After the harrowing canoeing adventure on Wednesday, I decided to stay on land for most of the day on Thursday.  I spent part of rest hour watching over the children as they relaxed under the trees and I finished up some i-cord ties.  I am thankful that my camera revived itself enough to take several photos.  I think the water has ruined some of the electrical workings on the insides.  I can’t turn the flash on or off anymore.

Pattern:  Top Down Bonnet (Ravelink) by A. Bizilia (blog).
Yarn: Cotton Supreme Batik (which I now adore!)

I noticed that the colourway “summer camp” seems to match the paint at Camp Hyanto perfectly.  I love the combination of these natural colours, the colours of the beach on a sunny day.

Camp is certainly a peaceful place to be when the sun shines.

At 8 AM I was at the car place…..knitting the last of the cabled baby vest, and getting my car checked out before I take it on a bit of an adventure this August.  The car guys noticed that the chip in my windshield was no longer a chip, and starting to crack and spread a little…..

Long story short, I headed off to Speedy Glass to have the chip filled in with resin–I’d had this done before, and it worked really well, and cost a whole lot less than a new windshield.  Of course, on the way there I happen to leave a few extra minutes for a quick trip to Wool-Tyme…(it’s on the way if you plan your route correctly)  I bought some more Cotton Supreme Batik in the colourways “summer camp” and “waffle cone”–it’s SO soft and silky, you’d hardly know it is cotton!

knitting while waiting for the windshield outcome

So I sit and wait (knitting a top down bonnet for yet another friend who has just had a baby) while my windshield is being operated on.  And after half an hour I get notified that the chip wouldn’t seal, and in fact, the pressure that was used to try to seal it has now cracked the windshield even more!

Great….

So, I am the proud owner of a new windshield.  Luckily they had the right kind in stock, and it was early enough in the day that they could install it before closing time.

In the mean time, I knit while the Speedy Glass man drove me downtown to meet some friends (blog)  visiting from out west, and their two darling boys.  We took a fun ride on the Wolfe Island Ferry and saw boats and windmills and enjoyed the sun.

I went on the roof WAY up there.

My next adventure for the day was to find Maggie, another crafty girl who makes pottery for a living, but she knits and spins and sews too.  She has recently been in search of vast quantities of denim.  Since I had worn through the knees of my jeans and made them into shorts, I donated the bottoms to her.  She’s turning all of the pieces she is collecting into a denim ball gown!  Pretty cool idea.

I got invited up to her roof and enjoyed the view and the breeze from up there.  I don’t know that I have ever been on a roof like that before!

Since I was already downtown, and it was hot and sticky and I was ready to have a rest and knit a bit, I headed to the screening room to watch The Secret In Their Eyes, a mystery that is entirely in Spanish.  It’s a challenge to knit, follow a pattern in your head, and read the subtitles.  After the movie, the woman sitting behind me started talking with me.  It turns out that I was a camp counselor for her kids, she wasn’t sure that she recognized me until I pulled out my knitting–I guess it’s my trademark!

What did you do today??

Ever since I saw the Top Down Bonnet pattern on Ravelry by Adrian Bizilia (helloyarn) I was smitten!  I made the original bonnet with the anime face on it, and sent it to a friend in Japan.  The ears aren’t sticking up, but they are there!

I’ve also made it without ears, and with stripes, for another friend’s baby.

Today I worked up another little variation.  I added some lace…

This is the lace pattern that I used.  Since I worked it in the round, row 2 and 4 are knit.  If this were worked flat, row 2 and 4 would be purl rows.

Row 1: (K1, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, SSK) repeat

Row 2: knit

Row 3: K2tog (YO, K3, YO, Slip 1, K2tog, pas the slip stitch over *this decreases 2 stitches*) repeat

Row 4: knit

After working 12 rows of lace, I cast off knitwise.  The edge kept rolling, so I added another border.  I will not admit to crocheting, because I didn’t actually use a hook.  This is my process:

Pick up a stitch through the cast off edge.  Work a chain of single crochet 2 times then crochet through the border again 2 stitches away from the first stitch.  Continue this (or something like it) around the edge of the bonnet.  It helped the border stay flat, and I think it makes it extra cute.

What do you do to spice up your regular patterns?

I sent out a request for test knitters for the hat pattern I wrote up earlier in the week, but I think everyone was feeling a little opposed to knitting winter hats while it’s so hot!

It’s a challenge to proof-read a pattern without going through the steps all over again, so….voilà…another hat!  This time it is made with Lion Brand Cotton Ease, a lovely soft blend of cotton and acrylic.  It is light weight and has more drape than the wool version.  It’s machine washable too!

The pattern will be available as soon as I can get a few good photos of it in action.

I knit a wool hat today.

It is close to 35 C with the humidity.  It’s the kind of heat that makes you want to go outside and lay on the grass under a sprinkler…if only we could have sprinklers.

This is the kind of heat that conjures up memories of being in a phone booth at noon in Kyoto in August.  It’s a sticky muggy heat when sweat seems to trickle at even the thought of moving.

And I knit a hat……I must be going crazy.

Now, to find someone crazy enough to model it….

Note:  The pattern will be coming soon, in case someone in the southern hemisphere feels like wearing wool.

In the middle of Eclipse, during the tent scene, I found myself reaching for pen and paper to jot down the design for Bella’s striped hat.  I paused, realizing what a geek this action made me, but continued to write furiously, until I had figured out most of the striped pattern.

image source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com

For some reason, this picture shows the hat in green and white stripes, but in the movie I’d swear it looked more grey.  In any case, I came home and rummaged through my stash, and came up with this design.

Here’s the pattern, in case you’d like to make your own. [Ravelry]

click to get .pdf pattern

Bella’s Eclipse Hat

Needles: Size 4.5mm – 5.5mm DPN (what ever size you need to achieve gauge)

Yarn: grey and white worsted weight yarn

Gauge: 4.5 sts per inch

Cast On 88 stitches in grey.

Join in the round, being careful not to twist. Work 2 inches of K1, P1 ribbing.
Knit 5 rows white
Knit 3 rows grey
Knit 2 rows white
Knit 1 row grey
Knit 3 rows white
Knit 5 rows grey
Knit 2 rows white
Knit 3 rows grey
Knit 1 row white
Knit 2 rows grey
Knit 3 rows white

Working in grey yarn only begin decreases:
(K9, K2tog) around. 80 sts remain
K round (K8, K2tog) around. 72 sts remain
K round
(K7, K2tog) around. 64 sts remain
K round
(K6, K2tog) around. 56 sts remain
K round
(K5, K2tog) around. 48 sts remain
(K4, K2tog) around. 40 sts remain
(K3, K2tog) around. 32 sts remain
(K2, K2tog) around. 24 sts remain
(K1, K2tog) around. 16 sts remain
K2tog around. 8 sts remain
Break yarn and draw through remaining stitches. Weave in all ends.

I had a very interesting day at Wooly Acres a few years back, when I got to visit the sheep, meet the sheep dogs, and buy a fleece and some roving.  I had a bump of black shetland roving that was calling out to me from my big bin of fiber stash.  It’s hard to find black sheep….did ya know that?

I spun up a bobbin full, then Navajo plied it to form a bulky 3-ply yarn.  I’m looking forward to knitting a hat, but I don’t think there’s enough black to knit an entire hat…..so now I need a contrasting colour.  Maybe I’ll spin up some more shetland–I have a fleece that is a nice tan/golden brown.

I was searching through Ravelry today, and found a really cute hat.  So, now my plan is to make a Botanic hat (pattern by Stephen West).  It is a reversible beanie, which looks awesome either way you wear it.

I’m pretty sure I’ll need to modify things slightly for my bulky spinning, but I now feel inspired!

I help out with the K-Botics FIRST robotics team (blog), and this past weekend was our robotics competition in Toronto.  I have been knitting robot hats for the last few weeks in preparation.

This hat uses a honeycomb texture that I learned when knitting Newfoundland Mittens.  The robot and team numbers are embroidered on afterwards.

This hat, is for our chief robotics scout.  The hat has a crown that stands up when the hat is worn.  The crown was made in segments, by knitting 10 stitches, then casting on an extra group of 10 stitches, then knitting in the round for 3 rounds, then decreasing 4 stitches every alternate row.  After the crown, the top group of stitches were picked up and the hat continued and decreased as usual

This hat, has a reverse stockinette rolled edge, and alternating panels of stockinette and reverse stockinette stitch to create an interesting texture.  The robot was added on afterwards with chain stitch embroidery.

And…for our driver, who lost his earlier hat while skiing, here is the replacement (knit in stages)  The first of which is a pink tentacle moustache that he wore on April Fools day.  What a good sport!

Ordering at Tim Hortons

By the end of the day the hat was ready, and being worn for practice matches at the Greater Toronto Regional Competition.

In the pit at GTR

While at the competition I knit a hat for a rookie on our team, and added a tassel on top by continuing the hat with I-cord, and then attaching a tassel to that.  His smile was priceless when he put it on.

The next hat I made was a bit smaller, for one of our younger fans.  She’s six, and has very long pigtails that fit through holes on either side of the that.

The M.C. of the competition wore his hat proudly too.

The hats certainly caused a stir at the competition.  We may see other teams knitting some up in the future.

In the mean time, I’m going to take a break from robot hats, and knit something else for a change.

Happy Easter everyone!

Today the latest robot hat got modelled.  They are starting to be an interesting fashion trend–kids wear their unique hats to our team meetings!

It is wonderful to have knitting appreciated this much!  I look forward to making a few more before our next team competition, but I’m not sure what other “creative” things I can add to these hats.

Any ideas?

Spring is here, which finds me digging through my yarn stash, looking for bright colours, and lighter weight yarns, and thinking of making things other than hats and mitts!  Apart from the threat of flurries tomorrow it is really starting to feel like the seasons have changed.

They daylight lasts longer, and the birds are chirping and flowers are pushing up through the warming soil…..and I’m knitting robot hats.

Here’s one for the MC of the competition.  The red is added because that’s his team’s colour.  Hopefully he’ll wear it while he announces our matches.

Here’s another one for one of our presenters.  There are holes all over the hat to let his curls out.  In theory, it’s going to be awesome.

There is a cute detail added to this hat.

Our robotics team has heart!

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