The Hemlock Flower Tam

Ever since I knit my first Hemlock Ring afghan, I have wanted to turn the center flower into the top of a tam. Last week I was at an unexpected stopping point in my current project so I used that as an opportunity to make the Hemlock tam.

Yarn: 2 balls Dale of Norway Falk (sport weight)
Needles: US4 dpns, 16" US4 circulars or whatever size gets gauge
Gauge: 23 st/30 rows = 4" in Stockinette stitch
Finished measurements- 10.5" diameter, will fit a 21-24" head.

Pattern:
The center flower is from the Hemlock Ring pattern which can be found here. You will work the pattern through round 43 and then switch to the directions below.

Knit plain for 2.5"
Decrease Rnd: *k1, k2tog, rep from * until 1 stitch remaining, k1
Knit plain for 7 rnds.
Bind-off rnd: To set up the bind-off, knit 1 stitch. *slide stitch from right needle to left needle, k2tog, rep from * to end of rnd. Cut yarn and weave in ends.

To block- Soak in hot water for 30 minutes, remove as much water from the knitted hat as possible (either by squeezing in a towel or in your washer's spin cycle for 30 seconds,) and for hat around a large dinner plate or a cut cardboard circle with a 10.5" diameter.

Three-in-one

Here is my neck warmer hat from the new Interweave Knitted Gifts. The yarn is a handyed/ handspun worsted by SpinneMann that I bought over two years ago at the Naked Sheep in Portland, Oregon. I love this yarn so finding the perfect project for it was a must. The pattern was written to be knitted with a dk weight yarn on US7 needles so I adjusted it to match my gauge of 4st/in on US8 needles by only casting on 96 stitches. I love this hat because it can be worn three ways- as an open hair sack, as a neck warmer, and as a hat so it should match just about any mood.

I'm with the band

Life is finally back to normal after a week of complete chaos. First, the doggie stuff. Astrid pulled something in her back early last week and could barely walk. Long story short, it was something in her back and after a few days of rest and muscle relaxers she is back to her old self. The vet also did some movement and response tests with her which showed some neurological problems (for those of you who know Astrid, this is the reason she walks sideways and randomly falls down sometimes.) She is not in pain and doesn't seem bothered by it so we are just going to keep her comfortable and happy for the rest of her days.

Now for the band stuff. For those of you who don't know, after almost a year of procrastination, I finally joined the March Madness Marching Band, an all volunteer marching band sponsored by Local First Lexington. I started going to practices a few weeks ago and on Saturday we marched in the Roots and Heritage parade, kicked off the Bike Prom and then marched through the JustFundKY event at the Horse Park. It was a long day, but the most fun I've had in quite awhile. Originally, I planned on being a dancer since I don't play a portable instrument, but I brought my tambourine to practice along with my hula hoops and quickly decided I wanted to be on the band side of things. I bought an atomic orange tambourine and a used band uniform to modify and now I am a full on member of the band. Yesterday I went thrift store shopping for some new band gear and I found two formal dresses that I took home and immediately ripped apart to create two skirts that will go with the fabulous band jacket I found. Our next performance is a week from Friday at Douglas Park so I will wait until then to reveal my new costume.

Just another hat

After about eight months, I finally finished the hat for my friend James. This is one of those projects that kept finding its way back into the UFO basket for me to pick up again several months later. The pattern is based on the Half Pipe Hat from Son of Stitch n' Bitch, but with a few modifications to make it more flattering. First, the hat was originally made with two strands of worsted weight yarn held together to create a chunky yarn. A quick search on Ravelry made it obvious to me that the chunky yarn was way to thick for a double brim. Since I already decided to use Hemp for Knitting's Hempwol, a light worsted, for the project I decided to do a quick gauge swatch and rewrite the pattern at a finer gauge. I cast on 108 stitches on US5 needles and then followed the pattern for the lengths of ribbing and stockinette stitch. Then, when I came to the decreases I made another change to better suit the hat style and gauge. To replicate factory-made versions that are sewn at the top I decided to do four sets of double decreases (I used sl1, k2tog, psso) every other round around the top perimeter of the hat. After 11 decrease rounds, when 20 stitches remained, I grafted the remaining stitches. The final change I made was on the brim itself. I felt the original version was too big so I created a smaller version with a greater arc to better fit an adult head. All-in-all I am happy with the hat and can't wait to mail it off.