Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Hats off to Me!
Well, it's about time. I have had the darnest time getting my knitting to turn out correctly. I have ripped out so many things in the last few weeks, I am beginning to wonder if I am better at that than the actual knitting itself. So I am ticked pink, blue, black, white, yellow, and green to say...I finally got something to turn out and get done!! It only took three tries, but it's done, done, done!

This was my first attempt. After sitting proudly and admiring my handy work, I found a whole series of errors. I forgot to do one YO in the pattern from the beginning of the pattern row. So all of the other sections looked good except for one. So I frogged it and started it all over. I did not knit a swatch, because I was using 4 dpns and figured that it would okay. It looked too small to me and so when I started on version #2 I upped my needle size to 5s. Then I started looking at it and it was huge. The hat was so huge, my 23 yr. old son tried it on for me. Of course I was not permitted to take a picture. But take my word for it; it was huge!

I really liked the way it looked and decided that since it's too big for the nephew, I would just donate it. I still had about 1 1/3 balls left. So I worked on version #3 and got it correct. I did go back to the 4s and they were a much better choice. The hat, thankfully, is too small for the #2 son. I know he will be relieved that he doesn't have to try on another dorky little kid's hat again. He'll get over it!!

This is what I was trying to make. It will fit a two or three year old, I think. This is the book I got the hat pattern from. And now the REAL results! Here are the efforts up close... Truly, I did not understand how just one needle size would make something so much larger than what I expected. Okay, I hear all of you out there saying, "Daffy girl the key word is GAUGE!"

Lesson learned....



8 comments:

jane knitter said...

o-o-o-h I love it. Darn, another book I have to buy!!
Love the new blog look!
romelda

Tracy Batchelder said...

It's so cute! I'll remember the picture of the two hats together the next time I want skip over checking the gauge. It's amazing what a difference one needle size can make.

vlb5757 said...

Ro-it's the yarn that makes it so cute. It's self stripping so I didn't have to do much work. The hat was for beginners, but I still struggled through it. I thought I was over the beginner stuff, but guess not when you don't check the GAUGE! lol!

WW-I hate doing swatches and if I had done one maybe this wouldn't have happened three times. So I have learned my lesson and will do a swatch next time to check for gauge. I do love the yarn that I used and how the two hats turned out, but what a lesson!

Anonymous said...

But thanks to gauge you have 2 lovely hats, not just one! : )
(I hate gauge too, swatches Lie!)

Tina T-P said...

What a cool hat that will be for some young'n - the self striping yarn is pretty neat - certainly takes the guess work out of it.

So I have a question - What the heck does "frogging" mean? I've been reading more "knitter" blogs, and everyone is always frogging something or the other.... T.

P.S. Got my drum carder!!! It is a Louet and I think it is going to be really a fun tool to have!

vlb5757 said...

Frogging is a knitter's term for ripping out. They use another term called "tinking" Which is backwards for the work kniting. The opposite of knit is rip. The frogging is like "rib it, rib it" or "rip it rip it". They were pretty strange terms to me when I first started reading blogs too.

I lust for a drum carder. I can't afford one right now, but hopefully some day I will. Be sure to write about it so I can drool!

Anonymous said...

Just found your request . . Megan has a bunch of names but not one she would recommend for me..so I guess they are not good enough for you either! I say try Calico Corner or Guys in downtown Norfolk. They are big and must do a ggod job for someone!!

vlb5757 said...

Thanks for getting back to me. I just needed a place to start. I have never had anything recovered before and am a bit nervous about how much it will cost! I will let you know how it goes.