Posted on 10 Comments

Priorities firmly in order

Priorities

I sat down this morning, before doing anything else, and made myself a list of things that I needed or wanted to work on today.  You will notice, by what I tackled first, that my priorities are firmly in order.  Clearly I always choose to focus on what is most important.

Now, now, don’t look at me that way – 75% of you would probably have made the same choice 😉

And lest you think I’m completely irresponsible, I did stop to cross off the first three items on the list before jumping down to my current task of “Blog hat.”

Hat, finished.

So, yes.  The hat.  You may recall my unhealthy obsession with successfully translating this particular pattern from needle-speak to loom-speak.  Well, I finally broke down and got myself the fine gauge knitting loom, so that I’d have some hope of knitting a similar gauge to that of the great Rose Hills I’ve been seeing online.

I’m happy with my results, but I do wonder if I went a little too far, gauge-wise.  Or if, maybe, the way that I pull the yarn over the pegs results in a tighter knit than necessary?  The nine rows of garter stitch at the end of my hat are clearly narrower than the ones on most of the others I’ve seen.

I may never know the answer, but there is one thing I do know: this attempt is the least-flawed of all of my attempts.  It is wearable, and it looks very similar to the original.  Therefore, I am declaring this quest over, and this hat a success.  I can live with “close enough,” LOL!

Hat, finished.

So what do you think, those of you who have taken up loom-knitting recently?  Want to give it a try?

The details

Pattern: Rose Hill Hat by Erin Harris (url|pdf)

Loom: 104-peg Fine Gauge Hat Loom by Decor Accents (url)

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Mint (url)

Modifications to the pattern:

  • I had 104 pegs instead of 96 stitches, so I made an extra bobble.
  • I made my bobbles similar to the way they are demonstrated in this video, but I knitted each peg 10 times instead of 4, which gave me bobbles the right size.
  • I skipped the decreases, and instead knit an extra 1.5 inches (for a total of 7 inches from the cast on edge) and used the gather method to bind off.  This gives the hat some added bulk at the top, but it’s not too much, and I preferred that to facing the very real possibility that I would screw everything up while attempting to decrease.

Now, I’m off to cross a few more things off of my list!  Happy Friday, everyone 🙂

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Posted on 10 Comments

10 thoughts on “Priorities firmly in order

  1. New blog post: Priorities firmly in order http://tinyurl.com/dachy3

  2. What a great hat, Lisa. I love the color (green is my favorite) and it looks fabulous on you. How very cool that you can make that on a knitting loom. I got back into knitting over the holidays and, like you, am so enjoying all of the scrumptious yarn out there. lol I’m with you on those priorities!

    See what aren has been blogging about: Saturday Morning Tea

  3. Oops, typo! I’m Karen not aren. 🙂

    See what Karen has been blogging about: Saturday Morning Tea

  4. i absolutly think this is the best yet. hooray for you!!! i make the same type of lists….and mark off the same type of things. funny

    See what becky has been blogging about: Cranky Quilt- 9 Patch

  5. Cool hat…but what made me post a comment is that light fixture! My folks have the same one since I was a little kid, love it.

    See what Carrie G has been blogging about: I Never Dreamed

  6. LOL Love your priorities list and your groovy hat 🙂

  7. I love your list.
    Found you through Flickr. So glad I did!

  8. […] so I’m going to be using my extra small gauge knitting loom for this.  The last (and only) project I did on this loom took for.ev.er.  I don’t have that kind of patience.  See?  I […]

  9. […] with all of the new things to learn, this was so much less of a headache than the version I tried (repeatedly) to make on the loom last year.  And it looks nicer, too.  I may even make more.  Rumor has it […]

  10. […] Rose Hill Hat (knitting loom edition) […]

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