! 🙂
I used CEY’s soft and lovely Vail, which is an alpaca/bamboo blend, available is eight naturally-dyed shades of grey and brown. When I bought the yarn for this project, only six shades were out — the other two were added with this fall’s line of new colors.
Project: Sheep Head Hat
Pattern: sheep heid
Designer: Kate Davies
Available: £2.75 GBP on Ravelry
Yarn: Classic Elite Yarn’s Moutaintop Vail, six hues
The original pattern called for nine natural sheep colors, so I had to modify my hat to use the six shades I had to work with. I lost a bit of the dynamics of the original hat, but I still love my version. The alpaca-bamboo fingering weight yarn is amazingly soft and lightweight. The standing sheep in the hat body are adorable, but I love the graphic rams-head decreases on the top. UPDATE: my hat was featured in the CEY blog!
I made a very silly hat! Also, a very warm hat.
Want to make one just like it? I have plenty of yarn leftover — if you promise to make a hedgehog hat, I’ll send you my leftover Mushishi.
Project: Purple Hedgehog Hat
Pattern: Hedgehog
Designer: Mercè Janer
Available: FREE from Knitty.com
Yarn: Plymouth Yarns Mushishi #12
I picked up some Mushishi as a “courtesy purchase” while checking out a LYS. The long color changes seemed just right for the short-row hedgehog hat. I love how yarn and hat came together for this project. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste … but I love a silly hat sometimes!
The hat is worked flat, with each bump worked as a set of short rows. For the hat you work a row of bumps, work a couple stockinette rows (decreasing the overall number of stitches), and then work a row of bumps back the other way. I definitely put my new(ish) skill of “knitting both directions without turning” to good use with all those short rows!
In addition to a delightfully silly look, the bumps also trap air — this is a one WARM hat. I look forward to wearing it for more than a few minutes at a go, come this winter.
Sometimes a knitter needs an instant-gratification kind of project …
Project: Foxglove Cloche
Pattern: Lea Cloche
Designer: Cecily Glowik MacDonald
Available: in Weekend Hats
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Foxglove
The hat begins from a circular cast-on at the crown. Increases go along the four purl “seams.” I ended up adding one additional round of increases, because my head is big and my gauge was a tiny bit tight. Other than that, I knit as written! I tried to add some length to the brim, but it curled terribly. I had to rip out my modified brim and go back to the as-written one — which, you can see, worked perfectly.
I’m very pleased with my ribbon and button! Both found at Jo-Anns.
Remily Knits 