Monday 24 August 2009

Stained Glass Hat - yarn

I am on Sleeve 2 of the Mosaic Jersey.

I've also promised to make a pink hippopotamus for a breast cancer charity, and there's another baby on the way in my knitting club. That means some sort of animal. And my colleague who sits next to me is having a baby as well and I think she should have something, though maybe not an animal in this case as she already has a little lad of fourish and I feel I'd have to make one for him too, whereas baby hat type things don't create jealousy.

Also in my queue is this yarn for a hat.


It's an extraordinarily soft merino sock yarn.

My plan is:

  • Cast on say 150 with a small needle and the dark brown as the base colour, using Techknitter's clever and convenient tubular cast-on for 1x1 rib. This gives a totally ridgeless edge.
  • Join into the round and make about 3cm of 1x1 rib.
  • Introduce the variegated blue-green and work a Fair Isle diamond pattern I've designed on squared paper which uses the blue-green as stained glass and the brown as leading.
  • Carry on till it seems long enough.
  • Then I'll have to make a decision about the top. I could gather the top, as is done with a fairisle hat made in Norway that I own. Or I could work decreases into the fairisle pattern, perhaps by extending the diamonds into some sort of flame shape. Or I could stop the colour pattern and go back to using one colour or the other only, before working decreases for the top.


But for this week, I'm still on Sleeve 2.

5 comments:

Elizabeth Brinton said...

That's a very sensitive analysis of gift giving re: little kids and babies. My children would have been relieved to be spared any hat at all. So your plan should work!
E

Jo A said...

Its a good time of year for hats. By the time you finish it will be chilly.

msHedgehog said...

Yes I think it's inconsiderate to give a baby something better than a toddler has. The baby's not going to know or care, but any child able to walk and talk is more than old enough to notice and be hurt by adults' self-indulgence. Baby clothes, however, are less owned - they're not the property of the baby, and the older child couldn't wear them anyway. The animals I make for first babies are intended to stay with the baby as something they've always had and don't remember being given.

Cie said...

One of Peter's little friends is about to have a baby brother or sister. I intend to make them BOTH hats to avoid any sibling rivalry along the lines you describe. They are fortunately still far too young to resist the wearing of hand-knits.
However, I saw the mother to be yesterday and cannot believe she still has seven weeks to go, so ripe does she look. And I have yet to cast on said brace of hats. Hmm, we shall see.

msHedgehog said...

@Cie It's terrifying how fast they seem to arrive! I'm thinking perhaps a rabbit with long ears.