Christmas 2014 – Scandiwegian Star

I didn’t blog this at the time because I was busy with packing to leave for my mum’s, and I only finished it the day before I gave it away. It was the last gift I finished, and it was a bit rushed. So here it is, my Scandiwegian Star. I don’t even know how many gifts I finished in the end. 5? 6? Meh. I did some.

A fair isle star beanie with a pompom. I made it a bit longer than I should have.

Again I was using odds and sods, the black was Charly by Phildar, a cheap but nice acrylic, so was the electric blue. The purple was Robin Double Knit, left over from my Tabitha hat, and the other blue was a Hema cheap thing that I bought for some unknown reason. I love the way these colours work together, the black does seem a bit bold and I’d like to do something similar with a cream, or a white or pale background to see if that’ll bring the colours out more.

The fair isle pattern in progress.

It knitted up very quickly and I wanted to keep it. But then I wanted to keep all the presents I made this year, and I’ve queued them to make myself too.

I didn’t get many photos of me wearing it, but here’s a good shot of the hat with the pompom, pulled down over my face to show the length.

I didn’t really take the time to get brilliant photos of this hat, as it was very rushed and I just wanted to get it finished and get rid of it, but I did it. I made one more Christmas gift and bought a bit of happiness to one more person.

This lovely pattern is also free from Ravelry and can be found here. The projects are beautiful and I really want to make another one. I liked the chart, it was really easy to follow. I recommend having a flick through the projects, there’s some awesome stuff on there. And as always my notes are here.

Christmas 2014 Gift #5 DONE!

A new lace beret, in neon pink!

So the last doily I made into a hat worked out as awesome. I love it and I’m tempted to keep it or make myself another one. I’m still trying to tackle these Christmas presents so I thought I’d grab another doily and make it into a hat, but I’m less keen on this one. It’s okay. I’m not going to bother sharing the pattern because I really am not awed by this, but if you like the doily I’ll give you a link to that here.

I still have my GIANT spot from my last post, it’s been there for almost a week… but even from the front you can see this hat is less pretty that the other one. It’s not as long as I’d have liked either, but I ran out of yarn. It’s done in a mystery acrylic (probably Robin) that I took from my mum’s stash. I had about half a ball and used all of it, working the pattern linked above on 4mm needles. Lace isn’t too bad on a large scale, the thought of doing it on anything smaller than a 2.5mm needle does scare me a bit though. I do like these lace top beret hats though, and I’m hoping to do maybe another one for Christmas, but they’re pretty tiring, as the computer is the pattern source I can’t knit them while out, and with so many stitches it’s a bit difficult to take out in my bag.

I also got the yarn to finish gift #3! Yay!

So this hat took three days, I got the lace done within 24 hours, but spent two days working the body. Part of me loves the colour but part of me finds it stupid on such a lacy pattern and on an adult. I think these hats would look better in more autumn like colours, browns, yellows, deep greens, greys. But that’s for later on. For now I’m doing these out of odd or cheap yarn.

As you can see, the lace pattern is more open in the centre, but more closed throughout. It clearly forms and eight petal flower.

I don’t actually have a lot to say about this hat. I’m not attached, I’m just hoping the person I give it too will like it.

Christmas 2014 Gift #4

Christmas hat #4. Probably the most beautiful thing I have ever made. Maybe even better than my Heliopath vest.

This may not look like much, and it may have been made in a cheap acrylic yarn, but it is so amazing. I used Robin Acrylic, which you can get for around £1.50 a 100g ball if you’re lucky. However now I know that this pattern works, and I completely improvised it. I think after Christmas I may make another one for myself in a cotton based yarn. But we’ll see.

And yes, I know I’ve jumped straight from gift #2 to gift #4. #3 is currently being knitted, but I got carried away.

A while back I got a bit obsessed with doilies. You know, like your grandma will have. Or my mum had in disposable paper. I added about two pages to my Ravelry queue. And I have a friend who has an afro, so her hats need to be pretty big, doilies can get big on 2mm needles, so if I do the same thing on 4mm needles, I’m really onto something here!

And then I had insomnia. It happens sometimes, something bugs me and I can’t sleep. I was looking through my queue thinking that I’d get the third hat finished that night when I stumbled across this pattern, that was the one I wanted to make. So without questioning (I’d come downstairs with a bag full of wool in case I wanted to start a new thing or finished the current one) I cast on. I got to round 25, I messed up. I ripped back, I cast on, I started again. Two days later it was finished.

A better view of the lace

My instructions and project notes can be found here, but I’ll also include them in this post for those of you without Ravelry. The pattern is published online at this blog, you don’t need to log in and it’s free.

So I just cast on 8 stitches and went for it, although there is a fancy crochet cast on there. I then worked the doily on 9dpns. (yup…) until round 54. You could stop anywhere listed though for a shorter hat. I put the work onto a 3.5mm circular needle and just knitted in stocking stitch for 6cm. If you want a slouchier hat this is where you add the length. For one round I did knit one knit two together, putting the count from 180 stitches down to 120. I then did 3-4cm of knit one purl one rib, and finished with 5 rounds of stocking stitch to give it a rolled edge before casting off with a super stretchy cast off. Simple once you’ve done the doily.

And from the front. This is such a beautiful photo, apart from the spot. Damn hormones.

Yes, I would make this again, but not in the acrylic yarn, cotton, wool, anything of high quality with a good stitch definition. I’d even be tempted to try it in sock wool. It is so pretty! It’s had a few compliments while in progress. The best one being “How the hell are you doing that?!” as well as the typical pretty ones.

Making a doily into a hat is challenging, but at the end of the day all knitting comes down to mathematics, and that does make it much easier to think like that. Yes, I am crazy.

This was actually very quick to finish, even though it was too big to put in my handbag, I think the attractiveness of it really boosted me on.

I mean, look, if you were knitting this would you be able to stop yourself?

Yeah, towards the end with 180 stitches it was more difficult, but to begin with it grew so quickly, and I think that’s what pushed me to do it so much. And when it was transportable on the circular needles most of the work was already done. I just had a few more cm to do. Although I got a couple of weird looks in the train, but nobody really knits in France.