ok I need help to design a baby hat for baby #3

[FillyjonkisCALM]

Am using dna cable from here

Am thinking quite pointy

Am stuck on edging. Someone on ravelry suggested picot but...am not sure...

please give me your thoughts, I have a week til the due date and have yet to knit anything for this child

ps the most likely yarn is blue sky alpacas cotton, either green or ecru if that makes a difference.

[Flllightattendant]

Could you do a sort of square picot? With corners?

[Flllightattendant]

...or bind it with ribbon/small grosgrain?

Sorry I have odd ideas!

[FillyjonkisCALM]

part of the problem btw is that I don't know if db#3 is a boy or a girl.

Do you think straightforward ribbing would work with that cable?

[FillyjonkisCALM]

ah sod it, am going to do provisional cast on and then experiment once the hat is actually mainly knitted

[rantinghousewife]

Or you could use moss stitch, you'd need quite a wide band of it, because the cables would pull it in (well mine would)

[FillyjonkisCALM]

yes I can't decide how moss stitch would look with those cables...

am toying with just doing a hem...

[rantinghousewife]

Well if you're doing a prov cast on, you can always add an edging later, or do a few rows and frog, if it doesn't look right.
I did thicker cables than that with a moss stitch edging and it looked fine but, I had to make it quite wide.

[FillyjonkisCALM]

yes, this is my intention

I dunno, I am really stuck here as to what WOULD look good. I have the barbara walkers out and everything, but I am utterly stumped...

I don't think ribbing would look right, am toying with that special cable ribbing barbara walker has.

[rantinghousewife]

You like Barbara Walker?
Thought I was the only person who'd ever heard of her. (Have an obsession with B walker patterns dating right back to my childhood).

[FillyjonkisCALM]

seriously rh?

Get onto Ravelry! BIG bw love there.

No I think she's fabulous, I have the first 2 stitch dictionaries and have just got a copy of knitting from the top down that I MUST READ.

[FillyjonkisCALM]

oh for anyone who cares, here is the LATEST design

2 x DNA cables (because babies have 2 parents on opposing sides. Still no advance on the edging...

BUT I cannot decide if I should have reverse stocking stitch or asymetric ribbing between the cable panels...

oh life is so hard

[Flllightattendant]

Hope you sort it, Filly - my knitted 'items' always end up being sort of 'unique' for want of a better euphemism.

I will put a pic of Ds2 in his 'hat' on my profile - give me 5 minutes! That way you will know to ignore any advice I might come out with

[rantinghousewife]

Am on ravelry Fillyjonk, shall have a hunt round. My mum had (I have them now) dozens of B Walker patterns which I have actually crocheted bits from. And just after Christmas, I bought 40 patterns from a chap on Gumtree, all were Twilleys and a large amount of them were Barbara Walker.
Have some good knitting booklets too.

[FillyjonkisCALM]

aw fa that is REALLY cute (the hat and the ds ;-) ) . It actually looks very lovely.

Knitted items are meant to be unique btw. Otherwise-why not just buy them?

ra-didn't know barbara walker did all those patterns! I just knew about her books! I do love people like barbara walker, elizabeth zimmerman, etc. My local yarn stockist closed down around the time I started knitting properly (actually it was their closing down sale which inspired me ;-) ) and so I have always had to be quite inventive, because I have pretty much NEVER had the yarn required in a pattern. I am now, i think, glad of this, though it was a PITA starting out...)

[Miaou]

Filly, how about a garter stitch edging - would that complement (or is it compliment? am never sure ) the cabling?

Or how about a simple stocking stitch edging so that it naturally rolls up? (need to do about 10-12 rows)

Am now off to ravelry to find out about Barbara Walker ...

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[FillyjonkisCALM]

have now started hat and somehow have ended up doing 3 x cable panel, but provisional cast on so will knit to top and THEN experiement with edging

pruni I really like twisted rib also, that and that cable rib thing I think are the front runners.

miaou, in theory I do like the idea of a roll brim, but problem is that this cotton (blue sky alpaca) I am using is kind of weird. It is very hard to get a decent tension on it-there is a REAL difference between the purl and the knit stitches, which is not something I normally have a problem with, even in this pattern. And then there is the problem of newborns having funny shaped heads -it would be wrong to ask for a caesarean so that the hat fitted properly, I think ...wouldn't it?

It is a lovely soft cotton, I'd use it again for a cardigan in the event of a lottery win, but...its a bit odd for a hat somehow. I don't think its going to appreciate the decreases at the top either-I think they will REALLY show, and I can't do them evenly because of the pattern. Really, I think I needed to use a thinner yarn for this one...

SO upshot is, having seen the effect of 3x cable panel, I now think I need something which pulls it in a bit. I can't work out quite how ribbing will look though...

[Miaou]

LOL filly, I nearly spurted tea all over my keyboard over the caesarean comment!

[FillyjonkisCALM]

ooh had an idea though

attatched i-cord...

it doesn't get around the head-size problem BUT it might look rather nice...

[rantinghousewife]

Pondering on this, (have no life, so was mulling it over before sleep last night), I think twisted rib would do it, would look nice too.

[FillyjonkisCALM]

yes am inclining now t/w twisted rib

here is another question though-the top

should I have 3 x bobbles a little like this

(only 3 of them and not a tea cosy)

OR a bobble

or just finish off normally

ack decisions decisions...

have also started a baby DNA cardigan, on same theme. one day I shall have enough time to take photos of the stuff I have done and bung it on flikr...

[FillyjonkisCALM]

here is a nice picture of twisted rib, btw

I think I am inclining t/w 2x twisted rib, maybe more. it IS massively more stretchy IMO, though with this yarn it may need to be...

[Miaou]

I am currently wearing a jumper that I did with twisted rib on the cuffs, hem and neck - it does look rather nice I must admit!

When you say bobbles, do you mean i-cord loops (as in the link?) Not pompoms? Personally I would probably go for just one - having done a hat with lots of loops together it just looked a bit ... hairy I guess.

[rantinghousewife]

I think I would be inclined towards those neat little bobbles, where you cast on one stitch and knit into it front and back twice (5sts) and then purl one row and knit 1 row twice, then purl a row and on next row k5 tog. Gives you a sort of 3 section little bobble. Don't know of the correct name.

[FillyjonkisCALM]

rh, that sounds like what I want!

can you link to an image though?