Blue Beanie

I just finished this blue skullcap beanie with some yarn left over from my Christmas knitting.

Blue Beanie

I made this one for my stepfather. It's totally improvised but I think it turned out ok.

Mom's Hat

I finished my mother's hat. I think she'll like it.

Starting Hat For Mom

The white beanie I made was basically a stitch practice piece for a hat I plan to make my mother for Christmas. I've now cast on what will be a full sized hat using the same stitch patterns.

Pattern For My Beanie

As requested this is the pattern for the white beanie I made.

Worsted weight yarn of your choice. US size 8 16" circs or DPNs.

Cast on 88 stitches and join.

Round 1. P round.

Round 2. K round.

Rounds 3 & 4. Repeat 1 & 2.

Round 5. *K1, YO, SSK* repeat around,

Repeat rounds 1-5 until length is approx 3 inches (or desired length). End with Round 2.


For top of hat. When decreases too small for circ switch to DPNs, Magic Loop, or two circs as preferred.

1. *SSK. K9* repeat around.
2. *SSK, K8* repeat around
3. *SSK, K7* repeat around

Repeat decreases, 8 decreases per round( SSK, K6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) until you have 8 stitches remaining. Cut 12" tail and thread through remaining 8 stitches, thread tail to inside of hat and pull to close stitches tight. Weave tail.

White Beanie

This past week I wanted to try out the new 16" needles to make a hat and also decided to try something new, using a combination of increases and decreases to create a pattern of holes. I think it worked out quite well.

I also decided to try a new technique for doing the decreases. Instead of using Magic Loop I employed two circulars and it worked out very well. I think that's going to be my method of choice for small diameter circular knitting from now on. I guess I'll be ordering duplicate Options points and extra cables.

New Needles

Today the mailman brought me the two new 16" circs I ordered from Knit Picks. A size 10 and a size 8. I ordered them for doing hats.

While they seem really small to me, I'm looking forward to using them for a proper sized hat.

I love getting new toys. :D

Sabrina's Scarf Coming Along

It's coming along. Yesterday I emailed her a pic to make sure she would like the color before I get too far along with it. She seems to like it so I'm continuing along with it.

I like the Bernat yarn and the grey/white colorway looks pretty good.

Starting Sabrina's Scarf

Today I picked up a couple of skeins of Bernat Softee Chunky in the Grey Ragg colorway. I think it will make a nice Palindrome scarf for my friend Sabrina. I'll be casting it on and starting it as soon as I finish typing this.

Home Again

After over six weeks on the road I finally made it home again yesterday. It feels good to be home again.

As I have yet to go buy groceries (going today) I just ordered a pizza for dinner last night. When the delivery driver arrived he handed me one of those rubber thingies you use to open tight jar lids. It has the Papa Johns logo on it and they had written a few specials on the reverse side.

That was quite cool. I use one of those things to grip my Options needles when tightening the cable and mine was starting to wear out and come apart. I had planned on buying a new one while shopping today. The Papa Johns one went straight into my knitting bag. :D

I'll be doing my shopping a little later today and then spend the rest of my home time just relaxing and working on my knitting. I have the black Palindrome scarf to work on and plan to start another scarf for a friend in Virginia who asked me to make one for her.

Hopefully I can make enough progress on hers to have it ready before Christmas, but am not holding my breath on that. I've already let her know that it may not be ready by then.

Friend Going To Peru

This morning I received an email from a friend who lives on the Pacific coast. He said the he and his wife were going to Peru for the Christmas holiday. That sounds like a lot of fun.

I emailed him back and told him that if he were to run across some alpaca wool yarn for a good price I would be very happy to buy it from him when they return. I think it would be cool to get some alpaca straight from Peru.

I hope he does bring some back with him. He isn't a knitter but I trust that his wife will be able to select something decent.

Lint! Argh!

I finally made it home from the road after about 6 weeks or so.

I decided to wash the black hat that I had knit recently. I put it in the machine all by it's lonesome. I put it through a wash and then a dry. It came out covered with lint! Argh!

How the hell am I going to get all this lint off the hat? It would take forever to pick it all off by hand. Surely there must be a way to do this?

Maybe I'll just have to trash it and knit another one. Sigh.

Restarting Black Palindrome Scarf

Now that I have finished and delivered Melissa's hat I have cast on the black Palindrome Scarf I frogged a while back.

I'll have some time this weekend to get a decent start on it before having to hit the road again.

Finished Melissa's Hat

As I am holed up in a hotel in WI I had some time to finish Melissa's hat. It has a rough look to it, which is deliberate as it is supposed to go with her corduroy coat.

I had hoped to be able to wash it so that that the stitches would be all nice and even as washing tends to do, as well as have it shrink a little to give a better fit. I'll just have to instruct her as to what to do.

I'll pop in and give it to her later this afternoon. I hope she'll like it.

Still Working

I'm still working on Melissa's hat. I've been pretty busy on the road so haven't had a lot of knitting time. I shut down in Missoula, MT tonight and spent a little time sitting in the casino enjoying a few adult beverages and knitting on the hat.

I managed to do a few rows before conversations intruded and made it hard to knit and chat at the same time. One woman told me that she found men who are willing to do their own thing, like knitting, very sexy. That was cool but I'd hardly find that a reason to invite AIDS or some other social disease.

I chatted with her a while and gradually let her know I wasn't interested. She eventually wandered away.

As I am heading back to WI I am trying to get Melissa's hat finished before I get there.

A Little Down Time

Snoqualmie Pass was closed to oversized loads yesterday so I was stuck until they opened it back up. I checked into a motel and spent some of my down time working on Melissa's hat.

It's coming along ok and I may not frog it after all. I'm still undecided but am a little happier with it now. I am hoping to finish it in the next few days so I can have it ready for her when I get back to WI.

Not Happy With The Hat

I've been working on Melissa's hat but so far am not really happy with it. The Homespun yarn is a bear to work with, and the hat just doesn't look all that good to me.

I'll work on it a little more before I decided if I'll finish it this way or frog it and start over again. I suspect I'll probably wind up frogging it.

Another Hat

I started a hat for a bartender I know. She saw the last hat I made and asked if I could make her one that would compliment her coat.

I'm using Lion Brand Homespun in the Sierra colorway to make it. This is the first and probably last time I use the Homespun. This stuff is very hard to work with.

Frogged The Black Palindrome Scarf

I somehow managed to screw up the pattern in the scarf and wound up frogging the whole thing and will have to start it over again. Good thing I'm not on any deadline with it!

This Blog

I started this blog to have a place to write about knitting out here on the road and to keep the knitting related stuff separate from the mundane, everyday stuff I normally write about on my daily blog.

I'll be recording the notes and comments about my knitting projects here, along with any knitting related anecdotes as they may come up.

If you're not into knitting this won't be the blog for you to be reading.