The Knitting Pirate

Over on the Ravelry forums I read something about knitting stranded colourwork with a light tension so that the stitches wouldn't pucker or pull, and something about that must have stuck with me. Even though I've knit several stranded hats that came out just fine, I started this purple one with a mindset of staying loose... and uh. Yeah.

I revised the pattern a little and knit a second hat at my usual tension, and that one came out just fine. The original could be worn as a slouchy hat, but the double thickness makes it harder to get it to flop over properly. It's too big for Michael, too. It's too big for *everyone*.

The important thing, though, is that this hat is a gift for my aunt, who admired my Crossing Trails hat at Thanksgiving with so much enthusiasm that I felt compelled to surprise her with something of her own. The pattern is almost ready to share! Keep an eye out for it later this month.

Wouldn't this picture make a perfect album cover? And if you look closely, you can see that he's working on a colourwork project of his own...

I'm not sure how it started, but I mentioned something about brioche stitch. "What's that?" he asked, and I pulled up some pictures. Then we watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to do the two-colour brioche stitch and the appropriate cast-on for it. Before too long we were heading out to a yarn store, where he bought some Cascade Eco+ in a solid dark and spattered light blue, and between Christmas and New Year's he's knit nearly two feet of scarf. (It's grown quite a bit since I took the picture.)

I'm really pleased he's taken up this hobby. It's fun to share with him! This is only his fifth project and I'm not at all ashamed to say that he's a way better knitter than I was, when I was on my fifth project. That's all kinds of awesome.

No matter how many times I do it, I'm always amazed by the magic that is turning the heel. It might even be my favourite part of knitting a sock.

Not to be a nudge, but the Crossing Trails Hat pattern is still on sale for 20% off and still raising funds for the Cancer Research Institute. Thanks to you, we'll be donating more than $50 already. With almost a month to go, do you think we can hit $100?

Some time ago I started designing a pair of flip-top mittens to match the Moorefield Hat. Instead of knitting the glove first and then picking up stitches along the back of my hand for the mitten top, as I've done for all the Fleeps I've made, the plan for these was to knit the mittens first, including a strand of waste yarn across the palm, so that the colourwork could continue uninterrupted on the back of the hand. Once the mittens were done, I'd pull out the waste yarn and have flippy-open mitten tops, and I'd pick up stitches to knit the inside gloves.

I got as far as knitting the whole mitten, with the thumb stitches held for later, and pulled out the waste yarn to work on the inner gloves, and... well... there were some issues.

First, the whole thing isn't wide enough to accommodate a glove underneath - or, for that matter, my fingers - at least not if I want to have room to wiggle them around. Second, and relatedly, the thumb opening isn't big enough or high enough. Third, the opening for the mitten top is about five rows too low... and fourth, I'm not at all sure that I have enough of the white yarn left over to make a pair of mittens the way I've got it charted out. (Fifth, unimportantly, I really don't like that braided bind-off. I won't try that again.)

So I've ripped back to the cuff, which fits just fine, and I'm going to try again to make flip-top gloves - fingerless this time, I think - that match the Moorefield Hat. It'll have to be bigger all around, for sure. Maybe just going up a needle size would be enough... it will be an adventure, either way!

Crossing Trails is a two-colour stranded hat with stylized trails weaving their way down a mountain. There are glades for those who like to ski or snowboard through the trees, and smooth trails for people (like me) who prefer to take the easier way downhill. The corrugated ribbing at the brim represents the perfect corduroy of a freshly groomed mountain.

Check out the Crossing Trails Hat pattern page on Ravelry or click the button to purchase the pattern:

~~~~~~~~ IMPORTANT NOTICE ~~~~~~~~
To remember those we’ve lost, and to honour those who are dealing with the disease in whatever form, this pattern will be discounted to $3.99 through January 2, 2019, and ALL PROCEEDS will be donated to the Cancer Research Institute. I will post a picture of the donation receipt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YOU WILL NEED
16" circular needle (optional, but recommended) and a set of five double-point needles, size US 6 (4mm) or the size needed to get gauge for your particular yarn, a stitch marker for the beginning of the round, plus a darning needle to weave in ends. You may also wish to use stitch markers to indicate the five sections of the hat.

YARN and GAUGE
The hat is knit with two contrasting colours of worsted weight yarn, plus a small amount of sport weight yarn if you wish to include a facing. The sample hat was made in Cascade 220 in shades of light and dark gray, using approximately half a skein of each colour, and the facing with approximately 60 yards of Patricia Roberts Lambswool No. 2 in dark gray, all on US 6 (4mm) needles at 23 stitches/4 inches, and fits a 21.5” head with a little bit of ease. Omitting the facing will make a looser hat.

Important Copyright Information: The Crossing Trails Hat knitting pattern is © 2018 Knitting Pirate. You may not sell or otherwise distribute copies of this pattern, but you may absolutely sell the hats you make with appropriate credit given for the design. If you have any questions about what you can or can’t do with this pattern, please feel free to contact me.

I've been working on a new sock pattern. Here's a sneak peek (kinda-sorta):

Neat, eh? It's a twisted stitch pattern that gently waves its way down the leg and foot of the sock. I really like it; I think it works well with the tonal blues of this yarn.

Over the weekend I got down to the toe, and tried it on before grafting, and... hm. It's way too tight. The stitch pattern looks terribly stretched out. I know that twisted stitches can pull the fabric in, but it shouldn't have been this much. So I measured my gauge on the stockinette sole of the sock, and came up with ten stitches per inch.

Ten? I usually get somewhere between 9 and 9.5 with "standard" sock yarn on size 1 (2.25 mm) needles. Well, that would explain it; that's nearly half an inch difference over my 8.5" circumference foot.

A little bit of math, and I've concluded that I need to restart these socks over ~70 stitches, rather than 63. I have a couple of choices! The obvious one would be to add another seven stitch repeat, but another option would be to add another stitch to the stockinette rib, for an eight stitch pattern repeat and a total of 72 stitches.

Some less obvious options would be to change up the stitch pattern to make it a little more design-y™ - maybe offset the waves, have them split at the heel flap and go down the gusset, that sort of thing.

I'm annoyed, but that's part of the fun of designing, right? Trying stuff, figuring out what works and what doesn't, ripping back, trying again, and making it better the next time.

I've been considering the idea of matching my sock patterns with cocktails for a while, and the first one in a new series is finally knit! These are the Boulevardier Socks, knit in Tess' Designer Yarns Super Socks & Baby in a rich shade of amber. I bought this yarn an embarrassingly long time ago and am pleased to have finally knit it up! As soon as I've translated my scribbled notes into something that can be shared, I'll be publishing the pattern on Ravelry.

My usual sock knitting tends to be the sort of plain thing that I can carry around with me and knit without too much concentration, but semi-solid or tonal yarn is kind of boring for just stockinette socks, or even plain ribbing. So I've got three of these twisted stitch socks charted out and in my queue, and I'm excited about knitting them all up - and about mixing the perfect matching cocktail for each of them.

Why a Boulevardier for this pair? Well, for starters, they're delicious. Secondly, their colour matches these socks perfectly! But thirdly, and most importantly, they're often served with a twist... and these socks have little left and right twists all up and down the ribbed stitch pattern. These twists, or two-stitch cables, are super easy to work but give a lot of visual and textural interest to the fabric. I hope you enjoy knitting them as much as I did!

These two socks have been stuck at the heels for a few weeks already, and they were holding me up. I like to turn heels when I'm by myself and can keep track of where I am in the process, or inevitably something goes wrong and I have to rip back. I decided that I'd just buckle down and get them both back to the point where I can work on them and hold a conversation at the same time.

The second of the handspun knee socks had some adjustments from the first one so that it will fit better. Fortunately, I'd left comprehensive notes for myself so that I'd know what to do. On this sock, the third wedge of the Sweet Tomato Heel ends with 16 stitches unworked in the centre, rather than eight, and I can tell that this will be a better fit already. I finished the heel and the inch or so of stockinette that comes after it, and got started on the ribbing for the leg. It will be another six inches of knitting before I have to think about increasing for the calf.

These are way too tall for my sock blockers and the ribbing on the leg really makes them look funny when they're lying flat on the table! Once the second sock is finished, I'll get proper photos of them on my feet/legs to show off the heel and leg shaping.

I also made it past the heel and gusset decreases on the first of my Twisted Stitch Trilogy socks, which is still unnamed, so I've just been calling it Twisted ONE. This will be my next published sock pattern! I'm really happy with everything about them - the yarn, the colour, the texture, the feel and fit. I'll cast on for Twisted TWO with the yarn I bought at Mom's LYS just as soon as this pair is off the needles!

Right now the handknits are sharing space in a dresser drawer with the storebought socks, but they're all starting to feel a little squished in there. Not that I have a sock addiction problem or anything, but... pretty soon I'm going to need to give the handknits their own drawer.

I'm working on a new sock design!

This is "Tess' Designer Yarns Super Socks & Baby" in a tonal amber that I bought at MDSW some years ago, and am pleased to finally be knitting with. I like how it's working up; the stitch definition is good for this mini-cable pattern, and the yarn is soft and feels good running through my fingers.

(No, the patterning doesn't go all the way to the toes. That's just how far I'd gotten on the leg portion of the sock when I stopped to take the picture.)

I'd love to find a mannequin foot that's just my size, to better display and photograph the pattern samples. Unfortunately, all the womens' mannequin feet are shorter than mine, and all the mens' mannequin feet are wider. I'm sure a custom foot would be unthinkably expensive... so now I'm wondering how difficult it would be to make one. I could make a mold of my foot with duct tape, fill it with expanding foam for stability, and wrap it in pretty fabric - but it might be difficult to slide a sock on over that. And plain duct tape would be pretty ugly. Any ideas?

Over the weekend I sewed the lining into the hat (which wasn't nearly as tricky as I was expecting). I used the instructions on Techknitter's blog post, which also explains why one would want to sew a facing down rather than knit it in. The only difference is that I didn't split the stitch I was sewing onto, because I want the stitches and floats to be able to move and shift around when the hat is blocked.

And then, yeah, I took out the top of the hat and re-knit it. There were some really loose stitches that I couldn't tighten up well enough, I wasn't 100% happy with one of the decreases being white instead of black, and I wanted a smoother decrease overall. It was worth the time it took to do, and I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of time waffling over whether I should or shouldn't.

The hat took a nice warm bath in some Eucalan right now, and I'm excited to see what it looks like once it's blocked and dry! (Also: the soap dispenser in my bathroom is one my dad made. He's getting really good at this pottery thing. I haven't asked him, but I bet he'd be happy to take orders for yarn bowls...)

Edited to add: it's drying now! Is it impolite of me to say that I think it looks amazing?

In an effort to get this hat finished while it's still cold enough to wear it this year, I finished knitting it earlier this week... and then spent far too long angling the camera, myself, and the bathroom mirror to get a good picture of it. It's still unblocked here; the lining isn't sewn down yet, and I've left the lifeline in for insurance, because I'm not 100% sure that the way I worked the decreases will block out smoothly.

This weekend I plan to do all the finishing work and get some good photos, and then I can write up the pattern for publication! I'm pretty excited about releasing my first pattern of 2018, and hopefully I'll have the time to design and knit and write some more before the year is out. I'd like to get back to my purple cabled socks next. After that, who knows?

There's also been some progress on the second of my green Cakewalk socks - it's about halfway through the leg now. I've been knitting while watching YouTube videos (watercolour tutorials, interestingly enough) because I can't knit and watch TV or movies very well. At least, not if I want to keep track of the plot, characters, and dialogue!