Rolled Brim Hat

Well, the days are getting shorter, there is a chill in the air, and before you know it, it will be winter hat weather. I have a great pattern that I have perfected for a rolled brim hat. it goes a little something like this...

Roll Brim Hat
Gauge: Stitches per inch ________ X________ around head = # of stitches to cast on ________. For example, gauge is 4 stitches to the inch X a 20" = Cast on 80 stitches. Round off to a number evenly divisible by something!
Rolled brim hat - **Cast on appropriate number for gauge. Making sure stitches are not twisted, place marker and join round. Knit every round until hat measures 6 inches.
To Decrease:Place 2 markers at beginning of round.Place a marker every 20 stitches as you knit the next round.
Next row: Knit to last 2 stitches before the first marker, knit those 2 stitches together. Continue knitting the round while knitting the last 2 stitches together before each marker. Stop at double marker (beginning of round). Then knit next row.
Decrease Round 1: Knit to within last 2 stitches of each marker, knit 2 together.
Decrease Round 2: Knit Plain
Decrease Round 3: Knit to within last 2 stitches of each marker, knit 2 together.
Decrease Round 4: Knit Plain
Decrease Round 5: Remove all markers but one (this now indicates the beginning of your row)
*Knit 2 stitches, Knit 2 tog*
Decrease Round 6: Knit Plain
Decrease Round 7: *Knit 1 Stitch, Knit 2 tog*
Decrease Round 8: Knit Plain
Decrease Round 9: * Knit 2 tog*
Continue decreasing every other round for a gentle rounded crown shape. When you complete decrease round 9, cut a 20" tail of yarn, thread your yarn needle and thread it through the remaining stitches, drawing them up tight. Weave in ends.

A couple of tips for using this pattern: if you're working with a thinner yarn, do a more gradual decrease, and maybe repeat the decrease rows. With a bulkier yarn, you can try a more rapid decrease.

I found this pattern online somewhere a long time ago and have made a lot of modifications to it over the years. This is a great, easy, versitile pattern that I reccomend for beginners once they know the basics - how to cast on, knit, decrease. It's a great way to learn about gauge, and you can try it on while you are knitting it so you get the perfect fit. I have made many of these hats of the years, both for myself and as gifts, and it always goes over well. For any of my students out there who have made a hat using this pattern, I would love it if you could e-mail me a picture. I will post them all here so we can see. Thanks!

One last thing - On Wednesdays from 8-8 at Spark during the knitting circle, you can place your special orders for yarn, and if you order their yarn of the week, you get 10% off. There is a minimum order of 5 skeins, which is great if you are making a big project like a sweater or making multiple items as gifts. Yarn of the week this week is Manos del Uruguay! Check out my last post for Manos info.
Happy Shopping!

New Yarn and Accessories!

From time to time, I would like to post information about new yarns and knitting accessories. Please post a comment if there are any new products I should be aware of!

First off, Noro has Silk Garden sock yarn! Finally! I cannot wait to get my hands (and feet) on some. I love their Kureyon sock yarn. At Spark somebody made a shawl out of it for a sample and I think it is beautiful. Can you imagine one from the Silk Garden sock yarn? A great idea. Noro also has a couple other new yarns, you can check them out here.

Manos del Uruguay has some new colors for their silk blend. Spark will hopefully be getting some of that in sometime soon.

Also, what about this? A Knitter's Blocking Kit! It is a series of wires and t-pins created to make your blocking experience easier and more successful. I must have one! Has anybody out there tried it? I would love to get some feedback. It sounds great.

Make sure to post comments! Let me know about any new products you have heard about.

The Great Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Scandal of 2008 (and 2006)

First, a little background: in 2006, a yarn shop out of Chestnut Hill, PA, decided to get Debbie Bliss’ Cashmerino yarn scientifically tested by a lab and found that although the label states the yarn contains 12% cashmere, it in fact has none. I could not find a concrete reason as to why this shop went ahead and tested the yarn, although one blogger speculated it was because they were angry at Knitting Fever, the company who produces the yarn, because they stopped doing business with the shop for some reason. After the initial shock, not much was heard about it until now. The Knit With, the shop out of PA is suing Knitting Fever, Designer Yarns, Filatura Pettinata, Sion and Diane Elalouf, Jeffrey Denecke, Jr., Jay Opperman, and Debbie Bliss. The knitting bloggers are feverish, and ravelry.com is flooded with posts on the scandal. I am going to weigh in here.

I am taking a controversial, and for those who know me, perhaps even a shocking stance on this issue. Debbie Bliss yarn feels great. It’s super to work with and I buy it for the feel and the price, not the content. It is pretty much my one exception as a purist, so I don’t care if it’s 25% microfiber or 80%. So what if there is no cashmere? I know people don’t like to be lied to, but can we really be shocked? It’s not like this yarn was so expensive that people got robbed out of their money. It was always too good to be true. And I doubt too many people would have refused to buy the yarn in the first place if it didn’t claim to have cashmere in it. It feels great, it’s washable, it’s affordable, and the colors are exquisite. I for one stand by Debbie, despite her fraudulent ways.

What do all of you think about this? I’d love to hear your take.

For more info, go here or here

Woolwash

For blocking or washing your wool knitted garments, there really is nothing better than woolwash. Some people try to get away with using washing machine detergent. If you’ve done it, you know it’s not a good idea. The main problem with washing machine detergent is that it lathers too much. You put a drop on your garment and it foams right up. This is no good. If you really refuse to part with $3.00 for woolwash, use a very small amount of dish soap. This won’t lather up too much and will clean your garment reasonably well.

Can you tell I love woolwash? It works so much better than any other alternatives – no suds and it restores the lanolin in your knitted items. My favorite kind is Kookaburra, it smells great and you can pick it up in most knitting shops. There are plenty of other brands too, and I even found a home recipe:

To wash a sinkful of woolens:Fill a mug with boiling water, and add a pea-sized dollop of lanolin. Add about 1/4 t. of shampoo and then stir briskly to suspend the melted lanolin in the liquid. You can also stir in a few drops of a favorite essential oil at this point - Lavender is nice and keeps moths away, as does Eucalyptus and Cedar oils.Add the cupful of "wool wash" to a sinkful of hot water, and submerge your woolen items. Squeeze the woolens gently a few times, then let them soak for about 10 minutes. Let the water out of the sink, and squeeze out the water. Rinse the woolens with clear warm water, squeeze out, then roll in a towel and lay flat to dry.

This is from http://hyenacart.com/FernandFaerie/. Check out their patterns for home-made tampons!

The Addi Click

Not sure if you all have heard about this, but Addi Needles are coming out with a new product – the Addi Click. It is an interlocking circular needle “system” similar to the very popular Denise needles. You get three cords, 24, 32, and 40 inches, and 10 sizes of needles that click on and off. I’m sure all you ADDIcts already know about this and have your set ordered. I find the Addi enthusiasts fascinating. I have some Turbos in my collection, but typically prefer wooden circular needles. As a general rule I let fiber and project type drive the sort of needles I use, and being someone who delves in natural fibers like wool, alpaca, silks, and cottons it is bamboo needles for me, metal would be too slippery! I understand why people prefer Addis – they are faster to use; the yarn slides on and off so easily. I think there is more to it than that, however. I believe that there is something sexy about the Turbo. That cold hard steel in your hands does something to a certain type of knitter. Even the name, Turbo, feeds into this idea. Turbos are like the hot-rods of knitting. I consider myself to be a more organic, earthy type of knitter, and my needle choices reflect that.

Back to the Addi Click – this product was announced a couple months ago and there has been A LOT of buzz about it. They were limiting stores orders to only ten kits per store and they sold out pretty much instantly. Stores who didn’t get their name on this first list must wait. Spark should be getting in a few kits before Christmas. They are very pricy but when you consider how much each set of needles costs, it is reasonable. And I know that money is no object for the Addi-obsessed. It will be interesting to see how they go in the store.

Knitting Horror Stories

My previous post about unfinished sweaters has gotten me thinking about all the terrible things that have happened to my knitting projects. I love a gory, savage knitting horror story. Everyone has them – terrible things happen to knitters. I’d like to share a few of my own, hopefully to prompt you all to share your ghastly accounts. My students have heard all these before; I make it a point to share these tales with others, not only to work through my own grief, but so everyone knows these things happen.

Here’s the first one that ever happened to me, ever. Not surprisingly, it’s about a sweater. I was a junior in college, embarking on my first sweater. The pattern I selected was the Wonderful Wallaby, limitless in its wearability. Hood, pocket, perfection. I painstakingly selected a bluish-green worsted weight Green Mountain Spinnery wool. Selecting the yarn was nearly impossible. Needless to say, I was a poor college student, and my local yarn shop, Cityside Yarn Co in Bangor, Maine, had a ridiculous amount of worsted weight yarn. Did I want 100% wool? Single ply? What color? How much could I really afford to spend? Since I really couldn’t afford to spend anything, I selected a yarn that was on the pricier side but was on sale. I balled up one skein, tucked the rest away, and started work on it. I moved through that first ball of yarn and went searching for the rest. They were never to be found. A frantic search of my tiny dorm room ensued, nothing short of digging through the communal trash room in my university dormitory. Alas, I had no money to replace the yarn, and the store had stopped carrying Green Mountain Spinnery anyway. The wallaby never came to fruition.

Here’s another tale of terror – another sweater story, if you couldn’t guess. I knit a tiny toddler sweater out of a dusty pink Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. Soft, beautiful, and to increase the cute quotient, the pattern called for intarsia bunnies. I don’t know what happened exactly, but I pulled a comparable weight skein of white yarn from my stash, and worked the bunnies in. Then it came time to block the sweater. I’m not sure why, but I decided to experiment with steaming as a means of blocking. I have to say, I was not a fan. The steaming didn’t alter the stitches enough. So, I started innocently pressing a little bit. No big deal, you can press cashmere and wool endlessly. Unfortunately, the skein I had selected for the adorable little bunnies was acrylic. It melted and charred upon contact with the iron. I don’t even know how acrylic yarn found its way into my stash, but it never will again. I reluctantly gave the sweater to its recipient, burnt bunny asses and all.

Alright, I have bared my soul, now it is your turn. Lets hear your knitting disasters!

The Chibi

The Chibi.

Best five dollars you will ever spend. Let’s start with the unassuming case: this case keeps your needles from getting lost, and is the perfect size for you to slip a few stitch markers with you so you’ll always have some. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a tiny loop on the side of the case, begging you to wear your Chibi as a necklace. The needle is the best part. It has a metallic coating, which is paramount, because the needle slides easily through your stitches. If you’ve ever tried to use a sticky plastic needle, you know what I’m talking about. The Chibi needle is thin and trim, and slides easily through the smallest of stitches without stretching them out. This is almost unbelievable when you consider the eye of the Chibi needle, which is so large it can accommodate even the largest yarn. The trick is that it’s not a wide but a very long eye. Another feature of the Chibi needle I’d like to highlight is the little angle at the tip, which almost magically wrangles your stitches right up onto the needle. They come two to a case because they know you’re going to lose one. I love that they know me so well, they know I’m going to need two. These are the reasons why the Chibi is the best.


Helpful Hints for Threading Your Chibi
I take the yarn and fold it in half around the Chibi.



I pull the Chibi all they way up to the top of the fold.


Then, I scoot my fingers up so that I’m pinching the yarn tightly around the needle and pull the needle out.


There will only be about a millimeter of yarn sticking out.

That little bit goes perfectly into the needle, regardless of splittyness or thickness.


There you have it!

Book Reviews

Periodically, I will post some reviews for books I've looked at recently. Here's three fairly new books of note.

Knitting With Balls: A Hands-On Guide to Knitting for the Modern Man
Michael del Vecchio, 2006
Knitting With Balls is geared towards men who knit for themselves. The book starts off with the obligatory knitting tutorial, not one of the better ones I’ve read but not awful. The patterns include cell phone holders, a wallet, cardigan and pullover sweaters, scarves, a very feminine traveling bag, and more. The patterns are pretty straightforward, but mostly quite feminine and not that attractive, although I do not feel comfortable saying a pattern is gender appropriate or not; I reject such notions. Still, this book is probably worth a look, and if you have a male friend who knits or wants to knit, you might think of picking this up.
Personal favorite patterns from this book: Medallion Mitts, Laptop Cover

Hip Graphic Knits
Rochelle Bourgault & Lisa B. Evans, 2006
Hip Graphic Knits is one of the neater books I’ve looked at in a while. The beginning of the book gives a brief tutorial on color knitting and graphic knitting, and then launches into the patterns. I would recommend this book for intermediate to advanced knitters – there is not much handholding here, you need to have a basic understanding of what you are doing. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that it provides you with a great range of projects, from small things such as belts and mittens, to large projects like sweaters and blankets. The book provides you with multiple pictures of each finished project. One plus about this particular book is that it’s spiral bound, which is always a plus.
PFPFTB: Marimekko-Inspired Felted Needle Case, Cropped Cardigan

Knitorama: 25 Great & Glam Things to Knit
Rachael Matthews – 2005
Whoa! This book is wild. Decent “how to knit” section written with a good sense of humor – entertaining to thumb through and look at the pictures. The patterns are crazy and range from practical – there’s a good easy dishcloth - to the insane – a pattern for a knitted chocolate cake?? There are a few clothing patterns that I’m not crazy about, the bra pattern is quite ugly. Need some knitted mallards to complete your living room décor? How about a remote control cozy fashioned to look like a hand grenade? This is the book for you! One note to be aware of – several of the patterns require knitting and crocheting, so if you are a crochet hater, beware.
PFPFTB: Fried Egg Earmuffs, Speaker Covers

Thrifty Tips and Tricks

As a knitter, I am always trying to save money where I can, basically because I am frequently spending a lot of money that I don’t have. I’ve got to save my money on boring necessities where I can, like notions, because I will inevitably splurge on a $25 skein of hand-painted wool with no project in mind for it.

I restrict my needle intake to those that I absolutely require. If I am working on a project that asks for needles I don’t have, let’s say 9” single point nines for example, I am going to buy 16” circular nines, because I know I can make hats with a heavy worsted weight yarn with those needles (besides the fact that I have sworn off single pointed needles – see earlier post). I buy lots of yarn and I love knitting books. It just isn’t satisfying for me to have them for a week and then return them to the library.

So, here are some tips and tricks for incorporating household items in my knitting:

• You can use a paper clip as a stitch marker. You can also use safety pins, rubber bands, or tiny scraps of paper stabbed onto your needle.
• Rubber bands are excellent point protectors.
• A spare double pointed needle can double as a cable needle.
• Waste yarn for holding stitches; in fact, that is one substitution that I emphatically prefer over the recommended notion. Why use a stiff metal contraption that costs around five bucks to hold your stitches when you could use waste yarn that doesn’t contort your project, stab you when you try it on, or cost you any extra money?

To be honest, I not only resort to these tactics to save money, but also because sometimes when knitting a project, I will take it with me and not have the forsight to bring my notions with me. This results in being stuck in an office and needing to come up with a MacGuyver-esque strategy to be able to move on with my project.

No mention of notions could be complete without mentioning my favorite knitting notion, the Chibi. The Chibi is my favorite knitting product, and deserves a post unto itself - look for that in the next few days. In the meantime, please share some of your favorite thrifty tips and tricks with everybody. I look forward to reading them!

Knitter's Block

I have knitter’s block. You all know how it is – I started a holiday gift around December of last year and it remains unfinished. No matter how hard I try, I cannot finish this project! Every time I pick it up, I am instantly bored, longing to start something new.

To be honest, I think I have a problem with sweaters. Students have often asked me, “what kinds of projects do you do?” Specifically, people want to know how many sweaters I have made. As someone who considers herself a relatively experienced knitter and instructor, I do not want my skills judged by the measly three sweaters I have completed (two of these were quite small children’s’ sweaters). Maybe a sweater is just too big of a project for me. I’ve never even attempted an afghan or blanket. The first sweater I made was started, worked diligently on, and completed. Is it considered completed if I never put the buttons on it? Hmm…in that case, bring me down to a measly two children’s sweaters.

I have had a relationship with one sweater for almost six years. It is a big sweater, XL men’s, but the size isn’t really the issue. The knitting has actually been finished for probably three years. I can’t face the seaming. I know I’m not alone here; I have met professional seamers over the years, people who do nothing but take people’s sweaters and sew up the seams. So there it sits, partially seamed, at the bottom of a pile of knitting.

Anyways, the current sweater I can’t finish doesn’t even require seaming! It’s knit in the round and I have about 12” on one sleeve left to complete. And then the sweater’s totally done. But I still can’t face it! I’m afraid I’ve put it off so long that now, nearly a year later, I’ve discovered I didn’t buy enough yarn in the first place, and I have run out. I know all the tricks about getting new yarn and joining it, pulling it back and alternating rows if it doesn’t really match, but how can I face something like that when I can’t even face the basic knitting? I may just cut off the other sleeve, and make it a short-sleeved hooded sweater.
What do you think?

Circular Needle Proclimation

I have decided that straight needles are unnecessary and I am eliminating them from my life!

Okay, that may be an exaggeration; I will probably hold on to the straight needles I have, but I will never buy another pair. I came to this realization while talking to one of the owners of Spark. It seemed pretty revolutionary at the time, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this is a reasonable and prudent decision. Straight needles are redundant. Anything you do on a straight needle you can do on a circular needle, and there are many benefits to using circulars over straights:

• Circular needles are more portable, because they coil up and fit easily into your bag or what have you, and your project is safer because it slides into the middle of the coil and is less likely to pop off the end of the stick.
  




• Long wooden needles that are low sizes are very fragile and easily break, so you are pretty much forced to use metal straight needles in low sizes, and based on your needle preference or the type of wool you are using with your project, metal is simply unacceptable. Wood needles can be an option when using circular.
  




• You can knit back and forth on a flat project AND in the round with circulars.
  




• You can’t misplace one needle-they’re attached!

While I personally have been off straight needles for some time because I am cheap, and have suggested circular needles to any more intermediate knitters working on projects particularly utilizing straight needles, as an instructor I have encouraged beginning students to purchase straight needles. That’s a bit odd, because as an instructor, I tend to encourage students to challenge themselves. It’s not that I don’t think that beginners can start out on circular needles; it’s just that I had never thought about it before. So, I have decided as an instructor to teach all beginners on circular needles from now on, and to spread the word about needlessness of straight needles.
Beginning knitters can easily pick up this skill; I’ve seen it happen. There have been times due to lack of resources, I have taught people starting out on circular needles. They did fine. In fact, better than fine, because their beginner scarves never slid off the end of those pesky straight needles.
The caveat to the no-straight-needle proclimation is, of course, double pointed straight needles. I rely on them, and no, it isn’t because I haven’t tried magic loop. I just like them.

Some tips when using circular needles:

• In the beginning, even if you have a lot of experience knitting, say, scarves, for example, when you first take the switch to circular needles, take care not to connect the two ends.
  If you are annoyed by the curly nature of the coil, you can always steam it and it should straighten out, although they tend to lose their spring naturally with use, and when you have a project on them, it helps a lot.
  




• Experiment with metal and wood, depending on your preference.
  




• Be aware of the join where the cable meets the needle. You want this to be smooth so your work doesn’t get stuck on it.
  




• Always pull your project off of the tip of the needle and onto the cable when packing up your projects so no slide-offs occur.
  




• Circular needles do require a bit more organization because they do get tangled up together...
  

  ...so I highly recommend a needle organizer. My favorite is the Que, by Della Q.
  
  
  

Introduction

I worked as a knitting instructor and yarn department manager at Spark Craft Studios in Cambridge, MA for the past couple years. I have relocated to Colorado for graduate school. While at Spark, I met some amazing artists and crafters who I will miss very much. I’m starting this blog to maintain a connection with that community. I will continue to share my hints, tips, knitting advice, general advice, the ups, the downs, and hope you will all do the same. While the main theme is knitting, it certainly is not the only topic. When people get together to be creative and expressive, all aspects of their lives are brought to the table.