Our local theme park, Silverwood, has created for the last 2 years a wonderous scary theme park for the halloween season. Every piece of horror film freak outs have been included. All the way down to the murderous clowns. Obviously they're not really murderous but they are scary! There is a mutated maze (mutated things jump out at you from the shadows), blood bayou (FREAKY haunted house, which is even worse this year i hear), and people who follow you around and sniff you! That in itself was creepy... This is an adult only evening, no one under 13 is allowed in the park when its Scarywood. Thank goodness. This is a birthday thing for my friend H. We have been friends 4 years, and really this is only the second year we really celebrated her birthday with her. That, and I wanted to go to Scarywood LOL
But that is not all i have been doing. Just two days ago (Wed) Husband has mentioned to me that he needs a hat for tonight. That he didn't have one. I KNOW I bought him a hat 3 or so years ago when he was working the winter season as an ATM repair man. He had a huge heavy coat, gloves and hat and scarf that i bought him so he wouldn't freeze. But where the hat, scarf, gloves went we have no clue. They are not in our closets, they are not in the cars, they are not in the garage unless they are flattened to the ground underneath the shelving units. So I made the decision at 9 am to make him a hat. I hopped online, to Ravelry.com my favorite pattern and public knitting site, and searched away for a hat that would match my idea. I had to wing it. Make my own pattern if you will. So far so good, its a little large and a little too long, but thats what he asked for. I will post pictures after I finish it. But I will attempt to describe it here.
My man's hat is a double knit* hat. It is a combination of green and midnight heather colors. Midnight heather is a navy-black blend with blue/green tones in it. Very pretty. It is knit in the round, and has stripes on it. I am currently decreasing the crown, and the pattern I've been loosely following has been decreasing every other round, however I find that this is making for a VERY long hat, so i stopped doing that a few rows in, and have been decreasing every round. If I ever make this hat again, I will modify it so the stripes are more uniform rather than a random "I'll change colors here" type thing. But I like it so far... I'm about to switch to double pointed needles because there are too few stitches to make knitting in the round a good option. The cable needles are getting more in the way than they are helpful.
So my Rough pattern:
Using 24" cable needles size 7 or 8
2 colors Fingering or Sport yarn
CO 110 stitches (118 for larger head) using both colors, long tail method. Make sure colors are alternating during CO (this is what took the longest).
The first color stitch on your needle will be your Main Color (MC), the second stitch is your Contrast Color (CC). Knit all MC, Purl all CC. I discovered that to get the two sided type of hat, you need to carry both color yarns over to each side as you knit and purl. You're only going to be picking up one of the yarns as you work, but the other color will be along the correct side when you're not working with it to give it a solid appearance, as well as double sided.
Knit 6 rows with MC on the front side, CC on back side.
Row 7, Knit with CC, Purl with MC for 2 rows.
Row 9, Knit with MC, Purl with CC for 6 rows.
Row 15, Knit with CC, Purl with MC for 7 rows
Row 21, Knit with MC, Purl with CC for 2 rows
Row 23 Knit with CC Purl with MC for 7 rows
Row 30: Begin Decreases. Go back to Knitting with MC, purling with CC and Work 11 pairs of stitches Knitting MC, Purling CC. On 12th pair, slip MC to right hand needle, take CC onto a cable needle to the back, slip next MC to right hand needle. Take CC on cable needle, slip back to left hand needle, slip both MC to left hand needle, k2MCtog, p2CCtog. Place stitch marker. Work 11 pairs of stitches, do the slipping MC/CC again, but with MC, slip 1 knit wise, knit 1, pass slip stitch over, and purl both CC again. Work in this pattern until you come to the beginning of the work. Once you have worked 8-9 rows of the MC, swap again, and you can finish out with the CC, or work a small stripe and swap back to the MC.
Now, if you want a super long hat, feel free to knit 1 row in between decreases. However, if the head you're fitting is not that long, feel free to decrease on every round. Or you can do what I've been doing, and decrease/knit half of it, then just straight decrease the rest of it. Now when you get down to the last bits, and its hard to knit on a cable needle, you will need to switch to double pointed needles. Continuing the MC knit/CC purl. I have always ALWAYS done the kitchener stitch (grafting) for the tops of hats. The pattern I was modeling this after just cuts a long end, and threads it thru the stitches a few times and draws it tight. What ever way you like, works. I will let you know how the kitchener stitch works for the double sided hat. Along with pictures.
That has been my 36 hours in a nutshell.
Edited to include pictures.
*double knit: Lovely thick knit to create a reversible pattern.
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