Christmas is upon us and I’m procrasti-knitting. I can’t put this Swiftie Beanie down.
The brim is done and I have worked the set up to get started on the colorwork chart.I need to get some focus time so that I don’t mess up the chart or work it backwards like my Crown Town Hat, lol.
I have counted and started the first few stitches for the chart and stopped for better light. And besides, Duke was pouting and waiting for his head scritches….
Yarn: TreasureGoddess Merino Sport Treasures is Poseidon’s Trident and Making Waves
Needles: US 5s
Mods: So many. I knit the colorwork backwards, I added unnecessary rows to the main body, I worked the KC as stranded colorwork, and I decreased at a faster rate to mitigate the elongated body.
It really turned out okay-ish. It is just a big hat. Which should be fine since my dad has a big head. The finished hat used just over 200 yards of yarn between the two colors and the finished hat weighs 75 grams.
I do think I will attempt a second one to see if I can get it right and follow all the rules this time. Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn!
The only thing holding me back was was winding the dang yarn. So I finally did that. I know my gauge on US 5s with this dyer so I am choosing the adult medium size in the pattern. I got my cast on done and working in the round without a twist. I think I am deciding that I will do the colorwork on the inside of the brim.
I have a few days left of the 2024 Pigskin Party KAL and I decided to cast on another football themed hat. This is some malabrigo singles I got last fall.
I am going to make my normal beanie recipe. I am starting with 88 stitches and the yellow. The base is Malabrigo Worsted in 022 Sauterne and then the red is 102 Sealing Wax. I also still have some Chiefs logo patches that I can sew on as well.
This base is a singles and I’m not wild at the moment of how I am struggling with snagging. I think my needles are too blunt. I need to switch to my Chia Goo needles? I do love the hand of the finished fabric as it is very very soft. Therefore I will persevere!
Football fever is upon the house. Jellybean has gotten very into watching any football game he can. He loves talking to his Papa about football and learning all the details. So I decided to push through to finish my Chiefs Hat V2 so Jellybean and Papa each could have one.
Pattern: My own basic beanie “recipe” using 88 sts
Needles: US 8s
Yarn: Leading Men Fiber Arts Box Office Worsted in Poison Apple and Sweet Corn
I am MUCH happier with the overall look of the hat with the red being the outward facing portion of the brim. It makes it look more substantial and polished. I followed the same recipe of 20 rows for the brim stripes and then 15 rows for the hat body stripes.
True to the V1 hat, I used both colors four times in the hat but the last red stripe is just a week bit of decreases. This hat used slightly more yarn than the first as I think my gauge relaxed. It weighs 86 grams that means almost 190 yards of yarn!
I have a decent chunk of the red and yellow left….I am scrounging to see if I have other leftovers to make a Scrappy Chiefs hat. I may or may not have a hyper-fixation 🙂
After some dedicated knitting time, my shawl has progressed past thong phase and into baby shawl phase.
As with my other In The Lights, I find myself splitting the strands or not getting both picked up. I mostly catch and fix these as I work the next row. But there are quite a few oopsies in this fabric. I am just thinking of them as character.
This was my gung ho project until I started my granny stripe blanket and I want to work on nothing else but that blanket. So I made an internal deal to work at least four rows on this a day before I can pick up my blanket. We will see how long that lasts. I’m just glad my mojo is back!
Whelp, my knitting while drinking did end in disaster. I made not one but TWO mistakes in the charts. Sigh.
The first one towards the beginning of the chart wasn’t so bad. Stuff is lining up where it shouldn’t but doesn’t look horrible, just now how the designer planned for. But the wheels REALLY fell off towards the top. That shit just doesn’t eve make sense, sigh.
I got REAL brave and pulled the needles completely out. I used a DPN to catch the first stitch of the round where I wanted to rip back to. And then to the frog pond I went! I have all the stitches back on the needles and nothing ran too badly. Just don’t have the energy restart and redo today.
My Connections Beanie is absolutely cruising along. I am working on reading the chart and not using the written directions. It is taking my brain a minute to click in but I’m getting there.
The main body of this hat is worked on a larger needle than the brim. I actually remembered to switch! I am also being careful to not pull the slipped stitches too hard to keep the overall tension the same.
I am finding that I don’t want to put this project down. ‘Just one more chart row’ has run through my mind many times. I have hopes that this hat will be done quickly….
I have powered through all the 1×1 ribbing and the setup for the main body of the Connections Beanie!
I thought this would be my first time working colorwork….it’s not. I got out the chart and this is just slipped stiches so its more mosaic than anything. Oh well, it will still be pretty! I am working the larger of the Connections Beanie.
I am not super great at reading charts so I am very glad there are really good pattern photos so I can tell if I’m staying on track, lol. Happy Knitting!!
I have decided its time to dip my toe into colorwork. I have avoided it up until now for now good reason other than I wasn’t ready to learn. But I have two skeins of DK from The Shepherd’s Mill that have been calling to me to combine.
I have my pattern printed, needles pulled and I just need to wind the skeins up. The pattern comes with a light and dark version. I plan to cast on the light version first with the hopes that I could squeak out a dark version with the colors reversed? Might be a bold plan for my first colorwork project and expecting that much yardage management, lol.