Pennsic is Over, but the Ravelympics Goes On...

Well, Pennsic is officially over. There's just enough time today to pack stuff into the vehicle and get on the road before you have to be off the site.

And the trip home isn't always fun.

One year, we were so disorganized, that it took us most of the day to get ourselves packed and on the road. After a week out in the ragweed (to witch I'm allergic), I carried/moved/dragged a lot more stuff then I should have that day, and went to sleep in the back of the van.

Steve woke me up and told me that I would have to drive home because he was tired. Then he climbed into the back of the van, leaving me half asleep, disoriented, and whining "But where are we?" in the middle of a snow/sleet storm.

Well we were somewhere near Breezewood, but all I could do was drive out of the parking lot he had stopped in (after I tried to clear the snow/sleet off the windows) and keep driving until I saw enough road signs that I could guess where I was and figure out how to get home. There wasn't much visibility with the precipitation, and it was almost dark when we left Pennsic, so it wasn't really easy. 

So, this is the one day of Pennsic where I can feel smug because I don't have to drag an entire encampment home in a six or seven hour trip. Especially when I look out the window at what the weather's doing. It's not overcast. Overcast is bright and cheerful compared to the day outside my window. It's raining, and it looks like it's going to develop into a storm any time, now.

Ooooh! Lightening! Yep, a storm for sure.

Well, so much for my plans to go to the grocery store.

But the Ravelympics is really just getting under way.

The wimple is up to a point where all the shoulder decreasing is done. I have pulled the needle tips off the Options needles in the wimple, and put stoppers on the cable. I'm going to have to go somewhere on the bus sometime this week, and it'll be a good project to take with me for the half hour ride (each way) to anywhere nearby.

In the meantime, I've picked up stitches around the bottom of the hood, and I'm knitting a band around it which will eventually have a button at one end and (when I get to the other end) will have a button loop knit into it.

Here is the hood with the stitches picked up.

This is something I should've swatched for, but couldn't really without reknitting the whole hood, which isn't something I was willing to do. 

So, I've ripped out the band twice, and I'm about to have a third try at it.

If I get too frustrated, I may go back to the wimple for a bit.

There are going to be two ribs from a 2x2 rib running around the bottom of the hood, and one rib is going to circle back and continue into the other rib at the end, making a buttonloop.

I bought some really beautiful buttons, but I've lost some of them since then. I have found some more on the internet, and I plan to buy them, but it's possible that when the Ravelympics deadline arrives, the buttons may not have. So, the sweater may not have all it's buttons at the end.

You can see the buttons here.

All the buttons down the front will be the same size, but I think the one that's going to be right at my neck may do better with one of the slightly smaller ones I bought at the same time. I'm glad I thought to buy some smaller ones. And I'm glad I was able to find them on the internet. They look so pretty with the yarn! 

I'm starting to love everything about this sweater!

Tomorrow and Tuesday, around 5 or 6 in the afternoon/evening, there will be the two-part episode of Stargate SG-1 called Mobius on the SciFi Channel. It's very good. And if you look at the schedule, you may notice that Charlie Jade is on every Monday night (actually, Tuesday morning).

The Sarah Connor Chronicles is back in reruns on Monday night, too!

I need to get back to another stab at the band around the bottom of the hood, so wish me luck!

Have a great evening!

Watch Cap

This is a cap you can pull down over your ears and keep warm! It works especially well with the dickie pattern, which can be pulled up over you face almost to your eyes. With the addition of the cap, you have something that resembles a balaclava, but is more comfortable when you don't need quite that much warmth.

Materials and Supplies

A bit over 200 yards of worsted weight yarn.

16 inch circular needle, size 6

16 inch circular needle, size 8

5 DP needles, size 8

Measuring device (Only needs to be 6 inches long)

Stitch markers

The tapestry needle and scissors you need for every project.

Gauge

4.5 stitches per inch on the size 8 needles in stockinette stitch

Start Knitting

Cast on 96 stitches using the size 6 needle.

Place a marker and work in rounds in 2 x 2 rib for 4 inches. Be sure to check that the knitting is not twisted on the second round.

Change to size 8 needle and stockinette stitch and work even for 6 inches. Somewhere along the way, prepare for the decreases by placing 7 stitch markers, one after each 12 stitches around. Make sure that you have a marker that is different at the beginning of the round.

Dec Round

*K 2 tog, work to next marker* around.

Work a dec round every other row, switching to DP needles when the circumference gets too small for the circular needle.

When you get to 16 stitches left, start working k 2 tog around with no even rows between until there are 4 stitches left. 

Using 2 DP needles, work 3.25 inches of I-cord. 

Cut yarn and thread through a tapestry needle, run through all sts of the I-cord twice, and bury the yarn in the middle of the I-cord. Cut excess yarn and tie the I-cord into an overhand knot.

Darn in ends, and you're done!

Variation: Instead of doing the I-cord knot, you can run the end through the last few stitches and crochet a loop that can be used to fasten it to a button on your coat so you don't lose it!

If you want to make this a school cap, you can do it by adding a 3 round stripe of the second color when you're about 5 inches from the end of the cuff, knitting 6 rounds of main color and 3 more rounds of the contrasting color before going back to the main color and decreases.

Colors are: 

Gryffendor: Scarlet and gold

Hufflepuff: Black and gold

Ravenclaw: Book, blue and bronze; movie, navy and silver

Syltheryn: Green and silver

Dicky Pattern

I bought a copy of Knitters Magazine last January.

They have several patterns for what could only be called dickies. And they showed one of them for a man. Complete with a really dumb hat that sits on the top of your head and leaves your ears bare, and out in the breeze.

After studying their various models, and liking the idea but not the execution, I wrote my own dicky pattern.

So, without further ado, here is the pattern:

Dicky Pattern

About 200+ yards of knitting worsted weight yarn. I've noticed that particularly fat yarn tends to take more yards than a thinner yarn, so you might want to make sure that you have a bit more than 200 yards to be sure. Mine took up almost precisely 200 yards. There was a yard left over.

A 24 inch size 8 needle. You might want a 16 inch needle, too, to get started.

A size 10 needle (of any kind--straight, circular, DP, whatever)

A stitch marker to mark beg and ends of rnds.

Gauge

The size 8 needle will get me a 4 to 4.5 stitch per inch sample in stockinet stitch depending on the exact "worsted weight" yarn I use. Substitute another size if that doesn't work for you. The rib is very stretchy, and you can probably get away with a size larger or smaller, even if your gauge is exactly the same as mine.

Start Knitting

Cast on 88 stitches, and work around in K2, P2 rib for six to seven inches depending on the neck of the person you're making it for. You've probably noticed people who have long necks and others who seem to have no neck at all. Use some common sense.

If you can't get all the cast-on stitches around a 24 inch circular needle, and you don't want to have to do the first few rows on a 16 inch needle, just turn and work flat for one row and THEN start working circularly. When you darn in the end, you can close the one row space. And when you start working circularly, make sure that you check to see that it isn't twisted on the SECOND round.

At the end of six or seven inches, work an increase round as follows:

*K2, P1, Inc 1, P1, K2, P2* See note below.

Between each inc rnd, work two rnds even in rib as established.

Next inc row: *K2, P3, K2. P1, Inc 1, P1*

Work an inc rnd every third round, increasing in every other Purl section of the rib, making sure the incs don't occur right over the incs in the last inc rnd.

Keep going like this until you have 6 sts in each purl rib and you have finished the two even rnds after the last inc rnd.

Work in K2, P2 ribbing as established for an inch (you'll be adding a K rib in the middle of the P6 section).

Use the size 10 needle to bind off in pattern.

Darn in the ends and you're done.

Note about the incs: place the inc as close to the center of the purl rib as you can. The least obtrusive way I've found to do this is by making one backwards loop cast-on.

This can be worn like a turtleneck, folded over, or in really cold weather, pull it up over the lower half of your face. This works best if you have a hat that you can pull over your ears and the back of the dicky.

Feather and Fan Socks

You'll need to know something about knitting socks to do this because I assume you know how to make a gusset, heel flap, etc. I made my heel flap in plain stockinnet because things tend to irritate my feet and give me blisters easily, so I'd rather darn a hole or knit a whole new sock than limp around on blisters.

Stuff you'll need

1 ball of Knit Picks Risata for each sock. Mine are in the color Dusk.

Size 1 (2.5 mm) needles of your choice (DPs, 47 inch circular for magic loop method, whatever)

Measuring instrument (tape measure, small ruler, whatever)

The tapestry needle and scissors you need for every project

Modified feather & fan stitch (in the round)

Rows 1, 2, & 3: K around

Row 4: *K2 tog* 3 times, *YO, K 1* 6 times, *K2 tog* 3 times

Row 5: Purl around

Gauge
8 stitchs per inch. Just make sure that the total stitches around fit your foot circumfrence.

Start Knitting

Cast on 108 sts.

K1, Sl 1, K1, PSSO around, placing marker after 18 sts. 72 sts.

Work 11 repeats of modified feather & fan stitch.

Work 1 row of K. Next row, *K3, K2 tog, K 8, K2 tog, K 3* around (4 reps) there will now be 16 stitches in each quarter (64 sts total).

Work even in St St for 1 inch. Mark work.

Work heel flap (3.5 inches for me)

Make square heel: *K to center of heel flap, K 7, K2 tog, turn. Purl to center of heel flap, P 7, P2 tog, turn* Rep until all side stitches are used.

Pick up sts on sides of heel flap and make a standard gusset.

K even until about an inch from the end of your toes. Measure this and note the length for the next one.

K to within 2 sts of the end of first needle, SSK. At beg of next needle, K2 tog, then work across in K. Repeat. One dec rnd made. K 1 rnd even.

Alternate dec rnd with even rnd until 12 sts rem at end of dec rnd. Work one more dec rnd without an even rnd between it and the last one.

Weave toe together. Darn in ends.

Make another one just like it.

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Additional note: Knit Picks has discontinued the yarn I used for these. You can use any fingering weight sock yarn. I think the original yarn came in balls that were 230 yards, but the socks didn't use quite a whole ball, so you could probably get away with less, but if you buy yarn that comes in 166 yard balls, you're going to need three of them for a pair.