Tag Archives: garter stitch

fo: super hero helmet hat.

Posted on by
6

super hero helmet hat 1

super hero helmet hat 2

This is perhaps the squishiest, warmest hat I’ve ever made. (It may also be the biggest hat I’ve knit, but I’ll get to that.) I was so excited to discover that I won this pattern over at Cosy’s blog because I’ve been meaning to purchase this pattern, especially now that I have a pile of handspun that is just begging to be knit into smaller projects. I settled on some of my early wheelspun: AVFKW corriedale in The Candle’s Nimble Flame.

Using size 10.5 needles, I cast on for the larger size medium (if you have the pattern, you’ll know exactly what I mean), and knit to the decreases. The hat is knit back and forth, so I wrapped it around my head and realized that it was going to be way too big. I tend not to swatch with hats, as most of the time it seems like I can eye it and the hat will fit someone, but I hadn’t really taken into account how thick and thin this handspun is, and clearly my powers of estimation are less accurate when evaluating something knit flat. I frogged what I had and started over, casting on 8 stitches fewer and beginning again.

I finished late last night, and I absolutely love the earflaps and the shape of the hat. It may still be a bit big — I didn’t think really think about row gauge, and I probably should have accounted for that in adjusting for my surprisingly thick yarn.

super hero helmet hat 3

That said, this may become my go-to hat for super cold days, dog-walking, hiking, etc. I can fit my growing expanse of hair under the hat (see first picture), no problem, and this hat is loose enough that I can stay warm without flattening my hair while out walking with Boh. (This matters on days where I have to head back to campus for afternoon and evening events.)

Most importantly, this is an incredibly satisfying, soothing knit. I have a lot going on this week, and I just really needed to finish something last night — to feel productive, to see progress on at least one task, and I think finishing this super squishy hat and snapping a few (bleary-eyed) pictures helped me to sleep more deeply.

I might even cast on for another before the day is over.

Thanks, Cosy, for a clear, cute, satisfying, straightforward pattern. I highly recommend the Super Hero Helmet Hat!

Any and all wonkiness in the land of sizing rests solely on me, the variation in my thick and thin yarn, and my lack of patience! (I just needed to get to that garter stitch happy place, and ignored gauge issues in order to blissfully knit back and forth — and I do not regret it!)

Advertisement

garter = good.

Posted on by
9

gyc yokeinprog

There’s a lot going on this week, and at this point in the semester, I’m trying to do a lot of planning in order to feel a bit more in control of my life. When that stuff gets slightly overwhelming, I’ve found that garter stitch can help: it offers soothing repetitive motion, the comfort of productivity, and sends my worries to the back of my brain. This is exactly the right cardigan to be working on right now!

gyc yokeinprogress2

I absolutely love how this looks in my handspun. My stitch counts are slightly off, because when I picked up the wraps, I didn’t knit them together with the stitch they were wrapping, so I’m at 152 st instead of 147 at about 20 rows in. I’ve done some quick math that will allow me to fix that in the next increase row.

worrieddog

worrieddog2

And Boh is, well, Boh. Here, it appears that he is helping with some of that worrying. He has his own schedule of napping, tail-chasing, walking in the woods, bone-sorting, etc. to plan out.

purple potatoes, pickled onions and progress.

Posted on by
4

Apologies for my kindergarten-esque approach to blogging this week. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that my brain is tired — first “real” meeting with my committee this morning. It will be fine, but the meeting does have the word “exam” in the title, and I’m still a tad nervous.

Onward to the letter “P”.

purple-potatoes

Purple Potatoes. These are, in fact, from my friend P.’s farm! Aren’t they beautiful?

egg-and-pickled-red-onions

Pickled Onions — from  (where else) Smitten Kitchen — Deb made a pickled red onion and escarole salad last week that sounded incredible, so I made the onions, put them on a bed of spinach and fried an egg to make it dinner.

bsj-progress

Progress. This baby is going to arrive any moment now, and I really would love to be able to give this to my committee chair next week. I have a knitting date right after the meeting with my committee. Knitting friends + garter stitch = therapy.

Happy weekend.

another FO!

Posted on by
1

Sometimes, while I sit at my funky 1960s kitchen table working on my laptop, the dog sits on the futon with a regal air that makes me wonder what exactly he is thinking. I had the camera handy yesterday, and managed to capture this:

dog-regal.jpg

I also finished yet another WIP: a simple garter stitch scarf made out of 2 skeins of very soft Patagonia cotton. Mel, of Pipe Dreams and Purling Plans, is also working on a garter stitch scarf, and her post reminded me to weave in the ends and tie this up with string for its intended recipient. This yarn was left over from a My So Called Scarf that I made for my mom last spring. I gave some of this stuff in an orangey colorway to a friend learning to knit, and when she turned it into a gorgeous garter stitch scarf, I decided to do the same with my leftovers.

garter-stitch-scarf-fo.jpg

This is a birthday gift for my landlord. She commented on how beautiful my mother’s scarf turned out, and I know she will really appreciate it. (I live in the back house on my landlord’s property, so I see them quite a bit and really enjoy being able to live by myself, but surrounded by the noises of children and chickens, and able to walk into the main house to catch up and have a cup of tea.)

garter-scarf-2.jpg

I hope she likes it.