Tweedy Tam

Alrighty then, here's the Tweedy Tam, ready for the internet (and if it's not, please let me know!).

Here's what I did. I made two versions - one for an adult that measures about 19 inches in circumference at the band, and one for kids that started at 15 inches (so, for a toddler or so) but that I blocked to fit a child's medium (8 - 10). Pictured here is how I would wear it (and how I placed it on Mary's head!) but you can see how Anna rocks it here.

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed, one ball
Needles: 1 16" circular and one set of DPNs in a size to give you a gauge of 5 sts/inch in stockinette. For me, this is a size 4 with this yarn, but caution! I'm a loose knitter (and I mean that in the best sense!).

Begin

CO 72 (96) sts on the circular needle (you'll switch to the DPNs during the decreases) and join for working in the round, being careful not to twist. Place marker to indicate beginning of round.

Ribbing

Knit 1 inch of k1p1 ribbing.

Increase Round

*k2,m1; repeat from * to end of round. I used the backward-loop m1. At the end, you should have 108 (144) sts. If you used another multiple of six, you'll have half again as many as you started out with, which you can check using math (plus you can tell your kids that they really will use algebra in real life!):

Let x = number of cast-on sts
Let y = number of sts after the increase round

y = x + (x/2)

Body

Knit every round until piece measures 2.5 (3) inches from increase round. This isn't an exact science; if you want more slouch, knit a little further!

Prepare for Decreases

You must now divide your sts into six segments to create the pattern of holes and decreases.

*K18 (24), place marker; repeat from * to end.

Remember y? If you used some other number besides 72 or 96 to begin with, you'll have to bust out the math skills again, but this is more 3rd-grade-level math rather than middle school level.

y/6 = number of sts between each marker.



Decrease

Round 1: *yo, ssk, knit to last two sts before marker, k2tog; repeat from * to end. You have decreased 6 sts.

Round 2: knit to end of round.

Regardless of how many sts you started with, repeat these two rounds until you have 3 sts between each marker, switching to DPNs when needed.

Finishing

*k1, k2tog all the way around. You should have 12 sts total.
*k all sts all the way around
*k2tog; repeat from * to end, removing all markers as you go except for the one that marks the beginning of the round. You should have 6 sts left.
*k2tog all the way around, removing the last marker. You should have 3 sts left.

Topping it Off

At this point, you have a choice. You could've stopped at 6 sts, broken the yarn, drawn the yarn through the sts and fastened off.

But since we've got those 3 live sts on a DPN, let's make a little i-cord.

*k3, slide the three knit sts to the other side of the same needle without turning work, and knit them again. Here's a tutorial if you need it. Repeat from * until i-cord is as long as you want it. You can leave it like a little tail or you can put a knot in it; just break your yarn, thread it through the live sts with a needle, and then weave it in to fasten.

Blocking

You can block your tam or not, depending on how you feel. I blocked the smaller tam so it would fit my 9-year-old, despite the fact that it was knit at the toddler gauge.

To block, fit the tam over a plate. I used a dinner plate on the small hat to make it larger. Steam with an iron, or spritz with a squirt bottle, or whatever method you prefer to get it wet, and then let it dry on the plate. The steam iron is quick and I'm impatient, so there you go - just be careful to use only the steam and not burn your knitting!




Copyright 2007 Lydia McNeil - You may not use this pattern for profit or reproduce it for profit; you may use it to knit hats for yourself, for others, or most certainly for charity, but not to sell.

A Tam

Told you I'd start another hat...you know I'm into instant gratification. Armed with the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, I decided to knit a tam out of some Rowan Felted Tweed in the Sigh colorway I had in the stash.

The look of the yarn-over holes was inspired by the Noro hat here, (which I really like and intend to make sometime soon) although my holes were just k2tog, yo, ssk. The top is finished off with a little i-cord knot on three stitches. I'm into the body of a smaller one now and will try to write up a quick how-to when that's done.



In the meantime, the weather finally broke here and there were even a few drops falling today! My in-laws were allowed to go back to their place this morning - miracle of miracles, all the buildings including the house, barn, sheds, and whatnot, were still standing. The return was bittersweet, as the surrounding land is a moonscape with many of the neighbors' houses gone and John's uncle's place up the road among them. We're still thankful things weren't worse, although reading about the injured at the UCSD Burn Center is heartbreaking and scary.



The rest of the day will be spent knitting and watching a little TV, and rejoicing in the overcast sky.

In Times of Crisis

With the destruction wrought by the fires, the urge to create overwhelms.

Scones. Brownies. Large pots of tortilla soup, beef stew, spaghetti sauce.



Two hats.

It's hot and our eyes burn. We're glued to the news and the computer, looking at maps of the burn areas and the evacuations. My in-laws were evacuated and are waiting it out at Steele Canyon High School; at first they wanted to stay there because the news was fresher and they wanted to stay near their place in Deerhorn Valley, but now the roads are closed. They'll be okay, but we won't know for sure about their place for a while.

The good news is some of our friends have been allowed back to their neighborhoods; the bad news is how many we don't know about - and whether they still have homes.

The kids are playing games and cousin Elizabeth is here - a forced vacation from school for the rest of the week. John is staying home and working remotely. His sister is here with us, down from Seattle to help with the evacuation of one of the nursing homes she works with.

Isn't it sad we have to wait for a disaster to take a break? I for one am off to start another hat.

More Distractions

Can it really be that my baby is a senior? We just came back from a New England college trip, checking out potential schools.

We SoCalifornians were so looking forward to real fall weather. I mean, when do we really get to bust out the fine knitwear otherwise? Plus it was the perfect excuse to go shopping.

We bought cords and sweaters, and boots! We packed rain gear and scarves! We nearly died of the 80+ degree Indian summer!

But Fiona got to look at Emerson again (loved it); and Sarah Lawrence (no comment); Bennington (liked it); Williams (liked it); and RISD (really really loved it). And it was all so beautiful...look at the photo left, taken at Bennington College. We just don't have green like that here.

And while Fiona looked at schools, I ate my way across New England...The lobster! The pizza! The clam chowder! Ah.


On our last couple of days there, we visited Salem, where I saw a yarn store but didn't even go in! Can you believe it? My thumb/pinky/elbow problems combined with the heat were just not conducive to yarn shopping.

I'm Back - Sorta...

I'm not sure why I have a knitting blog when as it turns out I have a yearly pattern of taking six months off starting in the spring every year. I should really take up some hobby that I could talk about for the other half a year.

Oh wait, wouldn't that be the yearly creation of the Jewel Ball. The very reason I can't knit being the countless hours of computer work that make my elbow hurt too much to hold knitting needles? Yes, this is me in my blue hat, looking the way I do for a week every August...the end of a jam-packed year of putting on that party. Thanks for another flaterring photo, Fiona! I can only blame the camera angle for how those arms look sleeveless, since the truth would be too painful.

Luckily, this year's Ball was soooo much fun to put on - we got to paint gigantic recreations of famous art pieces (which, who knew the same muscles that don't let me knit and drive a mouse too much at the same time are also affected by wielding a giant paint brush) and hopefully raised buckets of money for our beneficiaries.

I hurt my left thumb during the week we set the Ball up, so I was in a cast for a couple of weeks from that, and then I hurt my right pinky, and we had a Santa Ana that made it unbearable to touch anything other than ice cream, so I haven't knit at all. Like, since April. I know, wah wah wah. You want to offer me some cheese with that whine.

On the creative side, I did have a very productive spring and summer graphics-wise.

Knitting? What Knitting

Oh my gosh. I have to finish the Tuscany shawl, or something else that qualifies as a shawl, by July in order for it to be used as an incentive prize for people selling raffle tickets. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but my knitting has totally taken a back seat to life in general. The only thing I've accomplished this week has been the sock you see here, taken from Lace Style and modified to be a short little anklet. And I don't like it, so you're not going to see a second one in this lifetime!



Anna had a birthday this week including two parties (friends & family), Fiona got back from a singing trip to Chicago, and I've been busy with Las Patronas because we're coming up on a newsletter deadline! Oh, and we had a fencing tournament on the weekend but that turned out to be awesome - check out Anna's good news!

Hippity Hoppity, Easter Came and Went

Well, we're back in town, the big girls are in school again, Mary's on break, and Easter came and went. We had Easter at my sister's, where I got to see my little nephew Charlie in one of the versions of the five-hour baby sweater (although it took me more than five hours - ymmv). He is such a cutie patootie.



I've put aside the Tuscany shawl for a while because I realized I was doing a stupid thing. I've been slipping the first stitch on each row, but only on the right side. So I've got slip stitches on the knit side and regular stitches on the purl side. What a dunce...I'm seriously consider ripping the whole thing out but before I do anything drastic I'm working on the socks from Lace Style. Sometimes the knitting mojo just takes a vacation.



Snoop spent Easter at home, even though Anna made him a bunny suit to go with his ears.

On the Mission Trail

Whew...we have been covering a lot of ground. We've seen a lot of schools already and we're still not in LA yet!

It turns out g-girl is a Mills alum - Mills is an incredibly beautiful women's college in Oakland. It's more like a park than a school, and there's a lot to be said for all-women's education. Fiona liked it a lot, and said she'd be happy to go there. She also like USF well enough, mainly because it's in the middle of San Francisco, which is great. St. Mary's was acceptable as a lower choice.



Santa Clara was the favorite coming out of SF and surrounding areas, though. And who could blame her? It is the most beautiful campus, with incredible gardens, gorgeous buildings and friendly staff. Check out that wisteria!



This morning we were in Sarah-Hope's neighborhood, UC Santa Cruz. Fiona loved it so much she had to dance through the woods. It's currently in first place, at least until we hit Santa Barbara tomorrow.

And then this afternoon we rolled into San Luis Obispo to take a look at Cal Poly, which is down near the bottom of the pack. It's okay, and it's a good education, but it's so big.



And the best thing about road trips? How else would you see a giant artichoke?

Adventures in Googleland

I'm posting this from my BIL's commuter apartment in sunny Mountain View, CA (home of Google) and where we have been staying since Thursday night. Mountain View is actually a cool place - there's a little downtownish place where there are a couple of blocks of cheek-to-cheek restaurants, most of which have sidewalk tables and all of which stay open into the late evening.

Fiona and I have been looking at schools, so far hitting Sta. Clara, Mills, Berkeley, USF, Stanford, St. Mary's. On Tuesday we leave for Sta. Cruz, San Luis Obispo and points south.

I was totally expecting cooler weather so I packed kind of wrong (Why oh why are my beloved flipflops in La Jolla?) and even optimistically packed some of my knitted warmy things, but it looks like they'll go unused yet again.

Yesterday we were only going to visit USF, so we thought we'd go on a little yarn crawl first. Armed with mapquest directions, we made our way to Uncommon Threads in Los Altos. First of all, Los Altos has a cute little shopping area, much like Girard in my beloved La Jolla, but SO MUCH BETTER. Sigh.




Anyway, Uncommon Threads is a great yarn shop...in my opinion, not as great as Knitting in La Jolla, but it is roomier. I got to see a ribwarmer all knitted up, which I'd never seen before except in photos. And which, PS, I won't be making one of anytime soon, at least for myself. I think it would actually subtract inches from my height and add them to my hips - no thanks.

I also got to touch a bunch of Jamieson's wool, which I've almost bought a boatload full of before sight unseen, and discovered it's scratchy. Even after swatching. Even after washing. Still a little too scratchy for me. So see? Yarn shopping ends up saving me money in the longrun.


Instead I came home with some of my beloved Koigu, which was there in the flesh and you see pictured at the top and below, and some Lana Grossa sockyarn, and some little 4" dpns in size 2 for said sockyarn. Remember, it's vacation yarn!



After Uncommon Threads, we hit the 101 north and headed for ImagiKnits in San Francisco. It turns out that ImagiKnits is smack in the Castro, where, I'll tell you right now, people are having a damn good time on the weekends. In looking for a link for you just now, I found out that I Remember Mama took place in the Castro...it doesn't look like, however, you'll find anyone anyone vaguely resembling Irene Dunne there now.

Fiona tried to get some pictures of the local landmarks from my moving vehicle as we cruised for a parking spot (in vain), but sadly, no photo of Moby Dick. We gave up trying to park and headed for USF (pictured below) instead.



Last night we took in a show at the Eureka Theatre on Jackson, where the 42nd Street Moon puts on lost or obscure Broadway gems from the golden era. We saw Plain and Fancy, a musical about the Amish, I kid you not, from way before Weird Al even had the idea for this. It was actually fabulous!

Despite the parking, San Francisco remains just about my favorite city. It's got the culture and the art scene, it's got nightlife, it's got great food, and it's tolerant. It's tolerant almost to the point of being intolerant, true, but I love it. And everywhere you look, there's something beautiful.

And now, since it's Sunday, your weekly dose of Snoop, weighing himself.



"I gained 8 ounces this week!"

So Little Time, So Little Knitting

I'm sorry to report that there's been no knitting at all so far this week; instead, making and taking pictures of things like these crazy moss balls has kept me occupied.

When I'm not hot-gluing moss I'm busily trying to get things in order so I can go out of town for a few days, which means I've been chained to my computer getting a graphics job mostly done and trying to keep up with things like, you know, laundry, so we'll have clean clothes on our trip.

Fiona and I will be driving north to Ellay and however much further we can go in 9 days to look at colleges. Yes, it's hard to believe that youthful moi could possibly have a child that old, but what can I say? I'll just tell people I had her at 10.

So far, Fiona has been so excited to go look at schools that she has barely managed to sleep until noon, and I think she's only playing WoW 6 hours a day! To be fair, she works pretty hard during at school, so I suppose I can be grateful she isn't spending spring break starring in a Girls Gone Wild video.

When will the knitting content return, you ask? Dear reader, soon, one can only hope.



PS Your weekly gratuitous photo of Snoop, in his cave (aka the cpu cubby in my desk!).

Busy, Busy, Busy

Don't you hate it when your tasks interfere with your knitting? Among other things, I've been working on a lot of invitations/newsletters/what have you. And I'm plugging away on my Tuscany shawl, although I haven't been able to touch it in days!

Ready to Block

Sometimes the days just get away from me - it's been an entire week since I've posted, but to tell the truth I haven't gotten a lot of knitting in. The world intrudes.

My shawl, despite a few setbacks, is finally done. There it sits in all its unblocked glory. As you know, I ran out of yarn about five rows from the end. When the new shipment of Kersti came I decided there was enough to add those five rows plus an entire pattern repeat. I know, I know... despite dedicating an entire post to never learning, ever the optimist am I. There was enough for the extra pattern repeat, but not for the five rows of garter + bind-off. Tink. Tink. tinktinktinktinktink.



I finally ended up with two rows of garter and bound off using the Russian bind-off you see above. It's accomplished like this: *p2tog, slip the st back onto the left needle, repeat from * to end.



In other knitterly happenings, I was over at Knitting in La Jolla picking up some Cascade superwash for a little somethin-somethin for Snoop, and got distracted by a couple of books - Lace Style, which I promptly added to my "Style" library, and No Sheep for You Actually, Suzanne showed me No Sheep because it has a sweater pattern that is basically the World's Biggest Shedir -



yes, even bigger than my own gigantic one - that has three pages of charts and looks like it might take my natural lifetime to knit!.

Anyway, I've been paging through them all week for inspiration, and yesterday I cast on six stitches: the start of the Tuscany shawl (scroll down for a photo) from No Sheep.

Mary's playhouse continues to progress, but the weird fog we've had (See? La Jolla has weather problems too. And I was going to link to a picture of the fog, but the first hit on google images that really showed it also linked to a naked guy holding some kind of crustacean at Black's Beach, which frankly sounds like a bad idea and wasn't very attractive to view, either. So no photo for you.) has not been conducive to painting. And - horrors - rain is predicted on Wednesday. Maybe later in the week I'll get a shot of the playhouse if the sun cooperates.

And - looky here! Snoop's ears have stood up, making him look like a cross between a fruit bat and a holstein.

Guilt is a Powerful Motivator

Some time ago, a friend gave us her children's old playhouse because her house was about to be remodeled and it was in the way. John went down and disassembled it, hauled it up here, planted the pieces in our side yard and we all went about our business, ignoring Mary's little comments: "I wonder when my playhouse will be finished....I wonder if I'll be able to play in it someday....I wonder if I'll be grown up, out of college, and working on an MBA when it's done...."

Okay, maybe it didn't go that far, but at this point my friend's remodel is done and the playhouse is still in pieces.

Since Snoop's arrival the playhouse has started to bug me.



Snoop goes potty on a little plot of grass that, if you stand there with him, makes it darn near impossible not to notice something like a disassembled playhouse.

So here we are this weekend, the weather's nice, there are myriad heinous tasks pressing in (laundry, taxes, work) but we've gotta get that playhouse built while Mary can still fit through the door. We're hoping to put the roof on tonight and maybe I'll be able to start painting next week.

Which leads me to other guilt sources: the taxes!! are probably the hugest thing hanging over my head and making me crazy, but there's also some KAG (knitting-associated guilt):




This is the cabled shawl with pockets from Knitpicks, more than half done and going nowhere.



This is half a shedir, strewn amidst the left over balls from other projects.




This is the shawl I needed the extra ball of Kersti for, which I thought would be done by now.

And then there are those as-yet-unstarted mittens to go with the little cabled hats.

To top it all off, we, and by this I mean probably most of you reading this, too - all woke up minus an hour this morning. Stupid spring forward.

Little Cabled Hats

Alright, things are settling down around here with the new puppy and everything. I'm ashamed to say that I bought him a sweater yesterday. Yes, I bought a knitted item. But - it was half off, and I haven't had time to knit him anything quite yet! I have to be able to put him down in order to knit, and he's imprinted on me like a baby duck...I'm sure he'll be more independent soon.



I did finish the two little hats based on the Green Cables pattern. They're the same pattern and stitch count and everything, but I made them on smaller needles with worsted weight yarn. The gauge is 4sts/inch on the pink and 3.5sts/inch in the blue over stockinette, and I think they're about toddler/small child size (they're stretchy). Now I'm thinking about what to pair with them. Seems like booties would be for a younger baby, so maybe some little cabled mittens would be good.



The pink yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that also saw this use as well as being the flower on this scarf, and the blue is Knitpicks Andean Silk in bluebell left over from this capelet. Isn't stash wonderful?

Impulse, Shmimpulse

Warning: there is so little knitting content in this post it barely qualifies for a knitting blog. But if you like puppies and kitties (and who doesn't?), read on.

Another crazy weekend at chez Windansea. Fencing tournament, fundraiser for a school none of my children attend, two (two!!) projects involving a posterboard and/or construction of a miniature stage and puppets, a sleepover, and I'm not sure what else because I think I've only been home for 10 minutes in the last three days.

Here's what's really crazy: in the midst of all this, I had a major impulse-control problem leading to the acquisition of a puppy.

Yes indeedy, internet friends - meet Snoop. Snoop's a rat terrier; we knew absolutely nothing about the breed before we met him, but once we found out that blue eyes are an undesirable genetic trait in the breed we knew he was for us. (Mutant dog? Absolutely, where do we sign? I blame John.)

And guess what? Despite the fact that I swore I'd never put clothes on a dog, something about his size made me have to go into gay dog overdrive. I bought a rainbow collar, a pink Kate Spade-looking doggy purse (me!), a leash with a daisy on it and a t-shirt that says "Security" so he can be just a little thuggish sometimes. John made me put back the tanktop with rhinestones that spelled out "Rock Star" but the Petco is an easy 10 minutes by freeway.




Today is day two and Patty is adjusting pretty well; she still says "All your dog toys are belong to us!" but the feisty fight-picker does have a tender place for her new buddy.



Spot's still not so sure...he's trying to decide whether it's something to eat or just another ill-mannered dog to put up with.

PS Gratuitous Knitting Content: Now I can knit those doggy sweaters I keep seeing patterns for. Although maybe not this one - don't want people thinking my dog's been in the big house!

All Quiet on the Knitting Front

Usually you know when I start posting pictures of scenery there isn't a whole lot of finishing going on.

But this time you'd be wrong: I've finished the Green Cables hat in red worsted (to fit a toddler) and pink (for a school auction) and am working on a blue (also for an auction).



I wound the Kersti that will finish my shawl, hopefully tomorrow. (I'll be suffering the affliction, familiar to all parents of children participating in a sport, known as bleacher butt; I'm resigned to developing a corner in my ass but luckily will get lots of knitting time in to make up for it.)



So maybe Sunday you will see the pink hat, the blue hat, the shawl on blocking wires, and more, but for today, the pink and the blue of a La Jolla sky at sunset.