Eleven Days Until Christmas!

Time is moving way too fast for me, as it usually does at this time of year! It seems like there should be more time until Christmas!

I'll bet you're all feeling the same way.

If you still have Christmas presents to make, there is my Santa Hat,  which is a quick knit, but there's also my Dicky Pattern, which is another quick knit.

There's also my Watch Cap pattern and a version of Crazy Aunt Purl's beret translated to a worsted weight yarn. You can read Crazy Aunt Purl and get her original beret pattern for heavier yarn by clicking here.

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I'd like to write more today, but Comcast is at a point where it's internet connection almost isn't working at all, it's so bad. So there won't be much more to this post.

The CW will be running two hours of Vampire Diaries reruns every night all this week. There will be a new Human Target tomorrow night. And if you're looking for some good, offbeat Christmas programs,  Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Leverage have had great Christmas episodes on in the past week which will be repeated to death between now and Christmas. Keep an eye out for them!

Have fun until I can get Comcast to actually provide internet service again!

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, as everyone in the United States knows (because they have a day off of work) it's Memorial Day.

For those of you who do not live in the US, it's a day that we honor American soldiers who have died in wars (and get a day off of work).

Usually there is barbecuing of meat, and maybe a few vegetables, preferably somewhere out in the country, or at least in a park. 

Many people view this as the official kick-off of Summer!

Where I am, we are, in fact, having the first day this year with a temperature over 83 degrees, so it does seem awfully Summery.

The TV stations have viewed this as an opportunity to get anything worth watching off the air for last week and this week.

In knitting news, I'm knitting a prototype of the rune bag I'm designing. It's fighting back. I need double point needles. I'm going to order DP needles and quit on that for a while.

And I'm knitting the second poncho with the yarn left over from the first poncho. The one where I bought twice as much yarn as I need.

There will be a bit left over, and I think I'll make one of Crazy Aunt Purl's berets and take a photo of it for the blog.

Have a great Memorial Day!

For non-US residents, have a great Monday!

Crazy Aunt Purl's Beret for Worsted Weight

For those of you who are fans of Crazy Aunt Purl, you know that she published a pattern for a beautiful beret, which she recently wore on her trip to Rome. She's so lucky!

Her particular beret pattern was written for chunky/bulky yarn. My stash doesn't include a lot of chunky or bulky yarn, and so I transposed the pattern for worsted weight yarn. In the spirit of not reinventing the wheel, I thought it might be nice to share so that all of you out there wouldn't have to do the least fun part of knitting--the math.

Laurie, if you're not happy about me publishing this, let me know, and I'll take it down.

This is a variation of my watch cap pattern math coupled with CAPs design.

Tools and Materials

A 16 inch circular needle in size 8 or whatever size lets you knit at 4.5 stitches per inch.

You don't really need this, but if you have a 24 inch circular needle in the same size as the previous one, it's more comfortable for me to use this size, and it might be for you, too.

Either 5 DP needles in above size, or 2 circulars (for the 2 circular method of avoiding DPs) or a l-o-o-o-n-g circular (for the magic loop method) in above size.

a 16 inch circular needle two sizes smaller than the previous one.

About 200 yards of worsted weight yarn. Actually, 200 yards is cutting it pretty close. You'll probably have only a few yards left. It's safer to get a bit extra.

Stitch markers (you'll need 7 of these, plus a different, distinctive one to mark the beginning of rounds), a yarn needle, and scissors.

Start Knitting

Cast on 96 stitches using the smaller needle and long tail cast on. OK, if you think it helps elasticity, you can cast on with the larger needle.

Place the distinctive marker at the beginning of the round and work around in K2, P2 rib for 1.75 to two inches.

Increase Round

*K1, K in front and back of next stitch (1 inc made)* around. 144 stitches.

Continue

Switch to larger needles, and K even on every round for about 4.5 inches. Somewhere while you're doing this, place stitch markers every 18 stitches.

Decrease Round

*K2tog, knit to next marker* around.

Alternate this dec round with one round worked even until there are are 16 stitches. Work dec round on NEXT round. *K2tog* around on next row. Break (or cut) yarn leaving a long tail. Use the tapestry needle to pull the yarn tail through all the stitches. Then go through all the stitches again and knot. It goes without saying that you'll switch to the shorter circular needle and then to DPs or the circular method of your choice when there are too few stitches to fit on the longer circular.

I'm assuming here that you know how to use two circulars or the magic loop method to substitute for DP needles. These are both good methods, and I love the magic loop for knitting mitts. If you don't know how, use DPs or look on the net here for magic loop. This doesn't give you precise directions, just an overview, but it gives you a list of links for very precise directions. Good luck with that. It's very liberating.

Weave in ends.

If you think it needs it, you can block, but it may not need it.

That's it.

As CAP says, it's easy.

And it looks GREAT!