Four Cornered Round Hat: Graduation edition

Graduation is next week, at least in my neck of the woods!

If one starts with the idea of the Four Cornered Round Hat of the previous post, it wouldn't be too hard to knit up a mortarboard style hat for graduation. Well, if you're in a school with this particular traditional, anyway. The hard part would be finding the yarn in the right color. Somehow I've not seen the Sugar'n Cream in black although it is available.

Here is a plan for such a hat which will utilize the reverse direction plan:

This would probably take 3-4 skeins of yarn rather than just 2.

Cast on 100 stitches for a 22" head. Join taking care not to twist the cast-on. Knit a few rows straight for 1-1.5" then start decreasing to fit the crown. Place markers every 25 stitches and decrease at the markers every other row until only 14 are left on each side.

It is likely one will need to add a few short rows to the corners to help the circle to square transition. Try: K2, switch direction, S1, K3, switch direction, S1, K to the next marker for each corner. Rather hard to say. Increase on the next row and continue increasing following the instructions for the hat top.

The mortarboard portion needs to go out to about 12". For the gauge, this is when each side reaches 61 stitches but measure to be sure. Purl a row then knit 3 rows and purl another.

The top will eventually need something to hold it stiff. Now is the easiest time to put it in, but that might not fit on the needles still. A bit of coat hanger or some cardboard would be the obvious cheap stiffeners. A lot of starch at the end might do it too. Decrease as instructed for the bottom of the hat but continue until there are 3 stitches on each side. Decrease once more on each side. If needed to fill the middle, knit one more row. Pull the yarn through the live loops at the end.

Four Cornered Round Hat: reverse direction

As I said in the previous post, I realized I knitted the hat in the reverse of the easiest direction. Well, I suspect I did. Here is the plan to reverse the pattern:

Start off by casting on 100 stitches (change in multiples of 8 if needed) of CA. Join the round and knit rows until there is enough solid for the edge. Knit 1/2 row more and start the swirl pattern by starting CC. Continue in the swirl until there are enough straight stitches. Place markers every 25 stitches to mark the sides. When ready, start increasing as instructed for the top of the hat until there are 45 stitches to a side. Purl a row, then knit a few rows and purl another row. Knit the top decreasing as instructed for the bottom. When there are 12 stitches, only decrease once per side. Knit another row if needed to fill in the center and pull the yarn through the live stitches to finish. Weave in the ends.

Knitting into the bottom YO without a twist might not look too bad.

Four Cornered Round Hat

This silly beret style hat is inspired by the knitting technique used for the dizzy dishcloth to knit a square in the round. The colors spiral outward from the center, but this time the yarn overs are knit twisted so there are no holes and it is done in stockinette instead of garter. Twisting the stitch does tighten up the increase rows, so one less row in the middle is needed. The square created this way was not quite as flat, but still fairly flat. When I was searching for a bind off technique I liked, it occurred to me that it would have been easier to knit from the brim instead of the top.

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream. About 1 skein each of sage green (solids) and landscape (stripes) colorways or pick your own colors.
Needles: #6 (4mm) 29" circular needle.
Also needs a tapestry needle at the very end.

Gauge: 20 stitches per 4", but not particularly important.

Abbreviations: K = knit, P = purl, YO = yarn over, K2tg = knit 2 together, SSK = slip 2 (as if to purl), pass them back and knit them together. CA = solid color, CC = contrasting (stripes) color, PM = place marker. The YO are always knitted with a twist: Krt = knit with a right twist, Klt = knit with a left twist.

Pattern:
This is done generally as a magic loop on the circular needle. Cast on 4 stitches of CA then 4 more of CC. This cast on will be unraveled at the end. With CC on the cable, K2 of CC into CA, PM, K2, PM. Move the CC cast on to the needle and the stitches just done to the cable, K2 of CA into CC taking care not to leave a twist. PM, K2. The markers now mark the corners of the hat and a "side" is the space between markers.


Row 2: With CA, K1, YO, K1. Slip the markers as you come to them. K1, YO, K1. With CC, K1, YO, K1, K1, YO, K1.

Row 3: With CC, K1, Krt, K1, K1, Krt, K1 . With CA, K1, Krt, K1, K1, Krt, K1. The twist direction is not actually important on this row. For the right twist, you just knit into the back of the YO.

Row 4 and all even rows on the top of the hat: With CA, K1, YO, K until 1 stitch is left before the marker, YO, K1. Repeat for a second side. With CC, repeat for the last 2 sides.

Row 5 and all odd rows on the top of the hat: With CC, K1, Krt, K until 2 stitches are left before the marker, Klt, K1. Repeat for a second side. With CA, repeat for the last 2 sides.

Continue until finishing the odd row with 45 stitches. This finishes the top of the hat which should be about 9"x9".

Side row 1: P 2 sides with CA. P 2 sides with CC. Continue to carry the markers along.

Row 2-7: K 2 sides with the color on hand. Switch colors at the halfway point and K 2 more sides.

Row 8: P 2 sides with CC. P 2 sides with CA. This finishes the side.

Bottom row 1 and all odd rows while decreasing: With CA K1, K2tog, K until 2 stitches are left before the marker, SSK, K1. Repeat for a 2nd side. Repeat with CC for 2 more sides.

Row 2 and all even rows: With CC, K 2 sides. With CA K the 2 remaining sides.

Decrease until there are 25 stitches remaining on each side to fit a head about 22". K an additional 8 rows continuing to change colors at the middle point. Cut CC and K 8 more rows in CA.

Use a stretchy bind off. The second one on this page fits the character of the hat well but needs to be modified for the round. K1, then pass it back to the left needle. K1 into the same stitch. Now *K1, pass 2 stitches back, K2tog*. Repeat between the asterics until all the stitches are used. Cut the yarn and pull the last stitch through. Thread it around the 2nd stitch knitted in the bind off and back through where it had been. This makes the bind off a continuous loop.

At the top, undo the cast on and one row to leave 4 live loops of each color. Thread the ends through these loops and pull it somewhat tight. Weave in all the ends.


Tip: Eventually the work is large enough to knit in the round normally, but do not stop the magic loop working before its time. If the work is stretched on the needle when knitting in the round, it's not really big enough for that yet.

dizzy dishcloth

There's probably far too many of them and yet you still have to start with a washcloth sometime. Oh, what a boring start.

I have all sorts of terrycloth washcloths I got from the dollar store for doing dishes. They hold soap great and wipe up the spills wonderfully, but they do not scrub well at all. I came upon a site claiming that a bit of seed stitch in a thick cotton yarn is the best scrubber for dish washing. I have a couple based on that, but I personally feel that garter works better. This cloth is not only in garter, but the way I use it, the stitches always seem to be in the correct direction for scrubbing the dishes.

(Another dizzy dishcloth in violet and white.)

Inspired by: Reverse Miter Dishcloth

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream. About 1/3 skein each of bright blue and sunshine colorways or pick your own colors.
Needles: I've done it on #3 (3.25mm) double pointed needles or a #6 (4mm) 29" circular needle with much the same effect.
Also needs a tapestry needle at the very end.

Gauge: 20 stitches per 4", but not particularly important. In garter stitch, 2 rows take up just about the same length as 1 stitch.

Abbreviations: K = knit, P = purl, YO = yarn over, KC = knit color, PC = purl color.

Pattern:
Provisional cast on 4 stitches of each color. One way to do this is a figure 8 cast on, which should be done tightly on a thin piece of waste yarn since the stitches will only be knit into once. Another way would be a cable cast on. This requires knitting an extra row and some fixing of the first loop after pulling it out to get the live stitches.

Choose one color to knit (KC) and the other to purl (or knit backwards as I do, PC). Distribute the cast on over 4 dpn with 2 stitches each. If using a circular needle instead, the corners where the dpn would have met will eventually need ring markers that loop around the needle and are slipped when come to. It is easiest to avoid tension problems if the ends never catch up to each other, but this can't be done on a circular.

Row 1: Knit KC into the cast on of PC. Join it into a round by purling PC into the cast on of KC, taking care not to twist.

Row2: With KC, K1, YO, K1 on each of two sides. With PC, P1, YO, P1 on the remaining two sides.

Row 3 and all odd rows: With KC, knit each of two sides. With PC, purl each of the remaining two sides.

Row 4 and all even rows: With KC, K1, YO, knit until there is one stitch left on the side, YO, K1 over two sides. With PC, P1, YO, purl until there is one stitch left on the side, YO, P1 for the remaining two sides.

The colors change with each row at the halfway point leading to a swirl pattern and no apparent jog points. Continue knitting until the square is large enough, casting off on an odd row. For an 8" cloth, this should be when the work is 41 stitches on each side. On the last cast off stitch, cut the yarn leaving a few inches, pull the end out of the loop, around the first loop with a tapestry needle and back through the previous loops as it had been before pulling out. Weave in the ends.

At the center of the cloth, run the end of the yarn through the 8 loops a few times and weave in the ends.

Knitting an 8" square of garter stitch on 7" dpn: This can be done even though the garter tends to push out to its entire width. The stitches just need held scrunched up since they won't stay that way by themselves. I managed this with a piece of wire wrapped around each needle I was not using and was able to control the yarn on the needle I was knitting on enough to need no extra help. End caps for the needles could be used if this is not the case.

The plan...

This is a place to put down my knitting ideas. I seem to be incapable of following a pattern very well, so I will undoubtedly write them quite badly too. Also I haven't been knitting for anywhere near long enough to have an appropriate repertoire of techniques, and I'm self taught off the net so those I do have I know wrong.

When I decide I want to do a project, I usually look through all sorts of patterns thinking "not quite right..." and after taking in all of those, do my own thing. Sometimes I feel inspired to do something entirely without looking and that's when things get crazy. This is where I shall put it all down. It's not that they're any good, just that they're mine.