Knitting Content Galore

It's snowing here. I don't think there's anything better to do when it's snowing than to sit by the fire and knit. Well, there's one other thing, but we won't talk about that here.

I finished another hat. Just a little one. Thing is, I'm not going to show you a picture; at least, not a picture of me wearing it. It's just a tad too big, so I'm going to try to felt it... slightly. It fits John very well and looks good on him, but his reaction was, "Purple? Ummm, I don't know." I can understand that. It's a great colour for me, a woman, but not so great a colour for him. Not to say that men can't, or don't, wear purple. It's just not a "him" colour. Yanno?

Anyway, I'm rambling. Well darn it all anyway! I had a post almost finished and my computer decided to send me an error message and shut down my browser. It all disappeared. Here we go... second try.

This is where I spend my knitting time. You can see my copy of the winter 2006 Interweave Knits. If you look closely, you can see a bit of purple near the bottom of the page. The yarn I used is Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed in colour #281108, a gorgous, deep, eggplanty purple. The colour in the following picture does not show the colour very well; it's a much deeper purple, very hard to capture with the camera.

Here's a picture of the crown of the hat.

The pattern starts the hat from the top down, which is a great way of knitting a hat. It starts with a cast on of 8 stitches, joined in the round. I didn't do that; I used Emily Ocker's circular cast on, which is basically a crochet cast on. Google it, I'm sure you'll find the directions for it somewhere. It's a good cast on to know. The pattern also uses the standard M1 increase, which is made by picking up the bar between two stitches and knitting it, making sure the stitch is twisted so you don't get a row of holes. I didn't do that. I used an increase commonly used by Elsebeth Lavold, and, as I discovered, also described by Barbara G. Walker.

I'll get back to that increase in a moment. This past week, we received two shipments of books at the store. Two of the books in those shipments had my name on them. They were sold before they even hit the shelves.

The first, "Shawls and Scarves", I had borrowed from the library earlier this year and decided I wanted. It makes a good addition to my library. Another great addition is Barbara G. Walker's "Knitting from the Top". I love this book and I think I will end up using it quite a bit. Back to the increases. It's all relevant, trust me, I'm not rambling this time.

On page 21 of BWG's book, she describes 10 (yes, 10!) methods of making a double increase. Obviously, for the hat, I didn't make a double increase, but the method (halved) is what I used. As she writes, "knit into the back of the stitch in the row below the seam stitch (inserting needle downward into the purled head of this stitch on the wrong side), then knit into the back of the seam stitch itself..." It's a nice increase that leaves no holes at all. It's also simple to work, unless you're using blunt needles.

Now, before I forget... Yesterday, I commented that I needed some input as to what to make with some laceweight yarn I have in my stash. It's gorgeous. It's Handmaiden Yarns, 100% laceweight silk. And I have no idea what to do with it. The colours are amazing. The pictures, as good as they are, do the yarn no justice.

What does this yarn say to you? I'm looking for ideas. If you've worked with this yarn before, or know someone who has, what pattern did you (or they) use? What's the yarn like to work with? Triangular shawl? Faroese Shawl? Rectangular Shawl? I keep picking this yarn up and it has yet to tell me what it wants to be.


Well, John's been tending the fire while I've been up here in the bedroom blogging. There's no fire up here. I think I'll head back down to where the fire is. Wherever you are, I hope you stay warm.