My fiance, Mr T., loves bikes. He rides them almost as much as he fiddles, adjusts, and repairs them. There is something special about riding around a beautiful lake or through wine country that makes a day feel worthwhile.
Since he won’t be getting the titanium frame he wants in the near future, I did what I could:
It’s even reversible!
yarn: Knit Picks Telemark 100% peruvian wool. I used about 75 grams of each color (grey wolf and bayberry)
needles: addi turbo 16″ size 5 (3.75mm) and dpn’s to finish
gauge (in doubleknit): 5 stitches/8rows per inch
pattern: my own. Basically I charted a bicycle and since intarsia seemed out of the question in the round, I decided doubleknit was the only solution. It worked out pretty well although by the time I finished the hat (Feb 07), it wasn’t really cold enough to wear it much. If I make a doubleknit hat again, I might try fingering weight wool. Fingering weight would also solve the problem of the bike taking up nearly a 1/3 of the hat circumference.
finished dimensions: 22 inches in circumference, 8.5 inches tall. I like everything except how I added stitches for the double knit and how I did the crown decreases. I normally try and avoid puckers at the crown but the doubleknit was frustrating. Since it looks okay on Mr T and he claims to like it, I decided not to frog the top and fix it. I was especially opposed to frogging after I wove in all the ends.
Picking up stitches for doubleknit: I couldn’t doubleknit ribbing….so I did it in a single color. Then I needed to double the number of stitches to get the two layers. I knit into the loop between each stitch with the second color which worked but loosened that row of stitches and made puckering. If I did it again (and remember) I think that I will backwards loop cast on a stitch after each stitch to get the double number. Then on the next round, I’d knit into the newly cast-on stitches with the new color.
I have the chart as a word document but can’t figure out how to upload it right now. Leave a comment if you’d like me to fight technology and post the bike chart 
Click on the link above to open an Adobe pdf file containing the bike chart. This chart is free – please be nice
2 responses so far ↓
which colors? « stringtheories // 2007 April 21 at 9:42 pm |
[...] making the bicycle hat for Mr T, I am excited about colors and stranding (has to be better than doubleknit) and I happen [...]
Alyssa // 2009 February 21 at 9:21 pm |
I love this hat! Do you have a more developed pattern written out that you would share? I have never done DK but I would love to try it! Did you need more than 1-50g ball of each color??