Neck Warmer etc.

Whew! End of July already? Where did the time go?

Mostly into commuting. I am literally spending 3 hours a day on the train and bus.

It has been good for my knitting, because it is nice and portable, but I have been a bit behind on my spinning. It's not easy to carry your lazy Kate around with you! That said, I am pretty close to finishing my fluffy cotton-candy yarn. The three singles are ready to be plied, sitting on my lazy kate; sitting on my bookshelf so they come down from over my shoulder while I spin.

Had to push some books out of the way to put it up there, though.

I was expecting a lace-weight yarn, but it looks like it is going to be sport-weight. I still don't know how the plied yarn really looks. I am getting a sense, but I am looking forward to seeing it on the niddy-noddy.

Three-plies, on the spindle

I am also working on the beach skirt: it is almost done, and I promise there will be a post all about it when I am finished.

I have a quick update on another project though. Back in November, I made a hat using brioche stitch. I mentioned in my project update that I was starting a matching scarf to use up the yarn. So, did any of you wonder what happened with it? (of course not, I am talking to myself)

Well, I put it in my project bag, then someone cleaned the apartment and stuck the project bag in with my yarn stash. Since that room eats things, I didn't even think of it again until last week.

I was filling out the forms to submit a few projects to the Maryland State Fair again this year. I wanted to submit my brioche hat, but I know that hats are going to be a very crowded contest. So, looking over other categories I could submit to, I noticed that there is one for a hat/scarf set. Perfect! Now, where did I put that scarf...

Anyway, I finished the scarf. But I kind of ran out of yarn. So it is not really a scarf. I'm calling it a neck warmer, and hope the judges won't be too picky about it.

Hat and neck warmer set

The one thing that I wish I did differently, is that if I knew it was going to be a neck warmer, I would have done a provisional cast on, so that I could connect the two ends seamlessly, instead of having a somewhat messy seam.

Neck warmer with seam. Can you spot it?

Anyhow, even if the judges aren't fans, I know the hat is super-duper warm, and I bet the second part of the set will be just as nice when winter hits.

One more view of the warmer:

What a twist!

Project Updates

I have been getting quite a bit done on the projects that I have mentioned before, so I figured it was time for a basic update.

First off, I mentioned back in July that I was making dryer balls with the combing waste from my shawl project. I have now felted five of them and have a sixth one stuffed and ready for felting. I finished off the last of that ugly green yarn that I made as an experiment.

Felted dryer balls

 They aren't exactly pretty, but they seem to be doing their job, and they scratched my itch to never throw anything out, even combing waste.

Speaking of the shawl, I have now finished two skeins of laceweight yarn, and I am currently plying the third, and final, skein. It has been a really useful experience to make so much yarn of the same type, and keep it consistent. I can tell that I have improved since I started the first skein. I am not sure anyone else would notice the difference though (or I hope not, they are all going into the same shawl).

In August, I talked about my spinning lesson and the experimental yarn with the blue BFL top. I have finished all of the roving I received, into about 150 yards of extra-bulky three-ply yarn.

Chain-plyed BFL top

I had initially over-plyed the stuff that I did in class, so I had to run it through the wheel again to make it more balanced. By the end, I think I was really getting the hang of Navajo plying though. No current plans for the yarn.

In August, I also wrote about a skirt that was on my needles. Progress has been slow (small needles, big project) but I have added a few more inches since I last wrote.

Beach skirt: a bit more modest now, but still racy

And finally, just last week I wrote about a hat that I was working on. The hat is off the needles and I have started a matching scarf.

I think it came out looking great! The crown was a bit of a challenge, mostly because the instructions were so over-wordy, but I managed in the end to figure it out.

That is all I have for now. Happy crafting!

Brioche Hat

I needed a project small enough that I could knit it standing up (while waiting for the bus), interesting enough that I could do it for 20 minutes with nothing to distract me, but easy enough that I wouldn't need a pattern in front of me.

So I started another hat. Now you know why I have so many hat projects.

I actually already have a hat on the needles, but it is a complicated mosaic pattern on yarn that needs good tension (read: must be sitting down) on double pointed needles (read: doesn't travel well). I'll try to post something about that project sometime soon.

But today, I am going to talk about my new brioche hat.

For my birthday, my boss gave me a gift card to my LYS. Dangerous, I know, tempting me into the shop when I have so much stash to use already. But I was good. I bought two bulky-weight skeins of yarn, one solid, one variegated. They were super-soft (merino wool) and I was thinking that I needed a winter hat for myself, so I can stop borrowing my husband's.

Cascade 128 Superwash

I was looking for patterns that would highlight the two colors together. My mother-in-law has been working in brioche stitch, and it looks great, so I was thinking that I would try the same. I found a great brioche hat pattern in one of my knitting books: Weekend Knitting by Wendy Easton.

I don't use the patterns in my books nearly as much as I should. I have a bunch of them that I have bought or that have been gifts (that's actually most of them). I love my stitch dictionaries, but I rarely follow patterns too closely. And so many of the patterns I have are colorwork or need specific yarns: I would rather use the yarns I have.

That said, I had never tried brioche before, and I had heard that it was really hard. Having done it, it is not too bad, but takes a bit of time to get the hang of it and figure out what is going on. A youtube video helped too: trying to describe it is very difficult. But, I will put in my two cents: maybe it will help someone who thinks like I do.

This is the pattern in the round, which is easier (I found):

Set up (color 1): knit 1. *put yarn to front and slip 1 purlwise. knit 1 without putting yarn to back to make a yarn-over. repeat from *.

Round 1 (color 2): put yarn to from and *slip 1 purlwise (this will be color 1). yarn-over. purl two together (1 yarn-over of color 1 and one stitch of color 2). repeat from *.

Round 2 (color 1): knit two together (1 yarn-over of color 2 and one stitch of color 1). *put yarn to front and slip 1 purlwise (this will be color 2). knit two together without putting yarn to back to make a yarn-over. repeat from *.

Repeat rounds 1 and 2.

To do it flat, do a four row repeat: round 1 (color 2), round 2 (color 1), turn, round 2 (color 2), round 1 (color 1).

My hat looks like this so far:

Outside

Inside

The material is really stretchy and thick, and I love how the colors look.

Depending on how the crown goes, I might submit this one to the state fair.