I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

The arrival of this:

Derailed my plans to make more of these:

But, if you live in Germany, watch your mailbox. It might soon contain a package with some new stitch markers.
I’m just sayin’.

Last year, I posted a series of instructions on how to knit a top-down hat and avoid the “dreaded” gauge swatch. I receive several emails a month asking for the pattern, which can be found in the November 2005 archives of my blog. The instructions begin on Nov. 21st and end on Nov. 25th.

For those of you who prefer a more polished, 2-page pattern that you can easily print out, I’ve created a PDF file with photos and complete instructions. The hat is knit from the top-down, so you can closely control the finished size and tailor it to the size of the recipient’s head. The “Directions” section of the pattern describes how to determine the number of stitches for each hat based on the circumference of the recipient’s head.

Because you can use any yarn (approx. 140-200 yds) together with the appropriate needles, it’s a great pattern for handspun yarn or most single, 100g skeins.

You can purchase the PDF version for $3.00 by clicking on the photo below and using your PayPal account to pay.

The pattern is 2 pages long. Once you have completed the payment process, you will automatically receive an email containing instructions on how to download the pattern. These instructions will be sent to the primary email address tied to your PayPal account so please check that email account. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file. If you do not have the reader, you can download it here

You may have noticed the dearth of FOs on this blog recently. Trust me, I’ve been knitting. It’s just not anything I can show right now. But Friday was a watershed for me. I finished the two new sock designs for Knit Picks and mailed them off. Bye bye.

Between those and the two sock designs I did for Vogue and mailed off in November, I’m a little sick of knitting socks. Especially ones I can’t keep.

So, this weekend I turned my attention to some of my Lonesome Skeins.

This hat is a Christmas gift for one of DD’s friends. The colors are not something I’d wear, but she’s convinced her friend will love it. The yarn, BTW, is Cotton Kureyon (70% cotton, 30% wool); long discontinued. I have 8 more skeins in my stash but this was the only one in this colorway. I can’t even remember now what possessed me to purchase such a bright, crazy color. I must have intended to use it for some toddler stuff when my kids were little.

The pattern is a slight variation of this Noro hat pattern. I cast on 88 stitches instead of the 99 called for in the pattern and altered the decreases at the top. I made several of these hats last year and it’s one of my favorite patterns. With the change I’ve made to the number of stitches, I can easily make the hat from just one skein of Kureyon or Silk Garden.

I’ve got two more weekend FOs to show, but I think I’ll save them up for the rest of this weeks’ posts.