Gifting
If you’re in need of a last minute gift for a friend or relative with long hair then I highly recommend Calorimetry from knitty.com with a couple of alterations. The first one I knit was huge, 120 stitches is just too many stitches for worsted weight yarn. Frogged this one. Before giving up or re-engineering it I did a search to see if others had knit it and what their results were. First I went to craftster.org and found this knit along. Tons of pages with helpful tips, the first entry was as useful as any. The knitty board was also useful but with much the same information as at craftster.org.
Here’s the first one which I dyed green before frogging it. It’s knit using the Alpaca/BFL plied with silk.
Below are the results of my modifications. The top two were knit on size US 5.0 needles over 96 stitches using another one of my handspinning experiments. The roving was BFL that I handpainted before spinning. There are 7 repeats on each end of row 5 of the pattern. The bottom calorimetry is the reknit of the one above. It was knit with size US 6.0 needles over 80 stitches. I can’t remember how many repeats for this one but it looks like there were 5 or 6 at each end. Another modification to the pattern was that I wrapped the stitches after the first 6 turns, 3 holes each end. You need to leave a hole for the button at the ends but you don’t need holes in the whole headband. My results below look much more like the headband on the model and look very cute on. I’ll post pictures once they’re gifted. Any questions you have please email me at lilith.designs (at) gmail (dot) com.
Here’s a couple of other small items I’ve knit for holiday gifting.
That Chocolate’s Gone Straight to Your Ribs hat.
Fingerless Gloves from Weekend Knitting
and last but not least…
I tried to figure out intarsia in the round but wasn’t very successful. Hopefully my son won’t mind.
Hope all who come this way have a very happy holiday season. My holiday wish is for universal peace and contentment.
December 26th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
I love the Chocolate hat!!! Yum! I’ve been eating Hershey Kisses like crazy. I think my favs are the Cherry Cordial, Caramel, and Dark Chocolates. Thanks for all the info on the Calorimetry – I’ve been thinking of knitting one and heard taht there were adjustments needed. I also am making another pair of those sideways fingerless gloves from Weekend Knitting. This time with Classic Elite Classic Silk. The are so quick and I think they are really comfy too. They are gifts too so I better get hopping on them! I think your O hat looks pretty good! Really cool!!!
December 27th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Everything looks great! I think the small amounts of handspun I have are destined to be worked into Calorimetry or striped hats. Maybe even one for myself. I’ve knit eight hats this year, but none for me!
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Thanks for your Calorimetry notes! I knit mine 4 times before I got one that almost fit! Size 5 needes and 108 stitches with 8 repeats-still too big and too wide, but wearable! I’m going with your recommendations!
PS-I think the pattern author was going to be submitting a correction at some point…
January 25th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Thank you! I will look over your hints and make a plan! I thought I was a failure as a knitter ;-( This technically is my first “size matters” project and the length was fine but the width was 9″!!
I’m using the Paton’s SWS which should be fine judging from guage measuring. Whew. wonder what happened? In the meantime, it’s good to know I’m not alone.