Another Way of Winging It - The Garter Cuff Hat

I am going to make another hat. I have some nice handspun wool that has been sitting in the stash for about 8 years, and I need to make a Christmas present. The yarn is about a sport weight and I'm using size 5 needles.

First I guesstimated that 18 sts would give me about 4". (As it turns out, it's working up to about 4 1/2", but that's close enough).

I'm working plain old garter stitch, but I am slipping the first stich of every row knitwise and purling the last stitch of every row. One of those edges is going to show, so I want it to look smooth, and I will be picking up stitches along the other, which will be easier with a chain selvedge.

Now I will just keep knitting until the piece measures about 18". Why 18"? Because the ever so handy Standard Body Measurements/Sizing chart gives that as the head circumference for a child, and the intended victim for this one is, indeed, a child. I am not worrying about adding ease, because that garter is going to be stretchy. (On the other hand, this particular child has a largish head - maybe I'll go to 19", which is what the Yarn Harlot lists as average for a 5-10 year old.)

La, la, la; knit, knit, knit.

OK at, about 18 3/4" I stopped knitting and joined the two short ends together. I did this with an odd "grafting the live stitches to the cast on" move. I could have just bound off and sewn the ends together, but this would have made a thicker seam. I could have had an invisible graft if I had only thought to use a provisional cast on, but I didn't, and this is reasonably unobtrusive.

Using a short circular needle, I picked up one stitch from under each slipped edge stitch. I did this with the lumpier side of the seam towards the outside, because the garter cuff will be folded up when the hat is done.

Now I'm just going to knit round for a while.

La, la, la; round and round.

(edited to add: to learn how to work the top, jump to The Rest of the Story)

Winging It

Sometimes I just want to pick up my needles and start, without swatching, without calculating, without even a completely clear idea of what I might end up with. This approach has it's risks, of course, but I'm willing to take them on.

So I started a wool hat at the top and worked my way down. When I finished it was just a little too big, and just a little too loosely knit. So naturally I felted it.

Also naturally, it is now just a little too small for my big ol' head. The good thing about hats, though, is that you can almost always find a head to fit one.

Lesse Le Bon Temps.....

I have just discovered the Recipe Archive for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and, damn, it makes me want to start cooking again, starting with Miss Sissy's Chicken.

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I have been plugging away at transcribing the Progressive Shawl charts into line by line directions, but there are no pictures or conversation in that so instead I offer:



"Why what on earth are those little fuzzy things?"
"Oh, those are earwarmers I made to use up odds and ends of yarn."
"And how, exactly, did you proceed?"
"Well, it was simple. I held two strand of eyelash yarn together and made a crochet chain (about 45-50 sts). Then I moved the loop of yarn to a knitting needle (size 11 was handy). I knit into the front and back of that loop and turned. From there on, I knit into the front and back of the first stitch on each row until it was as wide as I wanted."
"And how wide was that?"
"Oh, eleven or twelve stitches, but it could have been wider."
"And then what?"
"Well I just kept knitting every row until it was long enough. Twenty inches from the point where I started the increases seems to be long enough for an adult with a largish head (me). For a child it would be shorter, of course."
"I suppose you started decreasing then."
"Certainly. I knit together the first two stitches of every row until there was only one, then transferred the that back to the crochet hook and chained a second tie to match the first."
"Well, that was easy enough."
"Yes, and it also provided one of several activties I have devised to put off transcribing lace instructions."



I'm very happy that the Argyle Fiber Mill is going to carry a couple of my patterns. This did mean that I needed to reblock the swatch for the "Dazed and Confused" Scarf (they would like it for display). I will also need to change the ink in the printer and print out the patterns, and type up an invoice, and make a list of things not to forget when I make the delivery. Also have to print a pattern for an eBay order and get it in the mail (hike to Post Office as the car is in the shop). Then there is email to catch up on. Lots of reasons for not moving on to the edging chart and directions.....


Placid and self contained

Tag I'm It (Four Me Me)

OK, lets say I'm a shy person who was raised not to talk to much about herself (can you say Norwegian?) I'll give this one a go, but I'm using small type.

Four jobs I've had:
- sailmaker's assistant
- preacher
- quality control clerk
- library assistant (that's only four out of about twelve, with no discernible common thread)

Four movies I can watch over and over
- White Christmas (I have no choice: it was written into the marriage contract)
- Babe (I cry every time)
- Casablanca
- Duck Soup

Four places I have lived
- White Bear Lake, Minnesota
- Minneapolis
- Cary, Illinois
- Berkely, California

Four Places I have been on vacation
- Seattle
- Disneyland
- Door County, WI
- New Orleans

Four of my favorite dishes
- Crazy Happy Noodles from Suko Thai
- Macaroni & Cheese
- anything with Cilantro
- almost anything someone else cooks

Four places I would rather be right now
- in a coffeeshop with my daughter
- on a roadtrip with my husband
- someplace where the sun is actually shining
- I dunno, I'm basically pretty happy where I am.

Oh, I forgot
Four websites I visit (almost) every day
- about.com knitting forum
- Knitters Review knitting forum
- Talking Points Memo
- cursor.org

Someone recently asked what the back of the Lace Fichu looks like. Good question, here's a pic of the version Ellen knit.



Her color is nicer than it looks on my monitor, a nice plummy purple. It's in Zephyr (wool/silk), a slightly lighter weight yarn than the alpaca/silk blend in my version.