“I’ll teach you all this, in 8 easy steps..”

January 26, 2009, 2:35 pm     Comments Closed

So the next tutorial isn’t from my brain, or a magazine, or a book. Its a hat, and I got it from Marieke, who runs this website. I swear, its my favorite hat EVER. I have three different ones in three different yarns.

Marieke calls it a “Rasta hat” and thats a pretty accurate description. Its slouchy, thick and warm… and depending on how long you make it (how many rows you knit) it can accommodate dreads or long hair tucked up inside. Its a very simple pattern and if you’re a decent knitter it shouldn’t take you longer than a couple of hours, maybe a day to complete it. Its simple- but the pattern looks so pretty. And not sloppy.

These hats are pretty trendy right now. Nicole Richie’s been spotted in them a lot lately. I’ve always wanted one but have never been able to find one in a store that was exactly what I wanted. And then I found this pattern!

Front and side views, with cuff. You can really see how nice the pattern is in the 2nd photo.

Another cool thing about this hat is if you make it a big longer, you can cuff it too, like I did in the above pictures. I have short hair, so theres nothing to tuck in. Therefore, I can cuff it and still keep the big, scrunchy look of it yet not look utterly ridiculous.

Close ups, no cuff.

This was made by my mother, so she gets credit for how great it looks. The red a regular ol’ red yarn you can get at any Joann’s or Michael’s or any yarn store (‘Cherry Red’ by Red Heart brand), but You can use any yarn you like of course. Real wool, acrylic, cotton, cashmere, mohair, etc. Its your choice.

Like I mentioned, I’ve got three of these. The above red one, then another in a super soft (now discontinued) Wool-Ease by Lion Brand black yarn that has flecks (or “sprinkles” as Jay called them, haha) of different colors throughout, and the one to the left; a crazy soft gray/green brushed ombre yarn by Joann’s (Sensations Rainbow Classic in “Green/Gray”) thats amazing; click here for a swatch. The red looks totally different here, its not pink or watermelon-y at all; its a deep cherry red. Stupid lighting. The green hat came out slightly better, but still the color is distorted. My skin is even green- haha, I’m the Grinch!! Last but not least, the black hat wouldn’t come out well in pictures at all, unfortunately. Which is a shame because its really lovely… I’ll try and get a picture of it and maybe edit this entry at some point.

This particular pattern/hat is beautiful in solid color and ombre yarn. I think it would be really cool in this yarn, actually.

So on we go with the pattern itself. In her words, heres the pattern and materials list.. and since its in metric/Euro style, I converted it to US sizes, my additions are bold:

You need:
- 50 gram mohair in the two colors you want to use (so 100 gram in total). You could do with a little less but since this is weight of a ball… [I chose Schachenmayr Nomotta Hair (color 98) 50 gram and Gedifra Belisana Color (color 7306) 50 gram] (any yarn works just fine, just be sure to realize that different weights an different types of yarn make different size and thickness of hats- wool is going to be different than acrylic when it comes to this)
- needles 9 mm *(size 11 American)
- a sewing needle

Cast on 64 stitches with the two colors, loosely. From here you knit two knit stitches and two purl stitches, starting with the knit stitches and ending with the purl stitches for each row. Continue until you have knitted about 26 cm (roughly  10 inches). Then, knit together two knit stitches and two purl stitches for one row so you will have 32 stitches left. Cut the thread off, leaving a thread of about 50 cm. Take a big needle and pull the thread through the 32 stitches. Pull the thread so you close the top. Handsew the sides together, using the thread from top to bottom. Let the winter come!

All credit for this hat and the pattern goes to Marieke at treats and treasures, which is by the way a great blog with a couple of awesome free knitting/crocheting patterns as well.

Oh- and uh, you can’t knit the brooch

“Happiness is a warm gun, mama…”

December 9, 2008, 12:56 pm     3 Comments »

So for my first real post I thought I’d do a little “how-to”, or at least share one of my little projects. This project is a really quick knit piece, and its the perfect time of year to learn to knit if you don’t already know.

I love neckwarmers, and recently I’m seeing them everywhere. Last winter my mother knit me a really cool one in dark gray Voodoo yarn by Patons (now discontinued). This year however, it seems like everyone has one! They’re all over Etsy, and Brooklyn Tweed even recently posted about them. I had been working on a scarf but decided to end it early and make a neckwarmer instead. Now, I am really not a fantastic knitter. I can do basic stuff but I can’t do cables or anything fancy, so this is a basic neckwarmer. A trained monkey could make this!

Neckwarmers are great for weather when you don’t want to wear a heavy scarf or a heavy hooded sweatshirt. They just button or snap on, and then can be taken off again anytime.

All I did was cast on around 24-30 stitches (I can’t honestly remember how many, but since the height is really the width, just make it as high as you want it to come up… i.e. over your chin, etc) on size 11 needles, and did a pattern of knit 2, purl 2 all the way across making sure to end on a purl and start on a knit for each row. When it was as long as it needed to be to wrap around my neck, it was time to bind off and find some buttons.

My buttons are all black, but mismatched on purpose. I have five buttons going from big to small up the front of it, and they’re all different. You of course can use as many buttons as you like, three big ones, six small ones, whatever!

If you’re a really advanced knitter, this can be as complicated as you like. But for the beginner or the person who just enjoys knitting simple patterns, this is perfect and easy. I made this is a really affordable black yarn, but I’d like to make another in a fancier yarn.

As far as the website goes- its not quite done yet. I have many links to sort out and get in order, and lots of stuff to do. I’m impatient however, so I wanted to start posting as soon as possible. So please excuse any “mess” or anything that doesn’t work.

Knitted neckwarmer