Swatchless

Today was such a lovely day. A perfect day for a photo shoot with a new hat! My friend C.L. agreed to take a break from studying for midterm exams, and be my hat model. We had a lovely walk today by the lake taking pictures and being silly. Here is my Art of the Day!

C.L. wearing the slouchy hat

Pattern: One Day Beret (free download from Through the Loops)

Needles: 4mm and 5mm DPNs

Yarn: My hand dyed (Kool-Aid and food colouring), handspun merino (rovings purchased from Paradise Fibers)

The process of dying and spinning the yarn is outlined in previous posts.

This may be one of the last days to go outside with no coat….to enjoy the green grass and the calm breeze. It is November after all!

The leaves are almost all off the trees.

Sometimes we have a dusting of snow at this point in the year!

While we were at the water, we decided to skip stones.

The hat is looking nice and slouchy today! Blocking it on a dinner plate was a good fix for the shape issue.

The hat even stayed on while C.L. was “flying”. Nice hang time by the way!

What trip to the waterfront would be complete without a visit to the iron lion. My grandmother remembers riding on this statue when she was young.

This hat will be making its way to someone special sometime soon.

Remember when your high school teacher told you that math was important, and that you’d use it in your daily life when you grow up?

I have reached the point in the pattern where I am supposed to decrease until I get to the correct number of stitches which can be determined by a mathematical equation. (Don’t be scared by the math. It is a very useful calculation which I have tried to explain)

getting bigger!

Let S be the correct number of stitches in the brim

Let R be the number of stitches in an inch

Let H be the circumference of your head (in inches)

S=R x (H-2)

What is (H-2)? We subtract 2 inches to create “negative ease” so the hat must actually stretch to fit on your head, and will fit snugly.

How do I determine H? I wrapped a piece of string around my head, and then used a ruler to measure the length of string. H=21 inches.

How do I determine R? I counted the number of stitches in 2 inches and divided by 2 to give me the number of stitches in one inch. R=5.5 sts/inch

The hat came with me to watch Nukariik, a throat singing duo. Click on the picture to see them in action!

Substituting into the equation

S=5.5 stitches/inch x (21 inches-2 inches)

S=5.5 stitches/inch x (19 inches)

S=104.5 stitches

The pattern then says to adjust this number to the nearest multiple of 8.

That’s easy, 8×13=104.

I currently have 120 stitches on the needles, so I will need to decrease a total of 16 stitches.

I am decreasing 8 stitches each row, so I will need to do 2 decrease rows. Logical, right?

these are the real colours in the sunlight

I finished the hat tonight after singing a choir concert (another art form that I have enjoyed for most of my life). Here I am trying the hat on and attempting to take a decent photograph.

not so slouchy, but it is done!

I’m currently blocking the hat around a dinner plate. I like how the circles of colour are so clear.

blocking the hat

I have arranged with a friend to have a proper photo shoot tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a nice day!

Thanks to all who have followed the creation of this hat. I hope you are enjoying my daily art as much as I am. I’m looking for inspiration for tomorrow’s post. Is there anything you want to know?? Any good crafts I should try??

My art of the day consists of the ever increasing slouchiness of this hat.

The hat went with me to work, and got bigger at lunch.

not slouchy yet

The hat appeared again after work and got a little bigger.  The hat went with me to choir practice (dress rehearsal for our first concert of the season), and during the breaks got a little bigger.  As it gets bigger and bigger, each row gets longer and longer, so it seems like progress is slow.  It is WAY faster than knitting socks though.  Some people might be wondering why I am knitting on four needles rather than one circular needle.  At this point I’d prefer to knit this hat on circular needles, but my needles are currently being occupied with a baby sweater that is on hiatus.  I may dig them out because there are a lot of stitches at this point, and I don’t really enjoy losing stitches off the ends of my DPNs.  Circulars are also quieter to knit with.

getting slouchy

I love the concentric waves of colour, and the merino is a dream to knit with.  The only challenge is capturing the true essence of it in a photograph.  The true colours fall somewhere between those shown in the two photos above.

Tomorrow the hat may join me at an Inuit Throat Singing workshop.  It will be a very well cultured hat indeed!

I have been spinning up a storm, and have two full bobbins of sherbet coloured handspun. I’m toying with what to make with it. I know for certain that if I make a pair of anything (mittens, socks, arm warmers) that they will be fraternal rather than identical twins. I could make a hat….maybe I will throw caution to the wind and make a slouchy hat. Art is all about taking risks and jumping in to a challenge not knowing what the results may be. This might be a case of “knit it and they will come”…I’m sure I will be able to find someone that will match the hat that I create. Does anyone else use this philosophy?

So….to Ravelry I go, looking for a suitable slouchy hat pattern, and what do I find? A free top down beret pattern that works with any gauge! Sounds perfect….specially since it claims to be a One Day Beret {Ravelink}. Let’s see how many days it takes me; this is midterm season after all, and life is split in so many directions.

The pattern is written by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops, one of the blogs that I have been following for a while now. It seems like a very simple recipe which might be just what is needed to show off my special yarn.

Now is the time to jump in and cast on!

(30 minutes later)  I present My Art of the Day!!

beret

I LOVE how this is working out. The yarn is so soft, and the colours are shifting subtly from orange to pink and back again. This colour variation is obtained because it was the roving that was dyed before it was spun, and each ply ends up being a different colour. The two ply are wrapped around each other, making each stitch a unique blend of colour.

beret beginnings

I’m not sure how the drape will be, or how slouchy the hat will end up. It is all very experimental, which is making me excited to keep knitting.

More to come tomorrow! Thanks for joining me on this journey.