Honeycomb Hat

I finally finished the purple hat I was working on (see previous post). It's not difficult, but the particular stitch I did took longer for me to work at. It's an easy stitch, but for some reason I was just slow at knitting it.


The picture isn't the best, and I had to use the flash on the camera. I've adjusted the photo some in Photo Shop Elements, but the colour of yarn in the photo is pretty close to the actual colour.

Honeycomb Hat



As previously mentioned, I used Patons Classic Merino in Royal Purple. The needles were 5.0 mm circs. In all honesty, I don't really know what the sizing would be, other than to say the hat doesn't fit my head - and I don't think my head is big...maybe average sized.  I suppose this hat could fit an older child, I don't really know. I'll have to take this with me to church on Sunday and get my BFF's daughter (who is a month away from being 11 years old), and see if it fits her.

I got a gift certificate to Chapters for Christmas, and used it to buy the book "400 knitting stitches, A Complete Dictionary of Essential Stitch Patterns" by Potter Craft. The stitch for my Honeycomb Hat is found in there.  I haven't typed up the pattern yet, and in all honesty it's probably not the best pattern. I just sort of made it up as I went along.

For starters, the number of stitches I cast on may not have been the correct amount, as there "left overs" as I began my decreasing rows for the crown. For example, if I was decreasing 8 stitches and then knitting 2 together, I might end up with 5 stitches left over. I would just knit those with no decreases. I don't know if that made a difference or anything, but it may have been camoflauged because they were done only every other row (in between patterned rows). Hopefully the way I worded it makes sense. At any rate, by the time I got to k4, k2tog, I was OK with the number of stitches matching up to the decreasing.



Close-up of Pattern

 I've never created my own hat pattern before, so I took some measurements from another "established" pattern. I cast on what I thought would be the right amount (I wanted to make it a little larger than the other hats I made, so I cast on more than those ones (but not by much). The type of decrease I used was the same as in the other pattern, but I didn't know how many to start decreasing with. I think it turned out OK in the end though, but maybe if someone else looks at the pattern (when I get it posted), she might be able to tell and help make proper adjustments - even if it's just casting on a different amount of stitches instead of what I used.

I'm going to attempt to make another hat of the other pattern I mentioned in a previous post and see if it works out again as well. It's a quicker knit so it shouldn't take me too long to knit up another one. I'm going to try it using two colours and see how that looks. I'll post pics when I get the other one done, and possible share the pattern as well.

Until then, happy knitting!

Yarn Along

I just discovered this "along", and thought I would take part. Ginny, over at Small Things is hosting the yarn along, and you still have time to take part as well. Click the title of her blog to check it out. She's offering a skein of yarn as a prize!

So, for the yarn along, we have to post a photo of our current knitting project and book that we are reading. Here is mine:

The knitting project is a hat I am currently working on (designing it myself...or attempting to). I'm using Patons Classic Wool Merino in the Royal Purple colourway. I hope, if it turns out (might have to do another one just to make sure the pattern works) I just may share the pattern.

The book I'm currently reading, as you can see, is Someone to Blame by C. S. Lakin. Click the name of the book to read a review.

Scroll down for the first post I made today, showcasing my latest knitted FOs I've made since the beginning of 2011.

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I've been AWOL since before New Year's. The reason is because of problems with an outlet that wasn't working (which the computer and router were plugged into), and my laptop hard drive decided to die on me.

So, since I didn't have computer access for awhile (about a month), I was busy catching up on my knitting! All photos on this post are of items completed since January 1st.

The first photo of 5 hats are a variety of patterns. The blue hat with pompom and the pink hat beside it were pretty much the same pattern (adapted from a child's hat pattern using the measurements from one pattern), the third hat on the top row is another Fixie Hat, and the two on the bottom are the same hat ("54") in two different sizes. After I finished the green one, I wondered why it was so small. I realized after looking over the pattern, I had used 4mm needles instead of the required 5mm. The blue hat is using 5mm needles and is adult sized.

The second photo is the pattern (the Two Colour Infant Hat) I used the measurements from for the hats mentioned above (the blue pompom and the pink). I made a hat using this pattern the Christmas before last (for the church mitten tree). I love this pattern - easy and quick to make! I decided to add a pompom on the blue/black hat, and used both colours of yarn for it. I must admit that I'm not the best at making pompoms, but then I'm just learning. They turned out OK, but I'm sure they'll get better with practice.

These two hats, to the left, are creations of my own, based on the hat above. I admit the patterns aren't all that great or interesting, but I was mostly just playing around.

I used a bright blue and navy Paton's Astra yarn for these two hats, and sized 4mm circs.

I think I'd like to try to come up with some interesting patterns to make hats like these - better designs than the ones in the photo, but that probably won't happen for awhile. I think I need to be in the mood for that. For now, I'll probably stick to patterns/designs I find online.

Though I've mostly been knitting hats (I have another one I created that I have to test again before posting the photo and possibly pattern, and a second pattern I'm working on, and will probably do another testing for that as well), I also managed to get a couple pair of kids socks knit.

These will probably fit a 2 year old, maybe a 3 or 4 year old...not totally sure. The green pair of socks was made with some sock yarn in my stash. I lost the band for it, and all I remember was that I had won it in a contest a few years ago. It was nice to work with, and I have enough left that I might be able to get another pair the same size made with it - either that or a pair or two of baby socks.

The other pair of socks (same size as the green ones) was made with some Patons Kroy Socks Stripes yarn that I got on sale not too long ago. The colourway is mexicala stripes, and I must say I like the colours used! I would never have though of putting orange and pink and purple together, but I think they look great. I'm not sure if I have enough left for a pair of baby socks, but I might be able to get one baby sock made that could be used as an ornament on the Christmas tree next year. For now, that left over yarn will probably just stay in my stash. I've been thinking of making one of those mitred sock yarn blankets, but that would take a long time to make so I don't know if it's something that will get done just yet. Hard to say.

Well, that's all the knitting I've done for now. As I mentioned above, I've got a couple of other "in progress" hats that I'm working on and hope to post about soon. I also may or may not have patterns to go with them! Maybe if someone is interested in the pattern, I may post it. We'll see.

What have you been up to with your knitting?