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So I finally got round to writing up the pattern for the Cabled Rangoli Hat, and I also made another iteration of it. This time in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, in Asparagus. I have written up the pattern and uploaded it to my sidebar on the left, where it is available free for download. You can also click here. Do let me know if you make it, I’d love to know your feedback and comments. Here’s what the latest iteration looks like:
As I had said last time, the cables definitely show up more clearly in the wool than in the alpaca. The hat also retains its shape better, I think. I love it! It looks a little more like the Queen’s headdress than I had thought, but in a nice way!
I made some changes to the pattern: I abandoned the separation of the two lines and went with a standard k2 cable line amidst the purl stitches simply because it’s more convenient when it comes to crossing cables. I also decided to have the lines dovetail into the ribbing to keep things neat. The bobbles too, are purl bobbles now and sit better, somehow.
I was a little worried that the hat might not be deep enough, but it just covers my ears without being too tight, which is exactly what I wanted with it; this is not a 20 degree fahrenheit hat, but an it-might-be-chilly-out-this-evening hat, I guess. There are more pictures with the pdf pattern. It’s about 7 inches deep and 22 inches in circumferences, perfect for my big head.
Specs for this iteration:
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, Asparagus, 1.5 skeins (approx. 160 yards)
Needles: 5 Susan Bates circular and DPNs. I imagine anybody else in the world will need larger needles than that for this yarn, or slightly finer yarn for that gauge.
Gauge: 6 stitches per inch.
Took me about 2 days of sustained knitting after I’d got the pattern all worked out (which took a *lot* longer!)
Am feeling maha pleased that this is finally done. This evening I also finished writing a rather critical review of a book for a journal that I had been putting off for weeks, because I am not fond of writing reviews for one, and highly critical reviews, for another. But all in all, a weekend of accomplishment, if not of fulfilment (read earlier post about not getting any bhang for holi…)!
Remember I made a balaclava hat (or a monkey cap as it is called in India) sometime last year? Mercifully, I haven’t had much occasion to wear it of late. It’s wet here, but not cold and much as I miss it, I’m glad I am not walking towards the waterfront in Jersey City braving the chilly sea wind at night. But last night I was talking to my old roommate from college who, unfortunately, is currently braving some seriously low temperatures back east. I decided to send her the monkey cap instead. It will also be an improvement on the many failed attempts at a crocheted nose-warmer we tried to design for her back then.
That made me think, a lot of people come to this blog through searches for "balaclava pattern". I knitted mine as I went along and borrowed the motif from Charlene Schurch’s Hats On! book, but before I sent it off to my friend I thought I might look at it again, dig out my notes
and write up the pattern. So here it is. Just a note of caution, though: this is not a test-knit, proof-read pattern, but one that
worked well for me in terms of the basic structure of the balaclava. I can’t provide the motif from the book, but I think this pattern would look great in plain stockinette in a variegated yarn. Do let me know if you make it, and if you encounter any problems. I am
knitting one again based on these very instructions, and I’ll put it up later on the sidebar for .pdf download.
Pattern for Balaclava Hat:
Materials: Any yarn and needle combination that gives you a gauge of 6 stitches to the inch. (I used Knitpicks Andean Silk and Elann Sierra Aran on size 3s, but my gauge is always off from that suggested on the ball band).
The hat is knit from the neck upwards.
Neck ribbing:
1) Cast on 112 stitches. Join, taking care not to twist the stitches. Knit k2,p2 ribbing for 6 inches, or the length you want the neck of the balaclava to be. The top should ideally sit snugly at the chin.
Back of the head:
2) Next round, continue in k2, p2 ribbing for 70 stitches, then cast off 42 stitches in ribbing for the face opening. You should be back to the beginning of the round.
3) Now continue to knit back and forth on these 70 stitches in stockinette. Knit back and forth for 24 rows, or 3.5 inches. End with a purl row.
4) Turn work. Cast on 42 stitches and rejoin at the other end. You should have 112 stitches in the round once again. Continue to work in stockinette in the round for 22 rows.
Decreases for the crown:
5) K11, sk2p 8 times around. 96 stitches remaining.
6) Knit next 3 rounds.
7) K9, sk2p 8 times around. 80 stitches remaining.
8) Knit next 3 rounds.
9) K7, sk2p 8 times around. 64 stitches remaining.
10) Knit next 2 rounds.
11) K5, sk2p 8 times around. 48 stitches remaining.
12) Knit one round.
13) K3, sk2p 8 times around. 32 stitches remaining.
14) Sk2p round. 16 stitches.
15) Ktog around. 8 stitches.
Draw yarn through remaining 8 stitches and pull together tightly.
Edging for the face opening:
16) From the left bottom corner, begin picking up stitches evenly around the left edge (ear flap), the top cast on edge (forehead), right edge (ear flap) and bottom cast off edge (chin). I picked up 73, but the actual number is not that important as long as you pick up evenly (skip one edge stitch for every three you pick up).
17) Knit in the round in reverse stockinette (purl) for three rows, and cast off all the stitches in purl. The edging should curl inwards nicely. Weave in all loose ends.
18) Wear the balaclava and stay warm!
This is what I exclaimed to myself last night, after I finished my Rangoli beret, wore it and looked at myself in the mirror, and burst out laughing. The funny thing is that a little earlier, as I began the decreases for the beret, I held it up and said, hmm. It’s actually looking like it might be a bit too large, I hope it won’t end up too slouchy.
As you can see, slouchy it is not, nor is it a tam. But I am not going to tamper with it (heh heh) because I quite like what I ended up with. It’s a slightly loose-fitting hat, and on the walk over to school early this chilly morning, has established that it can keep my head from catching a cold without giving me hat hair. I love it, despite how off I was with my calculations. I’m going to soldier on with the pattern, but only after some more serious swatching. Here I stretched the cap out over a bowl so it looks a little larger than it actually is.
And here’s one of the crown:
I really liked the idea of the bobble for the dot, and the way I was able to separate the two lines of the petals by two purl stitches. The 8-petal division also works, but I might try a 12-petal division the next time. I also worked the decreases into the straight knit lines leading into the crown, which makes them look more raised and really gives them definition. Will retain that. One of the reasons the hat looks puffy but not shapeless, I think, is that the decreases are concentrated up at the crown. Will probably retain that too, since I like this more than the idea of a flattish beret.
I am not, however, happy with the way the two petal lines cross each other at the ends of the petals. I tried two tactics, and as you can see below, neither of which are neat enough and need some work. The single 1×1 rib clashes badly with the double petal lines, maybe a 2×2 twisted rib the next time.
But well, there you have it, my first FO of 2007. As I’ve probably said before on this blog, der aaye, durust aaye (Late, but worth it!)
EDIT: my apologies for the screwed up formatting, multiple pings and and the large photos. I really need to find another bloghost, this Typepad thing just won’t give me a correct preview.
If you’re familiar with the rangoli drawing process, it’s really fast. Bits of rice powder flow from between your fingers as you swiftly draw straight lines between two dots here and curlicues around the dots there.
Yarn, I’m afraid, is a much stickier proposition, as each stitch laboriously twists its way right and left.
Flourish and speed are not words that at least I associate with cables. Nimble fingers, however, are a requirement in both media, and the end result in yarn, I’m desperately hoping, is going to be just as worth it:
My rangoli tam/beret (what’s the difference, btw? just English and French?) which is advancing painfully slowly, but which might be completed soon. Before I forget, need to swear jot down some thoughts. I have frogged this project seven times, six times due to incompetent arithmetic and the seventh because of an error seven rows down that I couldn’t fix by rolling down an individual stitch. It’s not the pattern, it’s me. But I think I have the formula now. I’m going to complete this particular iteration, but to keep in mind for a final, more finished pattern and product:
1) No matter how beautiful and soft the alpaca yarn, cables and rib are nicer in springy, stretchy wool
2) For a pattern that requires a 1/3 increase in stitches after ribbing, it’s still a good idea to knit the ribbing with a smaller sized needle
3) Bavarian stitches will probably work a lot better with these single, free-form cable twists.
4) When a bobble is required exactly in the centre of two lines, it helps if the number of stitches between them is odd.
5) Likewise, if two lines are to cross neatly and symmetrically, it helps if the number of stitches between them is even.
6) Mixing up this odd and even combination invariably leads you to draw on particular words from your vocabulary again and again.
7) Swatching is good, even for a small project like a hat.
Deeni, if you’re reading this, I saw pictures of the Sunflower Tam, and I actually have an almost identical rangoli pattern like it that my mum named "Padmakamal" (Lotus). I might look at the pattern (don’t have the Norah Gaughan book) if I decide to adapt another pattern after this one. Thanks for telling me about it!
I’m sorry for neglecting the blog, friends. I said to someone that this semester was going to kick my ass, but I didn’t think it would start doing so, that too enthusiastially, quite so early on. It’s taking me a while to get settled back in, but in trying to get a routine going with all my new resolutions to spend less time online and get more serious work done, I’m finding a lot less time to knit. Also, it’s been bloody cold here, with my landlord being rather stingy with the heat, and it’s not fun to knit when your fingers threaten to fall off. (okay, it’s not that bad, but you get the point).
I did start one small thing though, after several false attempts, including one where like an idiot I twisted the round. It is not fun to cast on 136 stitches thrice over, so hopefully this one will continue:
It’s an attempt at a cap, a beret, actually, with this motif over the crown.
The motif is a rangoli pattern of a lotus roughly sketched by my mother a while ago (on a rather special date as it turns out, the birthdate I share with Spud!). The plan is to make it either as twisted single stitches or celtic-style two-stitch cables, am not sure yet. I won’t reproduce it just as it is, the end squiggles in particular need some work, as I’m not overly fond of bobbles or nupps, but the dots in the middle of circles and squares made by the rangoli lines are quite essential to that form. So let’s see. This one in any case is not a classic rangoli pattern, it’s a more free-form type, but one I’ve seen her outline quite often on our front doorstep.
The yarn is Knitpicks Elegance (Alpaca/Silk) and is behaving itself so far at a gauge of 6.5 stitches
on size 3s. Hopefully I’ll get time this week to make progress on this project, about which I am quite excited!
edited to add: I just looked at the picture, and apologize for the smudge. I need to get my camera lens cleaned properly. Also, what is it with me and red alpaca yarn and size 3s? But at least, this one is not on an overambitious deadline, what?
Remember the blurred picture I showed you of a project I finished for a friend last week? I went on a brief visit to upstate NY earlier this week for a talk, and met up with her. Hanging out with her and giving her the gift, and the stunning fall foliage totally made up for the dismal work trip. Seriously, flying cross-country and airport food apart, there is little more depressing than not getting good questions or feedback on some research that you present to an audience of your peers with great enthusiasm.
But, here’s what I made for her, Grumperina’s Odessa Hat:
Specs: One skein of Louet Gems Merino Sport (100% wool) in black and one skein of 80% llama/20%silk from Double K Diamond Llamas & Fiber, held together. It took me approx. 160 yards of each skein to make the hat.
I bought the llama blend at Estes Park a couple of years ago (Spud, this was when we went together.) It’s not that soft, but blended with the Louet, it makes for a very squishy and warm hat. My friend had asked for a black hat, but I added the greyish flecks with the llama to give it some body and texture.
Gauge: slightly bigger than that specified in the pattern, but it didn’t matter too much since the hat stretches anyway. I used size 6 addi circulars.
This pattern is great! Grumperina’s blog is just a teeeeny bit annoying at times (I can’t place my finger on why, exactly, and I still do read it regularly), but she is one talented designer. This is such a simple, intuitive and elegant pattern and the ribs swirl beautifully into the crown. Very neatly conceived, and a smart twist (heh) to the standard ribbed watch cap. Took me 2 days to make and I’d definitely make one in a lighter colour again. I left out the beads, though, because they looked a little gaudy to me.
After a long time, I had one of my favourite comfort foods, which said friend made for me: Thalipeeth (lit. Marathi for "flour-in-a-pan"). Hot, crisp and nutritious, it’s a quick dinner fix when you don’t want a whole meal, and with Marathi kakdichi koshimbir (cucumber raita with crushed peanuts) it was just heaven.
Thank you so much for all the compliments on the Clapotis, everyone!
Daku descended on our place this past weekend and created a lot of havoc, amidst much imbibation (and consumption of some freshly made Ragi Dosas and other good stuff). A good time was had by all.
I also went to see Eugene Ionescu’s "Bald Soprano", a delightful and searing look at the absurdity of bourgeois sociality and conventions, the meaninglessness and, well, theatrics of polite conversation and communication. I don’t know why the production made such a big deal of saying they had an ethnically diverse cast, and then had them all try very hard to mimic English accents. It seemed to me that it would have been fine, especially in an Ionescu play that mocks bourgeois pretensions, to have a suburban London Mrs. Smith speak in a southern American or Jamaican accent. (Spud, if you’re reading this, there was a character in the play (the fire chief) and the guy who played it was our former colleague Frank’s twin. I think that really upped the absurdity levels for me.)
Not much knitting got done over the weekend (one of the Mrs. Smiths in the play was pretending to knit and I weirded out my companions by telling them she was using Balene needles and acrylic yarn and that it was garter stitch. "How can you tell!!!")
I was, however, faced with this:
Sadly, a moth got at the cap I had knit for Daku many years ago. So I thought I’d fix it, and he picked some colours out of my stash. A few frogging efforts later, here’s what the cap looked like:
On his head. Nice, no? Not colours I would have picked out, but they work well. I like the slightly staggered nonagon.
So here it is, the blue winter set, in Brooks Farm wool/mohair. The scarf, a Jane Sowerby design from Knitter’s Winter 04 was knit last winter around this time, not a time I want to remember with great fondness. Lots of job and home issues, the latter quite literally, with the worst landlord in the world giving us a horrible time. I always think of him somehow when I wear this scarf, and that is not good. But it was wonderful to knit, very easy. The watch cap is my own pattern, made up as I went along, and the gloves are from Katharina Buss’s Big Book of Knitting.
Specs:
Scarf: Brooks Farm 100% mohair, took about 475 yards on a size 6, it’s about 6 ft x1.5 ft.
Hat: BF 100% mohair + 50% mohair/wool, one strand each on a size 6. Took about 200 yards.
Gloves: BF: 50% mohair/wool on a size 2, am not sure how much, but less than 300 yds. I don’t think I want to knit gloves again for a while. As I finished I was thinking: 42 loose ends to weave in, wtf? But then if you leave the ones in the fingers unwoven, who’s going to notice? Maybe I’ll try Nona’s totally cool top-down pattern someday, but not for a while.
And mohair, I have realised while picking innumerable bits of fibre from my teeth, eyes, collar and furniture, is a royal PITA. I mean, I like warm and fuzzy, but it doesn’t wear well at all. People ooh and aah over Rowan Kidsilk Haze, I just don’t get it.
Here’s a picture of the scarf taken a year ago
I wonder if reblocking and reblocking is the answer, though, because I fear that it damages the delicate fibres too. Ah well, at least it’s toasty.
I’ve been really busy with work, with hardly any time to put up more pictures, or knit and take more pictures! I have several deadlines in the coming weeks and they are really keeping me busy. But I thought I’d just put up a small update of things in progress.
First off, the Balaclava Cap finally has its edging, and it has been successfully taken on trial runs on the West side and along the Hudson, especially when walking back home late at night from the Path station. It is *incredibly* warm and totally keeps out the wind. And we’ve had some really windy days here. I look like a slightly dressy bank robber – and feel like King Arthur’s knight from time to time – but I really don’t care, because it’s an incredibly warm and comfortable garment. And I despise the winter enough to look weird to feel warm.
Next up, the cashmere vest is coming along nicely. I have done about 2/3 of the back, and it should be done sometime this week. This is perfect commute knitting. I have the TV versions of a lot of P.D. James’ mystery novels in my Netflix queue, but hardly any time to watch them. If I did, this stockinette vest would get done a lot faster. Oh well, I’m travelling to California in a few weeks for a conference, so maybe then. The yarn, Filatura Lanarota 100% cashmere, is soft, but splits more than any other I’ve worked with and the stitch definition isn’t great. So it’s going to be a plain stockinette vest, but I think it will look good when done.
What else? Here’s what I would like to finish next: It’s a pair of gloves I started making last year, but abandoned for some reason. One is done, and I only need to finish two fingers and a thumb on the second. They’re Brooks Farm Mohair-Wool blend and they’re wonderfully soft and good to work with.
Here’s my attempt at a monkey cap – ski mask – balaclava helmet. With
the Turkish motif. Actually I don’t know if this is really a Turkish
motif, but Charlene Schurch’s book said so! I really liked working with
it, it’s intuitive and you don’t even need the chart after a few rows.
I still have to weave ends in and do a small edging around the face,
but it’s going to have to wait till I return from Spain in a couple of
weeks. I’m leaving in a short while, and will try to post some updates
from various places in Andalusia….. if I can.
I really liked working on this project; it caused me so much heartburn midway, but overall, it fits wonderfully, is soft, I love the colour combinations and I almost wish it would be colder so I could wear it.
The Andean Silk is a big hit; cannot wait to use it again. The dark
purple yarn and the slightly lighter rust shade towards the top are
Elann’s Sierra Aran, which I had in my stash (yay! didn’t have to buy
more), and the gauge worked perfectly.
I sort of made up the pattern as I went along, adapting it from different online free patterns, and if anyone’s interested let me know, once I return I’ll try to write it up. I can’t post the motif chart since it’s from a book, but if you get the same gauge you can use any motif you like.
See you folks in a couple of weeks, and wish everyone a very happy new year!
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