Category Archives: WIPs

Knitting Hats In The Wild

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I am calling this hat made from Whimzee Stitches yarn my 2024 Pigskin Party Hat. And I took it along with me to a recent sporting event.

Turns our professional soccer games are SUPER long. So by the time we made it to the car, I had an almost finished hat!

The spirals did take a jog when I folded and attached the cast on edge for a brim. Everything shifted almost a full color and a half. It does make the brim stand out distinctly from the hat body.

I am loving these spirals so wonderfully that I think I might do a 3-needle bind off and square this hat off. A la the Pussy Hat style top. That way these spirals are not being broken up by the decreases.

Happy Knitting!!

Jellybean Knits Now

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I may have lost my LSP Redo Hat to Jellybean. He got bored on a recent car trip to an event so I handed him my knitting and gave him like 10 minutes of instruction. Dang if that kid didn’t figure it out and just took off in stockinette in the round.

He knit through most of the event and would occasionally hand me the work to fix dropped stitches or double wraps. But this fingers and eyes were generally aware when he had a problem. I did have to fix roughly 10 additional dropped stitches when we got home that he didn’t catch.

Bonus? His gauge was not that far off from mine! So his stitches are going to stay in the hat and I don’t think any muggles will notice in the FO. I am being cautious to see if he is going to keep knitting, I might get him his own needles and ball of yarn and see what happens.

Happy Knitting!!

Uptown Decreases

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It’s now leggings and fire pit season! Fall has arrived even though we get a few hot flashes that make us feel second summer. I managed some toasty toes and hat knitting outdoors.

I have my Uptown Hat all the way to the decreases. I should have like 30/40 minutes of knitting left. I am finding this acrylic is easier to knit with grabbier wooden needles than the smooth metal. Probably should have figured that out sooner, but we still got here.

I find myself looking at the stitch definition on this and marveling. There is zero halo and all the little Vs just march right along. It looks and feels very orderly. And I think I am getting better at keeping gauge as I pick up and put down. I notice I get looser when I get sleepy or tired.

Does your gauge move around on you?

Knitting In The Park

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I borrowed Dad’s golf cart and took the hooligans to run out their sillies last night as we feel the last dregs of warm fall. My Uptown Hat came along for the ride.

In between “mom watch this” and “mom, come start my swing” I managed to get the brim finished, folded and attached. It was a little trickier picking up this dark yarn. I was happy for the daylight!

This acrylic is not wool but the fabric is still nice. Trying not to get so tight that there is zero air flow. I tend to pull acrylic harder. This will for sure go in our donation or “safe to take to school” bin for the kids. No harm or foul if it doesn’t come back, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Thanks, I Hate It

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I should have listened to my gut. Turns out I HATED how my LSP hat was knitting up. The fabric was dense and not forgiving at all. It was so stiff that it was barely curling. So to the frog pond it went!

The yarn is back to it’s natural state. I was using US 8 needles and I think I would be better suited to go up to US 10s and then reduce down in stitch count. Rough math makes me think I could go down to 80 instead of 88. The hat is basically a swatch so I think I will start with that and see what happens. I can always rip out again!

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting After Dark

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I am WOEFULLY behind on my KnitGirllls podcast, like months. So I camped out on the couch and stayed up way to late binging YouTube. The silver lining? My Sea Slug hat got quite a lot of knitting done on it.

This is a Malabrigo sport weight yarn. And while it does take more stitches and longer to knit, it sure does make a nice fabric. And in this color the speckles are spacing out quite nicely. They are random but even and that makes my brain happy.

I think only a couple more inches and I can crank out the decreases! Happy Knitting!!

Pooling Decreases

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Another Royal Hat is ready for decreases. And I noticed something about this hand dyed skein. At my gauge it is spiral pooling around the circumference of the hat.

There are some spots of this yarn where the dye didn’t fully penetrate and it has white spots. Those light and dark spaces are circling the hat. If this was a garment, I would definitely alternate skeins. For a hat, that doesn’t matter much to me. Most muggles would never notice anyway.

Happy Knitting!!

Hat Brims and Dog Chaos

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I did my best knit the 2×2 ribbing for so long it felt like forever. But I have it complete and folded over. My Another Royal Hat is ready for the main hat body knitting.

Duke is in rare form and has shredded his SECOND dog bed. So until he matures a little….no more beds. And all the fluff spread across the living room, that is tomorrow’s problem. I have knitting!!

Sea Slug Brim

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I blinked and my Sea Slug Hat was ready for the folded brim.

This hat is using 112 stitches instead of my normal 88. And with that smaller gauge that I don’t expect super noticeable progress in any one knitting session. And all of a sudden when I wasn’t expecting it, I had a full brim!

I did break out my Ott light to see these stitches to get the brim matched up and knit together. I don’t mess with any provisional cast ons and I just pick up the purl bumps from the second of the cast on. It does create a little bit of a seam or seam like fabric. But you can’t feel it when you are wearing it. So I’m going to keep being me.

Happy Knitting!!

Cashmere Decreases

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This Aran weight yarn works up VERY quickly. I was knitting happily along and my second ball of yarn was disappearing. This Classy Cashmere hat is being made from “free to a good home yarn” and I can’t get more. So I panicked and started the decreases.

I should have weighed and measured because I am going to have more than enough. I will have a few grams leftover in fact. I still think I will have a plenty big enough hat for an adult to wear.

Duke is supervising all of this of course. I just have 5 or 6 rounds left and this hat is done! Happy Knitting!!