Tag Archives: quincy hat

Car knitting

Posted on April 12, 2010 | 11 comments

On Friday, The Teen and I went with a group of his friends and their parents to tour the University of Oregon. We had a great info session and tour. No pictures, because that would have been embarrassing, right?

Lucky me; I wasn’t the driver so I had four hours of car knitting, round trip. I didn’t want to work on my shawl, because I didn’t want to have to keep track of the pattern. And I wasn’t ready to start the April Fool’s socks yet. But I did knit all of the garter stitch band for a Quincy hat.

bslp worsted

This is Quincy in Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, the color is Red Hot Passion. My sister requested this hat for her birthday. I finished the garter stitch band in the car, and finished the hat at home that evening. A one day project!

I originally started this hat after Christmas with Lamb’s Pride Bulky, but even though the yarn knit to gauge, it was much heavier than the specified Classic Elite Ariosa. I wasn’t happy with it, and it made my hands tired to knit to that gauge. After avoiding it for a couple months, I decided to start over with the thinner yarn. The worsted is a little light for this project; the perfect yarn would have been somewhere between the two. But it was all about the color; Sis wanted it to be the very red of the OXO Cable fingerless mitts (see sidebar) I designed for her Christmas present.

worsted and bulky

Here it is with the original bulky garter stitch band underneath. The first one was close to done, but I was running out of yarn, and didn’t love it enough to buy more. That’s telling. Using the worsted on a size 9 needle resulted in a slightly floppy hat, but that’s what I had on the trip. I think I may felt it down just a little. It still needs to be blocked, anyway. My hands were much happier knitting to this gauge!

What else did I do with my weekend?

trellis

I put a new trellis on the front of the house, and planted a clematis vine on it. I’m looking forward to vivid purple flowers. Our previous trellis had a climbing hydrangea growing on it, but it wasn’t happy with its newly sunny location (we took down a huge birch tree a few years ago; it was stressed after being hit by a pickup truck). The hydrangea and its trellis has gone to live at a friend’s house. Everybody wins!

What did you do with your weekend?

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Auto-pilot knitting

Posted on February 14, 2010 | 17 comments

twenty

I ripped back my mistake on the Heather Hoodie, and re-knit back up to where I was, and then some. I’m at 20 out of 22 inches on the back. This morning I woke up and remembered that I had planned to modify the pattern and bind off a bit at the armholes to make this a modifed drop shoulder instead of a full on drop shoulder. Oops. Guess I was knitting on auto-pilot. The Olympic men’s short track skating was so thrilling, I lost track of what I was doing!

twenty detail

So I’m looking for opinions here. I’m 5’2″, not a big person. The fabric of this is pretty dense, and I have about an inch to 1.5 inches of ease all around on this cardi. Do I rip back 6 inches so that I have 8 inches of armhole for a modified drop sleeve, better shoulder fit), or just carry on as written and have sleeves that start further down from my shoulder? It’s pretty quick knitting, big yarn and big needles, so I don’t mind doing it. I just have to decide if it will make enough difference to be worth it. Here’s a picture from the pattern, if that helps. I’m planning on long sleeves instead of this vest look.

pattern

bias

For now this project is in time-out, awaiting your advice. But in the meantime, you can admire how the Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky looks like it has a vertical stripe. It’s because it a singles yarn, not plied. Instead of V’s, the left leg of each knit stitch looks like a half a V, and the right leg looks like a vertical line. I like it.

neverendinggarter

I’m back at work on my sister’s Quincy hat. It’s never-ending garter stitch for quite a while. Still garter stitching…

garter close

I really like the knit-in i-cord edging. So tidy!

case

Thanks to all who helped celebrate Marie’s birthday. The blog party was fun! I took the names of all of you who were interested in the dpn case and put them in a Pippi hat. And the winner is…

Katy over at What Katy Did! Katy, please email me your snail mail addy, and I will send you the needle case. Congratulations!

And happy lunar new year and Valentine’s Day to you all, too. Are you celebrating? Gung hay fat choy!

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New year, new project

Posted on January 3, 2010 | 22 comments

Just a small one. Or a big one, depending on how you look at it.

I’m making myself some slippers. I love this color; it’s been living in my stash as leftovers from some long ago project. Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, the color is called Raspberry. I finished knitting these last night.

unfelted

A perfect fit, wouldn’t you say?

perfect fit

Maybe not. But that’s okay. These are the French Press Felted Slippers from Melynda Bernardi; they’re just not felted yet. I saw these on the Yarn Harlot’s blog, and then on Tami’s blog, and then on Cristi’s blog. Each time was more enticing. Until I realized that these were knit in pieces, and seamed. That wasn’t so enticing.

I mentioned this deal-breaker to Cristi, and she kindly forwarded me a link to katec4b’s Ravelry project page, which gives instructions for adapting this to be knit seamlessly. Perfect. I bought the pattern, downloaded the mods, and knit away. And now the fun begins. On to the washing machine!

reds

I’ve been doing a lot of red knitting lately. There are my sister’s mitts, and these slippers, and I’m working on the red Quincy hat that my my sister requested. This is it so far; it’s Lamb’s Pride Bulky in Red Hot Passion.

red hot passion

Unfortunately, I’m going to frog this bit, and start over. The color is perfect with the mitts, but the Lamb’s Pride Bulky is a lot heavier than the Classic Elite Ariosa. The Lamb’s Pride Worsted is a lot lighter. So I’ll refigure the gauge and use this Bulky, and see how it turns out.

I’ve also ordered some Lamb’s Pride Bulky in Black Cherry for a cardigan for me. More red. A deep, dark red. Is red my new blue? My new purple? No, it’s just red. And I like it.

bing cherry

Happy new year! What’s new on your needles?

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Posted in Knit, ravelry

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Quincy rocks!

Posted on December 5, 2009 | 10 comments

quincy deux

I finished my second Quincy hat (ravelry link) yesterday. This is just the cleverest construction.

quincy deux top

One of the other knitters at knit night (Toni, if you’re keeping score) actually did the garter stitch kitchener join on the moebius strip. I commend her. I thought about doing it. BUT! She also turned the strip so that the join was under the twist of the moebius. Brilliant! I decided then and there that I’d use the three needle bind off again, and hide the slightly irregular join under the twist. Double brilliant! Because it’s hard to be chatty and learn a new technique at the same time, and knit night is all about the chatty. Check this out.

quincy deux seam

Isn’t it cool how the join is just sitting under the twist? I love it. So much that I’m going to take out the crown on the first Quincy hat and scoot that join under the twist, too. I’ve noticed that there’s a little garter bump on the i-cord, right where the join happens, and if it really bothered me, I’d do it differently next time (will there be a next time?). But it doesn’t really bother me, so I’m definitely not going back to re-do the first two!

Details: Quincy hat by Jared Flood
Yarn: Bulky Merino from Knitted Wit in Passionflower colorway
US size 10 needles for band, and size 9 dpns for crown
Mods: 3 needle bind off instead of grafting the ends of the moebius strip, and placing the twist under the twist line instead of opposite the twist

In other news, I just taught a Christmas stocking class at Twisted, using my snowflake Christmas stocking pattern. It was really fun. The group was great, funny and intrepid. They learned to turn a heel, a neater way to make a circular join, knitting in the round, working with two colors, and reading and following a chart. That’s a lot of ground to cover in 3 hours, but they were up for it, and they did great! They’ve promised me pictures of the finished stockings. I’m looking forward to them!

stocking christmas stocking

Knit on!

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A veritable potpourri

Posted on November 5, 2009 | 10 comments

Let’s see, where am I? Oh, yes, the contest!

I ran the random number generator at random.org and the winners are: Susie (KnittingKnoobie) for the purple Berroco Vintage Wool, and Marie (permissiontounwind) for the blue Lanaloft. I’ll be sending out yarn soon.

Just a bit of knitting going on here. We started the Quincy hat knitalong at knit night last week; I love the way the i-cord just happens on the edges. This will be the moebius strip of the hat band around the head. Isn’t it pretty?

garter

Here’s a better look at the edges. Don’t worry; the green is temporary. It’s a provisional cast on so the beginning can be grafted to the end.

provisional

And I’m still highly distracted by my new guitar. It has a lovely voice, and I’ve been playing a lot. I had the action adjusted (lowered) by our luthier, and it’s easier to play. Dreamy. Now I just need to learn to play better! I’m learning to pick arpeggios rather than just strum. Doing that while singing is an interesting exercise in coordination, but it’s getting better.

taki

I’m also writing a couple songs with a friend (he composes the music; I write the lyrics), and that’s been a lot of fun. I’m so lucky to have all these creative outlets in my life, and I know it.

Knit and play on!

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Quincy hat knitalong

Posted on October 29, 2009 | 12 comments

The Quincy Hat (ravlink) by Jared Flood (brooklyntweed). The first time I saw the pattern for this, I knew I had to knit it. It doesn’t matter that I don’t wear hats. The construction of this is so clever, I just have to do it.

pattern

It starts with a rectangle of garter stitch, twisted to make a moebius strip. Mmmm, garter stitch. Cool moebius! There’s some kitchener right there, but if I don’t feel like it, I’ll do a three needle bind off. We’ll see. Stitches are picked up to make the crown. There’s i-cord. What’s not to like?

ariosa

The yarn for the hat is pretty luxe stuff. It’s Classic Elite Ariosa, 90% extrafine merino, 10% cashmere, bulky weight. An extravagance for a hat I’ll never wear, but it will be soooooo nice to knit with, and it would make a wonderful gift, too.

I’m doing this hat as a knitalong with my knit night buds. The fun starts tonight. Or sooner, if I can’t resist it. Yeah, maybe sooner.

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