6 ply Earflap Hat Tutorial

This is a fun hat to knit. You start by knitting 2 earflaps and then join them in the round to make the hat. The pattern is started at the I-cord. To make I-cord follow these simple directions (click on the pictures to make them bigger)

I-cord – on the double pointed needles knit your stitches then slip the stitches back to the top of the same needle and pull the wool behind the needle and knit the stitches again. Repeat this until the I-cord is the desired length. In the case of our hat we will knit the I-cord 8"

Once you have knit the I-cord you start the increases for the earfllap. There is one increase stitch at the end of each row. If you follow the pattern it tells how to do this. Once you have 28 stitches then knit 10 rows but still maintain the 3 garter stitches at the edges. These garter stitches help the earflaps lay flat and not roll.




You knit 2 earflaps. If you want them the same you will need to find the place in the yarn that is the same to start both earflaps. I prefer the earflaps to be different just for fun.

Once you have both earflaps knit you add on the extra stitches for the hat. I use an ordinary long tail cast on for this. You can use the tail of the earflap and then join another yarn for this.

You cast on 40 stitches then knit across the 2nd earflap and cast on 28 more. You will want to put these all onto a circular needle unless you are like me and love knitting on long double pointed needles. These are 10" Brittany Birch double pointed needles in the picture - yes we sell them in the store.

Anyways you join the stitches being very careful not to twist the stitches. To join them without twisting I always make sure all of the stitch bottoms are facing the floor before I knit my first stitch. Follow the pattern to knit the ribbing on the hat.

I will show pictures tomorrow of the joined stitches and the ribbing, the hat before decreases and the decresases. Next will be a variety of fun tops for your hat.

A Cloth to Wash With

Finished my hempathy cloth, using Shelley's Waffle Weave Wash Cloth pattern.

The skein has enough left to knit another cloth, so I can make this a nice set for someone on the gift list!

A Fan and Feather Lace Tutorial

A Fan and Feather Lace Tutorial

The fan and feather pattern is an old lace pattern also known as Old Shale. It is a very commonly used pattern and I am not sure who can take credit for inventing this pattern as I haven’t researched that. It is a simple lace pattern that can give amazing results when knit with patterned yarn or yarns that self stripe. The stripe will wave which gives an added bonus. Our scarves shown are done with both the self-striping yarn (Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn - below) the hand dyed mottled yarn (Sweatermaker Silk and Merino - above). The pattern is a simple multiple of 18 plus whatever stitches you want for the edges. In our case we have 72 stitches plus 3 on each edge for knit.
You can make the fan and feather pattern any width you choose by simply adding multiples of 18 for this particular pattern. Add 3 more patterns you get a shawl. Add 6 more pattern you get a blanket etc… Knit this in heavy yarn and big needles you get a heavy weight shawl with the pattern shown.

Cast on 78 stitches
Row 1: knit
Row 2: knit 3, purl to the last 3 stitches, knit 3
Row 3: knit 3, *k2tog 3 times, yo, k1 6 times, ssk 3 times,*
Row 4: knit

ssk –slip, slip, knit
k2 tog – knit 2 stitches together
yo – yarn over the needle

Repeat these 4 rows until your desired length.
Cast off and sew in your ends. Block lightly


A few tips – The purl row is always on a row when the wrong side of the knitting is facing you.
The 2nd knit row and the pattern row are done with the right side of the knitting facing you. This may help you not get lost until the pattern becomes obvious.

When knitting the fan and feather pattern you can simply choose to k2tog or ssk for all of your decreases. I choose to alternate ssk and k2 tog as I like the look much better. The ssk stitches make a left leaning slant and the k2tog make a right leaning slant to the finished stitch. This gives the garment more structure in my opinion. The slants of the decreases meet in the middle of the fan part of the pattern and this opens the pattern up and it lays flatter. It also emphasizes the middle of the fan.
Do a sample and try both ways to see which way you prefer.
Enjoy knitting the scarf.

Shelley

PS - Deb you can knit this I will help you

Wash With Me

Have you seen Shelley's latest pattern? This lovely wash cloth is up on the website this week, and it is a great little pattern.

Of course, I couldn't resist casting on. I got the periwinkle colour of the Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy and cast on this week-end.

The drape of the cloth is really lovely. I did go down to a 3.5mm instead of a 3.75mm needle, but that's just the way I like it.

I can see a bunch of these cloths, each wrapped around a lovely bar of soap, as perfect little gifts.

Oh So Pretty ....

My friend asked me to make something for a charity auction she is involved in, and I thought why not? I chose to make my own pattern, the Ocean Ripple Wrap (pdf link), only I halved it to make a leaner scarf (cast on 55 stitches instead of 90, which gives 6 pattern repeats instead of 12).

I used the fabulous Alpaca Baby Lace from Diamond Yarns (used less than a full skein to get a 63" scarf), and boy is it yummy. This scarf is as light as air yet warm. The yarn was a delight to knit with, no splitting, and I love the colour.

The only problem is .... it's so hard to give away!! Luckily I have some Malabrigo Lace in my stash that I think will be perfect ....

Retreat surprise

While the retreat was taking place I was completely unaware that all of the women were making a gift for me. It started with a conversation Janet and I had about colours. I told her my favourite colours were blues, reds and burgundy. At the store on Friday night I was selling yarn and Janet bought some beautiful yarn in my colours so we laughed and I said wow those are my colours.

The weekend carried on and I never got a sense of something going on I didn't know about. So on Sunday night when I was presented with this beautiful shawl I was overwhelmed. What a wonderful surprise and a treasured gift for me. I will enjoy this shawl and think of everyone who made it while I wear it. It has a new home on my comfy knitting chair and when I get cold it will be handy. I love it.

The shawl was knit by 2 people at a time. It was cast on in the middle and they each knit on an end. It has lots of handspun yarn in it to accent the yarn and as a great keepsake and memory of this wonderful retreat.

I feel so honoured with this shawl

Thanks to everyone who participated - What a great surprise.

Shelley

Retreat Part 3 - Fashion Show

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here is a slide show I made of our fashion show at the retreat. We had the fashion show on Saturday night and on Sunday night we had show and tell. This is when our skeleton's and spider webs were shown. We also talked about what rules we broke and new things we learned at this retreat.

This is the first slideshow I made so I think I hope it turned out.

Tomorrow I will blog about the big surprise I got at this retreat.

Retreat part 2

On Saturday we got to work learning our new spinning and knitting techniques. These pictures show Lexi with her demo skein of yarn. Isn't it amazing. It was very soft.

Margie with her first batt.

The knitting class really enjoying playing with all that yarn

Catherine - who by the way had her 83 rd birthday at the retreat modeling a woven jacket made with recycle silk material. It is quite a work of art.

I will write about the fashion show this weekend and then I will share with you a wonderful surprise that I was given last weekend.

What a great retreat - Part 1

This was the most fun weekend. We had fabulous weather 2 great teachers and more great food than should be legal to consume and a great group of women all with a passion for fibre arts. What a creative group. I have many pictures to share so I will do this in a few posts over the next few days.

Janet came over the night before the retreat started for pizza and to pick out yarn for her workshop. We spread it all out all over the living room to decide and took most of it. Too hard to decide so there was lots of colour choice for her workshops.

The next day everyone arrived and the retreat was on. I took the spinning workshops with Lexi and it was amazing. The pictures I show here is what Lexi calls a fibre sandwich - the next picture is what it looks like once thru the drum carder. Wow - well I was hooked right there. I spent the rest of the weekend learning new spinning techniques and making fibre batts. Then Lexi spun the batt and let the fibre dictate the spinning. She showed us how to make fabulous creative yarn.

Look at this batt - isn't it amazing.

More tomorrow

Beautiful Bariloche

The new Aslantrends Bariloche is so nice! It is a very lofty yarn, almost a thick and thin but subtle enough not to change your gauge. It shows stitch definition well, is soft and comes in amazing colours.

I made an earwarmer in Sky Blue from my free pattern (on the website) and some wristers to match. The set is for a silent auction for a friend's son's class going to Quebec.

Setting the Vibe

The sun was shining, colliding with the water and creating a million shards of light. While standing on the ferry, I noticed a little commotion off the bow. Too small to be whales, but certainly something playing in the water. Going out for a closer look, I saw two porpoises dart through the water to the left backside of the boat. No one else seemed to notice.

I walked to the back and looked out into the glittering water. There they were. Seven porpoises, jumping and diving and surfing in the wake of the ferry. No one else was there to see it so it felt like my own private show.

Such a sense of joy and being in the moment I felt watching them! Only one photo was in focus, I was too busy watching the porpoises to pay attention to what I was doing with the camera.

That's what I love about coming to Fun Knits, the journey itself is part of the adventure.

Kauni KAL

As the fall weather is just around the corner we turn our thoughts to knitting for the holidays. What could be a better way to start than with a cuter than ever stocking?!

Knit Kauni With Us!

Here at Fun Knits we love Kauni. So much so that we want to do another Kauni knit along! We have chosen a pattern designed by Shelley (Fun Knits owner). The Christmas stocking is a fun knit, and only takes a small amount of two Kauni colours.

The pattern is available for purchase here; and for the month of September we are offering the pattern free with a purchase of Kauni yarn. As Shelley explains in the pattern notes, this stocking was done with EM and EK, but would also look great done in other colours (what are your Christmas decorating colours?), or even one colour such as EQ started at two different colour sections.

Happy Anniversary Spinners

We just celebrated the second anniversary of our Tuesday Fun Knits Spinning group. Vyvyan, our original spinner/weaver/knitter/teacher extraordinaire, baked a scrumptious chocolate bundt cake, and Shelley and Linda took everyone out for pizza at the Lovin' Oven next door.

Below is a photo of the lovely Vyvyan wearing her handspun, handwoven (completed with handknit ribbing at the bottom), silk-lined vest. She's posing in front of several colourful rows of gorgeous sock yarn, including koigu, malabrigo and diamond footloose.

First, let me apologize for not hearing or retaining many of the details of everyone's first experience with handspun - it was a lively group with lots of laughter and talk.

Below are a few photos of the spinners....

Maria, myself and Carol with Roz and Linda talking in the background (Linda is a godsend - Shelley calls her ZP, short for zesty partner....go ahead and ask, the story's a good one).

Carol and Diane (If you can see her, Shelley is sitting quietly at the till.)

A vibrant Shelley proudly holding her first skein of handspun yarn. Thanks to Shelley for her inviting, creative spirit - she dreamed the spinner's group into a reality.

Maria holding her first handspun (the small white skein) which was so finely spun - almost threadlike. I think her hat is a brioche (sp?) pattern for which she used her handspun, hand-dyed yarn.

My first handspun using a fine shetland fibre - it was a wonderful experience.

Carol holds up the fisherman's sweater she knit for her husband with her first handspun - she's the one whose fingers seem to hypnotize the fibre into perfectly spun strands. Carol, you're wearing a hat, no doubt one that you handspun and knit but I didn't hear the details - looks great on you.

Our lovely Roz, holding her first handspun/handknitted items - she used Northern Lights for the gorgeous sweater in front. Roz has been knitting for over 50 years and produces so many perfectly beautiful knitted garments.

Here is Diane who lives on a boat with her husband (a beautiful boat - all dark wood and cozy spaces) that faces a forested shoreline and families of soaring eagles. She holds her first handspun which she wove into a beautiful pillow casing. Diane is a master weaver as well and creates exquisite tapestries, blankets and scarves.

Joy is our newest member - she was given an Indian Head Spinning Wheel for a wedding gift. Sharron seemed very interested in the workings of this wheel and attentively taught Joy about her new wheel and how to use it. Joy poses with her first handspun which she actually spun before she even knew how to use the wheel - amazing!

And here, Sharron and Diane talk about spinning alpaca fibre (I think) with her drop spindle. Sharron has been spinning for years and continuously offers invaluable fibre information and teaching tips to all of us. Check out her website to see her gorgeous weavings and quilts.

At noon we walked next door to the Lovin' Oven and sat down for more laughter and talk, delicious pizza, and Vyvyan's superbly delicious chocolate bundt cake. Happily, Marg joined us as well (on Shelley's left in the first photo) - she has been spinning, weaving and knitting for decades. Sorry Marg, I didn't see what you were working on but I'm sure it was beautiful.

I marvel at how inspiring it is to share time with so many wise, wonderful women -- all of us walking our own individual fibre paths and building community along the way.

Happy Anniversary Spinners.....

Lace Calls to Me

I love to knit lace. It appeals to me, all those yarn overs and decreases leading up to this article of beauty. The final moment when you take the piece of the blocking mats ... magic!

The shawl I am currently working on is A Curved Shawl, from Victorian Lace Today. It is the first lace I have knit on all rows (as opposed to a purl back row). It is rewarding and fun to knit, although the rows are getting longer and longer!

The yarn is Fiddlesticks Zephyr laceweight, in the charcoal colourway. It is soft and shiny and perfect for this shawl.

What lace projects are on your needles?

Shawl Delights

Sivia Harding's Harbour Lights shawl is such a delight to knit. The pattern is clear and easy to follow. Placing the beads with the crochet hook is simple, especially for a left-hander. And the finished product is gorgeous!

Luckily I'm a process knitter, so didn't mind too much giving this away to a good friend for her 40th birthday (of course, I had to try it out first).

Oh, and the Malabrigo sock yarn? To die for!