Tag Archives: hat

Pure, Unadulterated Awesome

18 Oct

That is what this hat is. This whole post is going to be shameless bragging but I guess that’s ok because I also write about the times when everything I try to do turns to complete shite. Ok? Ok.

First of all, this hat is the softest known object in the universe. The next time you pet a kitty or I don’t know, something else that is really soft, I can understand if you feel a little bit sad, because that thing is not as soft as this hat is. The softness of the hat and the firm warmth of the lining make putting it on your head feel like… like something is better, somehow, now. But that’s just my humble opinion.

If I didn’t make it for my brother, I’d wear the heck out of this hat. It is the best hat I have ever made.

ImageThe only thing that is less-than-stellar about it is that it is black, making it hard for me to take pictures that convey its greatness. This is the only reason  why I don’t particularly like knitting anything black. I go to all that effort, and then it’s like I could’ve gotten away with really crappy work. Because all those little details that miraculously went right this time? Obscured by the color. I mean, I once actually knitted a lace top with black yarn. Yeah, welcome to crazy town, population: me.

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It was an amazingly good idea to keep the doubled hem of the wurm hat, the pattern from which the horizontal stripes are also. At first I only thought it was a good idea because that double layer would give the hem more structural integrity, making the rib last longer. Maybe. But that extra layer also turned out to be very useful for stitching on the lining without having to worry about the stitches being visible on the right side of the hat. Faaantastic.

My brother suggested that the ends of the lining not be attached to one another, but that they should just overlap instead. This way the lining will be the right size more easily and won’t lift the hat up. Also, this was far easier to do. I’m tempted to go make linings like this for all the knitted hats I wear regularly.

I am just happy about this hat because rarely does everything fall into place so well with anything I make.

If my brother likes the hat even half as much as I do, he’ll love it.

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One Hat and Scarf, Coming Right Up

17 Oct

I’m giving myself points on being a nice sister, since I’m knitting a new hat and scarf for one of my brothers (the other one didn’t have anything he needed knitted when I asked).

I’m so happy that he asked for these things because dude, what could make it clearer that he wants to wear things I’ve knitted? Apart from the fact that he’s worn the last hat and scarf I knitted for him for years. The same goes for my mom, although she seems to feel that some of the things I’ve knitted for her are too nice to be worn. Mostly I think that’s because I have knitted some things for her that she doesn’t really like wearing. She still seems to appreciate those – and definitely wears the heck out of everything that’s actually useful for her.

I’ve also gotten a couple of calls from her about things like a lace shawl that accidentally got felted in the washing machine or a pair of color work socks that got left in a hotel room, but here’s the thing: as  a knitter I cherish the fact that things get lost or worn out. That only means I get to knit more.

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So the hat was an interesting knit. There are a lot of criteria that this hat has to fulfill in order to be acceptable. There has to be a lining because it’s windy here, but a lining that covers the whole head can get too hot and tends to pull up the hat. So the hat has to somehow conceal the line where the lining, mostly meant to cover the ears, ends. The horizontal rib stripes of the wurm hat pattern should serve for this purpose, and as an added bonus they make it easy to draw the hat further down if it’s colder, or wear it higher up.

However, my brother didn’t want a slouchy hat, which the wurm is, nor did he want the wrinkles on the top of the hat that are created when the stitches are pulled together. I was also using a thicker yarn – Cashmerino from Debbie Bliss – than the pattern calls for, so I had no idea how high the crown of the hat would be. It’s also always hard to estimate how high a hat should be when the recipient can’t try it on at every turn. All of this was solved by doing the hat top down.

The next problem were the increases: doing eight increases in groups of two in four places created deep creases in the purl rows of the stripe pattern. I tried several different ways of increasing but each had the same problem, some more than others. Finally, after I’d ripped back 5 times or so, my brother suggested doing the increases in a spiral. Changing the place where they are done each row would obscure the line, and what little of it could be seen would be more of a design element.

After that it was easy going, and the dk weight yarn also made it delightfully fast.

The scarf pattern I chose is anything but fast, though. It’s Cerus, a linen stitch scarf knitted length-wise. Or width-wise. Ermh. You cast on 355 stiches, ok? Or in my case you, using the long tail cast on, take a tail that seems long enough, but only turns out to be long enough for 170 stitches. You pull those out and take a tail that’s twice as long and then some, and cast on again. Then you count the stitches and have something like 380 stitches, say frack it, and start knitting.

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I’m using Garnstudio Drops Merino, a 100 % merino yarn, and I would say that for this pattern  something with more stitch definition would be better. This is slow going because you slip every other stitch on both sides, so basically you end up knitting two rows to each row. The pattern is totally worth it, and would be even more so if you could make it out more clearly.

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Happy Cake Day to Me!

11 Apr

Yay! I’ve now been around for a quarter of a century and it’s been pretty awesome.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, mom knitted and sent me this hat that I *just* got in the mail! I love getting mail. I love getting hand knitted things. Lookee here, at my most excellent new hat!

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She made one for herself and promised me one as well, and this is it 🙂 I think she began doing an Ekaterin Slouchy Hat but ended up changing everything but the earflap construction and the cable pattern. I follow patterns to the letter, whereas she’s a fierce knitter and does what she wants! My brother’s approach to knitting is the same. Boatloads of respect to them 🙂 And I got this fabulous hat out of it ^^

Anyway, back to cake day things (i.e. studying).

 

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A Hat Made of Awesome

22 Jan

Some time ago I had a happy because my other brother asked for a new hat. The old one wasn’t all that great because it was too shallow and didn’t cover his ears. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand hats that don’t cover the ears. They’re not any good at keeping a head warm, so their sole purpose in existence is to create hat hair.

The whole problem came about because I basically guestimated how tall the hat should be. This time I took some pretty darn precise measurements.

ImagePattern: Double Layer Sockyarn Hat

Yarn: Sisu from Sandnes Garn, under 50 g

Needles: 3,25 mm

*****

The good thing about a black stockinette stitch hat is that it’s a really quick knit, so it’s never a problem that it gets a bit repetitive. Sometimes the simple knits are the most enjoyable ones.

I’ve always used the long-tail cast-on almost exclusively. Usually I do it on two needles to ensure a stretchy cast on, but this time that resulted in a series of holes in between the cast-on edge and the first row of stitches. This prompted me to try other stretchy cast ons.

I first tried Jeny’s stretchy slip-knot cast-on but I was soon discouraged because it was a bit tricky to learn and I did have 170 stitches to cast on. I wanted to get knitting already. Jeny’s stretchy cast off is amazing, though, so I’m going to give the cast-on another chance some day with another project with less stitches to cast on.

I settled on this very stretchy cast-on because it’s meant for double and single ribbing. It was easy to do once I memorized the steps, but the first row was a pain to knit. The cast-on edge really is stretchy, so that’s good.

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The other big fault with the first hat is that for some reason I didn’t line it.

For the lining I used a pretty thick black fleece. I used my own store-bought wind-stopper hat to sketch out the shape of the four pieces that make up the lining. I zig-zagged over the seams so I could cut off all seam allowances to prevent them from being visible from the outside. Then I sewed the lining onto the hat by hand.

The hat seems to be a good fit and a flattering shape for my brother. Now I can be sure it’ll stay the right shape and keep him warm for many years to come.

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Arctic bramble

11 Oct

Last month I tricked myself into buying two skeins of the loveliest silk and wool blend, and was going to start knitting a hat with the yarn right away (you know, to justify buying it).

It just so happened that a friend of mine was throwing a birthday party that weekend. I didn’t have anything to give to her, and I couldn’t buy anything since I had already splurged on yarn earlier that week… Well, what could’ve been a better solution than knitting this for her.

You know, apart from the fact that I had and still have no way of knowing if these colors are to her liking, or if she liked the fit of the hat, and so on. I’m always hesitant about knitting something like this for people without their consent on the colors and the shape and fit because pretty much everyone is understandably picky about their hats.

I did think while knitting this that she wouldn’t abhor it, and I even kind of believed that she might even like it a little, maybe. And since it was going to be something I knitted or nothing, I opted for the knitted thing, in hopes of showing her I had thought of her.

I only knit for people I consider knit-worthy, and I wouldn’t mind if someone gave away or didn’t use something I knitted for them. The recipient of a gift has no obligation to like or use the gift (knitted or not) as far as I’m concerned. I can only hope that my gift (if not forever cherished, haha) at least didn’t seem inconsiderate or stoopid.

ImagePattern: Mesi

Yarn: Regia Silk 6-fädig (50 g = 124 m) from Schachenmayr nomotta, 2 skeins

Needles: 4 mm

*****

I only had Friday evening and the next morning before the party to complete the hat, so the pictures I have are pretty hurried. When I give something knitted to someone I usually include a little note saying what materials were used and instructions on washing, but this time I didn’t have time for that either. I’m hoping it won’t matter, since this yarn is machine washable.

The pattern itself was one of the best hat patterns I’ve used.  I loved knitting the honeycomb stitch pattern. It seems complicated when finished, but it’s really simple to do once you realize you only have to knit with one color at a time. The yarn I think is amazing for a hat. It’s wool, so it’s warm, and the silk makes it soft and non-itchy. It also has a nice sheen which works well with the honeycomb pattern.

I’m calling the hat Arctic bramble, which is a sort of plant. It’s called ‘mesimarja’ in Finnish, a word which happens to include the name of the pattern and the name of the pal I knitted it for. Yes, very amusing, and not far-fetched at all. Har de har har.

Well anyway, this was a nice, quick knit, and I hope the recipient liked it too.

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The Stash Grows (plus a couple of FO’s!)

26 Oct

Lemme just say:

aitintuliaisetYay for mom!

She brought me two skeins of lace weight merino wool from her trip to southern Finland. She asked me what colors I would prefer and I was going to go with green and black, but then I realized green and black are all I ever knit… It wouldn’t hurt me to have accessories in different colors. That’s what I’m probably going to make these into: beautiful lace shawls. I’m going to take my time choosing the patterns.

Meanwhile I went shopping for yarn with my brother who just finished his first pair of mittens and now wants to knit gloves and a Bactus scarf (how cool is that?!), and while in our LYS, I too had to pick up a skein of yarn

kera

I first mistook it to be Noro yarn, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a new yarn by Sandnes Garn: Mini Palett (100 g = 420 m). I especially loved this colorway and another one in shades of gray. Oh man, I’m so happy about this yarn! I kind of like Noro yarns but not enough to spend that much on a single skein (the prices I’ve seen have been around 17 € per skein). Besides the Noro colorways are too much for me. This yarn in my opinion was cheap in comparison (9,90€) and the colors more subtle.

Underneath the skein you can see a Show-Off Stranded Sock I knitted yesterday. Knitting it I learned a new way to make a heel and so far it’s my favorite of them all, but I’ll post more about it once I actually finish a pair.

In addition to these beautiful yarns, there are more happy news from my knitting world. I don’t know if I mentioned it before but a week ago or so I finished a pair of fingerless gloves that have been haunting me for months.

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Pattern: 7 veljestä Jättiraita -sormikkaat

Published in: Novita, Nuorisoextra 2006

Yarn: 7 veljestä by Novita

I promised my boyfriend’s dad I would knit him a pair waaay back in July. I don’t know why it took me so long. These are your basic gloves and the pattern wasn’t difficult. The knitting was quick because of the worsted weight yarn and 4 mm needles. I guess I was just so worried about him not liking them that on some level I didn’t want to knit them at all. Well, a promise is a promise, and so I knitted them. Turns out my bf’s dad likes them and they are just what he had hoped for (he asked for the extra long cuff and the thick fabric). Phew! That’s a huge weight off my shoulders.

Even though making these gloves proved I’m not over my issues with knitting gifts, I did manage to knit one gift last week that didn’t cause me any stress at all: the double layered hat I mentioned in passing in an earlier post.

jannen_medium

jannen2_mediumPattern: Double Layer Sockyarn Hat

Yarn: Lanett by Sandnes Garn

For some reason the idea of a double layered hat is very appealing to me. When my brother commissioned a simple black hat, I suggested this pattern to him, and he okayed it. I used needles sized 3,25 mm and I really like the look and feel of the fabric. The yarn is soft and doesn’t itch. All in all, it came out perfect… Well. There’s one beauty flaw: it doesn’t completely cover my brother’s ears. But he still seemed to like it, so I guess it’s ok. Maybe I’ll get to knit another hat for him if it turns out this one isn’t warm enough 🙂

Oh, btw, about the second picture: I have blonde hair and bad eye sight. So when I take pictures of finished objects, I almost always end up with pictures of my hairs. So no, I don’t have a cat or a dog: the hairs in the pictures are mine, embedded in the knitted fabric as I knit. I try to pull them out, but some always remain and I can only see them in the pictures… Maybe I need new glasses.

That’s it for tonight! I have a headache and I can’t sleep (a nice combination) so I decided to post… But posting always takes me longer than I intended and now it’s 2 am which means I’ll have to get up in 6 hours. Oh, man… Today was the last day of my autumn break, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve been on vacation because I spent most of it worrying about studying and not doing anything about it. Still I did get to relax and knit a lot, and spend some quality time with friends and family, and shouldn’t feel tired at all, so maybe I’ll feel better once I get back into studying and on top of my schedule next week.

Right now I have a lot of projects I’m excited about 🙂 I can’t wait for tomorrow afternoon when I can get back to them after classes.

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