Men's Hats

Here are 3 men's hats that I made in Nov-Dec 2010. I used the round green loom to make all of them. The first one is a tri-color hat which I made to match a scarf I had knit the year before:

I used Homespun Tudor, Black, and Colonial, 1 over 2 e-wrap stitch, using the traditional method to make the hat and attaching the brim while knitting.

The second hat I made based on the pattern for the garrison hat I knit before (http://loomdude.blogspot.com/2010/05/for-all-veterans.html ), all with 1 over 2 e-wrap stitch:

Front:

Back:

Instead of making the hat flat on top, I made it round like a regular hat. I simply knit the body of the hat first, then knit the brim separately. I positioned the brim the way I wanted it to look on the hat, fastened it to the hat using yarn needles (though you could probably used safety pins or other knitting needles) and then carefully sewed it the bottom of the brim to the bottom of the hat using a yarn needle and Homespun black. Then I sewed a row of Homespun Shaker around the top edge of the hat brim, attaching the brim to the hat as I sewed, and removing the yarn needles I had placed for positioning. As you can see, I wasn't fanatical about the line I made with the Shaker yarn being perfectly straight. After all, I knit it a little loose so it could stretch when the hat was worn; otherwise it would probably feel tight around the head in that area.

Finally, I made another hat based on a hat that I knit for myself in 2009. I used Hometown USA San Diego Navy and another dark blue yarn I had that was gauge 4. I double stranded the yarn and knit 1 over 1 e-wrap stitches, attaching the brim during the process. The brim on my hat was much wider (about 3"); this brim is about 1.5"-2".

Unless you look closely you will not see the variation in color between the two yarns I used. I decided to knit it this way because when I only used the San Diego Navy yarn and knit 1 over 1, it left gaps which I knew the wind would easily get through. Using the two gauges of yarn together double stranded helped solve this problem, though on an extremely windy day you will still feel the air blowing through momentarily. I've used this hat outdoors and it is heavy enough to make me sweat if I'm shovelling snow or playing with my daughter, so I usually only wear it when it's below 40 degrees.

Special Olympics Scarf Done!

Here is my 60" scarf, completed and mailed in time for the NJ deadline!

For the turqua and blue stripes, I knit off 6 rows of each, + 2 "transition" rows (rows where the two colors meet and overlap on the loom).

I also enclosed this note of encouragement, for whomever wears the scarf:

It says - "Whenever you feel down or feel like giving up, hold this scarf in your hands, wrap it around your neck, and remember: someone you don't even know made it just for you, because you are a special athlete. Someone you don't even know is rooting for you and cheering you on. Someone you don't even know believes deep inside of you is a winner, and every time you smile you let the world see the winner in you. Special Olympics 2011"

It was a lot of fun to make, and I may do it again next year. Here's to the athletes and the people who love them! Hooray!

Almost Done!

Here is the Special Olympics scarf at 43" in length; I plan to make it 60".



I already measured it and the stripe design should start again at 53". I hope to complete it by Friday evening and mail it out on Saturday. I'll post another picture before I do!

Special Olympics Scarf Progress

Here’s my progress on the Special Olympics Scarf so far:

Right now it is a little over 20” long, and the required length is at least 53”. This is about 2 hours’ worth of work.

My original design was to create a flat panel scarf and use a popcorn bobble stitch on the alternating bands of blue and turqua. When I tried this, it just wasn’t achieving the effect that I wanted it to. So I frogged it and started over. I decided to keep it simple and straightforward.

They ask for the scarf to be 6” wide, so I knit off on 22 pegs, knowing that the scarf will contract to 6” as I knit it. At first I tried 20 pegs, but it contracted to 5”.

I will be finished with it in time to mail it out for my state’s deadline; it’s due at the end of this week.

It is such a rich color of blue; it reminds me of Christmas because as I child we used to have blue and green tinsel that had that shade of blue in it. I had never heard of Turqua before, but I presume it is a variation of the color turquoise.

A worthy project

I am knitting a scarf for the Special Olympics! Anyone want to join me? I don't personally know any atheletes that are competing, but when I saw the website mentioned last year I decided I wanted to do it. Each state has it's own deadline for when they need scarves, and there are certain colors that they ask you to use. You can read the full details here: www.scarvesforspecialolympics.org . I will keep you updated on my progress, and if you are also doing a charitable knitting project, I'd love to hear about it!

Watermelon in Winter?

You bet, and it's ripe and delicious, fresh off the loom!

Well, actually I knit it during the summertime so I could post it now, when the winter winds are raging and frigid temperatures say anything but summer. With this cheerful hat you can bring a slice of summertime into your winter and brighten the day of anyone who sees you wearing it! I used the round green loom to knit it, 1 over 2 stitch, with red heart red, paddy green, and white yarn. The seeds are some navy blue yarn I had in my stash. The hat itself is simple to make. I knit the seeds separately and then sewed them on. They are simply mini I-cords that are sewed together and shaped to look like seeds. I actually made it small enough for my 5 year old daughter to wear, but I could fit my head into it as well. You may need to adjust the amount of green and white "rind" for an adult's head.

Try not to giggle too much when you wear it!

Merry Christmas Tree!

I was having trouble posting this over the last few days, but I was finally able to get it posted.

My final Christmas project for this year was a Christmas tree I designed myself! This adorable tree decorated with poinsettias and lights stands 27.5 inches tall and was a delight to make!

First I started by deciding on how I wanted the poinsettias to look. I created them all in one piece, using the flower loom and Homespun candy apple red yarn. But they came out looking more like a star (the one on the left), and they weren't the right color. I tried again, increasing the number of leaves and using red heart red yarn. Now it looked more like a poinsettia to me (the one on the right):

I knit 20 poinsettias and set them aside.

To knit the tree, I used Homespun Evergreen Christmas yarn and every round loom I had. I knit each section of the tree from small to large, and then sewed them together with yarn. I knit the bottom section of the tree a little longer than the cone so I could pull the tree taut against the cone and cinch it underneath.

After I completed it I thought of a different way of creating the tree in one piece; maybe next year I'll try it out and see if it works.

To assemble the tree, I purchased a clear plastic cone from an online craft store to use as the inside of the tree, because I knew styrofoam wouldn't work well with the lights. Plus I didn't want the color of the styrofoam to show through the knitting. I bought a wood dowel and painted the bottom part of it brown, to use as the tree trunk. I bought a strand of 20 red Christmas lights. Then I bought some styrofoam discs that I would cut to insert and glue inside the bottom of the tree and into the base of the pot, to hold the tree steady and upright.

Before I put the lights in, I sewed the poinsettias onto the tree. This could have been a big mistake, since I didn't take into account the distance between each light bulb -vs- the distance I had sewn on each poinsettia. But fortunately all of the lights were able to reach the centers of eack poinsettia as I had planned.

Another problem with sewing the poinsettias on the tree first happened when I had to space and match each light with the center of each poinsettia I had sewn on. I had to use an exacto knife to mark the center of each poinsettia on the plastic cone. Then I enlarged the hole in the plastic cone and pushed each light through. Then I secured the lights using black electrical tape, which I knew would be covered up by the poinsettia.

Next I carefully turned the tree inside out, and pushed the lights through the center of each poinsettia, starting at the top. This was difficult, but not impossible. I poked a pencil through the center of each poinsettia to guide my finger and to make the hole big enough for the light to push through. The ones at the top were the hardest, but after the first few I was able to position the lights both inside and outside the cone through the yarn.

At first I had planned to knit the star on top of the tree. I was going to make a large poinsettia for the top, but I just wasn't getting a good design together for how I wanted it to look. So I found a star at the craft store to use instead.

The last part I bought was the pot itself: a cute wicker basket that I found at the craft store, in the shape of a snowman's hat. It was just the right finishing touch!

Here is what the tree looks like with the lights on,

and an artistic rendering of it:

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!