More knitting chat ...

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, new pictures, photobucket.com/albums/c176/NotQuiteCockney/?sc=6 . I like both new hats, although the photos are rubbish. (Am I not holding the camera still?)

Not sure what to do next, am slightly uninspired. Thinking about tubular knitting? DH has a colleague whose wife is having a baby, so I should do one for them ...

Does anyone know if Rowan still make cotton tape? I've found a lovely pattern using it, but when I went on their website they didnt list it as one of their yarns. Have they just changed the name?
NQC, are you going to publish your patterns? Your hats are so good, and I still havent found a hat pattern i really like. Can I have a try at the butterfly one? pleeease!

Oh, just read the post before that, is the pattern the butterfly one or the triangle and pleat one?

That's the butterfly one.

I'll write up the missing bits, check through what's there, and you're more than welcome to have a go.

great! Thanks

oh, forgot to ask, what size-ish head will it fit?

I think I'm working it up for 16", but will probably do it for a range.

It is a bit stretchy, as long as you do it in wool, so it has some "give".

Ok, here's a first go at a finished pattern. This will only work for one size at the moment, but I will look into doing it for another if you have a particular size in mind? I think this is good for a 6-month-old, but I'd need to double-check in a red book to be sure ...

Please let me know if the pattern makes sense, what other information you'd want (this is to people who have no plans to use this pattern, too! As I don't use patterns, I'm a bit foggy on them.)

Butterfly Hat
----

This hat consists of a roll brim, then a body of the hat with 6 rows of butterflies on it. You start reducing the circumference of the hat during the last butterfly row. Then you reduce sharply just after the last butterfly, so the hat doesn't bulge out when the butterflies stop. You keep reducing, using k2tog in the same places, ending up with a short i-cord.

Equipment:

• 3mm 40cm circular needle
• 4 3mm DPNs
• 1 ball Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply or similar. This hat takes about half a ball of yarn. If you want to use another yarn, make sure it has some resiliance/elasticity - wool, not cotton.

Butterflies:
The butterfly consists of five strands, made on alternate rows by slipping five stitches, each time, with yarn in front. These five strands are then collected up, in the MB instruction detailed below. This is a slightly modified version of a texture detailed in Barbara G. Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

Special instructions: MB - Make butterfly: With right needle, collect the five strands of yarn on the RS of the hat. Pick up strands and place on left needle. Knit the strands with a single knit stitch, through the front leg of the multi-strand "stitch". Do not knit any normal stitches with the multi-strand stitch.

Tension:
9.5st x 22 rows in a 4cm x 4cm garter stitch square

Hat to fit head circumference of 38-45 cm.

CO 100 stitches, preferably using a loose CO method, like loop.

Roll Brim:
Join, being careful not to twist the stitches. Pull the first stitch tight. Knit 15 rows.

Body of Hat:
1,3,5,7,9: (slip 5 stitches with yarn in front (wyif), k5) *
2,4,6,8: K*
10: K2, (MB, k2tog, k8) * (K6 on last repeat)
11, 13, 15, 17, 19: (k5, sl5 wyif) *
12, 14, 16, 18: K*
20: K7, (MB, k2tog, k8) * (K1 on last repeat)

Repeat rows 1-20 once.
Then repeat rows 1-12.
(Total: 52 rows of body)

Crown of Hat:
53: (k2, k2tog, k1, sl5 wyif) * (90 stitches)
54, 56, 58: k*
55, 57: (k4, sl5 wyif) *
59: (k2, k2tog, sl5 wyif) * (80 stitches)
Move the stitches to DPNs, distributing them evenly across 3 DPNs, and using the fourth to knit.
60: k3, (MB, k2tog, k4)* (k1 on last repeat)
61: k2, (k2tog, k6)* (k4 on last repeat) (70 stitches)
62: k2, (k2tog, k5)* (k3 on last repeat) (60 stitches)
63, 64: k*
65: k2, (k2tog, k4)* (k2 on last repeat) (50 stitches)
66, 67: k*
68: k2, (k2tog, k3)* (k1 on last repeat) (40 stitches)
69, 70: k*
71: (k2, k2tog)* (30 stitches)
72: k*
73: k2, (k2tog, k1)* (end with k2tog, including first stitch of row 74)
74: k2tog until only 3 stitches left
Knit i-cord with last three stitches, for three rows.
CO, then sew up.

No knitters about? I just want to know if that pattern is readable and makes sense. I don't think I've forgotten anything.

i am not competent enough to tell for sure, but it looks fine to me. have 3 projects on the go atm but will have a go when i've finished one.

at hand i've got debbie bliss cashmerino and 5.5mm circulars, do you think it'd make a big hat or a disaster? actually, think i might already know the answer to that...

Fishie, if you want to do it with different yarn/needles (is the debbie bliss cashmerino an ok weight to be worked on 5.5s?), I can do a pattern for you.

To do this, just do a tension square with a few butterflies on it, and tell me how many CM wide each butterfly is, when pulled slightly taut.

I might do a slightly simpler pattern without any decrease with the butterflies, and that will be easier to adjust for different sizes etc.

i fear the db cashmerino is too fine for the needles. BUT unless the noro bag has some kind of really wool-hungry handles, there might just be enough for a matching hat! my sister has a whopping great head though

Well done, NQC It looks fine to me, but I guess it needs to be tested properly! I'm too bogged down in the Pearl Buck thing to try it at the moment, but will definitely give it a go at some point. Have you ever thought of having a blog? If you don't want to submit the patterns to a magazine you could just have them downloadable from your blog.

I think I need to have one, as that's a more sensible way to offer these sorts of things than in threads. Will have to look into that.

I might try submitting them to a magazine after they've been tested.

Ok, I made a blog and put the pattern on there. Here it is.

I need to get the picture looking better, only of course I've given away the hat. Will remake in another colour, I think ... but the texture won't show up as well in a darker colour ...

I think I may try submitting patterns to knitty or similar, but I want to get people to try out this pattern first, and fiddle with it a bit.

OMG, there are knitting retreats. They're visiting Texere! Here .

Is it very sad that this sounds very cool to me?

Never mind, don't answer that.

Been fiddling with the blog thing more.

Also, I'm doing a new version of the hat in a) yellow b) a larger size. Technically it's for DS2, but it's really so I can get better pictures. Will probably give it to German (knit hat!) woman's daughter, who is about the right age.

I do feel slightly mad here, chatting away to myself about knitting ...

I'll definitely give the pattern a go for you once I've finished this jacket. It's just going to be a bit slow because it's DK and a bit of cabling.

Did you see the retreat on the Kangaroo pages? In France.... looks heavenly.

Well, I'll do the hat up in more sizes, anyway. Let me know when you're closer to using it. (Or you could do it in thicker yarn, to have a bigger size?)

The retreat I saw was in the northern UK, I think. Bronte country, they said?

Oh, and I saw the retreat on ... um ... some American knitting boards. I was looking for some UK knitting chat boards, as UKHK annoys me.

I'll look at the kangaroo ones.

I might well just do it in a thicker yarn, actually, although I'll have to get some thicker dpns for it.

Completely agree about UKHK. I did see something on there about the retreat you linked to though, or maybe it was on the Edinburgh discussion board?

To do it in a thicker yarn, you'll want to do a tension square with butterflies on it, really. Talk to me about it when you're doing it, if you run into trouble.

I've been fiddling with the blog a lot. I think I've made the pattern more readable. Is it sensible to have it say "all unmentioned rows are K*"? Or do I need to list them? (If so, can I list them all at once?)

Is it kangaroo or angel yarns boards?

Yeah, I guessed I'd have to do that, they're quite an important part, aren't they?

Not sure about "all unmentioned"- could go with "unless otherwise specified", but I think you'd have to list all the other rows quite clearly. The way you've got it on here is pretty clear, though.

Definitely Kangaroo- I think it's a Rowan one with Jane Crowfoot.

Oh, I'm doing that teach-grandmother-to-suck-eggs thing (no aspersions intended on your age, as, for one thing, I've no idea how old you are). Writing out the pattern has reset me to explain-everything mode. (A pattern written for me would be something like: find texture in Barbara G. Walker book. Do sample square. Do hat.)

The second version of the pattern on here is ok, but I'm fiddling with it on the blog to make it more readable. I took out all the 72: k*s, but maybe I'll put them back in.

I don't like it when it goes:
1, 7, 52, 136: k*
2: jkldfja sjkdf djkal f
3: jkasld fjka dskjf dsa
etc.

I prefer to be able to read the pattern in order. So I guess I need to put the K*s at least close to where they're used. I can't really say "all even rows" or similar, as, well, it's not that simple.

I was looking for kangaroo forums, and there aren't any, are there? Are angel yarns the only option for forums? I want a mumsnet-style thing (or another forum style, I don't care about the format) for knitting in the UK.