The Knitting Pirate

On Saturday afternoon I cast on for the Hurricane Hat while sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home, and knit fairly steadily on it through the afternoon and the rest of the weekend. By Sunday night I thought I had gotten far enough to do the decreases, but when I’d broken the yarn and tried on the hat, it was about two inches too short. I guess I’d misinterpreted the pattern where it said “five inches” to mean from the cast on, and not just the patterned part of the hat. Since the brim of this hat isn’t meant to turn up, it needs to be exactly the right height, so I ripped back to just before the decreases. At least the width of the hat was right! I had been a little worried, since I’d done no swatching or anything, that it might have been a little on the small side, but it fits really well. Hopefully it doesn’t stretch out too much with wear.

After work on Monday I got back to it and in an hour or so had re-finished the top of the hat. When I had to join yarn ends, I untwisted the single, split it in two and broke off one piece on either end, then intertwined the two halves and rubbed them together until they stuck. I didn’t bother using any water to felt the ends together as it didn’t seem like the ends would wriggle out at all when they were knitted together. On the other hand, when I wove my final end in I was probably more careful than necessary to make sure that it wouldn’t ever come loose.

The Hurricane Hat pattern is available for free at String in Motion. It is a quick cute knit, definitely suited for the soft stripes of this yarn. It would work nicely with a semi-solid or tweedy yarn as well, but the texture might be lost in a wildly variegated colourway.

I really like the way the purl stitches spiral up into the top of the hat to make the eye of the hurricane, and could see doing a similar swirl motif with twisted stitches or traveling decreases and hidden increases. I get more and more design ideas from nearly every project I knit! Now, if only I had the time to work them all up… though I do seem to be getting faster at this knitting thing. One hat in two days, another hat in three days? (And it would have been another two day hat, if I hadn’t had to re-do the top.) Pretty fast indeed!

I’m happy with the finished hat, but not thrilled. On the plus sides, the swirly pattern is appealing and the colour of the yarn matches my eyes. I think this hat will go perfectly with my gray coat. On the minus side, the yarn was fairly expensive for its quality and it seems like the hat will last only a few seasons before it gets covered in pills. While that does give me an excuse to knit yet another hat in a year or two, I’d rather have clothing that lasts a little longer, especially if I’m going to the effort to make it myself.

The Tonalita yarn was interesting to work with – not awful, but not great either. It’s half wool and half acrylic, spun up into a loose soft singles yarn which is quite soft, but it splits easily and so I had to be a little more careful with it than usual. In some places it was significantly thicker than others, but the differences are almost imperceptible in the finished product. It’s a little thick for the US 6 needles I used, especially when it came time to do the decreases, but I like the way the fabric turned out for this kind of hat. The label suggests a US 9 needle, which would give a fabric with a lot more drape. I barely had to dip into the second ball of yarn to finish the hat, and I’m considering using the leftovers to make armwarmers, maybe with a light neutral yarn for contrast colourwork. There is certainly enough remaining. I just wonder if armwarmers wouldn’t pill up so fast in this yarn, due to the extra wear that they’d see on my hands and wrists as opposed to on my head.

The outside of the ball of yarn is even and smoothly wound, with each strand laid comfortably against the next, but the inside has this fascinating star shape to it. I found myself wondering about the yarn-winding machine, and what sort of movements it would need to make to create this loose star on the inside but a rounded ball on the outside.

It had come to my attention that I’ve never knit anything for my sworn-brother Stephen. When he was living in a mostly-summerish place it would have been unnecessary, but he could certainly use a warm hat now that he’s living in the land of eternal winter. I ran over to Needles in the Haymarket and found some Cascade 220, my go-to hat yarn, in a lovely heathery grey-green. Unfortunately the selection of superwash colourways was limited, so this isn’t a machine washable hat, but Stephen assured me that he would be fine with hand-washing as long as I gave him instructions.

I cast on for the hat while I was waiting for my flight. I knit at the gate, where I met some knitters who were winding balls of yarn. I knit for the full duration of my flight, while sitting next to a woman who used to knit but now prefers crochet. I knit while watching television later that evening, and about 36 hours after I started, I was weaving in the ends of a new hat. This is a speed record for me!

There was already snow on the ground and more fell while I was visiting. I think this expression is, “Take the picture already, it’s cold out here!”

I chose the free Cousteau Hat pattern and made a few adjustments to it. From comments on other projects I knew that the hat comes out large, so I only cast on 100 stitches instead of the 140 called for. I changed the decreases to a simple K2tog, and started doing double decreases towards the top to make the hat less pointy. I should have gone with a K3tog instead of slip, k2tog, psso, and I should have started them sooner – ah well, there’s always next time. Knit and learn, knit and learn!

Of course, when the hat is on, the top doesn’t appear to be pointy at all. I really like how the sections come together in quarters at the top. It’s different from the more spiral decreases that I’ve made on previous hats, and quite distinctive.

I’m seriously tempted to make a matching hat for myself, though the next size down might be a little tight at only 80 stitches, and the fabric might be a little loose if I went up a needle size to compensate. (Or it would fit me perfectly, as I do have a small head, and the hat could always be blocked larger. Besides, it will stretch.) Maybe I would try working the decreases every other row for a more rounded top, but I’m not sure if that would look odd in the way the ribs get cut off by the decreases. It would be worth the attempt, I think, and if it doesn’t come out well then it will be easy enough to rip back and redo.

On Saturday, Pirate-Husband and I stopped at Knit and Stitch = Bliss in Bethesda. He was in search of a bulky-weight yarn for weaving his utility strap, and I was looking for a skein of superwash Cascade 220. Neither of us found what we were looking for, but I did find this Trendsetter Tonalita that just called out to me and demanded to be my first yarn purchase of the year. The colours are very ‘me’ and I love gradients in yarn. The Tonalita is an aran-weight singles yarn, 52% wool and 48% acrylic. It’s supposedly non-feltable but I still wouldn’t want to toss it into the washing machine, as it seems a little on the delicate side. At first I was thinking of making armwarmers with it, but then I decided that a new hat would be even better. My Manos hats are showing their age and the Winterlude Hat(tm) is too warm for anything but the coldest weather, so I thought a wool blend would be just right for a medium-warm hat. After some searching I settled on the Hurricane Hat pattern, which can be found free at String in Motion. A more complicated pattern wouldn’t show up well against the colour changes, and I really like the purl swirls of a Hurricane, especially the way they come together at the crown of the hat to form the eye.

Sometimes it’s difficult to take pictures of yarn without a cat getting involved. Fortunately for him, Kipling was more interested in the wrist strap dangling from the camera than the yarn! I spent a good amount of time over the weekend playing with the new camera and learning the ins and outs, and I’m quite pleased with it and the quality of pictures. I had fun trying all the different settings, and I think I took more than a hundred pictures. For the first time ever, I even got some good shots of Floyd! I’ll post them later this week for Feline Friday.

I suggested that Pirate-Husband might have more luck finding a reasonably-priced bulky washable yarn at a crafts store. The first place we tried didn’t have anything, but I did get a replacement pocket measuring tape for the one that died last week. Then we went to Michaels and found Lion Brand super bulky Wool-Ease in burgundy, black and gray. We knew that one ball of burgundy and one of gray would be plenty but we weren’t sure how much black he would need, so we bought a few extra knowing that it could be returned. While we were at the store, I bought a small hole punch that’s exactly what I need for making the right-size holes for jump rings in stitch marker charms. That’s going to be my next non-knitting project! Now I just need two pair of tiny pliers, and I’ll be ready to go.

On Saturday night Pirate-Husband followed the advice from Eadwyn’s comment last week to make new heddles and warp the loom, and by Sunday evening he had finished his new strap. It came out to be almost exactly ten feet long, and used up almost a full ball of the black yarn, since it was the majority of the warp and all of the weft, but there’s plenty of the burgundy and gray left over. The yarn was a learning experience for him. Since it’s not smooth like the crochet thread he used for the first project, it was much harder to get it to slide through the heddles. On the other hand, the super bulky yarn weaves up super quickly, and the finished product is exactly what he wanted! Sometimes yarn is like that, I told him. Sometimes you just dislike the yarn but love the finished product (like everything I’ve ever knit in cotton). That’s a lot better than loving the yarn but hating your finished product…

Maybe I will ask him to make a matching or coordinating strap for me. Hmmm!

This, my friends, is what is known as a Very Silly Picture. This is me, dancing like a fool, at Winterlude this past February. Friend Patrick, who is a very good photographer indeed, took the shot while I was being ridiculous in the park for the amusement of those around me. Fortunately, more people were looking at the ice sculptures than at me, or I might have been photographed whilst blushing bright red.

The great part about this picture, at least for the purposes of this blog, is that I am covered in handknits. The Winterlude Hat(tm), the Stripey Striped Scarf, the Fleeps… and, though you can’t see them, I believe I was wearing handknit socks at the time. And the picture wasn’t taken to show off any of those things. No, it’s just a candid shot of me, wearing lots of things I knit myself. And one thing I spun and then knit, which shows up surprisingly well in pictures even if the contrast is a little dim in person.

I’d like to have enough handknit (or crocheted) stuff that all my friends’ photo albums have pictures of me wearing stuff I made myself. It would also count if I learned to sew and was photographed wearing clothing I’d sewn. That’s next on the list – once the craft room is set up, I’ll have a place for the sewing machine and can re-familiarize myself with its ways. I have a simple skirt in my wardrobe that I’d love to be able to duplicate. After that, who knows where my skills might branch out?

Once again, I visited my sworn-sister the Knitting Ninja (along with a bunch of other friends) in her hometown of Ottawa for the annual Winterlude festivities. In addition to the usual things we do there – eat stew at the cook-off, drink lots of beer, buy fancy cheeses and make a meal of them, watch the Super Bowl – we visited two yarn stores.

Our first stop was the new Yarns Etc., where I acquired a skein of Cascade Heritage Paints in the understated blues and grays “Thunder” colourway. Understated blues and grays… if you’ve been following along for a while, you may have guessed that this is going to be socks for Michael. (And if you haven’t, now you know!) I have no idea when I’m going to get to them, and first he has to tell me where the last pair of socks could fit better, but eventually there will be a new pair of plain ribbed socks for him.

Since it was within blocks of our hotel, we walked down to Yarn Forward. Last year I’d gotten two skeins of Lang Merino 120, a smooth DK weight superwash yarn, in black. This year I supplemented them with three more skeins, one each of cream, green, and blue-ish. The colours aren’t exactly wintery, but somehow they remind me of winter. Blue and green are more springlike, but with the cream in there they make me think of ice. So I’m thinking of designing a Winterlude-inspired hat and armwarmers set to be my very first for-sale patterns.

To that end, I wandered around the ice sculptures in Confederation Park looking at, and sneaking pictures of, people’s hats. There was lots of inspiration to be found, since of course in February in Ottawa it’s cold enough for nearly everyone to be wearing a hat, and many of them are hand-knit.

Many of them also have earflaps, which was my motivation last year to knit the hat that I didn’t want to buy. I finished sewing the lining into my Winterlude Hat(tm) just a day before leaving, and got the cords in with some help from Pirate-Husband, and was quite pleased with how warm it was while I traipsed around Ottawa. There are a couple of things that I would change, if I were to be making it again: first, I’d make the earflaps wider. They are wider than my ears, but still let wind in unless I tied the cords under my chin. And second, I’d make the lining a teensy bit larger, because it felt as if the hat kept riding up on my head unless I tied the cords under my chin. So third, I’d make the cords a couple of inches longer, because it was hard to tie them while wearing gloves. Even without those things, I absolutely love my new hat. Wearing something made of yarn I spun myself is so gratifying! The polar fleece lining kept me from having a terrible case of hat hair, which is definitely a good thing. (I know I’m squinty in this picture. It was very bright out.)

Speaking of gloves, there’s another finger to repair on my Fleeps. They still kept my hands warm, though I can definitely feel that they’re getting thin. Maybe I can wear them for another year, but then it will be time to make another pair for myself. Meanwhile, Michael’s new Fleeps made their debut and did their job wonderfully. He says he’s going to show them off to everyone, and I totally believe him. The magnet-snaps that I sewed in are seriously awesome. My next pair will definitely have those included.

Aubrey M. Tinyfierce lost her fight with FIP yesterday. In the end, her fierce was just too tiny for a disease which is inevitably fatal. To say that we’ll miss her terribly is an understatement. At least for now, her picture will stay in the banner of my Etsy shop, which should be opening for business in the next couple of months. If I can’t do it to support her any more, I can still do it in her memory – and to build up a fund for Floyd T. Underfoot, should he happen to get sick. Right now we’re grateful that he’s healthy as a horse, sleek and energetic.

Friend Stef came over yesterday to keep me company and help distract me from thinking about Aubrey too much. I showed her the Winterlude Hat ™ which I’d blocked over a perfectly-sized ceramic bowl¹, and she fell in love with its awesomeness. Then, because she has more sewing experience than I do, she helped me pin the fleece lining for the hat. It went much more smoothly for having an extra pair of hands involved. We had a good time chatting about craftsy things while I began sewing it up. I’m so close to being done with it and I can’t wait to try it out when I get to Canada in a week and a half.

While I’ve got the sewing box out, I need to sew the magnet-snaps into Michael’s Fleeps. And on the subject of projects which are really, really close to completion, I’m within a few stripes of the toe on the second Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Jaywalker. I’ve been working on it here and there while I wait for things like car maintenance and allergy shots. The other day I pulled it out to knit a few stripes and was actually surprised to discover that it’s almost finished!

I didn’t get much done on the blanket this past weekend, but I plan to work a couple of hexagons in tonight. And soon, if I’m feeling tired of crochet and want to get back to knitting, I can start on the pink and purple sweaters for the twin niecelets.

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1. Which shall be my hat-blocking bowl forevermore, when it’s not serving its usual role as a fruit dish.

Last weekend I took a break from everything else and knit up a Winterlude Hat ™ from this archived Alpaca Earflaps pattern. I used just over half of the yarn that I spun during the Tour de Fleece from a sampler of Jacob roving that I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival back in May. I’ve been enviously eyeing the fair isle hats with earflaps at Winterlude for years now, and then refusing to buy something that I could knit myself. Well, now I’ve made one to keep my head and ears warm when I visit my sister the Ninja for Winterlude in February!

I’d been concerned that the two darker colours were a little too close in value for the colourwork to show up well, and knitting the middle section of the hat as the pattern was written proved me right. So I changed colours a little bit for the top of the hat and the earflaps, but I wasn’t going to go back and reknit the middle part. It’s easier to see the colour changes at a distance; looking at the hat close-up makes the swirls disappear. I may embroider around the swirls in that section so they stand out more, or I may just leave them as-is.

Oh, and the coolest thing! The best thing ever about this hat! I learned a new skill! The pattern called for a crocheted edging, and I’ve never crocheted anything before. So after I watched a couple of instructional videos, I picked up my now-trusty hook and set to. It took a couple of tries to get the hang of it but the finished edging is neat and quite pleasing. I wouldn’t say I’m anything like “a crocheter” just yet, but I’ve definitely leveled up in the fibre arts skills. How awesome is that?

Other than swapping the colours around a little, I made another couple of changes to the pattern. Some comments and reviews had complained that the earflaps came out to be too far back on the hat, so instead of knitting the earflaps first as the pattern was written, I knit the body of the hat first and picked up stitches along the edge in exactly the right spot for them, measuring against my head and then counting stitches to make sure they were even. I followed the earflap chart upside-down, and reversed it for the second earflap so that the hat would be perfectly symmetrical. Also, instead of knitting i-cord for the ties, I’m going to make a braid of the three yarn colours. And instead of doing the double crochet edging, I used single crochet because I thought it looked better.

So the hat is done – well, the knitting part of it, anyway – and I am happy with it! It needs a good strong blocking to even out the fair isle and stretch it a little bigger before I line it with polar fleece. The lining will have three purposes: one, to make the brim stop rolling so badly. The pattern was written without any ribbing at the brim, and as a result is curling up. Cute, but not what I want. Two, to make it a warmer hat. If there was ever such a thing as a too-warm hat for me, this hat is going to be it. And three, the fleece will keep the slightly itchy wool off my forehead.

Knitting with yarn that I spun myself is a wonderful thing. It’s a mostly even two-ply – there are some thick underspun blobs, and a few thinner sections, but overall it’s great yarn, and the slight inconsistency will only make this particular project look better. There’s something really satisfying about having taken a project from fluff to finished product.

The only problem I’m having now is, what do I block the hat over? I haven’t got any balloons. Maybe it would be easier to buy a packet of balloons than to try to find something else that’s round enough.

We had our family holiday celebration on Monday at my brother and sister-in-law’s place, and I finally got to give Dad his hat. It fits him perfectly, and he said that it is exactly the hat he wanted! Hooray! Now that I know his size, I told him, I can keep him in hats for as long as he wants. He mentioned a hat with notches over the ears to fit his headset when he flies. I’ll have to see about making something like that, perhaps for next Chanukah. Dad was kind enough to model it for me and even to lend me his camera to take pictures, since I’d (of course) forgotten mine.

Speaking of cameras, I’ve been thinking about getting a new one. Not another point & shoot, like the one I currently have (a Canon SD850IS), because – well, because my next mobile phone will have a really good small camera built right into it – no, I’m envying a DSLR, with which I can take much better pictures. It’s almost silly to think about it now because I don’t have the money to buy a camera, but maybe someday soon I will. Pirate-Husband thinks it’s silly of me to want such a thing. He is convinced that I will buy an expensive camera, take twenty pictures, and get tired of it. I’m not sure I see myself hiking all over the countryside hauling a camera with me, true, but I’d certainly take lots more pictures of stuff indoors, like kittens and dinners and knitting.

In other news, I got a package from Thailand in the mail. It makes the world seem very small, to be able to buy things from the other side of the planet with a few clicks of the mouse, and have them show up at my door less than two weeks later. What was inside the package, you might ask? (And why did I buy from an Etsy seller in Thailand? Because I couldn’t find the same things for a better price more locally. I looked. But 20 sets of snaps for $12, including shipping, is about as good as it gets.)

Twenty sets of ultra-thin, surprisingly strong, magnetic snaps. They are the kind of closures that are sewn on, rather than clipped through fabric. This seemed to be a wise decision for attaching a magnetic snap to the mitten-tops and wrist cuffs of Fleep-Top gloves. The kind of magnet that’s clipped through would leave a very cold metal circle on the inside of the cuff. I’m actually concerned that they are *too* strong, that unsnapping them will put more stress on the yarn than it can take, and that the gloves will have a shortened lifespan as a result. Perhaps I should reinforce the place where the snaps are sewn on with a piece of fabric on the inside.

My own Fleeps have never had anything to hold the top back when it’s not in use, and I’ve never had a problem with them flopping about… but Michael requested that I do something for his gloves, and so I shall. And if the magnetic snaps are as awesome as I think they will be, it’s fairly likely that I’ll add them to my gloves, too.

It took just under a month to finish my eighth project of the year, a hat for Dad’s Chanukah gift. Knit from Cascade 220 in a charcoal grey that almost looks brown in some lights, it should keep him nicely warm in the wintertime. I used the basic hat formula from Mielke’s Fiber Arts, the fifth time I’ve made a hat with their pattern. It’s so simple, it really can’t be beat for plain toques. And that’s what Dad said he wanted – no patterning, no nothing. Just a plain stockinette hat. So that is what I made. (I will make a more interesting one for myself soon.)

It didn’t really look so great flat, so I tried modeling it to get a better picture. It’s a little too big for me, and so’s that shirt I’ve got on, but I think you get the idea. I made the ribbing long enough to fold over properly; one hat I made long ago had shorter ribbing that was too long to wear unfolded and too short to fold. Lesson learned: it is better to have longer ribbing than shorter. What matters is the distance between the top of the hat and the point where the ribbing folds over. For an adult man’s hat, that should be about seven inches.

One thing that I noticed while working on the hat is that I’m no longer as fond of the Addi Turbos as I once was. They have many great features – they’re slick, pointy, flexible, and the join from the cable to the needle is quite smooth. But I’ve gotten used to a longer needle that I can brace in my hand, and I missed that when I was working with the shorter needles on the circulars. Probably if I knit with the Addis more often, I’d get used to them again and it wouldn’t be an issue. I’ll just have to come up with some projects that call for them. (Like the other half of Napramach, perhaps? I haven’t forgotten you, crazy colourwork!)

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters

Three weeks ahead of schedule, I’ve finished the second of the Fleep-Tops’ hands. Either my tension was much tighter as I was working on the second glove, or the first one was stretched out from all the trying-on – the second seems slightly smaller than the first. I’m sure it will stretch and can be blocked out to match the other one.

This gives me six weeks to finish Mom’s sock and Dad’s hat. Plenty of time. No worries at all. I wound up the Cascade 220 into a neat yarncake and worked up a small gauge swatch, since I can’t find any of the notes that I took five years ago when I knit Pirate-Husband’s hat. Grr, frustrating! At least I wrote down that I used a US 6 (4mm) needle, or I’d probably have been swatching on a US 7 (4.5mm). I measured 5.5 stitches to the inch, did the math, and cast on 116 stitches. Since Dad requested a smooth hat with a ribbed brim, I’ll be using the same Basic Hat Formula that I’ve knit up several times before.

The stitch marker I’m using came from a cat-themed set of markers I received in a holiday gift swap a few years ago. It’s an adorable pink cat with an articulated tail. I’d nearly forgotten about the set but I’m glad to have a chance to use it now! This is the kind of thing I’d probably never buy for myself, but getting it in a gift swap was really cool.

Due Date …… Project
10/3 ………… Angie’s gifts
11/1 ………… Second Fleep, hand section
12/1 ………… Mom’s sock #2
12/1 ………… Dad’s hat
1/1 ….………. Gift for Janis’s baby boy
2/1 ………….. Mitten tops and thumb caps on Fleeps
2/1 ………….. Jacob Hat
3/1 ………….. Twins’ sweaters

P.S. I had to add three words to my spell-checker’s dictionary for this post: Fleep, grr, and swatching. I think I say all three of these things often enough that they can be in my dictionary!