Bulky hats

Heavy wool yarns with size 13 needles

In the big bulky gauge the hats take almost no time.

Finished slouchy hat

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

In the studio - red hat

Hat, 100%wool, garter stitch, size 5 wooden needles, 10 in.

I've used this soft and comfy yarn for a few scarves and now I've decided to make a firm small guage fabric and an envelope hat.

Finished hat

Hat, wool, stockinette stitch with rib stitch, crocet tassels, intarsia color work, size 9 wood needles

I want to do lots of hats of this shape, making a variety of fabrics. YUM.

This is an Auracania chunky natural wool, and I wouldn't use such big needles again, it's a bit on the flabby side of fabrics. So I would go down to a 7 or 6 US size to give the fabric a bit more body.

In the studio

Scarf and hat, wool yarn: "Shriek" size 9 aluminum needles and Basketweave stitch for the scarf, size 9 cable needle, 16 inrib for the hat

I know this is a sort of one of a kind thing for me. This set may be one of the last garment projects I start. Once I'm finished with what I have started now, I think my knitting is turning a very significant corner into more explicit textile design and fabric art.

This has worked up very quickly and the yarn has been very dreamy to use. I've been interested in watching how different the yarn looks when worked in the different stitches.

hats! with twirly things!

Finished hat

Hat, wool, rib stitch, size 9 double pointed needles

This is one of my favorite yarns ever. Or maybe to state it more accurately, it's a yarn by one of my favorite yarn manufacturers ever: Noro. I hope I never find out bad things about this company, because I love their yarns for their colors, their fibers and their textures. This yarn is a wool that doesn't look like it's spun very much actually. It's appearance is more like a felted strand.

But the colors. The color changes and combinations are some of the more intriguing and attractive available today. Yum!

I knitted this using a set of plastic dpn that drove me crazy. I'll try to remember to produce a photo to warn you off them. They have a long slender tip with a slope that suddenly broadens to the actual needle size. It produces an audible "thup" as every stitch slides onto the needle from the point and it takes considerable pressure to force the stitch from the point to the needle. They'll be donated soon.

Finished hat

Hat, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch with rib stitch edge, size 10.5 cable needle, 16 in.; double pointed needles for finishing, crochet "twirly things" on top

For some reason I'm not hitting my hat "groove", and it doesn't quite feel right yet. But I'm going to keep on trying until I get it. The hand of this fiber mix is soft and loose, with lots of drape.

Finished hat

Hat, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch with rib stitch trim, size 10.5 cable needle, 16 in.

I took a ball of "Kureyon" and used it for every other color in this hat. Since the colors in the ball change, there's an interesting subtle blend of orange, brown, gold, green and purple. I enjoy these small items because almost as soon as I dream up a fabric it's rendered to create something. Wheeeeee!

And speaking of weaving, Queer Joe spoke of his adventure with a table top loom as being about as complicated as Weavettes. I've had a Weavette as long as I can remember, which is about 40 years now, and I'm still hard pressed to figure out a way to use a piece of Weavette fabric that isn't hideous. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Finished hat

Hat, stockinette stitch, mixed fibers: wool, silk, cotton, mohair, acrylic, nylon, cable needle size 10.5, 16in., changed to double pointed needles (dpn) at the top for descreasing to the crown; rib stitch at the bottom done with size 8 dpn

I'm having a great time banging out these hats, and they provide the perfect contrast to larger projects such as the afghan. This one will get a little embellishment in the way of pom poms or "twirly things".

Finished hat

Hat, 100% wool, single crochet, wood crochet hook, unsized

This yarn is more bulky than the one used in the previous hat. It's Noro "Kuryon", which I happen to adore and horde. Again, I used a somewhat small hook so that the fabric is firm. I like this shape. All these hats are improvised to a certain degree, but are based loosely on a formula for increases. The are made from the top point down to the bottom, then twirly things are added.

Finished hat

Hat, crochet, 100% wool, size D/3.25mm crochet hook, single crochet


I used a hook that is on the small side so that the fabric would have a stiff, almost hard texture. Every stitch is single crochet, and I hooked into the back loop of each stitch from the previous row in order to get a line on the surface of the fabric, which I think added another dimension to the colors in the yarn.

In the studio

Crochet hat

This is coming along nicely - photo of finished hat soon!

In the studio

Hat, crochet, 100% wool, size D/3.25mm crochet hook

I love this yarn! It has three plies, all of which have different luscious colors that are variegated along each ply.

Hats

Hat, yellows, mixed fibers

This is the first couple hats I knitted in Florida for the gallery up in Woodstock New York. I haven't been taking more photos because I haven't felt like doing the work of learning how to upload and post from Florida until now.

In the studio

Hat, crochet, wool and nylon, single crochet throughout, crochet tassle, size f hook


This perky hat is made from a red wool that's like Lopi (I'll have to find the label again to give you the details) and a very nubby, curly, bouncy boucle wool that has a teensy bit of nylon to keep it somewhat organized into a thick and thin strand. I'm liking the way the multi color yarn is bumpy and makes nice texture variation somewhat like popcorn stitch in the single crochet. It's a very thick hat due to the bulkiness of the yarn, and also not soft but stiff due to the smaller crochet hook used.

I'm also working on a series of capelets. One is made with Southwest Trading Company "Melody" and one is out of a generic wool and hemp blend that I got in Saratoga Springs. Queer Joe (see a link to his blog in the sidebar) tipped me off about this yarn and I went up and snaffled a few cones of it. These two capelets are off the needles and awaiting finishing touches. I think I may do crochet edgings tonight.

I've also started a capelet with forest green lace weight mohair - very floaty. I'm using a size 5 needle for the base stitch and a size 15 to make very loose rows and to get a lace effect without having to count a stitch pattern. Photos to come soon!

I'm doing a grand finishing effort over the next few days and then taking everything I have to the gallery in Woodstock.

Finished hat

Hat, mixed fibers, reverse stockinette, size 10.5 cable needle

See the theme here? More of each yarn remains and I'm pausing to figure out what I want to do. I like going through series and taking ideas through alterations and all the tweaking. Each hat does have a unique combination of yarns, although also several common yarns. I like the way each does have a different effect. I'm itching to do another crochet version because it's so much faster than knitting for me.

Finished hat

Hat, mixed fibers, crochet, single crochet stitch throughout, reversible, H hook


The inspirational yarn for this series is made in Italy for a Swiss company called Lang. It's called Nora
I have found it to be very comfy. It's a strip of woven fabric wrapped with a light fuzzy strand. If you click on the thumbnail of it on the Lang site, you'll see the details. I've not seen anything quite like it. The colors are earthy, so with a few more yarns added in, these hats are very symbolic of the autumn, and they feel all cozy and warm to the touch because of the fuzziness.

For me it's easy to hide the knots and weave in the ends while doing crochet and a pain while knitting. So I made everything completely tidy on both sides in order to make it possible to roll up the bottom or even turn it inside out.

Finished hat

Hat, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch, size 10.5 needle

The process with this series of hats can go either way: I sit with scads of yarns and cut lengths abitrarily, tie them together and wind them into balls then knit, or I sit with scads of yarns and start knitting, then cut and tie the lengths of yarn as I go. Both involve sitting amid piles and piles of yarns and a good deal of time selecting what goes with what. When I make up the balls before I begin knitting there's a sense of anticipation about how it will turn out that I like. I don't know what will happen. I change yarns if it looks like it will be yukky, and otherwise make adjustments as I go along to intelligently distribute textures and weights.

This colorway is the result of finding oodles of yarn on sale at one of my favorite little yarn shops, Saratoga Needle Arts, in Saratoga Springs, New York. They have great sales and have an ongoing 50% off area that I scrounge on a regular basis.

Finished hat

Hat, mixed fibers, reverse stockinette, size 10.5 needles

I got a 16 in. Skacel Addi Turbo cable needle and it's perfect for hats. I've been smoking with it - four hats in three days.