The hat above has a 15-year history in the making. In 1995, my first winter in Indiana, my friend Zoe devised a way to keep us busy during the blizzardy weather. She is a master knitter (as you can see on her blog
http://seasideknitting.blogspot.com/) and had a whole bunch of Norwegian patterns. The beginner knitter in me took on an overly ambitious project (the norm for me) and something way beyond my skill level. But, she's obviously a good teacher because I had made half the hat before abandoning knitting once classes became too demanding. I have carried this hat around in moves from Indiana to California and California to Seoul in hopes of finishing the dang thing. Well, I decided to actually try and figure out the two-color pattern and found that, despite the fact I could not read the exact directions since they are in Norwegian, I could at least look at the graph of the pattern and follow it. And, I did it. Biggest problem is that it is kind of small and the kids say it squeezes their head. The reason it is small is that I started reducing the stitches way too early and did too many bit by bit reducing rows after the other. I'll wear it one snowy day. At least I finished! And, can't wait to try some of those patterns on a hat for Dahin who has request the snowflake pattern.
The hat for Ronan, above, was made according to his color and design preferences. He specifically requested the little ball on top, and it looks really cute with it. It's just a simple pattern--caste on 80, do a rib knit on the bottom (actually, the original just calls for a stockinette stitch, but I did not like the idea of the bottom curling up, which it will with just stockinette stitch) for about 8 rows and then do stockinette stitch until the hat reaches the right size (kept having Ronan put it on while still on the needles). Once it reaches the right length, you just cut a long tail and pull the string through all the stitches and pull it tight like a drawstring, then weave the ends in a few times. The pulling like a draw-string thing was a bit more of a challenge than they made it sound, but eventually it worked. I used 3 mm needles on this hat since the yarn was a bit chunky. I knit rather loosely, so this hat is slightly big, but Ronan likes it.
The hat I'm wearing above is based on a pattern called "Autumn Hat." It is meant to sit back on the head and be a little floppy. I like it a lot, so decided to make a variation of it in red for Dahin's teacher with a matching scarf (below on super model Ronan--the only one of my kids calm enough to sit through various fittings and final product photos). The hat only took a few hours to make, but the scarf took forever. Note to self no. 1: do not wait until the week of Christmas to begin making presents so you don't have to stay up all night and still not make the length of scarf you wanted to (took me three days and one all-night session to make). Note to self no. 2: If making a last minute scarf, stick with garter stitch and BIG needles; do not--I repeat--do not do a rib pattern on 5 mm needles. Yes I did. Oh well. The end result was ok, but, like I said, the scarf was no where near as long as I had wanted to make it. It was like hacking away at a stone that never appeared chipped. Also, the hat did not have the floppy look it was supposed to have and, I think, I accidentally left out some rows as these rows would have added some height to the hat. That's what I get for watching tv while knitting. But, it's still cute. Sent the set off to Dahin's teacher this morning after a sleepless night (yes, mommy was grumpy this morning).
The hat above has a 15-year history in the making. In 1995, my first winter in Indiana, my friend Zoe devised a way to keep us busy during the blizzardy weather. She is a master knitter (as you can see on her blog http://seasideknitting.blogspot.com/) and had a whole bunch of Norwegian patterns. The beginner knitter in me took on an overly ambitious project (the norm for me) and something way beyond my skill level. But, she's obviously a good teacher because I had made half the hat before abandoning knitting once classes became too demanding. I have carried this hat around in moves from Indiana to California and California to Seoul in hopes of finishing the dang thing. Well, I decided to actually try and figure out the two-color pattern and found that, despite the fact I could not read the exact directions since they are in Norwegian, I could at least look at the graph of the pattern and follow it. And, I did it. Biggest problem is that it is kind of small and the kids say it squeezes their head. The reason it is small is that I started reducing the stitches way too early and did too many bit by bit reducing rows after the other. I'll wear it one snowy day. At least I finished! And, can't wait to try some of those patterns on a hat for Dahin who has request the snowflake pattern.
The hat for Ronan, above, was made according to his color and design preferences. He specifically requested the little ball on top, and it looks really cute with it. It's just a simple pattern--caste on 80, do a rib knit on the bottom (actually, the original just calls for a stockinette stitch, but I did not like the idea of the bottom curling up, which it will with just stockinette stitch) for about 8 rows and then do stockinette stitch until the hat reaches the right size (kept having Ronan put it on while still on the needles). Once it reaches the right length, you just cut a long tail and pull the string through all the stitches and pull it tight like a drawstring, then weave the ends in a few times. The pulling like a draw-string thing was a bit more of a challenge than they made it sound, but eventually it worked. I used 3 mm needles on this hat since the yarn was a bit chunky. I knit rather loosely, so this hat is slightly big, but Ronan likes it.
The hat I'm wearing above is based on a pattern called "Autumn Hat." It is meant to sit back on the head and be a little floppy. I like it a lot, so decided to make a variation of it in red for Dahin's teacher with a matching scarf (below on super model Ronan--the only one of my kids calm enough to sit through various fittings and final product photos). The hat only took a few hours to make, but the scarf took forever. Note to self no. 1: do not wait until the week of Christmas to begin making presents so you don't have to stay up all night and still not make the length of scarf you wanted to (took me three days and one all-night session to make). Note to self no. 2: If making a last minute scarf, stick with garter stitch and BIG needles; do not--I repeat--do not do a rib pattern on 5 mm needles. Yes I did. Oh well. The end result was ok, but, like I said, the scarf was no where near as long as I had wanted to make it. It was like hacking away at a stone that never appeared chipped. Also, the hat did not have the floppy look it was supposed to have and, I think, I accidentally left out some rows as these rows would have added some height to the hat. That's what I get for watching tv while knitting. But, it's still cute. Sent the set off to Dahin's teacher this morning after a sleepless night (yes, mommy was grumpy this morning).
No comments:
Post a Comment