Crazy Cowl - a free pattern

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I first started getting this pattern ready to share, I noticed that I've sort of set a tradition of posting a free pattern on Valentine's Day... so I thought I'd hold out and save it for today.

So crazy, this cowl.

The pattern is designed specifically for the irregular but usually bulky yarn weights you produce when you first start to spin your own fiber - but it would work really well with commercial yarns too.  And because handspun varies so much, I've included advice for adapting the pattern to suit whatever weight of yarn you care to use.  Even if you would never dream of spinning your own yarn you can still make use of this Valentine's gift.

The fun thing about a Crazy Cowl is all the shapes you can make with it.  The entire cowl is buttonholes, with one (very large) button at each end; you can wear it close or loose or right off the shoulder, and leave a button-free corner hanging down or tuck it in.  Whatever suits you.  Or the weather or your outfit or mood.

And no matter how weird your cowl looks when it's done?

It still looks good on.

I hope you have a happy heart day, even if it's not Valentine's when you read this! And thank you so much for visiting here at Hugs.

Download .pdf of Crazy Cowl

Railyard Scarf - a pattern for sale

PLEASE NOTE: this pattern is now free :^)  There is a link at the bottom of this post to download it.

And now, back to the scarf.  (honestly, every time I see this picture I want to pet the screen.)

I made a matching set of these, which you may recognize from my references to the SuperSecret ScarfyThings aka the projects I did not quite finish in time for Christmas this year.

Here is what happened.  The small friend for whom I made the Milkshake Scarf a mere two years ago appears to have outgrown it already, and asked for another using This Yarn, in Blue ('This Yarn' being a ball of Supreme Possum Merino, but more on that in a moment.)  I couldn't not do it, of course, but I was faced with a problem.  Several problems in fact.

1. How many more scarves am I going to be making for Small Friend if he keeps on growing?  Clearly I need to make something longer... long enough that it will do him for a while, and then work for a girl.  Because of course you can't just waste a special knit like that while it waits to get passed down.

2. What stitch is going to be interesting to knit, but sufficiently manly for Small Friend to wear, and mindless enough to cart around everywhere because it will take me a year to do something that long?

(I never get tired of how it bunches together into warm little folds under a collar.)

(actually it only took about a month. it's pretty portable and I was out a lot at the time.)

3. And it has to stand out over all the halo from the Possum.

4. And be reversible.  (not that I ask for much.)

 

Having solved those problems, I was met with another - Small Friend's older brother, previously uninterested in scarves or anything else handknit, suddenly wanted one of these but undyed.  Might his sudden enthusiasm have had something to do with the whole 'looks like train tracks' thing?  Because both of those boys love trains even more than I do.

Incidentally, all these photographs are of the Child size/S scarf; I've included yardage and instructions for a Youth/M (I'm not taking any chances with Small Friend) and an Adult/L.  But Pete was surprised to find that the S was not ridiculously short under his coat or too narrow around his neck, so you can probably improvise a bit with yardage if you need to.

* * * * * *

A Word About Possum

The idea of wearing fur is (understatement alert) offputting for me personally, but possum fur has its own story, the conclusion of which is: buying products with possum fur in them helps New Zealand's environment recover from the massive damage caused by the overpopulation of this non-native species.  You can read all about it at the sidebar here.

A Word About Yarn Substitution

You can make this scarf with any fingering weight yarn, not just possum ones.  Especially any fingering with a fiber-related halo.

* * * * * *

Railyard Scarf

A pattern in fingering-weight yarn for the train lover in your life.

Difficulty Level:
Easy - if you know how to yo and K2tog, you're good to go.

Materials:

Supreme Possum Merino (50% merino wool, 40% possum fur, 10% silk, 229 yds/50g; www.merinopossum.co.nz; you're looking for the 4-ply weight), 2 (2, 3) skeins [Allow 350 yds/76g (458 yds/100g, 560 yds/121g) for sizes S (M, L).]
4.0mm/US 6 lace tip needles, or size to get gauge
darning needle

Gauge:

22 sts/30 rows = 4” in stocking stitch

Sizing:

Instructions are given for sizes Small, Medium, and Large, to fit a child (around 4.5' tall), youth, or adult.  

Width: 7.5 (7.5, 9)” 

Length: 45 (56, 60)”

Click here to download Railyard Scarf

Hot Stuff - a hat pattern for sale

PLEASE NOTE:  this pattern is now free :^)

For the last year or so, Helena at Midnight Sheep and I have been cooking up what has become my go-to hat for cold days:

Yes, alongside the cute slipped-stitch stripes that hide each round's colour changes and give you a little lift over one eyebrow, those are mugs.  With text.  Three of the mugs are steaming, and the steam separates three magical cold-weather words:

Hot Chocolate

Coffee

Tea

(I usually wear mine with the word 'tea' out front, though I do love a good cup of hot chocolate as well.)

On top?  A warm, radiating sun.  Or melting marshmallow, or gooey dollop of whipped cream, depending on your perspective.

Whichever you like, this hat is all about the warm, and I can tell you it really is.  Stranded DK weight Bluefaced Leicester?  So warm.

And so fast to knit.  I lost count of how many I made while I tested, but here's a clue: I stopped needing the charts.  Never got bored of them, either.  That's the thing about stranded knitting - it's so exciting to watch the next layer build up the image.

Obviously, this is a stranded hat and stranded knits are perfect for using up the remains of other projects you already have around the house.

But think about treating yourself to a kit in Huggable DK, the yarn Helena gave me to use.  The Bluefaced Leicester is a dream to work with - so springy and cuddly and soft - and the colour combinations Helena came up are so cheery.  While I worked out the pattern I knit it up in other yarns and the results were cute, but there is just no comparison to the way the Huggable DK ones feel either in progress or when wearing them later.  (Yeah... that's plural.  I kept two for personal use, I love this hat so much.)

In fact I am so convinced that you need to have this hat in Huggable form, I've asked Helena to include the pattern for free with her kits.  You can buy just the pattern from me and use up stuff you already have if you prefer, but - Huggable, people.  How do you resist that?  (said the woman with three more kits waiting to be knit up.)

Hot Stuff
A charted pattern in three sizes, with some instruction for stranded knitting.

Difficulty Level:
Intermediate

Materials:

Midnight Sheep 'Huggable DK', (100% Bluefaced Leicester, 245 yards/100g): A - 44 (51, 58) yds, B - 75 (87, 99) yds, C - 15 (15, 17) yds
3.5mm (US 4) - 1 set of 5 double pointed needles, or size to obtain gauge
Stitch marker
Darning needle

Gauge:

23 sts, 28 rows = 4” in stocking st 
(Please check gauge! If you do not knit with loose tension, you'll need to go up a needle size or two.)

Sizing:

Instructions are given for sizes Small, Medium, and Large.  All are designed to be long enough to cover your ears; in the very elastic 'Huggable DK', Medium stretches to fit a 22” head, with a little room to spare. 
S: 16.75" around, 7.5" long
M: 18" around, 7.5" long
L: 19.25" around. 7.75" long

Download the .pdf of Hot Stuff

Sleepless - a free pattern

My posting schedule is all off this week, but tomorrow I'll be back to my normal circa-dawn writing session.  Today: you are getting a late afternoon alert to say that the latest Knitty is out.

And I am in it.

Or rather, a hat I made is in it.

And I guess also me, because I modeled it.

The Knitty writeup gives you pretty much everything you need to know about this hat (charts, written pattern, under 50g of sportweight yarn etc.) except the backstory, which I will share here.

Spoiler alert: you may need tissues.

(don't worry if you haven't dropped by here before: this is an atypical post, so you're perfectly safe and even welcome! to come back again.)

If you've been reading Hugs for a long time, you will remember there was a death in my family over the summer.  Les was over 80 and had had a good - well, great really - life, but his last six months could serve as the dictionary definition of heartbreaking and were spent entirely in hospital.  I can tell you right now you never want to see anybody go through what he did, even if you don't love that person, and everybody loved Les a lot.

For most of the six months I kept thinking It's okay! They can fix this!  and then there would be another thing and I'd think They can totally fix that too! and then the first thing would go back wrong and - you get the picture.  One night in July I woke up around 3:00 AM and realized:

Les is going to die.

Immediately I went into a couple of insomnia-like hours of FixIt mode and tried to figure out what doctor to talk to, what treatment might help, what anybody could possibly do to keep that from happening.  And - so weird - at the very same time my mind was building up a hat with stitches that traced every one of the steps I was taking in that go-nowhere circle back to accepting the fact that we were going to lose him. 

Now, I realize this is a pretty depressing source of creative inspiration and a not-compelling reason to knit Sleepless, but from the start, I have felt very strongly that this hat was a gift from Les.  (Hard not to find that feeling reinforced when it was accepted to Knitty, no less.  Who gets a hat pattern into Knitty for heaven's sake?  Better designers than I, surely.)

I've spent months trying to figure out the meaning of that conviction and a few days ago it finally came to me:

Even in the midst of the worst things you can possibly imagine, there is beauty to be found.  It can coexist with anything.  And whether you seek it out consciously or just open your eyes to it when it's in front of you, it's a great comfort.

And I do think this is a beautiful hat.

(also: a lovely shovel.  Les gave me that too.)

PuddleJumper Socks - a pattern for sale

PLEASE NOTE: this pattern is now free :^)  Click on 'download now' at the bottom of the post and you'll be good to go.

And now back to this post.

For a lot of last year and a good deal more of this one I've obsessed about the perfect socks - aka the socks for which I could:
memorize the pattern
not need a stitch marker
be able to stop at any of four different needles when called upon on walk off a subway car or down the stairs of a bus without losing my place, and
not go crazy from not being able to see obvious signs of progress
(because it takes me two months to find time to finish the average pair of socks.)

 

Oh! and I didn't want the actual sock to be saggy at the back of my ankle.  I don't know why I should care about that but I do.

I really wanted to know where to mark the leg and foot so I wouldn't mess up with one sock being longer in either of those areas than the other, which kept happening to me.

I really, really wanted to have all the information I needed for all of the sock on a tidy, compact piece of paper (or series of same) that I could slip into my bag and cart around for all occasions.

And as the proud owner of a ridiculous amount of self-striping sock yarn, I especially wanted the pattern to do something cool with stripes.

Now, there are a lot of great patterns out there for stripey socks, but none of them quite met all of my needs.  Figuring out my dream stitch took a couple of months, and I got so used to ripping out my efforts and starting over that I nearly did the same with this one until I realized that the funny wave I got after one repeat of the lace pattern turned into a super fun asset after three of them.  I'm so glad I kept going.

Don't they look just like kids' rainboots, even inside actual boots?  Like the kind with the handles to pull them up by, I mean.

I love these socks.  I feel so cheery every time I wear them, even on gloomy rainy days - and with rain in the spring and the fall, who doesn't want that?

PuddleJumper Socks

Included:
Both written pattern and charts
Full directions plus a cheatsheet to cut out and carry in your bag
Tips (with photographs) on how to minimize holes while picking up gusset stitches
Step-by-step Kitchener stitch instructions for grafting toes shut

Difficulty Level:
Intermediate

Materials:

Knitterly Things’ Vesper Sock (100% superwash merino, 428 yds/100g), 1 skein sufficient for most foot sizes
(if you have both a long and wide foot, consider adding a contrast colour for ribbing, heel flap/turn, and toe)
2.25mm set of 5 double pointed needles, or size to obtain gauge
safety pins to mark rows, if desired
darning needle

Gauge:

34 sts, 46 rows = 4” in stocking st 
38 sts, 46 rows = 4” in pattern st

Sizing:

Instructions are given for adult sizes Medium and Large, the larger in brackets. 
Foot: 7.5 (8.5)”  circumference
(Medium stretches to fit comfortably on 8” foot)
Length: 8.5” from heel base to cuff centre back

download now

Copenhagen Hat

Whew! It's always such a relief when I can finally show and tell the secret stuff I've been working on, in this case from last spring.

Interweave very kindly accepted this idea for the 2011 Accessories issue, which I must say looks amazing - check out the preview, or if you're a Raveler, the Ravelry page!  I just love the handwarmers on the cover, and there's a cool headband pattern that must knit up in a couple of hours (aka, perfect project for those of us who are gift-challenged at the moment.)  There are more pictures of my hat here.

I knit this hat so many times on the bus to and from visits with my mum.  First it was too wide, then it was less too wide, and the whole time it was insanely convenient to work away at even while walking between connections. 

I played with the buttonholes forever and came up with a technique that produces an unambigous opening your button can't miss - and then we had to figure out how to describe it so it sounds just as fuss-free as it really is. 

And all that knit and purl - well, I rigged it in the part that's worked flat so it's as much knit as can be, because I'm nice (read: lazy).  Bonus moment: it just folds itself in at the back instead of pushing itself off your head when you turn or raise your shoulders.

The point of the idea, for me, was to have working buttons that let you play with how low it goes over your eyes or ear by slipping a hole over a higher button, or leaving some undone.

But once it was done I loved even more how it just plops down over your head like a blanket and doesn't muss your hair.

And really: Rowan Felted Tweed?  it produces the yummiest, supple fabric for not a lot of money, which is hard not to get excited about - especially when you only need one skein.

(which is how much I have stashed, in grey... should I make another of these so I have two?)

Asymmetrical Cloche - a free pattern

At long last, here is the the chemo-friendly hat pattern I designed last spring for Bene:

This was another of those so easy designs that just worked itself out - I had a few glitches with exactly how many stitches to start with, but the structure stayed the same from the moment I first pictured it.  I love when that happens.  

I made one in organic cotton for her to wear over the summer,

and one in superwash merino for the fall.

Same needles, different number of stitches, both versions included.

The idea was to use ribbing added gradually across the band of the hat both to help hold it on and to control in an asymmetrical way how much roll there would be around the face.

It's so easy to knit; you don't even need to watch the instructions closely because it's pretty logical just by watching the fabric you're making.  Of course I say this as somebody who made three hats before I got the sizing right and could cast on for Bene's, but still.  I knit this walking, on a boat cruise, on the subway... it's easy.

I think the hat would be cute with a little pin or flower on the lower side, don't you?

I try to make my chemo hats reversible when I can, because I fear that some will find the purl side abrasive or just irritating after chemo treatments.  I liked how the little roll at the brim folds inside so nicely when it's inside out for a slight-and-smooth angle of stickie-outyness.

And there you have it - another option for something to do when you really can't do anything.  Or just an easy hat project for anybody who needs a hug for their head, including you!

 Download .pdf of Asymmetrical Cloche

Escapist - a free pattern

Thank you everybody who participated in the mystery knitalong for Escapist, the shawl inspired by the many period romances I watched last winter.

I can show you what it looks like, now that the knitalong is done:

My idea was to make a shawl that would be warm around your neck and shoulders, while growing fast around the arms so as to be big without insane amounts of knitting.  It had to be super easy so you don't have to count a lot, and it had to have a few runs of stocking stitch to make it easier to run in ends when you start a new ball  of yarn. 

You'd be surprised how hard it is to come up with different stitch patterns that meet all those requirements.  A garter stitch base is good for warmth, so it went first.  Because it holds itself close the shawl got really wide once I switched to lace with a stocking stitch base - and that limited what I could do with the third lace choice, because it had to stretch out either the same or wider.  In the end I decided on a subtle variation on the second lace stitch that smoothed out its garter transitions with thin strips of stocking stitch.

I wanted a special lace pattern for the spine, something compact but interesting.  This one happens to create a natural fold down the middle, which made it a lot easier to block - I just fold the shawl in two and pin it out in a perfectly symmetrical double layer, then press the fold flat again when it's all dry.

For the last part, I increased the stitches at the sides and centre to compensate for the stocking stitch border, which I think are lovely and, in the case of the sides, make a perfect place for a button if you want one to slip through any of the yarn overs.  I might do that myself.

You may notice from these pictures that one version has a scalloped edge, and the other a straight one (or do I mean wrinkled? sorry about that, heh.) Both edges use the same amount of yarn, and you get to choose which one yours will have.

Bonus: the garter stitch lace naturally rolls itself into - well, a shawl collar.  You can straighten it out when you put it on if you prefer, but I like to keep it, myself.

I wanted an old-fashioned humble-looking wool shawl that could be glammed up with luxury yarn or vibrant colour, and I think this one fills the bill.  It's looked great in all the different fiber compositions and colours used in the knitalong... and one of the first to be finished was snapped up for immediate use in historical reenactments to boot.

I hope you enjoy it too!


Download .pdf of Escapist