Here's a quick last minute gift from a brand new free pattern from the Plucky Knitter, The Conversationalist Hat.
I took a few liberties with the pattern, doing a bit of random "pixelating" (stranding the yarn) at the change between the colors, rather than having a firm demarcation, as the pattern dictates. A fun, quick knit with great gifting potential. I'm still deciding between a traditional yarn pom pom and one made of Alpaca.
All told, this took me less than half a skein of each color in snug worsted (pink a boo and twill) and only a few hours to knit. And, you can literally knit this one while carrying on a conversation once you get the tubular cast on done. It's a fun pattern. This one is a gift, but I'm tempted to do another for myself.
We can debate endlessly whether I've been naughty or nice, deserving or not, but there you have it. I've thoroughly spoiled myself for Christmas.
I'm obsessed with Kate Davies new Buachaille Yarn. The yarn, which is locally sourced in Scotland where Kate lives, is lovely — soft and rustic at the same time. We honeymooned in Scotland and a little piece of my heart still lives there. This yarn brings me closer. I adored knitting Kate's amazing fairisle Peerie Flooers hat earlier this year and am going to use this yarn to knit her new Kokkeluri mittens.
The stitch markers on the left — you've already guessed it, are cut outs from the Harry Potter series. I'm geeky enough that I NEEDED them. They come from Calefroadcrafts on Etsy. On the right, the colorful fairisle sweater stitch markers are from Needleclicksetc on Etsy. Run, don't walk! They are cheerfully charming, well made, and snag free. They are truly the cutest stitch markers I've purchased in a long time. I like them so much that I've purchased a second set so I can use them to mark off repeats on cabled sweaters.
Finally, I splurged on Marie Wallin's Autumn Collection Five book. (Her Twitter feed is full of particularly lovely photos). I've got a long term plan and yarn collection going on to knit her many- colored Sage sweater. I thought one of the lovely fairisle scarves in this new book of hers would be good practice before I attempt the insanity of Sage. Here is a gorgeous versions of Sage from Raveler Ingstitch.
Marie Wallin's collections are always worth it for eye candy and inspiration, even when I have no plans to knit them, but Sage has stayed with me ever since it came out, and I've been slowly putting together skeins for it in the Plucky Knitter's Oxford yarn. All of the patterns in this book and charming. One can imagine a knitter's version of the book/move Julie and Julia, in which you would spend your days working through each of Wallin's patterns.
Hope your holidays are full of family and fun, with a side order of knitting inspiration!
This morning I started the Conversationalist Hat, which calls for a tubular cast on in 1×1 rib. I've done this successfully several times, but I always have to look it up. So I started with the two links to the technique that are suggested in the pattern, neither of which worked for me. I need video, not text when it comes to something like this.
My preference is to use Judy's Magic Cast On (JMCO) to create the tubular bind on, so after deciding the pattern directions wouldn't work for me, that's where I turned. This is a two step video watching process for me. I strongly suggest that you take time to watch each video through before attempting the cast on. My usual style is to watch about 30 seconds of video and dive right in, but these videos are so good that the 20 minutes you invest in watching will pay off big time in a lack of frustrating mis-attempts to create your tubular cast on.
Start with the basic video on how to do JMCO, done by none other than THE Judy herself. (How did she figure this out? I heard it happened while she was home sick and playing around one day. It's amazing, I don't believe I could have figured this out with decades on my hands).
Once you have these simple basics mastered, switch over to Lorilee Beltman's video on using JMCO to create a tubular 1×1 rib.
The logical question at this point is, why would you want to go to all of the bother? And the answer is a simple one. A traditional cast on, like my favorite, the long tail cast on, will leave you with a tight, non-stretchy line of stitches at the point of the cast on. It won't be horrible, and I have perfectly lovely hats that I've knit this way. But a tubular cast on permits you to create a rolled edge of seamless knit stitches. When you use this method for tubular cast on, you will, after casting on, have your knit stitches on the front needle and your purls on the back, and when you begin to work them onto one needle follow a K1 P1 patterning, the bottom, instead of that tight cast on line, will be a sprongy, stretchy, seamless part of the knit fabric.
Voilà!
Give it a try, as Lorilee does in the video, with a smaller number of stitches to get the hang of it. You'll be really proud of yourself when you accomplish this cast on and very happy with the result.
Since all I have to show you is the start of the sleeves for Glacier (knit two at a time, flat), I thought I would also share a picture from my lunch hour yesterday. It’s the Presidential motorcade, streaming down Pennsylvania Avenue, with a mist-shrouded Capitol in the background.
I’m steadfastly knitting away on Glacier in my free moments, so I don’t have a lot to show you this week, other than that progress.
But I do have a few thoughts to share:
1-The Plucky Knitter’s Snug Bulky is one of my all time favorite yarns. It’s like knitting with butter, but the stitch definition, which matters a lot with the cables, is immaculate.
2-Cabling without a needle. If you haven’t started yet you should. It’s incredible how much more quickly the front is going than the back! I’m still using the cable needle for the nine-stitch cable, because the reserved stitches have to move from the front of the work to the back midway through the cable. But that only happens on two rows in the twenty row repeat. For the other rows, I’m cable free.
3-All I want for Christmas is more hours in the day to knit!
