I’ve been browsing the blog to make sure, but this seems to be my first finished knitting/crafty project this year. Oy! No wonder I feel off… Anyway. This simple hat actually took me a while to knit, but it turned out just as I wanted it to be, a simple k2 p2 ribbing, followed by garter stitch. I love it! If we had the right temperatures for it, I would be wearing it a lot. Now I’m secretly hoping the beginning of May (when we’re in Holland again) will be chilly enough to wear it (nah, not really! – I’ll safe it for December).
What I did:
CO 80 st. K2 P2 to end of round repeat until desired height
switch to garter stitch (alternating K rounds and P rounds) repeat until desired height
start decreases: SSK to end of round (40 st left) P SSK to end of round (20 st left) P SSK to end of round (10 st left) pull thread through remaining stitches, weave in ends
… of 2019, that is. Although I want to try to knit more things that I can actually use throughout the year, I don’t think I will ever not knit hats. I just love them too much.
The first one I made for my father to match the beret I made for my mother. Just a very simple hat, using up every last bit of that skein.
After that, I was still itching to knit, but not feeling capable of anything remotely complicated, so I cast on for another hat in the yarn I made that green cowl with.
Simple, but warm and soft. I think I’ll keep this one, to wear with the cowl when we’re in The Netherlands for the holidays. It doesn’t get that cold there (usually no snow, just lots and lots of rain), but to me, it felt very cold. And they sure can use some extra green in winter…
Not that I’m house crashing with three bears, though. That would be… weird. To say the least. But the hats I’ve been making for my mother did get me thinking about that fairy tale. Remember? The first beret I made for her was too small. The second one was better, but actually a bit too big. But now… I think I’ve got it. This one is juuuuust right 😉
(not posting pictures with my face showing today. Goodness, I’m suddenly all wrinkled up. Must be the cold or something.)
What I did: CO 72 st., join in the round, k2,p2 – 6 rounds Increase: K b&f 3 times, k1, repeat till last four stitches, K b&f 2 times, k2 (132 st) K 15 rounds (stockinette stitch)
start decrease: (the decrease is done in 6 sections, knitting less stitches before ssk each time)
K 20, ssk – repeat till end of round K entire round K19, ssk – repeat till end of round K entire round etc. keep alternating decrease rows and K rows until you did K10, ssk Then stop the K rows and keep decreasing (k9, ssk; K8, ssk etc.) until you have 12 stitches left. Use a darning needle to pull thread through remaining stitches and pull to close. Sew in ends.
It’s kind of silly to realize that over the years I’ve been knitting so many hats, but only one beret (over 12 years ago). It may have something to do with the fact that this style of hat went out of fashion. I’d never know that for sure though since fashion has never been my thing. But it’s a fact that I only knit one beret (and probably about 100 hats) in all those years.
I guess that I used a pattern for that very first one, I don’t remember. These days I usually wing my knitting. So, when I dediced I wanted to knit a beret for my mother, I did just that. And that’s probably the reason that it turned out a bit small. As in ‘you can hardly see it’s a beret”-small.
I do have a big head. Most hats that are smallish on my head are perfectly good on other people. But if I remember correctly (from trying on her church hat when I was a girl), my mother’s head is even slightly bigger than mine. So I decided to cast on another hat and try again.
To be continued…
What I did:
CO 78 stitches (5 mm needle, worsted weight yarn), join in the round 1. K till end of round 2-9 K1 (twisted), P1 – repeat till end of round 10. K1, K1f&b – repeat till end of row ( 117 st.) 11-15 K entire round 16 P entire round 17-21 K entire round 22 P entire round 23. K18, k2tog, K19, repeat till end of round 24. K entire round 25. K17, k2tog, repeat till end of round 26. K entire round 27. K16, k2tog, repeat till end of round 28. K entire round 29. K15, k2tog, repeat till end of round 30. K entire round 31. K14, k2tog, repeat till end of round 32. K entire round 33. K13, k2tog, repeat till end of round 34.P entire round 35. K12, k2tog, repeat till end of round 36. K entire round 37. K11, k2tog, repeat till end of round 38. K entire round 39. K10, k2tog, repeat till end of round 40. P entire round 41. K9, k2tog, repeat till end of round 42. K entire round 43. K8, k2tog, repeat till end of round 44. K entire round 45. K7, k2tog, repeat till end of round 46. P entire round 47. K6, k2tog, repeat till end of round 48. K5, k2tog, repeat till end of round 49. K4, k2tog, repeat till end of round 50. K3, k2tog, repeat till end of round 51. K2, k2tog, repeat till end of round 52. K1, k2tog, repeat till end of round
Cut yarn and use darning needle to thread through remain stitches and pull to close top. Weave in ends.
After weeks of not knitting one stitch, I suddenly got an itch to pick up my knitting last Monday. So I dug out the hat I started almost two months ago. I worked on it during the day and I had a nice window of uninterrupted knitting time at night when some mysterious orange lights in the distance inspired my husband to listen to Jeff Wayne’s War of the World. Yes, we’re nerds like that 😉 But it was nice. Just half an hour on Tuesday to finish it and then I was done. It’s just a simple hat, actually, and it doesn’t even really fit me (it’s kind of big), but it makes me so happy.
When life is hard and stressful, knitting helps me to relax, but when I slip into a real depression (you know, the chemical imbalance in your head), I usually stop knitting. Being back at it definitely is a sign that I’m getting better. And that’s why I love this simple, oversized hat.
Oh, I love this yarn so much! This shade of blue is my favorite (like the sky on Curaçao) and combined with that greyish brown… oh my. Yes, I love it. I figured it just needed to shine on its own, so I made a very simple hat, that I love just as much as the yarn itself. I may have found myself a new keeper…
Yes, it’s that pattern again. I’m not going to apologize for it, I just like knitting it. It’s like talking to an old friend or something like that.
I did something funny a few weeks ago. I have this beautiful notebook that the girls gave me for Sinterklaas years ago. I started using it as a knitting notebook after months of not knowing what to do with (didn’t want to ruin it, but most of my notebooks end up like a mess, tearing out sheets etc.). The first year of notes is 2015 and I sort of kept it up through the last years. But I thought it was a shame that the years before that were missing. So one lazy Sunday I browsed through my blog archives and took notes of every knitting project I posted. Starting with the red cardigan and working my way through 12 years of blogging. Oh my. I know there are some projects missing from the blog (like the hats I made for a friend and her family and my first shalom cardigan), but at least now I have a bit of an overview. And at least now I was able to count how often I actually made this hat. This is number 25. Ahem. No wonder I can knit this without thinking about the pattern too much…
Such a fun pattern! I loved knitting this as much as I did the first time. And though this yarn was thinner than what the pattern called for and the hat ended up smallish (next time I’ll add an extra row of butterflies), I love the result.
This one was really fun to make! I’m sure there is a more sophisticated way of making spiralling hats, but I usually just cast on one stitch less than I need for a rib (this one is k4 p4, I cast on 71 stitches on a 5 mm needle) and just keep going round and round. It’s really easy but very satisfying to do.
I’ve loved this type of hats since I first saw them online years ago. Elf hats, leprechaun hats, gnome hats, pointy hats. Love them all. I could have downloaded a pattern to make it easy on myself, but hey, where’s the fun in that? So I just went ahead and tried to get a pointy top. I think it worked out alright, though it didn’t end up as pointy as I envisioned. Also, it was meant as a hat for a child, but it still fits my adult-sized model. Maybe I need to cast on fewer stitches next time (did 66 stitches on 5 mm needles). So, in conclusion: loved making this, but needs some tweaking.
Also: finished this hat (number 30) on Saturday, July 28th., which was the end of week 30. Finally caught up! (also posted two hats today, since I wanted to be back on track in August). Trying to knit one hat a week for a while now and work on other projects too. Though the thought of keeping this flow of three hats a week up and finish early still appeals to me too. Hmn. We’ll see.
NOT A STATION 