Skeinspotting

Going Green .....

I am getting more and more green these days and I'm not talking about the environment. I seem to be draw towards green shades of yarn and clothes and pull away from red and purple which are actually my favourite shades and the ones that suit me best to wear. See this beret competed in one evening whilst watching the film Hard Candy (which I do not recommend by the way due to it's drawn out obvious plot and annoying characters for whom we are encouraged to have zero sympathy).

I know I know, I should be working on other more urgent projects. However, I often get bogged down 7 days a week with knitting for my bread and butter as well as a lot of admin and IT (all knitting related). So I sometimes give myself an evening off in which I can swatch, experiment and take notes for further projects or I am allowed to start a project that is a weekend quickie. I have never made a beret before, always going for the chullah or the beanie and not sure if berets even suit me.

I took this Rowan country and just started a beret on 9mm needles without a clear idea of how I was going to organise the pattern. So, I just cast on those stitches and expanded at even intervals until I felt it was at it's optimum bagginess, then knitted
straight for a bit and then decreased in a circular manner
and voila the beret. Rowan country by the way has a wonderful selection of variegated shades and seems to be the replacement for Biggy Print.

I am quite happy with it although I still feel silly wearing something like this at a jaunty angle! It looks good on the poly head though.

I dried it flat around a circular place mat and in the morning it had taken on a beret shape. If I did it again though, I would change the way I increased. Increases are a difficult one, I would rather my increases don't spiral so I use the M1 bar increase and evened them up around a point but this can also have the effect of being a bit too squared off if paired like this and only 4 sets of 8. But, in a large gauge knit, if I were to add more to 'hex' or 'oct' them I would end up with a far too baggy top........ mmmm it needs a rethink. I think I might do a version with a peak on as well. This will be another pattern typed up and available as a pdf when I have time. I think it will be a free one so do contact me if you'd like a copy and it will spur me on to get it written. For the moment though, leisure time is over and it is time to get back to my Anticraft projects (which I love anyway)

To everyone who inquired after my father, thank you, he is doing fine at the moment. he is a very very lucky man having got 3 serious forms of cancer in the past year that are totally unrelated to each other and each one a potential killer. The docs seem to be keeping all 3 at bay at the moment and the last I heard was that they had removed all of the lung cancer. Usually unheard of as most lung cancers are inoperable by the time they are detected. Lucky lucky man, lets hope the other two cancers are kept from advancing as well.