Marsha

More holiday knitting

I’m still rather annoyed about the Christmas stocking, so I’ve decided to avoid it for a while and start a new project: a holiday hat for Sylvia. It’s the “Tree Topper” from Jil Eaton’s SimpleChic: Designer Knits, SuperQuick!. Sylvia will look like she’s wearing a Christmas tree on her head–if she deigns to wear the hat, of course. (If I’m lucky, she’ll keep it on her head long enough for me to get a picture of it before she throws it to the ground. That’s really all I ask.) I decided to be a Very Good Knitter and knit a gauge swatch for this–good thing, too, ’cause on the recommended #8 needles the swatch was a half inch too wide. On #7s, however, it was perfect! Hooray! I even read Eaton’s instructions for knitting a gauge swatch and learned something new. She tells you to cast on six more stitches than you’re supposed to have (for a four-inch section), knit three rows, do four inches in the pattern (but knitting the first and last three stitches of every row), then knit three rows. The result is a little swatch with a garter stitch frame that makes the swatch (mostly) lie flat. The part in the middle should be exactly four square inches, if you’ve done it right.

(It occurs to me that perhaps this technique isn’t so new but is just new to me, since in the past I have never bothered with gauge swatches, preferring instead to get right down to the fun knitting. It’s still hard for me to motivate myself to knit gauge swatches, but I really wanted to get a good fit with this hat.)

Two gauge swatches later, I’ve cast on, knit the red border at the bottom, and started on the main part of the hat, which is green. I’m using Lamb’s Pride Bulky–a yarn that I adore but is impossible to find near where I live. (Let’s hear it for Internet shopping!) It’s knit flat and then seamed, and I might have used straight needles but I don’t own #7 straights. So this is on Denise needles (and working quite nicely). Here’s a photo of where it is now, with a cat nearby for scale and cuteness.

2 Responses to “More holiday knitting”

  1. Anonymouson 06 Nov 2006 at 6:08 pm

    HAHA are you going to make a matching hat for Britty too? I think you should. :-)

  2. Marsha Brofka-Berendson 06 Nov 2006 at 9:37 pm

    Britty would be very unhappy if I tried to put a hat on her head. She still has her claws! Hmmmm…maybe if I get her drunk on catnip first. Oh that won’t work, though, ’cause she’s a mean drunk!