I Need to Stop Making Charity Hats on the LK150!

 I seem to have become addicted to making hats on my LK150. I can easily make one, start to finish, in 2.5 hours. Less for some of the designs--depends also on the number of tails to weave in. I have a lot of stash, but I'm starting to feel limited--colours that don't go together, yarns too thick, etc. So I'm trying to get creative. I'm also going into the yarns that I had bought long ago for planned projects that just never happened. These pictures are actually in reverse order to when I made them this weekend.

I thought I had been through the bins on my shelves, but another search yielded a bag with 3 different balls of Bernat Mosaic. I loved this yarn, many years ago, but HATED how it felt. It's acrylic, unspun, and has a very dry feel, like raw silk. 87gr

I had said I was done making hats this weekend after the one below, but then the school board announced schools would be closed today! It's SO rare to close schools here, and to do it the night before is really unusual--but greatly appreciated. Last week we had a terrible snowstorm and they only cancelled buses and got a LOT of upset feedback. We had more snow then but yesterday, it was really hit or miss if you got a lot.  Toronto itself got pummeled, but here just to the east, we got a fairly manageable amount--it's just a lot of clean up now. I did see yesterday that one town sidewalk leading to a school hadn't gotten cleaned after last week's snow! I'm happy because this was a day I was supposed to work (I work two mornings a week in one job and then supply at other times), and I was to have recess duty! I'm also annoyed because all my classes were having assessments and now it's delayed. But, if it had just been a no-bus day, then so many would have been away that I wouldn't have been able to do them either.

Same pattern, but this time, I used the inside as the outside. When hanging the hem, I use both strands of the empty needle, instead of just the cast on strand. This keeps it a little tighter and I didn't do any other finishing to that. The tuck pattern is 5 rows, the yarn colour changes is four rows. I'm not sure what yarn this is as it was donated. It's a very shiny acrylic. I had used the beige as waste yarn for another hat, so I had several small balls unwound from that, and then I realized the green was the same yarn. Neither was enough for a hat, and although they don't really go together, I felt this tuck pattern, offset from the stripes, would blend them. In the end, I used every bit of the tan, and had a bit of green left. 89gr.

This was all the hats, up to the first two in this post.

Random blue worsted weight from my stash.  98gr.

This is the same as the olive green one that I did last time, but did an extra section or two.

It looks a little odd because it's really stretched for the brim, but then that one knit section sort of stands out. I think with hair, it would nestle all together better! This is the bright green that I used in the second hat in this post. 86gr.

I originally tried this pattern with that yarn I'm not sure what I was using for the contrast) but there wasn't enough. It's another Anna Haferman pattern. It creates these sort of 3D bubbles, which you could steam out if you wanted.

Instead, I pulled some Sirdar Country Style DK from my stash. I had collected a fair bit to make a Fair Isle cardigan but it's been over 10 years so I'm probably never getting to it. The inside shows all the dimples. It's pretty cool. 

I think it's rather   quirky! I wouldn't use too thick of yarn though. 49gr

I had noticed some mistakes when I was seaming it up, so I made another using more Country Style DK.

This time, I tried to be super careful about checking for stitches that hadn't knit properly (tuck stitch needs a LOT of weight), and totally didn't notice until I was done sewing it up that I had messed up the second row of hexagons! I polled the family and they said it looked fine!  47gr.

There's still a month until the cut off for winter hats but I think I'm done. I'm having some wrist pain, I think from pushing the carriage. I've suddenly become obsessed with crocheting a "quick" sweater. I don't often wear sweaters, especially not something thick. Also, I need to make some red scarves to get a jump on that donation. And I still have a pair of socks I was knitting for Lucy's boyfriend. Although, he just hurt his hand pretty band and will be off work for awhile.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 456gr + 713gr = 1169gr

Balance:  1169gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

Two More Charity Hats on the LK150!

 I headed back down to my LK150 and "whipped up" two more adult hats from patterns by Anna Haferman.

I was chugging along and then checked the pattern and realized I had done two sections too many. I also got fancy on the decreases, but shouldn't have bothered. 

I also added 8 stitches, but I kept the tension at what she uses in the video.  This hat weighed 122gr. I wonder if I could have done it with 100gr if I actually followed the pattern. I've just found the other hats to all be a bit small and I wanted a manly hat.

Another of the Snowball beanies, but in higher contrast yarns. Again, I added 8 stitches. This is the same plum yarn as the previous "crochet look" hat. 

And again, I did the decreases a bit different. I actually really like the inside of this hat too. It would be good done in two similar colours for a nice subtle effect. This hat weighed 106gr.  Total, 228gr. 

I started another one but ran out of yarn so I'll have to re-work it. Also working on a child ribbed hat.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 228gr + 485gr = 713gr

Balance:  713gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

New Charity Hats, LK150 and Handknit

 I'm on a roll with the LK150 now! The group I'm donating to has a February deadline for adult hats, so I'm getting these done. They can also be wool which is awesome. The baby items can't be wool though, and they do collect those all year.

This adult hat was made with Georga Wool "Mercerized" that I'm pretty sure I bought at Wal-Mart a long time ago. It used 122gr, a little more than one ball. Annoying. Now I know not to do a doubled brim on other hats using this yarn.

I did do the doubling up decreases several times until I was down to around 12 stitches.

Makes a nice, smooshy fabric.  Pattern is the same Anna Haferman one from the last post (on YouTube).

Now this little hat. Ugh.

I didn't think I'd have enough of the pink to do the whole hat, but I have some left over. The pink is a chenille that was not liking the needles I was using. It has no stretch or recovery. But it is soft and used only 20gr. 

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 122gr + 20gr + 363gr =  485gr

Balance:  485gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

 

Nice! Not even half way into January and I've used a pound of yarn!

Adult Hats on the LK150 for Charity

 While I was looking for headband patterns (see the last post), I found Anna Haferman's YouTube channel. She has all kinds of videos for items you can make on the LK150. It's a great machine if you like to work with DK or light worsted, or knit for charity. I decided to knit up some hats to kick off the year. 

I can't remember which came first. I did start this hat, thinking I was being smart by making the inside of the brim in black. Well, because the "wrong" side is the public side in this hat, I had used the black on what would become the outside of the brim. So instead of ripping it out, I went with it, and did a different tuck pattern.

It's in a wool I got 10+ years ago from Wal-Mart. It said it's a "mercerized" wool, which is not a word normally used with wool--it's used with cotton. Once washed up, it was quite soft. 

This is the inside. Often, this is used as the "public" side. This hat weighs 109grams.

This hat is the "Snowball Hat". It's very similar to the pattern above.

I do the top a bit different. I don't like to just double up and then take it off. I double up, move most stitches over to fill the gaps, knit two rows, repeat. I also tighten the tension to help take up the slack.  This one is in Patons "Decor" which is 25% wool. The colours aren't as contrasting as they looked in the balls. It has a mock ribbing hem.  It weighs 80gr.

This hat is from Ray Knitivity, however, he doesn't have it on his website anymore. I've knit it before and struggled with the sizing. This one is snug on me. It's unknown worsted yarn.  The pattern called for 10 rows of real ribbing, by reforming Every Other Needle.  For some reason, I decided to do 20 rows. Ugh. I was wedged in between my machine and a fridge, I couldn't focus properly, I had to sit on short folding step. It took forever. Don't do this. Do 2x2 rib or a mock rib or keep it at 10 rows.

The top has decreases that are done creatively, but you have to understand the pattern/chart.

I actually really liked the inside of the hat. However, the inside where the decreases are, is not very pretty. Also, I would have to seam it differently.

The tuck pattern, while not difficult, can really challenge you, especially with a heavier worsted weight. You have to push stitches back, and other ones forward, and just have to be careful that the needles are doing what they're supposed to.

However, something went wrong with seaming. I'm not sure if it's the pattern, or what. Like, maybe I lost a stitch on the edge? I could have taken in more on the seam but then the seam would be bulky, and it barely fit me!  It weighs 77gr. 

This is the crochet look beanie. I started with one ball of Decor, but it wasn't enough. I had another one that I really couldn't tell if it was the same dye lot or not. So I unraveled to the brim, and then did 2 rows of each.

The head has no hair, so it fits a little weird.

I tried to get fancy with the top decreases. Not really worth it! 

Up close, you can't really see any differences.

Step back a bit and there does seem to be a bit of heathering. And of course, I have about 12gr of each ball left. They do look different side by side now. This hat took 97gr--that double brim takes up a lot of yarn!! 

I have quite a bit of Decor left, though much is part balls that don't work together. I also have some thicker Red Heart wool but I don't think the LK150 will like it. I might need to get the KnitSmart out! 

All together, the hats weigh 363gr.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 363gr

Balance:  363gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

Twisted Headbands!

 My youngest got a new winter coat, a lovely teal Carhartt jacket featuring motifs by an American Indigenous artist. She made a comment about wanting a wide headband with a twist in the front. Momma to the rescue! 

I found a teal yarn (I think it's a washable wool from Wal-Mart, like 15 years ago). Of course, I can't do just plain. Megan didn't seem to want a headband that exactly matched her jacket as well.  I was going to machine knit this, so why not do some patterning? I only had the Singer 327 set up and the teal yarn was going to at the absolute upper limit, so I was also testing some cone yarns. However, the 327 did not want to play. At all. I tried a couple different cast ons, but it was in a bad mood and quickly, so was I. 

I walked away with a snarled mess still on the needles. I speculated it was the sponge bar--it had been awhile since I've used it.

I got out the Singer LK150. It's been in its box, I guess since I got the Singer 155.  I just scrolled back to see when I got the 155...February 2011! I haven't had the LK150 out since then?! Actually, in that post, I have the 155 and 150 on one table. Where was the 327? I don't know, but by using the LK150 tags, I found a post from August 2017 that described having some serious issues with the LK 150. This event had been wiped from my memory!

Immediately, the LK150 was unhappy. Needles were jamming, caps were coming off and jamming in the carriage or flying across the table. I couldn't find the tools. I bent one needle in the middle, so I tried taking an end needle out to switch...and along with the needle came goo. Icky, sticky goo.  My husband pulled on it and pulled out a few inches of disintegrated sponge bar. This did not help.

I wanted to use the basic four stitch tuck pattern in the instruction book, in two colours. I cast on 25-25 stitches, based on Anna Haferman's video. I was thinking tuck makes things wider but shorter, but I couldn't remember for sure. Having 50 sts meant one extra at each side for seaming (the 4 stitch tuck needed 48 sts). 

It was really rough going. I got tired from standing on the concrete floor, wedged up between the spare fridge and the knitting machine. I couldn't find the right focal distance when needing to fix mess ups. At some point, I lost the right edge stitch but I couldn't find a dropped stitch anywhere. I did eventually find the right tools, including the 3-1 needle selector. At 160 rows, as per the video, I cast off and gave it a good stretch.

It looked short, and it was. I put it back on the machine, at the right end. I thought maybe those needles would work better. After two rows, I took it off and put it all the way to the left, where at least some of the sponge strip remained, though it was no better than in the middle. I added another 28 rows or so, but I think next time I'd do a total of 192 for our small heads. 

I sewed it up, steamed it and presented it. Her comment "I thought you were going to do it all one colour?"

I had done at least one plain row after the cast on, I think partially by accident and also because I thought it would help. The instructions say the sewing together doesn't show, so I thought the plain row wouldn't show either. Perhaps because it's stretched out, it does. 

This headband used 79gr and just for funsies, I weighed the yarn tails after sewing together, and they were 3gr, so I'm calling this 82gr!

Megan is much taller than me and this wide width is fine for her, but I saw so many of these headbands done on the plastic circular knitting machines that looked really wide. They have fixed needles though, so only by changing the yarn do you get size changes, and you can't vary the yarn too much or it looks too thin or is too hard to knit.

I order a new sponge bar on Amazon. That was interesting. There were only two or three options, with the quickest being almost a week wait and with shipping costs. Then I added a bottle of Singer sewing machine oil, and suddenly I could get it the next day, and free shipping. I do have Prime, so the original shipping costs were surprising. While waiting for it, I took out all the needles and got to cleaning it. So much dust and yuck. We couldn't find anything to really get down into the needle channel (not just the large slot, but the actual groove), so finally I took it to the shower and gave it a good blast. The needles I soaked in some water, rubbing alcohol and a drop of dish soap.

The sponge bar and oil arrived...in a large box! It took awhile to get all the needles back in. I'd get in a groove but then one would be difficult. Mine are "white" and light grey caps, but only the little disc on top, and the difference between them is negligible....until you insert them. Originally I tried to put them in different jars when I took them out, but I kept mixing up which jar was which. Next time, write it down on the jar. I gave the two piles of needles a few drops of the oil in the latch area, but I didn't do them individually.

At work, we did Secret Santa. We had a sheet to fill out with our favourite drinks, snacks, smells, what we love but don't buy, what we can't live without and something we collect. For collecting, I put Diet Coke in cans (I put it for all the categories LOL), and yarn. I received a gift bag from my Secret Santa, and there was this gorgeous skein of yarn. They obviously knew me (some of the teachers are new, and many are part time. There's some I don't even see) because it's a great match for my bright pink coat! It's 100% acrylic, so I was stumped on what to make. Not mittens, but I could do more hand warmers. I didn't really need a scarf or hat, though they are both options. Maybe I'll make a cowl with the leftover.

I really hate Blogger's formatting. In the last post, I had copied a section from a previous post and it messed up the rest of the post. Here, I had written that paragraph above earlier on, but decided to move it down by copy and paste. Blogger wants it to be centered, even though I keep asking for it to be left aligned. It won't align this paragraph to the left either, even though it's showing it's left aligned. 

The picture on the label shows wide striping, but doesn't say how stitches that is over. It also shows greens, but my skein was definitely more turquoise. I decided I would do two row stripes, using each end of the skein. I cast on 20-20 and started with T4. I wanted it a bit narrower than Megan's. I realized it was too tight of tension though, so starting at row 57, I loosened the tension by one click every two rows. I kept it at 6* until row 104 and then started tightening the tension every two rows by one click. Because the two ends gets sewn together, they had to match. I knit to row 161, which was done with T9 and then a loop through loop cast off.

Quick grocery store selfie to send to Megan.

The sewing up is really interesting. I had thought, before seeing the tutorials, that there must be a keyhole. No! Watch the end of that Anna Haferman's video to see how it's done.

You can clearly see the looser tension in the middle section.

Here again you can see how the tension gets looser towards the left. I have issues with hats and headbands not laying right because of my glasses. I try to cover my forehead, but then it's weird on my glasses. Try to cover my ears, and the headband goes up high and doesn't cover my forehead. The way this headband twists at the centre front makes it even more narrow, so I guess the extra width they usually have, is needed. Or, don't wear it when it's freeze-your-forehead-skin cold.

The part knitted at 6* has a tension of about 5st/inch and 5.75 rows/inch. I think for general use, I'd do 5* or 6. The 6* does have nice drape but is verging on too loose. It used 67gr and I have 62 gr left. Do I make fingerless gloves? What's the latest tea on wearing matching items? Or should I make a hat to donate? How big of hat can I make? Some quick math reveals I have 124.26yds left. A quick Google search shows that'll be enough for a baby hat. Really, I thought there was more left in the skein! 

Yarn In:  141 grams

Yarn Out: 2466gr + 82gr + 66gr = 2636gr

Balance:  2495gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

And that's a wrap on 2025 (and Blogger changed the font!).