Adventures of a Desi KnitterAn academic juggles knitting, sewing, and other crafts in Kolkata

Free Pattern for Cabled Rangoli Hat

§ March 4th, 2007 § Filed under Rangoli Hat, Rangoli patterns § 26 Comments

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…)!

But (t)hat’s not a beret!

§ February 5th, 2007 § Filed under Rangoli Hat § 19 Comments

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.