Knitting With Granny LJ

Good morning.

Had a great week last week.  The weather has been almost balmy — and is balmy, compared to what is happing in Des Moines (where my eldest son and his family live) and New York City (where my second son and his wife live).  We have had sun shine, not much wind, and tides that are so low, it feels like you could walk to China.  As a result, Karen and I have been getting Parker and Red out for very long wonderful walks. 

I have been knitting my fingers to the quick, though, after the walks.  Karen and I found out that we are juried into a show in March.  This one is in Yachats, at the Commons, and it is over 40 years old.  The organizers have taken trouble to keep the show pretty exclusive.  We sent out the application on a kind of a dare without much hope of getting in to it.  We got notification last week that we are in it.  What a morale boost.

Enough news.  I was recently asked how I make a cap with eyelash yarn.  I do them as inside-out (IO) caps because of the peculiar way I knit.   The IO caps started out as a bit of an accident.  I was working a varigated brown Splash yarn with a coordinating brown Galway.  I had tried to do a cap out of only the Splash and it was pretty floppy and not very good for beach walking.  So with this cap I put it with the sturdier yarn and was knitting away.  Because of the goofy way I knit (I’m self taught, remember?) all the Splash yarn was on the inside of the cap. 

Needless to say, I was pretty grumpy because I thought I would  have to pull all the fibers of the Splash back through to the outside of the cap with a crochet hook.  I had done that on a couple of earlier caps and pretty much resented the time it took to get all those fibers back to the outside.  Well, the brown Splash and Galway cap got  topped.  I put it in the basket of “to be finished” work, and went to work on a new cap. 

When I finally got to doing the finish work, I grabbed up the brown Galway and Splash cap and turned it inside-out  to start working in the ends.  And I had one of those “No DUH!”  moments.  I did not have to pull all the ends of the Splash through.  I just had to finish the cap as if the inside were the outside.  And the 7-point top-off really worked well inside out.  And thus the Inside-Out cap was born.

If you are interested in doing a cap with an eyelash yarn, I would suggest that you do a simple watch cap alternating 2 rows of the eyelash with 2 rows of the base yarn.  The two rows of the base yarn give the cap a sturdiness that the eyelash lacks and the eyelash essentially covers the 2 rows of the base yarn. 

When the cap is knit and topped, do the finish work  on whichever side of the cap has the most eyelash yarn showing. 

I have also found that  making a chemo cap this way is better, too.  When I started chemo caps, I was just making them out of the Chinchilla, a Berroco yarn.   This method  gave them a floppy, almost too soft feel.  Once I discovered the IO cap method, I started using a base yarn for chemo caps, too.  And I am more satisfied with the outcome of the chemo caps with this method, too. 

Try it. I am sure you will like it. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

I have recently been asked about making a watch cap.  They are very easy caps to make.  When I first started knitting caps, I was so excited about the possibilities of caps and color and design, that I really quit making watch caps.   I had made one out of Lamb’s Pride (Brown Sheep Company) for my son, Ian, several years ago when he was still in Bend.  But I did it in the same dimensions as I did the women’s caps in.  It was too small and he ended up giving it away.  After he moved to Nashville, I did another with the same result — it was too small and he  gave it away.  (I always have been somewhat of a slow learner.)

Then I got a commission to do 5 guy caps for a gift shop in Yachats.  I thought about the two I had done for Ian and decided that I needed more stitches.  I put the cap on 100 stitches and made the ribbing and  the body appropriately deeper. 

So how does one make a watch cap (which I also call a guy cap)? 

I use circular needles size 6. I use the smaller needle because the smaller the stitch the less wind blows through the stitches.  So  my directions will be based on size 6 circular needles.

A Watch Cap aka Guy Cap.

The yarn can be any good wool or wool blend yarn, about 200 yards. I like both the Lamb’s Pride and Galway for doing watch caps.  The Lamb’s Pride is a wool and mohair blend and feels good against the skin.  The Galway is a 100% wool with the scratch taken out.  The yarns feel different in the skein — the mohair makes the wool feel a little more soft, but both make up into great guy caps.

So you have your needles, size 6 circular — many knitters like working caps on a 16 inch circular needle.  I prefer 20 inch needles.  I tried the 16 and everything was so crunched together that I really could not figure out what I was doing.  So I have 20 inch needles. 

Cast on 100 stitches with 1 extra so you can knit the first cast on stitch and the last one together, making a unified circle.

Next comes the ribbing.  I do a K2, P2 ribbing instead of the more usual K1, P1 ribbing.  Why?  I like it better.  Whatever ribbing works for you, use it.  The ribbing should be about 2 inches deep.

Then knit the body.  And that is easy because you knit around and around and around.  It is a great project to carry along, because once you start the body you  knit and that is all.  Do 6 to 7 inches of the  body.  Depth, of course, depends on if you are making a general sort of a watch cap or one for a specific head. If you are working for a specific head, take measurements of the head and adjust the cap body  to the head.

Once the body is done, I do a 7-point top off.   Count the stitches and divide by 7.  You may need to add or decrease a few stitches to get a number that can be divided by 7.  As noted in earlier blogs I do the 7-point top off because I like it, but there are literally dozens of potential top offs.  Be sure to switch to double pointed needles for the  top off, though.

When the top off is done, it is time for finish work.  Get all the loose ends worked in.  A yarn bobble at the top of the cap is optional.  I do not like the bobbles so don’t put them on any of my caps.  If you like them, do one and attach it to the top. 

Well, that is all there is to a watch cap/guy cap.  It is good as a beginner’s project or something for an experienced knitter to take along when traveling or for a change of pace. 

Hope you have a great day.  Good knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

I spent yesterday working on a new guy cap.  It is a simple watch cap.  I enjoy doing them when I have other things on my mind.  Which right now I do.

I started the second skein of the Noro yarn for the contest cap. The first skein finished in a lovely, soft blue-green water color.  The second one started with brown.  And — I must admit, I was not paying much attention to what I was doing.   And — the place where the new yarn started is quite not very pretty.  I counted the rows this morning and I have about 6 to tink.

When I realized what I had done, I put the contest cap on the table and started the  guy cap.  I don’t do as many guy caps as I could but they are so easy. 

Guy Cap pattern:

1.   Using #6 circular  needles and the yarn of choice:  I am using a yarn from Cascade, 100% wool, in a rusty brown and black combination.

2.   Cast on 101 stitches and join the first and last stich on each end of the needles and K2tog.

3.   Do ribbing.  I  use a K2/P2 ribbing for the guy caps and I usually do about 4 inches of ribbing. 

4.   After the ribbing is done, I do a row of plain knitting and increase every 4th stitch. 

5.   Then the rest is easy.  Just knit around and around and around.  I can see why some knitters find doing a guy cap kind of boring, but to me it is like sitting beside the surf on a sunny day.  Very soothing. 

6.   Knit the body until you have the desired depth and then top the cap off.  Again, I use a 7-point top off, but any top off that you want is OK.

I don’t sell many guy caps, but I have had a man come looking for a guy cap often enough that I try to have some of them on hand.  And, again, it is a soothing change from tinking and counting stitches. 

I hope you all have a good day today.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning. 

I spent yesterday at a little holiday show/market that the manager of the senior center has started on Saturdays.  Like any beginning thing it is pretty slow to start up.  We only had five vendors. But we had a good turn out for the second time it was held.  One of the other vendors took a count and we had about 100 people come through and look and some of the vendors had sales, as well.

I enjoy doing markets because you can never tell who is going to walk by your space and stop to look and talk.  Toward the end of the day, a mother with 3 kids came in. She  had two girls who looked to be elementary school age.  And she also had a little boy who was all search and shout.  At one point, while the girls were shopping at the sweatshirt space, this little guy galloped over to my table.  I said “Hi” to him and he retreated immediately to his mother’s side and grabbed her hand.  She finished  getting the shirts for the daughters and, by then, the little guy had  almost overcome his worry about me.  He was first to my table as the mother and her daughters walked around and looked at the tables. 

Some years ago, I experimented with making watch caps that were ribbing from the bottom of the cap to the top-off.  There were largely a flop in the cap market.  One negative thing is that if you do ribbing on double point needles  the yarn pattern  wanders off to the left as you work.  Ribbing should be done on straight needles, if you are going to do all ribbing.  Also I  tried to make them out of one pop of yarn  (with some of the speciality yarns — there is no where near a skein of yarn — so I have started calling them pops of yarn) to try to conserve on initial cost outlay. I made two or three of them and they turned out too small for an adult head.  Actually, they turned out to be the right size for a very small kid’s head. 

Well, this kid trotted up to my table and got an instant and severe  case of the shys.  I said something to him and he immediately was looking for his mother’s hand again. I asked his mother if he had gotten a sweatshirt too.  She said, “No, he has too many clothes as it is.”  I grabbed up the earth toned mini-watch cap and walked around the table.   I said that I thought the cap would be just right for his head.  All  this time he was stone still and gripping his mother’s hand.  I asked him if he would like to try the cap on.   He nodded, but it was the sort of  response  you get when offering a kid  a choice between cooked cabbage and cooked carrots for lunch.  So I gave the cap to his mother and she put it on him.  It was a perfect fit.  He was still standing at my space like a statue.  I said to mother, “It is perfect for him.  I’ll let you have it for him for $15.”  I knocked the price down a little bit.   She said OK and handed me the money.  Then she took the kids and left the show.  I hope he enjoys that cap.  When they left,  though, his mother was carrying it.  

That was a bit of brightness in a pretty long day of doing not much at all, though I always do take  a knitting project to a show.  That way I can get something done between between waiting on customers and potential customers can see me actually making something that will go into a show down the line.

The weather continues perfect and I think it is time for me to go on a bit of a beach walk.

Granny LJ

Good morning.

We had a storm blow through this week.  It might have been two or three storms back to back.  Sometimes it is a little hard to tell. This morning though we woke up to sunshine and no rain.    Walked on the beach with my neighbor and her dogs, Red and Parker.  There was enough of a breeze that I was glad that I had worn one of  the caps that wandered out of inventory onto my head last spring. 

A man met us on the beach as we were heading north and he was going south.  He had on a  baseball cap and had his shoulders hunched up to try to keep the breeze off his ears.  With a brashness that has come with passing the age of 65, I told him that his ears would be a lot warmer if he went to Shorebirds down town and got himself a watch cap.  He laughed and said that he thought it was a good idea.  Then my neighbor and I and the boys, Parker and Red, headed over the billow of wet sand to get to the trail up  the hill. 

As I walked on the beach and home, I kept trying to decide what I wanted to work on.  My project table is filled with projects started, half complete, ready for top off or just having been cast on.  But a few weeks ago, I got an idea for a sunshine cap with a white body and a yellow top with the yellow starting about midcap and working up from single stitch of yellow that gradually grew wider until the whole top was yellow.  I rummaged my stash and found several yellows  that would work.  One was a silk yarn that is very thin but is the mother of all yellows.  Then I found two almost identical yellows  by Plymouth and Lamb’s Pride. Finally I found a gold Chinchilla.  My stash, it seems, does not run high to yellow yarns.

I put all four yarns by the skein of white  base yarn  in a place near my work chair so that I could look at them all with the white before I made my decision.   After the walk on the beach today, I have decided on the Chinchilla gold because that was what every thing on the beach looked like this morning — golden. 

Well, I have to go cast on that cap.  And enjoy the sunshine on the leaves and grass and the shore pine needles. 

Granny LJ