Sherlock Cloche - Pattern

I haven't test knit this pattern, so it might have some errors. If you attempt to knit this and run into trouble, please let me know!

Size: One size - fits my head, 22" around the ears. You could go up or down in gauge to make this hat larger or smaller as necessary.

Materials:
270 yards fingering weight yarn (I used handspun from The Merry Little Lamb), US size 6 (4.0mm) double pointed needles

Abbreviations:
kfb: knit in front and back of stitch
PM: place marker
k2tog: knit two together

Pattern Notes:
This pattern can be worked with any repeat of stripes you like. I changed colors every 8 rows for the sample, and carried the alternate color up the side of the hat by twisting the yarns tightly around each other at the end of each row. The following pattern allows for 7 stripes that are each 8 rows wide (if you include the bind-off row). Any striping pattern that divides evenly over 56 stitches should work fine.

Increase Round:[knit in FB of stitch, knit until 1 stitch before marker, knit in FB of stitch, SM] repeat for for all stitches

Seed Stitch (in the round):
Odd rows: k1, [p1, k1] to end.
Even Rows: p1, [K1, p1] to end
------------------------------------------
Knit entire pattern with yarn doubled.

Cast on 15; join without twisting.
knit 1 round straight
knit in front and back of each stitch; (30 stitches)
[PM, knit 10] repeat for all stitches
knit 1 round straight
knit 1 increase round
knit alternating one round straight with 1 round of increase, until 114 stitches
knit 2 rounds straight
Knit 1 increase round (120 stitches)
knit 3 rounds straight
knit 1 round increasing (126 stitches)
k 8 rounds straight
[k9 m1] repeat to end (140 stitches)
knit 6 rounds straight
knit 3 rounds seed stitch
Bind off as follows: k1, p1, slip rightmost stitch worked over left stitch worked. [k1, slip rightmost stitch over second, p1, slip rightmost stitch over second] repeat to end.
Break yarn.

The 15 stitches at the beginning of the pattern should have left a circular hole at the top of the hat.
Pick up 6 stitches evenly around the this hole.
Knit 5 rounds (30 stitches total)
[k2tog] repeat for all stitches (3 stitches)
break yarn, thread through remaining stitches and pull tight

weave in all ends.

Pattern for Sherlock Cloche is copyrighted by Elizabeth Gifford, 2007.  Feel free to use the pattern for your own use, but copying for mass distribution or sales is prohibited without permission.

Sherlock Cloche

Taking photos of yourself at night is tricky business.

The hat I've been working on didn't come out quite as I'd hoped (I wanted it to be long enough to cover my ears, but then the brim started flopping in my eyes!).

Pattern to follow pretty soon - I've got it all jotted down, I just need to transform it into an actual pattern.

Assorted Knitting Woes and a Gothic Needle Case

Slow going in knit-land this week. I had to do a lot of ripping back, had some other miscellaneous goofs, and some knitting-related sewing distractions.

I had to rip out my Earl Grey Socks last week and start over because I discovered they were too small to fit on Matt's foot. There was some time lapse on that project, because I was sulking over needing to re-do it. I'm now back to where I was before the ripping commenced, but I discovered this morning (with much hilarity) that I am apparently completely and utterly unable to read patterns. I apparently managed to knit an entire repeat of the sock, checking the directions after every row, not once but twice with the incorrect number of repeats. I've decided at this point to consider it more of a knock-off. The Pawn Grey sock, maybe? Either way, now that I have figured out the pattern and it seems to be a more suitable size it's chugging along nicely.

I also had to frog about 1/3 of the hat I'm designing...twice. It, too, was coming along nicely. I was almost done, when I discovered that the bind-off I had chosen was causing the edge to be all scalloped and ruffly.
This would be one thing if I were, perhaps, designing a baby bonnet for sunny days at the beach. However, the days I plan to wear this hat aren't sunny, and I'm not an infant. Clearly a different bind-off is called for. Ok, frog number 1. I chose a new, less frilly cast-off and went on my merry way. I actually finished the hat this time, and plopped it on my head to see how it looked.

Oh dear. The hat atop my head was rather preposterously huge, with a wide flapping brim. If the yarn had been metallic, one might have been tempted to call it the long lost Golden Helmet of Mambrino. That wouldn't do. This required more serious ripping. I ripped back several inches, and changed my increase strategy. It's almost done once again, but I'm undecided about whether it's still too big. It may need to be ripped back once again.

Next on the list was the chuppah. I set out to work on it Tuesday during House as usual. Lo and behold, the chuppah was...nowhere to be found. I wasn't terribly worried, since we had just gone on a big house-cleaning spree and most things weren't where I expected them to be (i.e. not strewn about the house). So, while the chuppah was on hiatus, I worked on other things until it decided to show up. I discovered it today, folded neatly in a drawer while I was looking for needles and thread. Figures. Hopefully progress on that will resume this week.

Our internet was out for much of today, so I decided to be resourceful and tackle a problem I've been having lately. Since much of my knitting as of late has involved socks and gloves, I've amassed quite the collection of small double pointed needles. It's frustrating to go hunting for them in my large needle case, and I often wish I had a case dedicated just to DPNs and small knitting tools. So, today I whipped up a little needle case with a pouch for other oft-used items out of some scraps I had laying about. I think it came out rather nicely!

Since I wanted to have a pouch for larger items, this particular case folds up instead of rolling. (Excuse the dark photos and stray threads...these photos were taken with the case hot off the sewing machine and I was too excited to set up for amazing photos)
Undoing the button and folding back the left side reveals the zippered pouch for stitch markers, darning needles, etc.

If you peek inside the zippered pouch, you'll see the red lining poking out. I am a huge sucker for things that are colored inside, especially if the inside color is different from the outside color!
Finally, a bunch of little pockets for DPNs both short and long. I think the longest ones here are about 7", so that gives you an idea of how small this case actually is. There's also a flap at the top to keep needles from falling out if I shake the case upside down.

Divided Attention

After a flurry of finished knitting, I can't seem to concentrate on a single project these days. I've got at least four separate projects that I desperately want to be working on and for some reason I don't seem to be able to work on more than one at any given time. So a rundown of the current active UFOs (not to be confused with all the UFOs in the yarn drawers that are languishing):

1) The chuppah is still coming along. I've got about one and a half squares done, but the second looks surprisingly like the first, so no real photographic progress.

2) I'm working on designing a hat to compliment the beautiful handspun I picked up at the CT Renaissance Faire
3) Eunny Jang's Bayerishe Socks
4) the Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey Socks - I was almost done with the cuff on the first sock when I realized the cabling was mis-counted. I might have let that go, but I was given an excuse to rip them out when they were too small for Matt.
To top things off, I got my order of Jimmy Beans Wool limited edition for October. This month's color is "Candy Corn." I'm dreaming of a pair of knee-high witch socks. Mom sent me her share of the order "on loan" in case I don't have enough. These are still in hanks, but it's very tempting to cast those on, too. Luckily, I think I'm out of sock needles.

Knitting Close-Ups

I like photographing my knitting projects, and the finished photos give me a great sense of completion. Some of my favorites, however, are the photos that get up and personal with the piece. Instead of showing the project as a whole accomplishment, these photos spotlight minute details, small triumphs. Most of them bring out the personality of the yarn, or a show just a few stitches, but they really highlight the small pieces of work that are the building blocks for much bigger things.

Silky Kitties and Scarves

Tabi informed me today that it's been far too long since we've had a post of gratuitous kitty photos. Two here, but you can see a handful of new Tabi shots in the Tabi Photo Gallery. Enjoy! In other news, I finished a new scarf today. I cast on Tuesday evening, finished the knitting last night, and blocked it this morning. I liked knitting this scarf overall, but the fringes got a bit tedious and fiddly. I think if I knit this again, I'll just put a ruffle along the bottom edge instead of fringe.

Pattern: Lala Scarf from Greetings from Knit Cafe
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in color 640 "glacier" and Kidsilk Night 608 "moonlight" (way less than 2 skeins needed - I could knit 1-2 more of these)
Needles: size 10.5 homemade wooden needles - not good for mohair!

It's Raining Knits

Knitting projects are literally flying off the needles around here. I am absolutely loving having homework-free evening and the time to indulge in some hobbies again, so UFOs (un-finished objects) are all suddenly turning into FOs at an alarming rate.

Most recently I finished a pair of arm warmers that are ostensibly for Matt. At least, they started out being for him. I sort of fell in love with the cushy yarn in a bright peacock blue color, and it's currently debatable whose arms they'll be on when it actually starts getting cold. For now, they're photographed on his arms since it would be difficult for me to both wear them and take photos...

These gloves did a lot of travelling while I worked on them. Cast on on the train on the way to his company summer outing (a posh harbor cruise!), knit some while on the cruise and talking knitting with Matt's coworkers' girlfriends. Knit some more at a birthday party BBQ whilst talking knitting with several people and listening to people compose pirate renditions of popular songs. Knit some more on a couple evenings, then knit in the car on the way to Matt's Cousin's engagement party (refrained from knitting there for sake of propriety), took the gloves to the knitting brunch in Brookline that I found through Ravelry, and finished them up there.

The gloves and I have had quite a week!

Pattern: Dashing from Knitty

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (55% merino wool, 33% microfiber & 12% cashmere)

Time to knit: 1.5 weeks.

Chuppah Update

I have one panel of the chuppah finished. The 392 edge stitches are strung on waste yarn waiting for the other panels to be finished so that I can graft them together.

I strung some corner stitches onto a chopstick here in an effort to show the lace pattern, but the pattern really won't show until the entire thing is finished, grafted and blocked.

Beary Finished

(I couldn't think of a better pun title this early in the morning...)

I found this kit on sale awhile ago, and just had to have it. (Ask me about the kits I have for cat toys, stuffed hedgehogs, etc...) I pulled it out at the tail end of July, hoping to finish and didn't quite make it. The body was set down for several weeks until I needed something with small rows to work on when I didn't have time to do 400-stitch rows of the chuppah.

Pattern: Blue Sky Alpaca Baby Bobbi Bear (I couldn't quite justify to myself buying the kit for the 2-foot tall version)
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton in "Nut" (82)

I like this yarn as a finished product because it's very soft. It was a huge pain to work with, though - particularly the k2togs. This might have been partly because I was working on plastic needles, but probably largely because cotton yarn doesn't have all that much give to it.

The Start of a Home

I've been to several Jewish weddings, and have been told about various traditions by friends. One of my favorite traditions is the chuppah. It is usually a canopy of some sort suspended on four poles. As I understand, the canopy represents a couple's first home together, and the open sides symbolize hospitality towards friends and family.

I love this symbolism, so I'm excited to carry this tradition in our wedding, too. For some reason, it's one thing that I started turning over in my head months ago before many people even knew there was going to be an impending wedding. I had been watching Franklin, of The Panopticon blog, work on a lace christening shawl for his baby niece. He designed it from scratch, using different lace patterns to symbolize different things, then handknit the entire thing from start to finish. I was floored by the thought, the beauty, the effort. A labor of love.

By the time he posted photos of the finished product, I knew that I wanted our chuppah to be a project like that. Something of magnitude, something symbolic; a labor of love.

At first, the image in my head looked very strongly like the shawl linked above. However, I was pretty sure I wasn't quite up to designing and knitting something like this from scratch, and I was concerned about running up against a deadline since I'm not the world's fastest knitter. I thought about the significance behind a chuppah some more, and decided that I'd like to make something we could use in our home to keep the symbol of home. A quilt? A wallhanging? Bedspread? What about a tablecloth? When I thought of it, I knew that it was right. Not only would a tablecloth be used in the home, it's also a symbol of hospitality just like the open sides of the canopy.

I started looking around for a shawl pattern I could use as a tablecloth. I found many that were interesting, but didn't seem quite right; I was worried that some of them might be too thick and bumpy to make a good tablecloth, and still worried that I wouldn't be able to actually complete a huge lace project. After asking around on a few message boards on Ravelry, someone suggested the pattern for Hannah's Tablecloth from Handknit Holidays: Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice.



As soon as I saw the photos online, I knew this was my pattern. It's delicate and lacy, but the large linen panels mean that there isn't an insurmountable amount of knitting and that it will lie relatively flat on the table. Furthermore, the way the elements fit together, by completing each square separately and only grafting together at the very end, this is a project that can be split up and worked on by multiple people. Mom can knit a square or two in Texas, my roommate, Sheila, can work on bits and pieces. Like any good home, it's a community project, and a project of love.

I ordered the supplies and received them this past week.


I've marked the first napkin, whipstitched the edge, picked up and knit the whipstitches, and knit the first three rows. At this point, it looks more like a giant showercap than anything; the lace bunched up on the needles with the linen napkin ballooning out from the bottom. One trick with knitting lace is that it really won't look like much more than a snarl of yarn until the entire project has been completed and blocked.

So for now, as with many labors of love, I start with a few steps and a lot of faith. Eventually, with the help of loved ones and some time, this will become a home.

Pancakes and Socks

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet a bunch of other knitters for brunch. I recently joined a social networking site for knitters called Ravelry. It gives people the opportunity to join subgroups with different interested, catalogue their projects and yarns, browse through other projects, etc. It's really quite something. For example, I have joined groups for knitters who enjoy watching the TV show House MD, knitters who like cheese, knitters who like Starbucks, knitters who are planning weddings, etc.

Another group I joined was for knitters in the Boston area. Someone posted that there would be a knitting brunch on Saturdays, so I decided to check it out. I met an amazing group of women who come from various and interesting fields and backgrounds. We ate pancakes and french toast, drank coffee, talked about knitting and life and generally had a great time.

I'm always completely astounded by the opportunities afforded to us through the internet for experiences like this. Even 10 years ago, people in large cities would have had to go to a lot more trouble to try to find groups of people with similar interests. As it is, we now have the ability to walk into a coffee shop, sit down with a group of complete strangers and laugh, exchange wedding suggestions and knitting tips, and generally act like old friends and acquaintances. Times might have changed, but there's still nothing like getting together and sharing commonalities for a few hours before spinning back into daily life.

While eating brunch, I also finished my Jaywalker socks (several of the women at brunch suggested that they might be able to take them off my hands, or thoughtfully considered sneaking them into their purses. I consider these socks a job well done!)

Pattern: Jaywalker Socks by Grumperina
Alterations: Shortened the leg and added a small picot border instead of ribbing, a la January One
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in colorway Vera

Knitting Interlude

Welcome to anyone who might have travelled here from the Let's knit2gether website - you already know most of what I'm about to write! To everyone else, life's been full of traveling and wedding planning for a couple weeks, so not much time to update. That will come soon! In the meantime, I wanted to note this neat knitting podcast.

Let's knit2gether is a video podcast (you don't need an iPod to view it though, you can watch the video right at the website!). I hadn't heard of it until a few weeks ago, when I got a message from Cat asking to use a photo of my completed Clapotis in her show.

I was flattered that anyone had even noticed my Clapotis amid the sea of thousands that have been posted all over the internet, but I was even more impressed when I saw how well the show is produced. Take a few minutes to go over and check out Episode 18 - UnFinished Objects for a chance to see my Clapotis in the limelight. Then, take some time to watch some of the other episodes, too!

Truman Clapotis

Knitty's Clapotis
Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb - "Jeans" colorway

I named him "Truman" in hopes that it would help me remember how to pronounce the name correctly. I actually finished a few weeks ago, but it's been raining so much that I didn't have a good opportunity to take photos until today. I still want to block it to get it a little wider and take care of any residual curl because I like the idea of it being flat. I love how soft it is.

Gore Place Sheep Shearing Festival

I saw a sign in town a couple weeks ago. Apparently our town has an annual sheep shearing festival. For some reason, this did not click at first. I was picturing big burly men wrestling sheep to shear and not much else. Until one of my friends pointed out the obvious...sheep shearing festivals are heaven for knitters! There will be spinning demonstrations. And a craft fair. Presumably with handspun, hand dyed yarn. Apparently this whole thing is much more important to attend than I'd originally thought...

(plus, the baby sheep look cute)

Gore Place Sheep Shearing

We saw baby alpaca:


Sheep herding deonstrations:


a shorn llama:


baby goats:


as well as kettle corn, fried dough, militia renactments, miniature horses, a huge crafts fair, bunnies, an oxen demonstration.

This was one of the more upscale crafts fairs I've seen. I was tempted by a lot of things, but the only things that actually made it home were:

A box of fresh fudge and a bag of fresh kettle corn.

A flier from a group who does Yarn Safaris - pay a small fee, and then you can ride on a bus to places like sheep festivals, yarn shops, master classes, retreats, etc. Hang out with knitters, and knit while someone else drives.

Yarn:
purple - from Skeintily Clad Yarns in color "grapedance" in the "SockPerfect" weight. Machine washable, 100% Bluefaced Leicester wool

brown- from Swift River Farm, natural color "shetland silk" enfield yarn. 95% pure Shetland Wool, 5% Bombyx Silk


a pair of luxurious shearling gloves from Shepherd's Flock to keep my fingers warm next winter:

One Week

Cast on last Friday evening, finished a few hours ago while watching TV. A one-week knit, practically down to the hour.

Color is closest to the photo taken from above. Yarn is 1.5 balls "Sublime" baby cashmere merino silk dk (75% extra fine merino, 20% silk, and 5% cashmere). The yarn itself is extremely soft, and combined with the cables knits up into a luxuriously soft and cushy fabric that also has a lot of stretch.

Pattern is Knitty.com's Shedir from their breast cancer awareness special issue.

I like the star snowflake pattern on the top.