The brothers three...

Over the last month or so I've been busy with another order.  This time it was hats for three brothers to match the Buchanan tartan.  Similar to the first one, but a tartan with a lot more color.  So I began...

I added a few rows to show the narrow bands of black and white in the tartan (Buchanan #151 on www.house-of-tartan.scotland.net)  This is, of course, an interpretation since this relatively narrow band can't duplicate an entire tartan pattern.  Lots of fun to do though, and I had the opportunity to make three of them!

As I was finishing them up, it was fun to see how they felted.  It only took 13 minutes of sloshing around to get them to the proper size.  Then the sewing up... Called the customer, one of the brothers three, and he was delighted with them.

He even posed for a couple of pictures:

Then I got the rest of the story behind these hats.  This brother has had some significant health issues and is doing this batch of hats for a "bucket list" adventure with his brothers.  They are going out to Oregon for some kind of a fishing trip together and this is one of the gifts that he dreamed up to give to his brothers.  I'm grateful and humbled to be part of such an adventure.  I hope they find happiness and joy in their time together!  He did promise to bring back pictures of the whole clan wearing their hats... I'll share them when they arrive!

Finished one and started another...

Here's the finished shots of the navy blue tam that I finished on Friday.  It worked out well, a little different from the first one, partly because it is all one color and partly because the single color band felted far differently than the multicolored band of the one I did for George.  Evidently the second layer of wool in the Fair Isle dice pattern makes for a more rapid and firmer felted band on the finished hat.  I'll keep that in mind in case I ever do another one in a solid color.  Felting certainly is full of surprises and isn't an exact science!

The next one I've started is for another order - this time three matching tams for a group of three brothers.  This set matches the Buchanan tartan #151 (if you want to look up tartans, here is a great site to do it: http://houseoftartan.co.uk/house/tfinder.htm)  Could not find a way to cut and paste the image of the tartan, but it is a lot of fun to look up family tartans on that site.


Tam to match Buchanan tartan #151

Here's a shot of the work in progress: 
This is one of the most complex tartans I've ever seen.  Not only is it asymmetrical, it has more colors than any other tartan I've found.  There may be others - but I did the best I could to match it.  Missing the blue in the original, but this was getting pretty busy with color already.  Vertical lines are tough in this kind of knitting, I think duplicate stitch would be the only way, and I'm not sure how the extra layer of yarn would behave in the felting process, so I'm not taking any chances.  That is an experiment for another time - when I don't have a tight deadline to meet!

I'm up to the point where I knit even for 20 rounds or so, which forms the outside edge of the turned edge before the tam begins to flatten out across the top and the decreasing rounds.  These are a lot of fun to do, even with all the surprises that happen in the felting process.

Onward and upward...

You'll never believe this...

The knitted hat before felting

Well, here it is.  All knitted up but not felted yet.  It bears an odd resemblance to a large woolen bag.  Sure doesn't look like a good Scottish tam.  At least, not yet.

The knitting went fast and really was a relaxing, easy knit.  The increases and decreases were no big deal, since the stitches don't show up in the finished felt.  No worrying about precise, straight lines and matching everything up.  In fact, the decreases were not lined up in the pattern on purpose - isn't that amazing!

The colors are wonderful together - bright and brilliant and yet it looks right at home with the kilt colors.  It should be a lovely hat to add to George's Renaissance Faire outfit.

Anyway, this thing is HUGE!  Really hoping that it will felt down to something that will fit a human head, since it sure doesn't do that right now:



George is in there somewhere



So, George comes over to get this wooly bag fitted to his melon.  Just for fun, took a shot of him wearing it before it went into the hot wash with the jeans.  Backed him up against the laundry room door and snapped this one:

Into the suds it went, for ten minutes to start.  Amazing how much faster the felting process goes when the object is bigger.  Maybe because it is more fabric for the jeans to agitate against, or maybe there is some other reason, but after fifteen minutes of sloshing it was about done.  Squeeze out the water and smooth it out a little so it doesn't drench him to try it on.  He sees it and gets pretty excited.

It finally looks like a hat, no longer the wooly bag that it was just a few minutes before.  Still some finishing work to do when it dries, but now it looks like this:

Amazing.... it seems like magic every time I do this kind of knitting.  Looks like George is pretty happy too.

Next up: Kilt hose.  Going to cast on later today.  Much bigger project since they work up at 8 stitches per inch.  They'll match the colors of the hat, but will be much lighter in weight.  Still worked in wool, since it is traditional and wears better than synthetics or cotton.

Off to bed for now...

Swatching for the Tam...

Swatch for tam before felting

Ahh, the joys of felting... I think I'm one of those oddballs that actually enjoy the swatching process.  I've done up the swatch in Firecracker Heather Wool of the Andes Worsted from Knit Picks (find it at: http://www.knitpicks.com/ ).

Before felting this swatch measures 6" wide by 6 1/2" high across the full swatch.  Just the stockinette portion measures 4 3/4" wide by 5 1/2" high and is 19 stitches by 28 rows.

The tam is an historically correct version from Piecework magazine (love that historical knitting!) and will be paired with a set of kilt hose done in intarsia.  I dyed the yarn for the yellow in the Wallace tartan since it wasn't available in both of the yarn types I was using and I wanted the pieces to match as much as possible.  The kilt hose will be done in a lightweight two ply yarn called Palette (also from Knit Picks).  Here are the shots of the yarn with the magazine photo so you'll have some idea of what I'm talking about.


Yarns and photo of kilt hose

Here are the kilt hose, very interesting pattern.  These are knitted flat and seamed, that will certainly make the intarsia easier, but I'm thinking that I'd be supremely irritated by a seam on the foot of my sock, so I'm going to modify the pattern to do the foot in the round so that there will be no seam to irritate the foot.  The tartan is Wallace, red, black and bright yellow although the photo doesn't show it well.  The yellow yarn is hand dyed by me in Brilliant Yellow acid dye from Dharma Trading Co.  It is a great way to get the colors I want for this project.  Fun to do too!

Then there is the photo of the tam along with the yarn, tartan and photo from Piecework - interestingly enough these both came from the same issue of the magazine, how cool is that?

Yarns and photo for tam

So, next thing is to go and felt the swatch and to re-measure and adjust the pattern for size.  Then I can start on the actual tam, I haven't done felting like this in years and I really enjoyed it in the past.  Did a pair of slippers as a gift for my brother years ago - styled like chukka boots, the two eyelet ankle high style.  Remember those?  The felted "fabric" turned out so thick and soft - the knitted stitches became nearly indistinguishable.  I have also located a neat felted pattern for slippers for myself.  It uses both a superwash and a feltable wool... more on that later since it is quite a way down the knitting queue.



Works in progress - Part Two

Here's another episode... Bought this lovely kit from Knit Picks (http://www.knitpicks.com/) since I wanted to try out entrelac.  I just checked and the kit isn't available any more but here is the link for the Andean Silk yarn (http://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Andean_Silk_Yarn__D5420126.html).  I've decided that I just love the hat, but I'm not as crazy about the long cuffed mitts.  I also changed one of the colors to suit me better, I swapped out the bright red for a blue.  The color starts at the ribbing in Sangria, then the first entrelac triangles and first round of blocks in Merlin, then Hyacinth for two rounds of blocks, then Imperial for two rounds of blocks and then back to Sangria for the decreasing sized blocks at the top of the crown. It will be a big slouchy beret which should be nice and warm.  Update: I found the pattern on Ravelry here's the link http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/yvette-entrelac-beret--mitts

To answer the obvious question, no, I don't actually knit this way - I just strung the hat onto a cable so I could shoot the picture.  I do confess to having a wonderful time using my ebony double pointed needles from Germany on this project.  I never really thought of ebony as a good choice for knitting since it is so brittle, but it is a delight to knit with! Smooth, but not slippery, holds this silk and alpaca blended yarn just right for the way I knit.

Entrelac is a neat concept that I'm really looking forward to using for some design work. It is an illusion of a diagonal weave and technical enough to keep me interested.  Stockinette is nice, but boring, and I do keep some plain stockinette projects on the needles for when I knit somewhere I can't devote my full attention.

As for this project, I'll finish the hat and probably do a scarf in entrelac to finish up the set. I question whether I'll do mittens to match since I think the alpaca wouldn't hold up as well as wool for the hard wear that mittens or gloves get compared to a hat.