Tag Archives: hat

Pointy Elf Hat

knitting

Miss L commented in passing that she really liked Mr. C’s red elf hat (which he longer wants to wear, alas) and would like one herself, preferably in blue or green. Luckily, I still have a print out of the pattern I used – this saved me the trouble of finding a new pattern online, thinking it was the old one, realizing it was wrong, looking again, and so on. Plus, and this is the bonus part, I found a yarn that is a mix of blue AND green!

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This hat is knitted flat and then sewn up the back. Honestly, my knitting is better than my sewing, and so in hindsight I might have been better off with a new pattern than was knit-only.

Redbeard gets a hat

knitting,

Just in time for the thaw (it got up to a balmy 35 degrees today), I made Redbeard a hat:

It’s a criminally soft yarn (an alpaca cotton blend) that he chose himself while dutifully accompanying me to the yarn store as we made the rounds of shopping errands. Positive reinforcement is a good thing.

 

No lessons this time – it went remarkably smoothly and as expected.

Christmas knitting revealed

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At long last, I can reveal some projects that I made as gifts.

First up – a scarf and hat combination that I made for my sister:

The scarf was incredibly fun to make – I bought the orange yarn, but otherwise used yarns that I had remaining from other projects. The stitch is stockinette, with the occasional garter thrown in. This meant I also wanted to block it because the edges really, really wanted to curl in and make the scarf a tube. It was a little trickier finding space than usual because it’s so long. But, there’s always a solution, and this one was a small runner rug with towel thrown over it:

Hurricane hat

knitting,

I thought I had just about wrapped up my Christmas knitting plans (not the actual projects, mind you, just the plans), when I came across this pattern for a hat. A hurricane hat. I always try to get my (wonderful and joking) step-grandfather something quirky for Christmas, and this was too good to resist. (For next year I’m thinking of this.)

Why? Well, when Irene hit Vermont earlier in the year, my mom and I had to pause and consider the sheer weirdness of talking about hurricane damage to places where she lived. Truly all that was normal in the world had been turned upside down when her Florida-dwelling daughter was sympathetically listening to the list of (thankfully largely minor!) damage in Vermont.

So, I couldn’t resist making my step-grandfather a hurricane hat, to commemorate this strange, strange year. And help keep is head warm. Here it is!

Hat improvement

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Don’t let all of Redbeard’s posts about beer fool you – there is also knitting going on. (Okay, mostly along side the drinking – in fact, right now I’m looking longingly over at some lovely roving that I got from Earth Guild while drinking a Pumking as part of a pumpkin beer tasting that Redbeard and I decided to do tonight.)

I finished another Elf hat. This one is for the son of a good friend of mine (and novice knitter, another one joins the fold!). I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of joining the sides. I’m not sure I’m doing a mattress stitch, but I’ve decided that I don’t care. Here’s a close up of the seam:

Not exactly seamless, but then I don’t think it can be with this pattern. Even with the strange join, I still really like this pattern.

Another Earth Guild purchase that portends more knitting:  Melissa Morgan-Oakes Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks. I’ve been interesting in knitting socks for awhile, and there is something really, really appealing about (a) starting with the hard part first, and (b) doing both socks at once. So… now I just need some sock yarn. Yay – field trip to my LYS!

 

I know what a LOT of people are getting for Christmas this year…

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I am trying my best to show a little restraint when it comes to this hat pattern a friend gave me. But, oh sweet knitting gods, it is hard.

This hat is so cute and knits up insanely fast because you knit flat and then sew it into shape. What’s not to love?

Oh, that’s right, here is what is not love:

Way down at the bottom of the pattern, looking innocent, is the instruction to “mattress” stitch the ends together. I’m not sure why it’s called mattress stitching, though my current theory is because it makes you want to go lie down after you try it. Good thing this first hat (because oh yes there will be more, bed-related stitching or not) is for my daughter, who is not yet discerning enough to care about what a complete hash her mother has made of the mattress stitching on her new hat.

Of course, it doesn’t help that this first attempt is on a diagonal (the tutorials only show horizontal and vertical… how dare they not envision every possible orientation?). I’m making my son one next… it will give me another chance to see if I can work out how to join these things together.

Holy crap, it’s a hat!

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A couple years ago, my mom decided to move on to the next generation and teach my daughter to knit (since I was clearly a lost cause). Because we don’t live that close, she sent her a book to help her remember after we’d gone back home. I was looking at the book the other day and decided to both learn to purl and knit a hat. (Why not?)

So, I took the remainder of the red yarn from my son’s scarf and made him a hat!

Why did nobody tell me how magical this whole knitting thing is? (Oh, wait, she did…)

I only had instructions for an adult-size hat, so I had to improvise a bit on the number of stitches, but it fits!

This purling thing is not so bad, actually….

Totally sold on this knitting thing…