Spiral Rib Hat

Thanks to Chloe who asked for the Sprial Rib Hat pattern that I made for my nephew! Here it is - let me know if you find anything dodgy.



Spiral Rib Hat (by Cathy Ngo)
The hat is composed of three parts - a ribbed brim, spiral ribbed middle, and plain stockinette crown. A newborn hat should be 14-16" around. Select yarn and needles to give an appropriate gauge, and cast on a multiple of 4 stitches that will give the desired circumference on double pointed needles or a 16" circular for bigger hats. The hat ends up being pretty stretchy.

BRIM:Join in the round, mark the beginning of the round, and knit in K2P2 rib until the hat is an inch long.

SPIRAL RIB:Repeat these 8 rounds until the hat measures about 4-5" when it stands on the table. It probably won't matter which of the rounds is the last for the section.
(repeat the pattern for the whole round)

R1: K1 P2 K1
R2: K1 P2 K1
R3: P2 K2
R4: P2 K2
R5: P1 K2 P1
R6: P1 K2 P1
R7: K2 P2
R8: K2 P2

STOCKINETTE CROWN:Find a number from 7-11 that divides evenly into the number of stitches. Call that number "n"

PSSO = Slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over.

R1: *PSSO Knit (n-2)* repeat across round
R2: knit across round.
R3: *PSSO knit (n-3)* repeat across round
R4: knit across round.
The swirls of the decrease lines should appear to be a continuation of the spiral rib. Continue this pattern until you are knitting 4 stitches between the PSSO's.

R1: *PSSO K3* repeat across round
R2: *PSSO K2* repeat across round
R3: *PSSO K1* repeat across round
R4: *PSSO* repeat across round.
You should have (cast on)/n stitches left.

Cut yarn and thread it on to a yarn needle. Run it through the live stitches twice around, in the reverse from knitting direction, tighten and secure. Weave in ends.

Here's the mischief I've been up to lately (with fresh photos)

Here's the yellow hat - I'm kind of amazed by how blurry the picture came out, I think I might have forgotten to hit the "macro" button (or tulip, as I like to call it.) I think I'm going to send it to Rabbitch's Vancouver hat drive. Along with the City Lights hat I finished a few weeks ago. I wrote down the address and was going to find one of those big yellow envelopes, then I realized I should probably weave in the ends before I send it.


Here's where I am on the coins for the coin quilt. 3/5 done. The strips don't seem to be very close to the same length as eachother, which is worrying. I'm hoping that ironing has the same affect as blocking and I can fix it with the iron. Just because I can't quit while I'm ahead, I ordered two charm packs today. Both I think are 30's era reproductions or similarly super-retro. (I typed that as "can't quilt while I'm ahead" tee hee)

Here's the start of another hat for charity. It's in Caron SimplySoft and it'll have bright yellow stripes in it. Sort of a Michigan hat. This one's for the Soaring Eagles project. Something in the "why" the organizer decided to run the drive really hit me and I cast on for it right away, before even starting Sleeve 2 of the monkey's sweater. Here's how the sweater is going. You can't really tell much from that picture other than the volume. I expect to be joining the arms to the sweater by the end of the week.

I seamed up this sweater today. I decided to get serious about finishing the baby present. And Alison of the Blue Blog just finished a similar garter stitch sweater and made it look easy (like she does most things.) I finished the sweater in June or July and let it simmer until now.

Let's see - what's left. Socks and Halloween?

Here's the sock progress. Haven't been doing much with either sock, but here they are in their current states: (Flickr has more info)
(the colors on this are wacko. Both the thermal blanket and the sock are grey, not air pollution green.)

And here is the Halloween situation. LaLa is going as a tree. Probably on or after Tuesday, we'll get "as worn" shots. The flickr photos have notes on them. But, the leaves are from silk fall leaf garlands from Joann's, and I hotglued them to a store-bought witch hat and a store bought long sleeve t-shirt (Old Navy). And we got some stretchy brown pants to wear too.

Just checking in for the sake of checking in.

Not much fabulous new stuff going on and no pictures either today.

I finished the yellow hat, and it seems to be a grownup size. It's cute.


The brown sweater for the monkey is now an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern. I was having some doubts about gauge and the numbers in Ann Budd's handy book of sweater patterns. (I'm sure it is user-error and the proportions of a lanky 12 year old boy.) But I decided that the beauty of making a sweater for a kid who lives with you is you can actually make a size that fits (pretty radical, I know) even if the kid is a unique size. So, I decided to go with Zimmerman's percentage method and the seamless raglan pattern in knitting without tears. (please forgive the grammer, spelling, and citations. It's been a long day.) I've got the trunk of the sweater done up to the armpits and the first sleeve is 2/3 done. Stockinette in the round on size 10 needles. It's a beautiful thing. I've been truckin' along this week on it. I'm thinking about signing up for Zimmermania.



The Jaywalkers for my sister have made some progress too. It's slow going, though.
I think I have three inches of foot to go before starting the toe.



Oh, and I started a stockinette sock for myself out of the Claudia's Handpainted Pink and Grey. I've been calling it "pink soot" or "Valentine's slush" in my mind. It's really knitting up pretty - reminds me of my favorite knee socks I had when I was 8 or so. Back when wearing kneesocks pulled up to your knees, sandals, and socks was cool. Not that it was probably ever cool in a high fashion sense, more cool in my own mind because they were fabulous knee socks. (is that an oxymoron?)



I've cut out a bunch of tote bags to sew soon. I may have made some technical glitches there, though. I made two patterns - one where there the lining folds over the top and provides contrast, and another like the first, except that there will be contrast on the bottom too. Sadly, I think I was mixing and matching the pattern pieces, so I'm not sure how tall the totes will be. Luckily everything was made for the same width. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I'm torn now between doing some work on the coin quilt (piecing) and cutting out some squares for LaLa's quilt. I think the coin because it's a "for my own edification" project.

P is for Popcorn!

Still working on getting caught up with the ABC-along.

The monkey is in Boy Scouts, and they sell popcorn every fall. For the last -mumble mumble mumble- years I've been either the popcorn chair or co-chair. Since he was a Bear in Cub Scouts, I think. Or a 1st year Webelo. Not sure which. Anyway, it's been a while.

Today is the due date for the final popcorn order and the prize order and any returns from the first order (we do one order, then the boys can sell at booths outside stores, or do neighborhood blitzes, where they sell and deliver popcorn) That first order is always a crapshoot, but it's better to err on the side of too much, just in case this is information you might need one day. I got all of my returns and orders submitted before I got to bed last night, and I slept better than I have in a while. I always manage to bungle the prize orders, but I think for the first time I may have gotten in right. Let's hope so.

Things are quiet on the popcorn front, until it's time to pick up the last order in early November. Then distributing the popcorn to the boys to deliver, collecting money, getting prizes and then we're done.

Isn't the sign snazzy? DH made that in AutoCad. He's darn handy for things like that.

It's very good popcorn - my personal favorite is the Chocolate Caramel Crunch.



One of the things that they don't tell you about when you sign up for this job is the smell of popcorn that greets you when you open the door.

Sunday was for Sewing last weekend. Wanna see what I've been up to?

1. I bound the green and yellow quilt. I'm happy with how it came out. I'm getting better at using the slippery blanket binding.


2. I finished this pink dress. (well, it needs a button and a button loop, but the part that has stumped me for so long is past.) I started it one spring when I was out of work, so La must have been 15-18 months. She's almost 4 now. This was actually for my niece, who is 7 months older than LaLa. Do I really need to say that even LaLa is too big for it? I'm planning to send it to my old SP5 buddy, Lori, so she can send it to her little buddy Kamryn.

3. I whipped up some pajama pants for LaLa. I still owe her a pair in some truck fabric we have. And I want to make some matching ones for my nephews for Christmas. Turns out this is a directional print. I had thought it was equally printed up and down, but not so much. The words all face one way (and in the case of her pants, it's down.) They fit her really well, though, and she's actually slept in them. (Normally she declares herself "Sweaty!" and takes off her pajamas when she's put into bed.)


4. This was a request from DH. He wanted a "remote caddy" that we could put over the arm of the chair and store the remotes. It's made with two MS dishtowels that I had from my pocketbook project. His comment when I proudly showed it to him, "You couldn't have picked a more masculine fabric?" You can't have everything, now can you.

5. I finished the sprial rib baby hat. My neighbor had asked for a pattern (I made one for my new neighbor and my old neighbor) for baby presents, but I winged it. So, when I wrote down what I remembered, I wanted to test knit it. Good thing I did, cause it turns out the decreases were a little eccentric (left-leaning). This hat will be for my nephew to be.


6. Look! It's a stockinette UFO! Alert the media! It's a hat for charity, TBD. Could be for Dulaan. Could be for Rabbitch's drive. Could be for something else. Not sure. But, so far the hat is roll-brim, and I'm working on a seed stitch band about 2" up from the bottom. It looks like it'll be big-kid or grownup sized. And it's made out of Lion Braind Jaime (100% acrylic) on size 10 needles.

O is for Oranges

When we bought the house, my sister bought us a citrus tree for a housewarming present. It's just starting to be at a fruit-bearing age/size. I don't remember what kind it was - it seems like it might have been a tangerine, or at least I was looking at the tangerines closely when we were shopping for the tree. However, looking at the fruit, I'm wondering if it's a honeybell or some other variety of tangelo. I would guess that they'll be ripe in January.

Not sure where to start

The last few weeks have been crazy here and it looks like it'll be crazy for another week or so, at least. Stuff with the mother-in-law (MIL) is not what it could be. She may have had some kind of stroke or other "event". She's got some sort of pre-senile dementia. That just means that she's too young for it. She just turned 56. I agree. She's too young. It seems to be an Alzheimer's type dementia. She's probably stage 5-6 out of 7. It's such a loosey-goosey scale, though. Until recently, she was at a point where she was mobile, could feed herself (but not able to cut up her meat), her toileting was starting to be dodgy, she answered "yes" to everything, and could no longer name all 6 of her kids, but they still looked familiar to her. She's been in assisted living since January. She hasn't been playing nice with her cohorts at the ALF and has spent some quality time at the Behavioral Health section of South Seminole hospital. They got her "stabilized" and were going to send her to a nursing home for rehab. Rehab from what, I wondered? There were a bunch of things on the list above that she could no longer do. But, they brought her to the nursing home and by dinner time, they were transporting her to a different hospital because she was aggitated. (I continue to be amazed by how many hospitals there are in this town. Where I grew up there was one hospital in the whole county, although they've since expanded.) They did a CT scan and saw evidence of some sort of event. Two events, actually. One recent and one previous to that. There was talk of a follow-up MRI, but DH hasn't heard anything about it yet. The event would account for the sudden loss of ability. So, that's just one thing that's keeping us on our toes. Lots of Boy Scout activities and work and stuff like that. I guess I could start an AD blog. It might actually be helpful and stuff.

But, let's talk about crafting.

1. Here are the jaywalkers for my sister. I turned the heel. Got some good Boy Scout knitting on them this week. They take a little more attention than I feel like giving right now.



I am craving casting on a stupid stockinette sock. Perhaps one of these.


The Flickr of them has the yarn info. I got them from the "Loopy Ewe" Quick and friendly service. She sent a sample of Regia Silk and Regia Bamboo, and now I REALLY want them. I got these under the guise of getting a cranbery/garnet/FSU colored yarn for another pair of socks for my sister. I thought the mahogany in the middle was going to be that yarn. no dice. However, look what was in my stash:

Lorna's Laces in Gold Hill. Something I ordered but then in person was kind of disappointed. But, the right tool for the right job in this case.

2. Hats and stuff.

I knit a plain hat from Berroco Duo to go with the garter stitch scarf. I think they're cute together. I signed up for the Dulaan 10k and these are 2/5 of my items.


This is a really blurry photo, but it gives the gist of it.

LaLa and I went to our neighbor's third birthday party. The grandma (who is the neighbor's neighbor) asked for the pattern for the spiral rib hat that I made for the birthday girl's baby sister. (Could I have explained that in a more confusing way?) So, I typed it up and started a test-knit of it. I mostly can't remember how I did the decreases. This will be for my nephew, so I have something to bring to the shower.



3. And my last knitting photo is of the sweater for the Monkey. Because nothing is more exciting than brown stockinette.

I actually really like the mottleyness of the colors and it's delightfully brainless, although I wish it were easier to see progress. I'm about an inch away from starting some sleeves.



4. Sewing!
I finished the pink, green, and yellow quilt, except for the binding.





I started cutting out squares for La's quilt. And I have a pair of flannel pj pants for her waiting to be sewn.





OK. I need to pick up the quilting mess and go to bed.

Is it so wrong???

I got email from Little Knits - they're having a sale on Cherry Tree Hill. And there's a secret code discount too. So, I go over there. And see the CTH selections (interesting. I like some of the greens though.) and the Trekking (they still have the purple I like. And the blue. And the pink.) and the Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn. (oooh. My sister would like that.) And then go to Simply Socks. And see what cool things they have. Yup. Cool things. CTH Birches. Fleece Artist too.

It's hard to remember that by the time I either knit with or otherwise destash the sock yarn I have, there'll still be interesting choices out there. I think I need to make three more pairs of socks before there will even be room for more yarn in the sock yarn cubbie.

I just want to gather up this yarn and hold it and squeeze it and pet it and call it George. Is that so wrong?

What have I been up to?

Well, not much, really. I gave my SIL her baby gift and she seems to like it. I sewed on the pink sash for the green and yellow quilt. I need to think about how to quilt it - I'm letting it marinate. But the machine is threaded and ready. Sadly, I still didn't find the cotton batt that I know I have, so I bought another one.

I bought some more remnants for tote bags. This tote bag fabric is taking over my room. I really need to get crackin', pull out some fabric and make some. I have this, "But I don't have handles" whine in my head, but I don't yet know what kind of handles there'll be until I start working, so....I won't really know if I actually need handle materials for a while.

The fabric for LaLa's quilt and dress is washed. And we bought some more fabric for the quilt (I decided that I needed like 20 or so different patterns to make it look "random") (and bought some more remnants. I might have a hoarding problem.) I did a study, and we settled on a pattern. And did the math to figure out how much I needed to cut out (144 - 3 1/2" squares and 36 6 1/4" squares Aaahh!) It'll be a lot like this one at Tiny Happy.

The garter stitch scarf is done. I signed up for the Dulaan 10k project. There should be a hat that goes with the scarf. Or a second scarf. Not sure yet. I still am itching to make some mittens. And I feel like I need to make baby hats for the upcoming wee ones. (pressure is only from myself.)

Turned the heel on the Jaywalker sock this week. Took for freaking ever to get through the heel flap. Don't know why.

I've also been knitting on the Monkey's sweater. I think it needs about 3" of stockinette before being ready for sleeves.

More photos next time.

N is for Nest

I drive past this giant nest on my way to work every day.

I believe it's actually an active nest for some kind of bird of prey - a hawk, I think. This is on the 417, north bound, near the 17/92 exit (pdf) in Seminole county. It's always neat to see nature sustaining itself so close to humans. It's also neat to see how close we are to ruralness where I live. There are a bunch of subdivisions near my house - 5 probably off of the same road as ours is off of. And there are cows that you can see too. We drive past an orange grove on the way to LaLa's school. In the middle of a neighborhood. It's also reassuring to see these hawks perched high on lamp posts in the morning sun as I make my commute.

Hah! I need to check the tree in the back yard. I think O is for Oranges. :^)