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So as requested here and on Ravelry, here is the detailed pattern for the sideways hat I posted about a few days ago.
UPDATE: .pdf link for download.
Gratuitous photo reminder:
I am posting the pattern here instead of as a downloadable .pdf, because I’d like some feedback first about steps I’ve missed or errors. If someone (Manisha?!) would test-knit it and let me know if the instructions make sense, that would be even better!
STRIPEY SIDEWAYS HAT
Level of difficulty: Advanced beginner/intermediate. Should know how to cast on provisionally, do kitchener stitch (grafting) or a three-needle bind off, and pick up and knit in the round with circular and double-pointed needles. All you need, really, are the excellent videos at KnittingHelp.com, which demonstrate all these techniques very clearly.
Yarn: Worsted weight (I used Karabella Aurora 8, 98 yards/50 gms), 1 skein each in two colours – one main colour (MC), and one contrasting colour (CC).
Needles: 1 size 6 16 inch circular needle, 1 set of double pointed needles in size 6, 1 tapestry needle.
Gauge: 5 spi in stockinette stitch, 4.5 spi in garter stitch.
Size: Women’s regular, approx 21-22 inches in circumference. (The garter ridges in the central band stretch a bit, so you can adjust its length depending on how loose-fitting or tight you want the hat to be, to fit a man or a child.
Central band: (knit back and forth)
1. Using the ‘provisional’ method, cast on 20 stitches with the MC yarn.
2. Knit two rows – one garter ridge created.
3. Switch to CC yarn, knit two rows – one garter ridge created.
4. Continue in this way, alternating one garter ridge in MC and CC, until the band measures 21 inches. End with a garter ridge in CC. We shall call the needle with these stitches Needle # 1.
5. Undo the crochet chain at the provisional cast on, and pick up the live stitches on to the second needle (Needle # 2) (Cotton yarn is great for this crochet cast on, it prevents the fibres from the live stitches from snagging on to the chains.)
6. At this point, Needle # 1 has 20 st in CC; Needle # 2 has 20 st in MC.
7. Holding both needles together, Needle # 2 in front and RS on the outside, facing you, graft the edges together.
NOTE: If you don’t like grafting, you can always do a three-needle bind off. Remember to do the bind off with the WS of the band facing outside!
Shape crown: (knit in the round)
1. Using MC and the RS facing you, pick up and knit 120 stitches along the right edge of the band with a circular needle. Knit 1 round.
2. *K10, k2tog, repeat * all around for a total of 10 times.
3. Knit 1 round even.
4. *K 9, k2tog, repeat * all around.
5. Knit 1 round even.
6. *K 8, k2tog, repeat * all around.
7. Knit 1 round even.
8. In this fashion, continue decreasing every other round (k7, k 6, k 5, etc) until you have knit k1, k2tog. Switch to double-pointed needles as the stitches get fewer and fewer for the circular needles.
9. Knit 1 round even. (20 stitches on needle.)
10. K2tog all around (10 stitches on needle.)
11. Cut yarn, leaving a 4 inch tail, and threading it through a tapestry needle, draw yarn through remaining live stitches a few times, and pull tight.
Shape cuff (in the round):
1. Using MC and the RS facing you, pick up and knit 120 stitches along the left edge of the band with a circular needle.
2. K2, p2 all around.
3. Repeat step 2 for ten rounds, or for as long as you would like the cuff of the hat to be.
4. Bind off all stitches knitwise, to ensure a firm edge.
5. Weave in all ends. Wear hat, enjoy!
All it took was a lazy weekend and Jeremy Brett (how I adore thee, sigh! Robert Downey who??) to finish this hat:
UPDATE: The .pdf link for the free pattern is here.
As I mentioned, I hazarded the pattern from a handknit hat a student showed me (she said she bought it in Edinburgh), and it turned out to be very simple. Photo-steps of the process:
I cast on 20 stitches with a provisional cast on (aside: cotton yarn is *perfect* for the crochet chains, the chains come undone beautifully without any fibres getting tangled in the stitches):
I knit in alternate garter ridges for about 21 inches (wrapped around my head several times to check fit):
I grafted the two ends together, with right side facing (the resultant seam is not a garter ridge, but looks ok):
I picked up 120 stitches along one end, and decreased every other row till I had 10 stitches left. (k10, k2tog, repeat all around; then, k9, k2tog all around the following time; then k8, k2tog all around, and so on):
At the other end I also picked up 120 stitches and knit k2,p2 ribbing for 5 rows, and then bound off all stitches knitwise, to give the edge some firmness:
Initially I was a bit worried that the electric blue would be too bright, but I don’t think so now. I absolutely love the stripes and the hat is very comfy and warm. I like this fit, where the sideways garter ridges give it some flexibility, and the tent-like, boxy shape also prevents it from being too tight at the top and flattening my hair.
Tech Specs:
Needles: size 6 16″ circulars, and DPNS
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 in black, and one unidentified worsted weight blue, both from stash, both less than 200 yards each. Manduka, if you’re reading this, do you remember what yarn this is? You had given me the skein long ago.
Gauge: Didn’t bother, really, but it is in the neighbourhood of 5 spi.
Size: The hat is about 7.5 ” deep.
Anybody know of a published pattern like this one? I don’t want to write it up as a detailed free pattern if there exists one just like this, even if I “unvented” the pattern by eyeballing a hat in the wild, so to speak.
So my sneezing *is* allergies (to what remains a mystery as of now). I hereby solemnly acknowledge my comeuppance and promise never to snigger at any of my friends who sniffle their way through spring every year. Them allergies have felled me and I admit defeat. I have spent the last month in a kind of fog, trying to type and read in between sneezes, “non-drowsy” (yeah right) meds and neti-pot experiments, my brain absolutely finding it very hard to focus.
But look! Such gorgeous, warm and fiery colour. The mercury dipped quite dramatically yesterday into the low 30s, and I brought out this lovely crimson-gold scarf a friend of mine gave me at her wedding last year. My Zauberball hat, finished last night, was a perfect match for it:
I just made up the pattern as I went along, which meant that I frogged it several times, and I could have knit four hats in the time it took me to crank this one out. I started from the brim up with size 3 needles at first, but that was so loose it would have allowed the wind to whoosh right through the fabric to my ears. Then I had the bright idea of starting from the crown out, mainly because I didn’t have a smaller 16 inch circular needle in size 2 or 1. So I started with a circular cast on by looking at this video and this one.
They not only make it easier to do this fiddly technique without flinging the needles at the wall (I did that when starting my circular shawl years ago with metal DPNS, I was clearly insane), but they also have unusual sound effects. A cat miaows in one, and a cock crows rather insistently in the other. The key to an easy circular cast on is I-cord on the first couple of rows, and it settles down into a snug, smooth centre.
Anyway, so I first cast on 16 stitches and soon realised that it was going to result in a gigantic hat, no matter how interesting the shapes in process. So I frogged back, and cast on 10 stitches, each inaugurating a kali, or section. Increased 1 stitch per section every other row, till I had a total of 180 stitches. Then I knit straight for about 2.5 inches, and then 25 rows of 2×2 ribbing.
Project specs:
Yarn: 1/2 a skein of Zauberball sock yarn
Needles: Size 1 bamboo DPNs
Gauge: 9 spi
Dimensions: about 7.5 inches tall
I think it’s a bit small, actually – fits more like a snug skull cap than a comfortable hat, and after wearing it a couple days I might frog back the ribbing and extend the stockinette section an inch or so. What I can’t decide is whether I should go right back to the increases and actually make the circumference itself a bit larger, then reduce for the ribbing.
I cannot get over the glorious red-orange-gold shades in this colourway! I feel like I’m holding a continuous, exploding sunset in my hands as I knit with it. I want to buy more skeins of it and replace my blue Endpaper mitts (seen in the pic above) with similar Zauberball mitts. And some socks; I totally fell in love with these. Maybe a small triangular scarf too? Am going back home shortly for the winter break (yes, this nightmare of a semester is finally nearing an end!!), and maybe I’ll stop by the LYS to stock up on some fiery yarn.
In recent times, our neighbourhood has seen some dramatic improvement. A new coffee shop has come up right around the corner. It has a study hall atmosphere to it with small square tables and mostly has solitary patrons – students from our school – huddled over their laptops and lattes, but it makes great salads and coffee and has a wonderful staff with a sense of humour. We have a friendly building with lots of people with common interests and we do stuff together. A couple into gardening spruced up our backyard. The bus stops right opposite, and the deli store carries wine. Even the laundry is trying to double as an art gallery for local artists!
But nothing beats my newest friend in the neighbourhood, Sally Field:
Sally and her friend Becks belong to one of our neighbours in the next building, but they have come to prefer our backyard, and hang out there most of the time. Their owner moved their feeding bowls out here and leaves the food for us to refill from time to time. They are among the friendliest cats I’ve ever met. Becks is a little neurotic, and it’s practically impossible to photograph her at ground level – she immediately jumps into your lap and reaches for the camera. This is the best I could manage.
Every other day, one of them is waiting at the building door when I come home, and if I have a grocery bag or something, they promptly try to jump right into it when I put it down to look for my keys. Sally decided to imperiously follow me in one day and check out my flat. She sat in the sun for a bit and then went back out. They prefer the outdoors, which is just as well, because I am not allowed pets, and it would be a shame if they liked my sofa and I couldn’t keep them here. Sally is also my silent morning alarm, because at dawn every day she perches herself on that gate, and the quiet twitch of her tail causes the motion sensor light at the back to go on and off, on and off, on and off – it happens to be right at my bedroom window. If it had been anybody but her I would have done violence to them and to the light. Instead, I rubbed my eyes groggily and took a picture of her from the gap in the curtains.
Oh, so I finally started something else.
I have reached the uncomfortable and unenviable point in my red shawl where I have to decide whether:
a) I have enough yarn left for the last 4 patterns and the border.
b) to break the symmetry of the shawl and end it here and starting the border at once
c) to rip back the cast on edge (it’s provisional) and ripping back the 4 initial repeats to maintain the symmetry
d) this truncated length will be enough after blocking.
Momentous decisions, all. I took the only adult course of action out, which is to say I swore, rolled up the lace into a ball and flung it into the basket, had a cookie and then cast on for something else. I’ll decide later.
Taking a break from my paper on this gloomy sunday afternoon, my eyes glazed over with tiny, cursive nineteenth century handwriting from the archives, I am having fun both knitting and taking pictures of it from all odd angles. Is it a tent? A kite? You’ve surely guessed what it is, but I’ll tell you what it is once I’ve finished it, which will hopefully be soon.
Somehow, having the 5 DPNs go in different directions and collapse on themselves is better than hauling my ass to the yarn store to buy a size 1 circular needle.
Coming back to the US after being in India for a while is always hard for me; coming back to regular teaching after research leave is proving quite hard too. Put the two together, and it’s resulting in quite a disaster for my work and concentration. The very thought of syllabi, prepping for courses and putting together reader packs is making me panic, procrastinate, and plunge for refuge into my yarn and knitting. I’ve been making up for a year’s absence by surfing Ravelry like a maniac, queuing and favouriting projects. Quelling all the guilt over the volume of work I am ignoring, I am agonising instead about whether I should buy some Black Water Abbey worsted now, or after I’ve finished making the Sidelines Top with this:
It’s Berroco Inca Gold in a new shade, Azul Marina. Isn’t it lovely? It’s a gorgeous navy-purple, the purple tones more visible in sunlight. I don’t have anything in this colourway in my stash, and I am really eager to get into it. How can a course pack possibly compete with this!
While I waited for it to arrive, I whipped up another Koolhaas hat for a dear friend, who had a run-in with some bad luck recently, and who had in the past, expressed a liking for the pattern. Here’s hoping this will cheer him up a bit, even if it is somewhat early for a northeastern winter!
I made one for myself early last year with Malabrigo, and thought it turned out a little small. This time I added 8 stitches (112 total) and one 8 row-repeat. It is, as a result, a bit more tubular, and looks rather like a tall fez hat on me, but am hoping it will fit the recipient’s head better. I used about 2/3 of a skein of New England Highland (same yarn I used for my BPT), which shows off the twisted stitches nicely. I was a bit torn at first between using a larger sized needle for more ease with the repeated twisting, versus a tighter gauge and fabric with a smaller one, but I finally went with ease, and used a size 7.
I wonder how long this feverish spell of knitting, sewing and blogging will last, because (sigh) I cannot procrastinate for ever. But there’s still a couple of weeks of summer left…
(Daku I hope you like it!)
Years ago, I made a stockinette watch cap as a handknitted wedding gift for a friend. He wanted to boldly wear his politics on his head and specifically requested the colour combo and pattern. Last week, I made a second one just like it as another gift. Voila the Hammer & Sickle Hat:
The last time, I had winged the motif and not kept any notes (or taken a decent-enough photo!); I just remembered that it fell unhappily between fair-isle and intarsia, and there were long floats to deal with at the back and puckered stitches. This time, I charted several motifs in MS Word (using these fonts), to play around with the gauge and surface area of the hat, and finally decided that rather than knit the motif, I was better off using duplicate stitch. So I embroidered it on, and although it took me a while to get the fall of the stitches just right – duplicate stitch is harder than it looks – I think I like the final results better through this method. (Also, taking a photo of yourself embroidering something is just about as hard as photographing black yarn!)
So, the Project Specs:
Yarn: Vardhman Pure Wool bought at Samrat Woollen House here in Pune. 1.5 balls in black. (I think it’s DK weight, but it doesn’t specify yardage). Also, some red laceweight held quadruple, for the motif. I wanted it to be a little thicker and pop out of the black.
Needle: Size 4 (3.5 mm), 16 inch circular and DPNs
Gauge: 6 spi.
Size: 22″ circumference and about 11″ length total from cast-on to crown.
Notes: I cast on 120 st in the round, knit K2,P2 for six inches, then 20 rows in stockinette. Then I divided the hat into ten equal parts and decreased evenly at the end of each part – k10, k2tog, repeat all around, and so on, decreasing the number of knit stitches before the k2tog every alternate round. I made three motifs of different sizes before I got one that fit the stockinette portion well. I don’t know how many knitters out there would like to make a hat like this or use the hammer & sickle motif, but let me know if you’d like the other charts for a thinner-gauge hat or any other project. If you’d like the full hat pattern, I can write it up as a .pdf and put it up here and on Ravelry.
It’s a roomy and warm hat, and I sure hope the recipient likes it! Stay tuned for another FO coming up hot on this one’s heels. That one, I’m hoping to photograph with the wearer in it in a few days..
All it took was a sudden wet, cold and windy spell to snap me out of endless and restless startitis. Indecision about wanting a hat at all was swiftly overtaken by the urgency to finish and wear one. Instead of the deep red, however, I chose the deep blue. Wouldn’t you know it, Malabrigo worsted in “Azul Profundo” makes for a very warm Koolhaas hat.
Soft, snug and very quick to make, in spite of the intense cabling every other row. I love this hat.
My friend and knitting prodigy ManDuka, who, if you remember, embarked on her first ever hat just last November, took on this Koolhaas pattern as her next [you can see her gorgeous, green version in Cascade here.(Ravelry links.)], and is now totally into planning an EPS sweater for herself! Way to go, ManDuka. I loved the pattern after talking to her about it, and am glad that it overcame my ennui. Of course, it does help that the yarn has such lovely tones:
Details:
Pattern: Koolhaas, by Jared Flood, in Interweave Knits Holiday 2007.
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in shade Azul Profundo. I used just over 1/2 a skein, I’m estimating.
Needles: Size 6 for the ribbing and 8 for the main pattern.
Notes:
Not much about the pattern itself, except that I cast on fewer stitches (100). When I came up to the decreases, therefore, I had to do some footwork and calculating, which resulted in a slightly different crown than in the pattern; I made half an extra repeat and then decreased more rapidly. But the maths worked out, so I don’t care that my crown is a little different from the other 800 – odd Koolhaases out there!
It’s the yarn that bugged me. Have you seen the adoration for Malabrigo out there? Nineteen comments on the Ravelry yarn page that are gushing, to put it mildly. Sure, it’s incredibly soft, and as you can clearly see above, the shades are gorgeous. These colours are to die for, and I totally get the joy of the finished, subtly variegated look. But shades apart, the look is unfortunately not *that* finished in the end. I am surprised at how loosely the yarn is plied, and what a worn look it takes on even while it’s being knit. It’s not just the gentle, fuzzy halo of some loose fibres, but an almost felted look that well-used handmade items have. If you click on the photos above, and on the flickr page click on all sizes, then large, you’ll see what I mean. Here’s the loose cast-on end before I weaved it in:
Doesn’t it look nearly felted? Just from the agitation of two days of knitting, it was a little stiff, even! I wonder how people make sweaters with this stuff, because even at a very tight gauge, tough as that is to do when you have such a thick yarn, it must not hold up very well. That said, it surely is the softest wool I have ever knit with, and boy, right now, even in the northern California winter, I am grateful for the warmth of the azul profundo.
Over the last week, I must have knit thousands of stitches in total. A few furious inches here, some leisurely centimetres there. The days were crazy and involved much running around reading endless admissions files and preparing syllabi and course-packets. But the evenings were quiet. My Netflix supply was well-oiled, with lots of long, mindless, Hindi melodrama on full tap. I knit an awful lot of stitches. I should have not one, but two Cobblestone sleeves to show you.
But of course, I do not. It is the first sleeve, back to where it was last week. It made the trip all the way up to the armhole and slid right back, like an unlucky Snakes-and-Ladders player. Reason? The increase gradient was too gentle, and the sleeve threatened to be a bit too tight. In keeping with my new virtuous, gauge-and-fit-cautious 2008 self, I figured it was too early to slide back to my bad habits myself, and frogged.
It was a bad omen, no doubt. But in rash optimism and disregard, I cast the sleeve aside, and bought three skeins of a gorgeous forest green in Cascade 220 to make another Back to School Vest. Remember the one I made last month? I gave it away to a friend, and decided to make a better fitting one for myself. I cast on with size 7s like before and was an inch or so into it when a thought rose, unbidden, that the fabric was too loose, and that I might try with size 6 needles instead. A Counter-Thought naturally presented itself: did the first vest feel that way too? The thought, now stronger, insisted that it did, especially around the waist. Counter-thought, weakened by its adversary’s confidence, wilted and began doubting its own doubts about this apparent looseness. So I cast on again, with a different skein, with size 6s.
Thought and Counter-thought were clearly fucking with my mind and enjoying it, because now, an inch into both versions, I am thoroughly confused – too loose? Too tight? Not sure which one to do, I am altogether sick of this pattern already. But I can’t tell you how lovely this shade is – it reminds me alternately of moss and henna, which I feel I can almost smell or touch when I sniff or knit with the yarn.
No doubt my mind is mimicking the whole moss sensation, because yet another thought keeps forming threateningly in a deep recess somewhere, flinging more doubts and alternatives at me. Will this really look good as the BTS Vest? Wouldn’t the forest green rather be a comfy hoodie instead? Walk in the woods after rain; jeans, sneakers and green hoodie, maybe a cardi with pockets? Or, perhaps another Fitted Knits project – the feminine cardigan, in a dark green to minimize the overly cutesy look? It was this foolish thought that led me to rashly buy three skeins of another shade yesterday in charcoal grey for the Vest. Now my indecision is even worse – grey or green? Both are quite lovely, you gotta admit, but I’m too afraid to even wind the grey for fear that it will develop an identity crisis of its own.
Enough of Cascade, I told myself. Find a mindless, easy project to keep you occupied. I idly picked up a skein of Nashua Worsted and cast on for the Koolhaas hat for some instant gratification. No sooner had I done that than the alpaca strands got up my nose and created a fuss about too much fuzz, too little stitch definition, and there I was a day later, with the same project, but this time in Malabrigo Teal. I did two rows of the cabled pattern and another nasty thought, no doubt from the same subversive brigade, began to play in my head – do I really want this hat? I haven’t quelled the thought yet, and the two yarns are poised, waiting:
Socks! Always the last refuge, reliable, simple socks. My friend Madhavi got me two skeins of Regia from Germany this Christmas, and I brought them out this morning to pick one to cast on with. Just the thought of picking one over the other made me so superstitious, though, that they got photographed and went right back into the drawer. I’ll deal with them later.
This madness, it is hoped, will not last. I will sensibly match yarn to project, even progress a couple of inches, and not let the damn A.D.D turn me a complete, indecisive A.S.S. I just wish I could figure out which yarn to tackle first….
It’s Diwali: the annual festival of lights, spread over these four days from now until Sunday. Diwali wishes to all! May the new year bring good cheer and happiness, renewal and fulfillment all around.
This is the one festival that my family celebrates with abandon, and the one festival I can never be home for, given the dratted semester system. To be sure, there are religious ceremonies, and a mythical tale of good triumphing over evil that ensures renewal and prosperity – but what is Diwali without new clothes, fireworks, and food? The centrepiece is a snacks package called faraal in Marathi – about twenty different types of eats are made specially in each family, depending on their resources, taste and enthusiasm. Everyone exchanges faraal over the Diwali weeks and you give yourself over entirely to fried dough, powdered sugar and clarified butter. It is a good time. I am attempting an ambitious faraal myself this time, but more about that in the next post – cross your fingers that I manage to get it all together.
My festivities began spectacularly today. I had a very intense, exhilarating graduate seminar class, and came back home to open a package from Finland, containing this:
Silja sent me the most gorgeous sock ever in the whole wide world, encased in a wonderful little bag, along with a spare skein of Regia silk for me to knit the second one in the pair.
I love the colour, the fit, the pattern – thank you, thank you, thank you single sock partner! You chose everything just right, and this is just the perfect, timely festival gift. I cannot wait to knit its pair. I have been wearing the lone sock all over the flat already. That Cookie A. is a genius designer, just look at the twisted flower stitches:
Finally, this evening concluded on a pleasant note with this finished object:
Although not mine, I am proudly featuring it on the blog, as the first FO of my friend who learnt how to knit not two weeks ago! Isn’t it gorgeous? Just look at the elegant shape. She switched to DPNs in our neighbourhood Chinese restaurant this evening over dinner, and we walked home to cast off and photograph the hat amidst much squealing and glee. I am amazed at how smoothly she transitioned from circulars to DPNs, and from ribbing to stockinette to decreases. Definitely a natural at the craft! I think I have some idea of what evangelists feel like, finally. She left the house muttering, “cabling without a cabling needle…” even without my broad hints about knittinghelp.com, Ravelry, Zimmermann, etc….. I think we might have a convert!
It’s not for nothing that all the photos in this post have a warm glow, eh?
Wow, thank you all for the responses to my blog poll! The crimson won out with 66 % of the votes, out of a total of 38. I am looking longingly (one last time?) at the forest green, but also looking long and hard and very meaningfully at the crimson! I like Opal’s suggestion that I could overdye it later, but let’s see. Quill, you were right that the green was being made into the BPT cabled cardigan from Knitty, but I am so bored with that project! Plus my cables were getting all puckered up at the increases and I was generally dissatisfied with it. Even if I don’t end up Ogee-ing it, it is not going to be BPT-ed any longer, alas.
Recently I got a couple of photos in my inbox, representing afterlives of my knitting adventures here. One is from the lovely Mary, who is the first one to make my Rangoli Hat! I am so excited! Thank you so much Mary for braving the pattern, and for turning out this absolutely gorgeous hat:
She didn’t block it over a plate because she likes this billowy look to it, which doesn’t give her hat hair! Mary it looks great on you! I love the flat picture of it in the sun, too.
(Now, if only the recipient of the original green piece I made would take a picture for this blog….)
The second picture is of my dear friend Madhavi, who is unfortunately braving mountains of snow and bitter cold in the northeast after years of living in friendlier climes. Many years ago in hostel she once persuaded me to design a nose-warmer for her (she hates the cold more than I do, which is something). I think I had crocheted one, but I am sure she never wore it. I wonder why, it even had strings to go over the ears! But as a mark of my sympathy for her freezing bones I sent her my Turkish balaclava hat. Here she is, totally wrapped up and surrounded by snow, but warm and smiling! Medu, stay warm!
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