Category Archives: hat

Pattern Release: Pebble Hat and Cowl

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It rarely happens that I see a stitch on Pinterest and I fall in love with it at first sight. And I get so obsessed with it that I go on to design a thing or two using that stitch. That happened with the Pebble stitch.

I don’t know what this stitch is called or if it even has a name, but I named it Pebble Stitch because of the pebbly texture this creates. The stitch looks attractive and looks non-knit and that is what intrigued me. It is a simple 2-row stitch pattern which seems difficult to knit at first, but with practice, goes like a breeze.

Pebble Hat & Cowl celebrates the beauty of this stitch by keeping it minimal and simple. Pebble Hat uses a deep ribbed brim and let the Pebble Stitch be the hero in the body of the hat. Pebble Cowl uses i-cord edge to keep the hem simple and neat and let the Pebble Stitch shine.

Pebble Hat & Cowl are available at 20% off with coupon code “PEBBLE20” (CAPS and no double quotes). Sale ends 25 April.

Expression Fiber Arts team is also offering you a generous 15% off on Bountiful colorway with coupon code “bountiful15” (no double quotes). Head over to their website to buy this gorgeous colorway now! Discount available all through end of April.

Pebble Hat and Pebble Cowl
Yarn: Expression Fiber Arts Superwash Merino Silk Pearlescent Worsted
in Bountiful colorway

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Instant Gratification

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When your only knitting project on the needle, is an adult sized cardigan in laceweight yarn, it can take a while before the project can see the light of day. And when you start getting frustrated at the slow pace of growth and are ready to run away from knitting one more stitch, you need instant gratification to pep you up. What can give you instant gratification like a baby bonnet?

Baby bonnets are quick to knit and they are so cute, so double bonus. Somebody or the other is having a baby in the extended family and friends, so having some baby knits in the gift box helps. So, when Kelly was looking for test knitters for her bonnet pattern, I jumped at it.

I used Knit Picks Shine Sport in Orchid colorway. The yarn and the pattern are a great match. The beautiful texture shows up so well in this yarn and color. Love the attached i-cord. It took me just an evening to make this. Instant gratification at it’s best.

Ravelry Project Page

 

FO, after an eon!

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After a long hiatus of two years (in which I almost never picked up knitting needles), my knitting mojo is back with a bang. I should thank my soon-to-be-born grandchild for that. You read that right, I did say grandchild. My niece is expecting and is going to pop any day now and I will be elevated to the much coveted grandmom (okay, grandaunt) position.

 

Sweater pattern: Little Coffee Bean Cardigan by Elizabeth Smith
Socks: Rye by tincanknits
Hat: Garter Ear Flap Hat by Purl Soho

My niece wanted a sweater in gender neutral color, so most of my baby colors in my stash were ruled out. After much consideration, I zeroed in on the Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Platinum and Willow.

While the cardigan pattern is written to knit in stripes, I had to modify the socks and hat pattern to follow that. For socks, I changed the color every two rows, but stuck with MC for the heel flap until I joined to knit in round again. For the hat, I knit the ear flaps in MC color and when I knit a plain round, I changed colors every two rows.

I noticed that things move fast when I knit in stripes. Is that true or is my mind playing tricks on me!

 

And the set is complete!

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After I made the pretty, little sweater and was still left with a good half ball of yarn, I decided to make a hat to go with the sweater. I wanted one which would go with the sweater – with similar cables. Luckily, I found just the right pattern: Cable Baby Hat. I tried looking for a pattern with earflaps, but when my search didn’t turn up a good one (with cables similar to the one in Sunnyside cardigan), I gave up and settled for this one. I could have used a plain, earflap hat pattern and added this cable myself, but that wouldn’t be mindless knitting, would it?

The hat was a quick and easy knit. I liked how the designer blended in the decreases with the cables. By the look of it, I feel the hat is too long, but that should be okay. Long hats can be worn with folded brims, short ones are a problem.

Like the sweater, the hat is warm and soft. Cables are much better on the hat, but still not sharp enough for my liking. That cute little pom-pom is husband’s contribution. He is the resident pom-pom expert.

Next came the booties. I didn’t bother searching for a pattern for booties with cables, because I knew what pattern I would follow. I have made Ruth’s Perfect Baby Booties atleast a dozen times now and they have never failed me.

They are seamed, which I can live with, but what I love about these booties are they stay on little baby feet. I made 3-4 pairs for my own baby and never once have I seen the booties slide down.

I did think of incorporating cables into the booties, but dropped the idea as I was aiming for mindless knitting.

With the booties done, the set is now complete.

My hands are itching to cast on for a baby blanket, but my mind likes to remind them that there is no way I can knit up a baby blanket in two month’s time. Not with all the things going around right now.

New Pattern: Madhu Hat

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I had this gorgeous skein of Malabrigo Rastita in my stash in the beautiful colorway Archangel colorway. The beautiful hues kept calling my name every time I looked at them. I would pet the yarn and keep it back because finding a pattern for variegated yarn is quite difficult. I know slipped stitches help in breaking up the colors and help in avoiding pooling, so I picked up a simple yet beautiful stitch pattern and made a swatch.

When that experiment went well, I made a hat with it and figured out a neat decrease which didn’t disturb the stitch pattern and voila we have Madhu Hat. The slipped stitch pattern is called ‘honeycomb’, so I named the hat Madhu, which means honey.

This hat takes less than half a skein of sportsweight yarn and is particularly suitable for variegated yarn. It knits up in no time at all and it adds a bit of quirkiness to the classic beanie with its asymmetric ‘flap’.

Pattern: Madhu Hat
Yarn: Malabrigo Rastita [Sport/5 ply]
Needles: US#5 3.75 needles, circular or DPNs
Sizes offered: S [M, L]: 22 [24, 26] inches, unstretched
Yardage: 150 [170, 200] yards

The hat is knit bottom-up with a provisional cast-on (casting on using waste yarn). After working the brim and shaping the crown, the hat is cast off. The provisional cast on is revealed to get live stitches around the brim and then the asymmetrical ‘flap’ is shaped with short rows. If you are not adventurous to try to short rows or do not like the asymmetric flap, then you can cast-on with the main yarn (as opposed to waste yarn). If you see a small hole at the place where you turn your work for short row shaping, this should cover up while blocking.

While this knitting pattern is suitable for variegated yarn, it looks great in semi/solid colored yarn too.