I’ve been thinking about why I blog and why someone would read anything I write. I realized that my goal is to provide information about knitting techniques and patterns that I find useful in my knitting and hope others will find useful in theirs. When I started this blog, I thought of a catchy name (stringtheory), found it unavailable , and went with my current blog name. Since then, I’ve discovered that there is another knitting blog with a similar name (theoriesofstring.blogspot.com) that has been around longer than me.

I’d like to have a unique name that is strongly associated with my writing, knitting, and patterns so after some thought and research (thanks google!) I found a new name that 1) I like, and 2) doesn’t appear to be in use or identified with another blogger or entity.

I’m going to try and focus on making the new blog a repository for information I find useful in my quest for intuitive patterns and useful knitted objects including patterns and reviews of books, yarns, and needles. I hope the new content will be useful to you and others, so please enjoy!

Thanks to everyone that visits me here and please hop over to my new blog, yarntrails.blogspot.com (If you read my blog through Bloglines, GoogleReader, or another feed aggregator, don’t forget to update the address!)

yarn: Debbie Bliss merino aran, less than 2 50gram balls of the main color with a small amount of two contrasting color for the stripes
needles: size 6 (4mm) 16″ circular and 6″ double points – I used needles 2 sizes smaller than recommended since ribbing is generally worked with smaller needles
size: 20inches unstretched, stretches to fit heads up to 24 inches
gauge: 10 stitches = 1.75″ unstretched in 2×2 ribbing

body of hat:

1. cast on 100 stitches with the main color (I used the long-tail cast on)
2. join in the round careful not to twist the stitches, mark the beginning of the round
   
3. knit in 2×2 ribbing for 8 rows
4. switch to a different color and knit 1 entire round (this makes the color change look neater on the right side)
   
5. continuing with the new color, re-establish the 2×2 ribbing and knit 3 more rounds; there should be a total of 4 rounds in the new color
6. switch back to the main color and knit 1 entire round, then re-establish the 2×2 ribbing and knit 5 more rounds for a total of 6 rounds of the main color
7. switch to the second contrasting color, knit 1 round, re-establish 2×2 ribbing for 3 additional rounds for a total of 4 rounds in the second stripe
8. switch back to the main color and knit 1 round, change to 2×2 ribbing and work until hat fits comfortably on the head (about 8 inches)

crown decreases: place a marker at the beginning of the round, the first two stitches should be knits, switch to double pointed needles when necessary – between round 5 and 7

repeat stitches between * and * until the end of the round, numbered instructions are for each round:

1. *knit 2, purl2together, knit 2, purl 2*, there should be 87 stitches at the end of the round
2. *knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 2*
3. *knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 2*
4. *knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl2together*, there should be 75 stitches at the end of the round
5. *knit 2, purl 1* there should still be 75 stitches per round
6. *knit 2, purl 1* there should still be 75 stitches per round
7. *knit 2, knit a purl and knit together, knit 1*, [50 stitches at end of round]
8. knit entire round
9. *knit 2 together, knit 3* [40 stitches at end of round]
10. *knit 2, knit 2 together* [30 stitches at end of round]
11. *knit 2 together, knit 1* [20 stitches at end of round]
12. *knit 2 together* [10 stitches at end of round]
13. *knit 2 together* [5 stitches remain]

(note that decreases are staggered for the crown so there won’t be any obvious decrease lines – if you like the decrease lines, just line them up!)

Cut or break the yarn leaving a tail at least 10 ” long, thread a darning needle and draw the tail through the remaining 5 stitches to secure them. Weave in ends and enjoy!

The hat was a bit itchy after extended wear (hours) so I washed it with some shampoo and conditioner – it’s much softer now. I really enjoyed working with the Debbie Bliss merino aran yarn – it worked up beautifully on smaller needles than called for and has a nice tight twist which made it easy to knit without looking. I can tell this yarn will hold up wonderfully. With the wide array of colors, this might be my new favorite worsted weight yarn!

cross posted with my new blog yarntrails.blogspot.com

I decorated

while Mr. T hung lights. I helped hold the ladder for the higher up ones – it was freezing that day!

Last weekend I decorated sugar cookies with my friend. I’d never frosted a cookie before and certainly not with colors and fancy designs!

2 skeins were in tight balls so I decided to unwind the balls into skeins and wash the whole lot – I don’t want my sister’s sweater to be oddly misshapen when the yarn relaxes to its natural state The bonus is that I might have gotten some of the lanolin and vegetable matter out of the yarn – it looked softer after the bath.

First, I filled my sink with warm water and a couple squeezes of dish soap – I didn’t want to bother rinsing lots of soap out but I also wanted it clean.

Second, I waited for it to soak while patiently eating ice cream.

Third, I realized the water was turquoise so I drained the water and added a ‘glug’ of vinegar (handily I have a gallon under my kitchen sink) and some more warm water being careful to add the water in the corner of the sink opposite to where I was cradling the precious yarn. (Don’t want any fulling/felting!). I let it soak some more.

Fourth, I rinsed the yarn a few times, careful to keep the water warmish.

Fifth, I squeezed the excess water from the skeins by hand, then rolled in a towel. I actually twisted my skeins up to get more water out – this is a bulky worsted weight yarn, it is strong enough for a bit of abuse.

Sixth, I hung the skeins to dry on my drying rack in the bathtub. Wonder when it will be dry since we turned the heat off in that bathroom and it’s normally 5 degrees colder than the rest of our house (which is about 60 at night).

So pretty! Now is there any hope of me finishing this by Christmas? I also have 35 grams (of 50) of a laceweight scarf, simple mittens, and a sockweight scarf. Every year I’m freaking out at Christmas and give at least one present on the needles. This year I started early – my mom’s getting a scarf I finished last February. Problem is, I seem to have taken on more complicated projects since I started so early. I’ve been making the laceweight scarf since September.

Anyone else bit of more than can be comfortably chewed regarding holiday gifts? I hope it’s not just me

Pattern: Fetching (but I modified it some)
Yarn: Knitpicks Merino Style (slightly more than one 50 gram ball per pair)
Needles: size 5 (3.75mm) 5″ dpns
Modifications: With the yarn change and the small hands of the recipients, I knit these with 40 stitches and I added the fingers using the instructions in Ann Budd’s pattern book. I cast off the fingers when they reached my knuckle (guessing my hands are about the same length as the recipients’ .

The white mittens have a braided cable pattern that’s probably in a stitch dictionary somewhere but I fiddled it out at a knitting guild meeting (Candace Eisner Strick was talking that night – it was a special treat to sit and knit and fondle her designs – she even bicycles every morning Wish I was dedicated enough to bike every morning. So for the braided cable mittens, I cast on 40 stitches but ribbed in a K3 P1 pattern (instead of the K4 P1 used in the Fetching pattern). Here’s the cable pattern:

round 1 *P1, K3*, repeat until end of round
round 2 *P1 C2L K1*, repeat until end of round
round 3 *P1 K1 C2R*, repeat until end of round

repeat rounds 2 and 3 until the cabling is tall enough (for the cuff, I did 5 repeats so I had 5 cables crossing left and 5 crossing right over 10 rounds)

C2L and C2R are standard abbreviations but confused me a bunch when I first saw them. The C means ‘cable’ the 2 is the number of stitches involved and the L or R means which direction the top stitch crosses the bottom stitch.
C2L means the first stitch is crossed left in front of the second stitch
C2R means the second stitch is crossed right in front of the first stitch or the first stitch is crossed left in back of the second stitch

So C4L (found in the fetching pattern as C4F) means that 4 stitches are manipulated but 2 are crossed left in front of the other 2 which cross right in back. I like to take deep breaths when I read cable patterns – I think charts are definitely the way to go when it gets more complicated.

And I’m so behind that I haven’t shown my one Thanksgiving picture. I got to spend it with my husbands’ family (sadly I forgot to get my camera out of my bag) and my family. My mom decorated the tables beautifully – here’s a picture of one of them

Until next time…school, the Tobey dog, Christmas knitting, and the dining room table project are calling

Can you see Tobey’s paws crossed over one another? I could watch him sleep all day.

needles: size 0 (2mm)
yarn: knitpicks memories

I baked some cupcakes last week – can you guess what these are meant to be?

Tobey might finally be starting to trust us – he had a bit of separation anxiety when we left for work last week. Today, he happily slept on our bed with his head on the pillow. We took him to Mr T’s parents over the weekend to play with Brandy (the golden retriever). They are too cute.

Brandy likes to pull on her leash – makes it a chore to walk her so they got a gentle leader. This is the first time she wore it and she asked Tobey to help her get it off!

They fought over the toy until they passed out.

Speaking of second socks…I’ve turned the heel on the second monkey sock and I don’t think I’ll be able to start the Christmas gifts I’ve already planned until it’s finished.

Instead of exercising to the point of exhaustion, he mowed the lawn and cut wood to fit into our stove, and I cleaned the kitchen, decorated, and made some yummy treats. It’s so nice to be able to change plans on a whim and make the house cozy.

Can you tell which ones are real and which are wax candles?

The tomato plants are doing well and there is so much fruit that the squirrels can’t keep up.

It probably helps that I pick the tomatoes as soon as they are large and start to change color and let them ripen on my windowsill. It still makes me sad to see all the squirrel scratches but I cut those off.
And here is the biggest mystery of all:

This plum tomato plant provided us with many yummy tomatoes in August and then shriveled up and looked dead. It has however come back to life and is even flowering again – I’m not sure what’s going to happen when it finally gets cold.

and here are some yummy cupcakes I decorated in my clean kitchen – the decorations are a surprise but maybe I’ll show them later

yarn: Steam Valley Hand Dyed Silk Yarn, the hat weighs 53 grams which is slightly more than half the skein
needles: size 8 (16″ and dpns)
gauge: 4.25 stitches and 6.5 rows per inch in stockinette

Pattern – I’m new to pattern writing so please let me know if this is easy to understand and if it turns out how I describe.

First I made the headband with an i-cord edging and braided cable. Then I grafted the edges of the headband together and made sure it fit over my head. Next, I calculated gauge in stockinette and measured the circumference of the headband to figure out how many stitches to pick up for the body of the hat. I picked up stitches from the top of the headband and knit in stockinette until it was time for the crown decreases. Since the theme here is braids and braids are usually done with 3 strands, I made the decreases at even thirds with 3 purl stitches between each set of decreases.

headband: provisionally cast on 15 stitches. The braided cable is over 6 stitches, there are 3 purl stitches on either side of the cable, and there are 3 i-cord stitches on the right hand side if you’re looking at the right side of the knitting. The idea is:

(RS) PPP KKKKKK PPP KKK
(WS) KKK PPPPPP KKK sl3

I usually slip purlwise so the loops are correctly oriented for untwisted knitting on the next row but do whatever you need to keep the i-cord stitches untwisted. Also, make sure you carry a lot of slack for the i-cord – if it’s too tight, it won’t fit over your head. My i-cord is slightly tighter than the rest of the headband which helps the hat fit snugly but comfortably.

In purple, are the stitches for the braided cable. Cabling will only happen on RS rows and I used the no-cable needle method – I’m linking to the tutorial Grumperina wrote because it’s the one I learned from but there are many many tutorials available.

cable pattern:

row 1 K6
row 2 P6
row 3 C4L K2 (the first 2 stitches cross left in front, the 3rd and 4th cross right in back, knit the last 2 plain)
row 4 P6
row 5 K6
row 6 P6
row 7 K2 C4R (knit the first 2 stitches plain, the 3rd and 4th cross left in back and the 5th and 6th cross right in front)
row 8 P6

Work the headband with the 6 stitch, 8 row cable pattern and i-cord edging until it goes around your head. Mine measured 23.5 inches when it was slightly stretched. If you can, try to end after row 8 of the cable pattern so when grafted, the braid is uninterrupted. Graft all the stitches together as they come in reverse stockinette, stockinette, or i-cord. For the i-cord, I grafted on the knit side and wove the end into the center so the i-cord curled around.

calculate number of stitches to pick up: try on the headband where you plan to wear the hat and measure the circumference at the i-cord. Mine was 23.5 inches and my gauge was 4.25 stitches per inch.

23.5 * 4.25 ~ 100 stitches

I placed markers at 4 equal intervals and picked up 25 stitches between each marker on the opposite side than the i-cord (this is the left side on my little chart above).

body: now that your stitches are picked up, knit in the round until you are ready for crown decreases (about 2.75 inches of stockinette or 4.75 inches from the i-cord edge). I always make my hats on 16″ circulars and without removing the needles try it on often – I know it’s time for crown decreases when the hat is long enough to cover my ears and the stitches don’t fall off the needle at the top of my head.

crown decreases: I decreased 6 stitches per row by decreasing 2 stitches every row at 3 places.

Place 3 markers evenly to mark the decreases. (between markers, there will be 33, 33, and 34 stitches – I don’t worry about the one extra stitch – it gets an extra decrease on the almost last row)
row 1: [K26, K2tog, P3, SSK] repeat 3 times until end of round.
At this point I usually ditch the markers since the purl stitches scream *decrease* at me.
row 2: [K24, K2tog, P3, SSK] 3 times
continue decreasing in the same places every row until there are 15 stitches left (they should be PPP KK in each of the 3 sections)
last row: [P3tog, sl1 k1 psso] 3 times, there will be 6 stitches left – break yarn, thread a darning needle and run the yarn through remaining stitches twice, weave in ends.

If anyone makes this – comment with a link to a picture so I can see what they all look like.

17Nov07: edited to fix a mistake in the cable pattern