Hat Fair 2008
Hats. Some swear by socks as their small project of choice, and, I agree, a sock is nice and portable. But, for me, a simple hat is the perfect thing to tuck away in my purse or travel bag. Something with a nice easy stitch or color pattern--ribbing, cables, stripes--something that fits on a 16" needle or 2 circs at most.
here's a parade of the hats I've made over the past few months. (Missing are 3 baby hats that didn't get documented, all adaptations of the Basic Cable pattern from Stitch 'n' Bitch nation. Ex
cuse my Yoda syntax.)
Top-to-bottom, left-to-right:
1. Black Irish, my second iteration of the Celtic Cap by The Girl From Auntie., made for my husband. You can't see it in this photo, but it has a lovely celtic knot cable (you CAN see the cable in my ravelry photos). I think I like this pattern better with the hem than the roll-brim; I'm thinking of going back and adding the hem to my green one. Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash left over from my Stefanie Japel shrug.
2. My child-size version of the Skull Cap by Gina of Knits Two Together. (This is a free pattern.) A huge hit with my five-year-old! Yarn: Patons Classic Merino + 2 colors of Cascade 220. I hadn't done any colorwork for a while and this went really fast, I guess in part because of the large gauge.
3. An adapted version of Basic Cable from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation in Patons Soy-Wool-Stripes, made for ME! I love everything about this hat. It is cheery, warm, not too itchy, and fits just right. The only thing I adapted was the cable; I had just finished 3 other versions of this same hat (the aforementioned UnDocumented Finished Objects, or UDFOs) and wanted something different, so instead of the six-stitch rope cable in the pattern, I used a six-stitch horseshoe cable from the Vogue Stitchionary volume 2. For some reason the book only has the pattern written out, not charted (a pet peeve of mine with some knitting books--EVERYTHING should be charted, IMHO) so i charted it myself, folded up the chart so it would fit in my accessories bag, and have made 4 of these hats this year.
4, 5, and 6/7: are all improvised kid beanies. 4 is two-tone red, in Aurora 8 and Patons Classic--using up leftovers. 5 and 6/7 are all various colors of Plymouth Encore. 4 is over 80 sts, 5 is over 72, and 6/7 are over 64. 6&7 are for a friend's twins she's adopting from Ethiopia; the other two are worn by my own personal rugrats. Mr. D loves the red one--it fits really closely. The two-tone wasn't the plan, but it does look awesome--not only are the reds just slightly different, the textures are different, too, which makes it look very sleek and modern. Aurora 8 is soft and almost slippery, while the Patons is traditional and wooly.
Next up: Three more Basic Cables for my yearbook editors' graduation gifts--they're all going off to college in cold climates, go figure.
So now you know what I keep in my purse along with the wallet, cell phone, and tampons...
What is your favorite kind of take-along knitting project?
here's a parade of the hats I've made over the past few months. (Missing are 3 baby hats that didn't get documented, all adaptations of the Basic Cable pattern from Stitch 'n' Bitch nation. Ex
cuse my Yoda syntax.)Top-to-bottom, left-to-right:
1. Black Irish, my second iteration of the Celtic Cap by The Girl From Auntie., made for my husband. You can't see it in this photo, but it has a lovely celtic knot cable (you CAN see the cable in my ravelry photos). I think I like this pattern better with the hem than the roll-brim; I'm thinking of going back and adding the hem to my green one. Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash left over from my Stefanie Japel shrug.
2. My child-size version of the Skull Cap by Gina of Knits Two Together. (This is a free pattern.) A huge hit with my five-year-old! Yarn: Patons Classic Merino + 2 colors of Cascade 220. I hadn't done any colorwork for a while and this went really fast, I guess in part because of the large gauge.
3. An adapted version of Basic Cable from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation in Patons Soy-Wool-Stripes, made for ME! I love everything about this hat. It is cheery, warm, not too itchy, and fits just right. The only thing I adapted was the cable; I had just finished 3 other versions of this same hat (the aforementioned UnDocumented Finished Objects, or UDFOs) and wanted something different, so instead of the six-stitch rope cable in the pattern, I used a six-stitch horseshoe cable from the Vogue Stitchionary volume 2. For some reason the book only has the pattern written out, not charted (a pet peeve of mine with some knitting books--EVERYTHING should be charted, IMHO) so i charted it myself, folded up the chart so it would fit in my accessories bag, and have made 4 of these hats this year.
4, 5, and 6/7: are all improvised kid beanies. 4 is two-tone red, in Aurora 8 and Patons Classic--using up leftovers. 5 and 6/7 are all various colors of Plymouth Encore. 4 is over 80 sts, 5 is over 72, and 6/7 are over 64. 6&7 are for a friend's twins she's adopting from Ethiopia; the other two are worn by my own personal rugrats. Mr. D loves the red one--it fits really closely. The two-tone wasn't the plan, but it does look awesome--not only are the reds just slightly different, the textures are different, too, which makes it look very sleek and modern. Aurora 8 is soft and almost slippery, while the Patons is traditional and wooly.
Next up: Three more Basic Cables for my yearbook editors' graduation gifts--they're all going off to college in cold climates, go figure.
So now you know what I keep in my purse along with the wallet, cell phone, and tampons...
What is your favorite kind of take-along knitting project?
1 comment:
You know, I was just thinking the other day that my "gift bin" is completely out of knitted hats (still a few felted hats, but they are spoken for). I am generally a sock fan for purse knitting, but am currently carrying a shawl in the car for "stop light" knitting. It's a bit more complicated, so it isn't nearly as good for the few moments here & there in traffic, but after the WIP purge, everything else on the needles is even MORE complicated. I think I need a nice easy hat....:)
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