Happy birthday Louise - I made you a hat!

My blog has a lot to thank Louise for. She is, in a way, responsible for its very existence. Louise's own blogs first introduced me to the delights of blogging and she patiently held my hand and guided my initial tentative baby steps into the Wide World of Blogging. It's hard to believe that was two years ago already. And darn it, I've realized that I missed my second blogiversary which was about a fortnight ago.

Louise is an awesome photographer. Louise sees her photography as capturing moments. She loves to convey stories and memories through her photographs. Have a look at her current blog: Louise Barbara or her Photo Diary.

So last night was Louise's 21st birthday party and I was honoured to be invited. Louise and my middle daughter Mel are off on the European adventure of a life time in late November this year. So it seemed appropriate to make Louise her own unique accessory appropriate for the depths of a European winter and fashionable enough that she would be proud to wear it. So when Louise was here a few weeks ago baking salted caramel macaroons with Mel and doing the next installment of trip planning, I got her to try on some of the kid's hats, did some measuring and subtly probed for appropriate wardrobe color choices.

Louise and Mel made salted caramel macaroons. They were awesome!

I had a plan. I knew a long soft slouchy beanie with a softly draping crown would suit Louise the best. But none of the patterns I had were quite right. I wanted something structured and cabled by with a feminine twist. I wanted to create a hat that would set off her long loose curls.

Cat and a hat. This is a common sight. I quite frequently find Cara the cat curled up on or around my current knitting project. She has a second sense of avoiding pointy things whilst still snuggling up to soft cuddly things.

On the front of Issue 55 of The Knitter is a beautiful soft pink cable and lace cowl jumper by Martin Storey called Winterbloom. Whilst it has a lot of things about it that I dislike enough that I would never make it (it's pink and has a cowl and it's 4 ply so would take forever) there was still something about it that called to me. I love how from a distance that delicate cable and lace pattern formed a checkerboard with strong diagonals that draw the eyes  across and up. I realized I wanted to use that stitch pattern but not as a jumper. Alright I thought, why not recreate it as Louise's hat?

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Pattern: Adapted stitch pattern from Winterbloom Jumper by Martin Storey
Source: The Knitter Issue 55
Needles: 4mm set of 4 jumper length Antique Aero needles
Yarn:  Upcycled 8 ply (DK) op shop wool. Creamish brown blend. It has a really soft fuzz and light halo and blocks up with a light soft squishy feel and drape.

So this is my first go at making my own hat without a pattern. I've made enough of them now though using patterns to have an idea of what I was doing and I know my gauge with various needle and yarn weight combinations. I cast on 100 stitches on 4 mm dpns and completed 15 rows of single rib. Then I increased 10 stitches evenly around the next round of rib giving me 110 stitches. The pattern repeat from Winterbloom is 22 stitches and 24 rows. So I set up 5 repeats around the beanie and completed five repeats of the pattern overall giving a long deep slouch before the crown shaping. Then I decreased down to 10 stitches over the next 12 rows. I wanted to maintain the pattern whilst I was doing this so I began by decreasing the purl strips between pattern elements, then gently decreased the width of the cables whilst still being able to complete the cable rows and finally decreased the lace stitches. I decreased 5, 10, 15 or 20 stitches roughly every second row depending on which pattern element I was decreasing. I am really proud of how this turned out.

I'm now looking forward to numerous gorgeous pictures of this hat on its trip through Europe with Louise.

K is for Knitting

As you can probably guess from the name of my blog (Knitographical), I'm a knitter! I feel occasionally like I should be in one of those support groups. "Hi. My name is Jo-ann and I'm a Knitter!" I've dabbled in lots of things: I sew well when I feel like it. (I used to be a dab had at making tutus and other ballet costumes, made my own wedding dress and dressed my children in lovingly hand made outfits till they grew too destructive on their clothes). I crochet competently. I've tried quilting and embroidery and appliqué and been pleased with the results but they failed to capture my heart and soul like knitting has.

Me knitting on the train. My son who took this says it it is deliberately headless as the look of concentration on my face when I knit is never pretty.

It's a rare week when I don't knit something. I'd love to knit every day but the pressures of the day job prevent this at certain times of the year.

Knitting is a hobby with relatively low overheads. All you really need is needles, something vaguely string-like to knit with and a couple of simple tools.

So here's a guide to the knitter's tool of the trade and a sneak peek at the way knitting has slightly invaded my house. I think I have my hobby contained but taking these photos made me realise how it is infiltrating almost every room in my house.

Knitting needles

These come in a great variety of sizes, style and materials. Knitting needles are commonly made of metal (either steel or aluminium), plastic, bamboo or wood. Antique knitting needles were made of bone, ivory and tortoiseshell. In Australia, needles are now metrically sized in mm. However, we used to use the old UK sizing and America used a different labelling system again. Here's a handy needle conversion chart if you're are like me and have a mix of old and new needles. I have been collecting for about 30 years with hand-me down needles from a grandmother, mother, assorted aunties and a cousin. These days I rehabilitate lonely old knitting needles (mainly sets of sock needles and veteran plastic needles especially faux tortoiseshell) from op shops. I'm personally a fan of metal needles. There are straight needles, sets of double pointed needles (dpns) for knitting in the round and circular needles. There are even a few cable needles and crochet hooks here. A common question for the beginning knitter is "How do I chose the right knitting needle?" For a useful guide with pictures start here. So here's the needle collection. I also have some more bamboo ones which were hiding somewhere obscure.

These are the antique plastic ones. My menfolk bought me most of the faux tortoiseshell ones. They know the way to my heart.

Yarn

Then you need yarn. Yarn  is the generic American term for any spun fibre. It can be acrylic, viscose (high class acrylic), silk, wool, alpaca, mohair, cashmere, cotton, linen, bamboo, hemp, mink, bison or even soy silk, banana fibre or milk protein. Once you have sufficient yarn it breeds into a peculiar beast known as the stash. My stash has been fed by cast-offs from the wider family and I'm currently wrestling with getting it down to manageable proportions. The stash has it own baskets where the most recent additions live for ease of petting. After all wool is made to fondle. Those white balls on the top for example are cashmere and waiting to become a future cable beanie. It's like petting a furry bunny.The larger stash has its own cupboard where it is is confined into nifty plastic containers and colour coded.

 

 

 

Tools

You only really need a a few simple tools. Scissors, a tape measure, wool needles for sewing up and some stitch holders (They're the giant safety pin like things). A needle gauge is handy for working out what size the odd needles are.

Patterns

Any knitter needs inspiration and instructions. So this is the excuse to buy books and magazines and patterns. This is where space can really become an issue. Here's a small selection of my bookshelves. The one below is in my bedroom and is an interesting mix of knitting books, kits and textbooks (mainly maths ones).

This is my magazine shelf in my office. These are very precious Australian Handmade magazines from the late 1980's through to early 2000s, after which it became a crappy magazine with too much quilting and scrapping.

And this is what iscurrently hanging out in the magazine basket on the TV cabinet in the lounge room.

This is what the corner of my lounge looks like, baskets of wool and the Works in Progress (WIPs).

This is the Granny wants a Latte Macchiato granny rug in progress, a bag full of squares and the wool.

And here's the odds and ends basket.

I think I'm having a positive influence on my family though. Here's a quiet Sunday afternoon on my couch.