hat – Page 4 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Fish Man Gets His Chicken: The Movie

An International Cast!

World class actors bring their finest to the action-packed, true-to-life, thrill-filled Fish Man Gets His Chicken – filmed in the deepest wilds of South America!

A Thrilling Tale of Adventure, Love, and Redemption!

A scientific expedition traveling up the Amazon River to recover fossils is watched and attacked by Fish Man, a horrible creature, half man, half fish, who lives there.

Through acts of kindness, Fish Man is rescued from his slimy and fetid existence. Civilized, and with a doctoral degree from a famous university, his life is changed.

He learns the arts of brewing and barbecuing.

Fin Mail Photo of M. Henri Le Poisson

For $5.00 and a box top, you may receive this lovely secular holiday greeting card to send to your friends and family.

With love to you from me - your friend, Henri

Get one for everybody on your holiday list!

Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?] Eyes

When this hat came out in Knitty, I just knew I had to make it.

The eyes in the pattern are made of felt and stitched in place. I decided to knit mine up, and did so as below, using needles a size or two smaller.

Cast on 4 stitches. Knit front and back of each stitch – 8 stitches. Transfer to double point needles, place marker at round beginning.

Rnd 1: Knit

Rnd 2: Knit front and back each stitch – 16 stitches.

Rnd 3: Knit

Rnd 4: *Knit front and back, knit 1,* repeat to end – 24 stitches

Rnd 5: Knit

Rnd 6: *Knit front and back, knit 2,* repeat to end – 32 stitches

Rnd 7: Knit

Rnd 8: *Knit front and back, knit 3,* repeat to end – 40 stitches

Rnd 9 and 10: Knit

Bind off.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This has been quite a busy time period since my last posting. Since then I have been knitting a number of hats, and writing up patterns. I even won a free copy of a pattern, and that has been a fun project as well – but to do the author justice, I will devote a separate post with pictures, once I am done with it.

Anyway, here is the new hat pattern: Checkerboard.

This hat is made out of Dale of Norway’s Falk, which is a wool yarn with a lot of bounce, is comfortable to wear, reasonably priced, and comes in a lot of different colors. If you are allergic to wool, or find it uncomfortable, a washable wool may be a good substitute.

I designed this hat to use up leftovers of yarn, as well as to have something to do with some color in it. Lately, I have been knitting a lot of textured patterns, enjoying the challenges and the pleasures of seeing a hat grow in texture, rather than color, which has been my historical preference. You wouldn’t believe that, seeing the patterns here, but it really is the truth!

Checkerboard is a very good project for the knitter who is ready to try stranded knitting. The 4×4 squares of color don’t require much work when it comes to knitting them up – they are really easy to do because you don’t have to count stitches. Instead, you just watch the colors. Row counting – well, most of us can count 4 rows of stockinette.

If you are a beginning stranded knitter, remember one very simple thing: carry the unused yarn loosely across the back of the knitting. This is very easily accomplished by periodically stretching out your knitting on the right needle as you go along.

Enjoy!

Clouds Beret

In the spring of this year, I decided to work up a lace beret. I’ve had the pattern written up and completed for some time, but did not want to publish it until I had included more photographs in the publication.

I am really pleased with the pattern, and my test knitters did a wonderful job correcting mistakes, as well as posing for pictures. These wonderful people include Judy and Donna, as well as models Alicia and Emmy.

Today, I posted this pattern on Ravelry, and on the Patterns page here on Ink, Yarn & Beer. Here are some of the photos taken in the process.

Flight of the Albatross*

Whew! What a relief it is to get those socks out of my life! I’m glad I did them, but the frustration – combined with guilt – about finishing them was a burden. I had no energy to do anything. And now they are gone I’ve been on sort of a rampage – cleaning house – gardening – and finishing up a heap of UFOs. I’ve got a number of berets and a pair of socks now, with loose ends woven in and toes woven shut, and a dropped stitched secured. That makes me feel really productive, and here are the results:

A grey Meret for a birthday last February:

Two berets for a friend’s May birthday:

A Porom for myself, out of handspun grey yarn plied with an orange (sounds ghastly, but really very nice!):

A watch cap for a different February baby, to match Christmas mittens:

And socks for me – or maybe a gift for someone with the same size tootsies:

And finally, a model for a pattern which I may post, or submit to a magazine . . . . but that picture will remain a secret for now!

Ah . . .

Designing a Pattern: Berets

I’ve been making hats and socks for what seems forever – certainly since high school and college. Both are rather formulaic. Socks are easy enough – if you know how to make socks, you no doubt have your formula, and adapt based on weight of yarn, design elements, and for whom it is being made. Hats are the same – toques, watch caps, berets – all have basic principles, and you move on from there. However, there is a big difference in trying to write down a pattern for someone else to use!

Basic Beret Formula

This is my basic formula for a beret-style hat, and from it have sprung many.

Measure head of intended recipient (if possible). If not possible, I use 18-20 inches for an adult woman, average size (meaning me!).
Figure out the general gauge of yarn in stockinette.
Multiply stitches per inch of yarn, and multiply that number. Example: 6 stitches per inch for a 19 inch head results in 114 stitches.
Determine the ribbing or bottom edging of the hat. If ribbing, I usually will decrease my total cast on so that the hat will be snug, and the stretch of the ribbing will allow for comfort at the same time. If the bottom border of the hat is not in ribbing, I still decrease a bit, but not as much perhaps. A decrease of 1 to 2 inches is normal.
What is the pattern going to consist of after the ribbing or lower edge is completed? If the design has definite elements of obvious knit and purl, I try to work the ribbing into the first row of the pattern, to allow for a smooth transition between the two.
Berets require some expansion from ribbing to the pattern, and this also means increasing stitches. I usually like to increase the number of stitches anywhere from a third more, to doubling, depending on how the pattern knits up. This can be done by increasing stitches in the ribbing or band, as well as moving from smaller to larger needles.
Finally, I knit the hat. As I knit, the hat sort of creates itself, even if I have an idea in mind. Sometimes a hat starts out as slouchy and loose, but the pattern may change that. Or vice versa. Sometimes I consider if I want to block out the hat pattern – easier to see once knitting begins – or not. And take it from there.
Ending the hat is perhaps the most complicated part of the pattern. Where there are decreases, such as SSK or K2TOG, it can be advantageous to the design to K1B. How to incorporate YO can also be a design challenge!

Beret in Design

So, there we have it – a brief outline on designing a beret as I do it. Pretty soon I hope to have a pattern available . . . and let’s see how well it takes off! I have written out the pattern in a rough manner, and have a test knitter in the person of my wonderful mother-in-law, Judy, and hopefully in my friend Donna will be available for the final draft.

Next task: creating a nice publication for the pattern!