Finished object file: Sawmill River Hat | Brooklyn Tweed Loft

I finished this hat about a week ago but with the busyness of kids at home on summer holidays I haven't had much time to think about blogging.

This Sawmill River Hat by Bonnie Sennott was a spot of selfish knitting that gave me the opportunity to have a play with Brooklyn Tweed's Loft (fingering weight) yarn. Just before Christmas, Yarn + Co., a LYS in Melbourne got in a shipment of BT and to my knowledge they are the only Australian stockists of this much sought after yarn. I was quite beside myself with excitement and didn't hesitate to pick up a few skeins as a Christmas present for myself.

When it came to picking a pattern for this gorgeous yarn I wanted a single skein project and something with cables. Bonnie Sennott's hat pattern fit the bill exactly I even went with the sample colour, Hayloft.

When swatching with the loft the yarn broken as I was casting on with the long tail method. I had read that this yarn due to it's woollen spun nature was very delicate and this break just confirmed that. So my first few rows were knit quite gingerly for fear of breaking the yarn again. Once I got going I was more confident and familiar with the feel of the yarn in my hand so that nervousness disappated.

In my hand the yarn felt rustic but not itchy. It is a lovely tweedy yarn spun from  American grown Targhee-Columbia wool. I don't know much about this breed but I must say the wool is a delight to wear against the skin. At first touch it may not feel very appealing especially to knitters who are mostly merino users. It does not have that same squishiness of merino wool but when you look closely at the strand it is clear that it is undoubtedly soft, lofty and delicate. 

Shortly after I cast on this project I was browsing around Bonnie's Ravelry group page and noticed that she was hosting a 'Selfish knitting KAL'. My project met the requirements of the KAL; being a new project cast on in the new year, it was one of Bonnie's patterns and I was knitting it for myself. I joined in the chatter and was quite excited that I was ticking off my goal of attempting more KALs this year. I finished well ahead of the cut off date and I just enjoy watching and commenting on my fellow knitters' progress now. There is also a pretty good prize on offer but I don't think my chances of winning it are pretty high.

Such well defined cables from the BT Loft.

I did make a few modifications to the pattern and you can read my project notes from my Ravelry page here.

I liked knitting with the BT Loft and I really enjoyed the cables of the pattern. I am happy that I have another soft and snuggly hat ready for me in the winter and now that I've experienced this highly talked about yarn, I'm dreaming of more projects that I can make with it.

Finished object file: Crag hat | Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

School is back and I'm going to aim to get back into the swing of things. I must confess that I do find the balance between blogging about knitting and actually knitting hard. When on the kinder days I only get a couple of hours completely kid free during Miss L's nap I often choose to knit rather than blog because I have so much knitting I want to get through. However, since I keep starting new projects I don't think that status is going to change any time soon, so today I'm going to keep the needles aside and update the blogosphere about one of my latest finished objects.

After asking my friends and readers to help me choose between the Bartek and Crag hat patterns to make for my husband as an anniversary present (you can read about that here) I went with popular opinion and knit the Crag.

I wanted to use up the charcoal Debbie Bliss Cashmerino from my stash but after making two swatches with the aran (heavy 10ply) weight yarn I was starting to lack confidence in my choice. Using 4mm needles for the main pattern was still slightly off gauge but I didn't want to go any smaller because my hands were finding it uncomfortable knitting such heavy yarn on small needles. I kind of fudged it because I rationalised that if I kept my tension tighter for the actual knit and because the Hubs does have a bit of a big head I think I can get away with it in the end.

For the actual knit I started on 3.25mm needles for the ribbing and used a crochet cast on that my dear friend Jenny (Tatterz on Ravelry) taught me. I was leaving this present to the last minute so I decided to skip the tubular cast on because I just wanted to get onto it rather than fiddle with a third needle size and learning a new technique. 

Once I got going into the main body of the hat it was pretty easy to memorise the pattern and it would have been a really enjoyable knit if it didn't hurt my hands. I found I could only do about one set of the pattern repeat before I needed to rest my hands. 

In the end I didn't finish it in time for our anniversary but I did have it done for our time away in Marysville. The Hubs wore it when we went up Lake Mountain to take the kids tobogganing and he said it was perfectly snug and at times he had to take it off because it made him too hot. All credit for that goes to the beautiful cashmere and merino blend of the yarn. You can't go past good fibre when you want warmth.

My latest lesson that I have learnt after knitting this Brooklyn Tweed design and also the Rosebud hat is that I should substitute with either a light worsted or even a DK weight yarn rather than use aran. I have never used Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn for which both these hats were designed for and I hope one day to get the chance to use it but for the time being I am definitely going to select more carefully when substituting for future BT projects.

Finished object file: Rosebud Hat | The Fibre Co. Road to China

Hi ho hi ho it's a super slouchy hat for me.

Today I finished knitting Jared Flood's Rosebud hat. I mentioned in the post covering patterns that I was stalking, that I have had this pattern queued for at least a year now after it caught my eye. I was drawn to the striking cable panel set within garter stitch and the perfect level of slouchiness in the design. I consider Jared Flood a bit of a genius in knitwear design and anything that comes out of his brand, Brooklyn Tweed is phenomenal. Though this hat is a pretty easy knit it does not lack any of the fine Brooklyn Tweed blueprint.

Originally I had planned to knit this with some Quince & Co. Owl Tweet but I ended up using that yarn for other projects. So, I bought some Dark Amethyst coloured Road to China made by The Fiber Company because I wanted some really luxe yarn for a personal project. This yarn is an aran weight alpaca/ silk/ camel/ cashmere blend and it is the softest thing to touch. 

The Road to China is a thicker yarn than the BT Shelter for which the hat was designed for and I had a tricky time swatching with it. I tried the suggested 5 mm at first and was getting 4 stitches for 1 inch when the pattern's stated gauge is 4.5 stitches for 1 inch. I know it seems like such a small difference but it all adds up when you start knitting the whole hat. When the number of stitches is fewer than the suggested gauge it'll mean the measurements will be larger than the pattern's design. So, I knit another swatch with 4.5 mm needles and came up short again. I then tried 4 mm needles and hit the stitch gauge but not the row gauge. By this time you can imagine I was getting a bit frustrated and I just wanted to get onto the hat because I really wanted to wear it.

In the end I did a very 'naughty knitter' thing and knit the hat with 4.5 mm needles even though I didn't achieve gauge with these needles in my swatch. I didn't go with the 4 mm needles because I felt a bit absurd knitting aran weight yarn on such small needles and I wasn't sure if I should knit the rib band on 3 mm needles or just go down two sizes as the pattern suggests to 3.5 mm. In my eagerness to get into the knitting I knit the band on 3.75 mm needles and then switched to 4.5 mm for the main body of the hat.

I used up almost all of the three skeins of yarn that I had purchased from the online store, Zigo Zago which means that my hat used about 40 yards more yarn than what the pattern suggests and this is the result of the larger size that it became. I am happy that I have merely 3 metres of yarn left so I don't have to deal with remnants.  This yarn has actually been discontinued by The Fiber Company and to my knowledge Zigo Zago is the only Australian stockist to still have some. The US distributors, Kelbourne Woolens are selling off their mill ends on their website and they will ship to Australia but you need to email them to get a shipping quote. I want to work with the Road to China blend again but may try the lighter sport weight and lace weight lines.

As a knit it was easy but the exquisite cable pattern kept it interesting. It was nice to be able to pick this project up as a break from the more mindless knits that I am currently working on.

The result is satisfactory in my humble opinion. It's super slouchy and some might consider it too big but I actually think it looks like the hats that the seven dwarfs were drawn wearing in the Disney version of Snow White. It is also so warm and I know it will be perfect this winter when we go to the snow.

You can take a look at my project page for this hat on Ravelry here.

To be honest, if I knit this hat again I will use a lighter weight yarn and definitely match gauge. After all, you really only need one super slouchy seven dwarfs hat in your wardrobe.