Blog

That means it’s almost pruning time.

Roses.
Fruit Trees.

And bare root tree planting time.

Figs?
Cherries?

And garden planning time.

Veggies, dye plants, herbs. Oh My!

Exciting, eh?

But it doesn’t feel like it.
Its a dank, dreary mess out there today.

And so we’ll play make-believe.
And we’ll go back to the days when the grass was long and the sun was high-

this one’s kinda hazy, like a memory…

to the days when handspun grew on trees 🙂

And berries were blushing on the bushes

These days will come again, I know. But right now it seems a long ways off.

So, in the meantime here are the general directions for this hat-

First you knit the cable-y portion. Pretty sure what I did here was

K P P C6F P P C6B P P K

Twist the cables every 8th row.
Knit this pattern until you have the length equal to about the circumference of the head you’re knitting for, slipping the first stitch of each row to make a nice neat chains on the sides.

When you’ve got the right length, pick out the cast on edge (suppose it would have made more sense to start with a provisional caston, eh?) and use the 3-needle bind off technique to join the ends.

Now you pick up stitches for the crown of the hat.
Instead of picking up the edge stitches themselves, you are going to pick up stitches from just behind the edge, on the back side. This way your chain of slipped stitches forms a nice neat border for the cable panel.
I usually find that picking up 2 stitches out of every three works well.
Once you’ve got your crown stitches picked up, the rest is worked in reverse stockinette. Alternate colors each round, and decrease 8 stitches every other row.

Pick up stitches on the other side of the cable panel in the same manner and knit 2×2 ribbing for about an inch, then knit three rounds (to make the edge roll, and cast off very loosely.

And there you are.
Hope it keeps you nice and snug until La Nina releases her hold on us.

Not a fully formed one, anyway.

It was quite a week.
Edgar summed it up when he said:
“Mooooooo….”

Surreal.

Just glad to be through it.

a little spinning therapy helped-

dark Border Leicester and silvery Romney

And I didn’t finish these socks this week,, but I did wear them for the first time this weekend,,, so I figure they are fair game-

This Saturday was the WSU Country Living Expo down in Stanwood-
I took my camera, meaning to get a bunch of photos, but in hustle and bustle of the schedule I completely forgot to do that.

Went to a bunch of good classes, and the only photographic evidence I have of attendance is this shot of the lovely mohair I picked up from Wondering Creek Farm.

Couldn’t resist the silky, lustrous locks.

I permitted myself just a few ounces.

Ahhh.
That’s better.

In loving memory of Syd (Mar 1998-Jan 2011)

Rest in peace, Sweet Jaboo.

Man is it wet.

Soggy.

Saturated.

I believe the sheep are truly coming to appreciate the merits of the shed with its nice metal roof and comfy straw bedding.

Since the weather has been miserable here and absolutely no good for taking photos, I thought that this week I’d relate my general Smittens recipe for anyone who’s looking to do something similar-

The beauty of the Smitten is its simplicity. Its just a basic mitten, but the proportions are just right, and the shaping actually fits a real human thumb.

You could certainly spice it up easily enough, with some texture or some fancy colorwork.
But I think a well executed plain Smitten is a just right all by itself.

I did both these pairs on size 3 needles. The colored pair turned out a little larger just because the yarns was a little bit heavier.

Assuming you’re getting somewhere in the ballpark of 6 stitches/inch, cast on 48 stitches.

Knit (in the round, on DPNs) 1×1 ribbing for about 20 rounds.

Then knit one round plain.

Thumb gusset:

The first 3 and last 3 stitches in the round are the base of the thumb.

Increase one stitch on each side of the thumb gusset every other round three times, then every third row 3 times.

Once you’ve completed the gusset increases knit about 10 or 11 rounds even. Stop just short of the gusset stitches on the last round and put the gusset stitches on a piece of yarn to hold them while you’re working on the rest of the hand.

Rest of the hand:

Cast on four stitches (backwards loop method works fine), and reconnect with hand stitches on the other side of the thumb gusset.

Then knit about 2 more inches even (until you reach the tip if your little finger).

Fingertips:

Start decreasing on the pinkie side first. It’s a modified wedge-toe type of decrease. Do two sets of decreases (every other round, pinkie side only), then do three sets of decreases (every other round, both sides). Then decrease every round three or four times.

Graft together remaining stitches.

Back to the thumb.

Pick up 6 stitches in the gap (one in each of the newly cast-on, and one in each of the “corners”.) Knit one round.

Narrow thumb- decrease (towards the outside) on each side of four center stitches, every other round, 3 times.

Then knit even about 12 rows. k1, k2tog around, knit around, k2 tog around, yarn through remaining 6 stitches and tie off.

That’s all there is to it.

It’s a great way to use up odd bits of handspun, and they make nice quick-to-knit gifts.

And I’m afraid we probably still have plenty of good mitten wearing weather ahead of us.

Dreaming of sunnier days-

Denise