Zig-Zag Spring Hat Pattern

Here is my pattern, finally! It's ridiculously easy!  I saw a beret by Debbie Stoller (Stitch Nation) in Vogue Knitting.  I changed it by doing the first section as a k2tog instead of an ssk, but that's the only difference I made.  Unless you increase your stitches off the loom, or make wedges, it is difficult to make a beret, so it is just a toque. Sorry if I'm not very accurate; I really like to be flexible with patterns and therefore, I don't have any row numbers for hats. You can adjust if you want it to be a beanie (which is shorter).

41 or 40 peg loom (Knifty Knitter/ Michaels/ Wal-Mart brand does just fine)

Some people still have the 41-peg knifty knitter looms, but this pattern works best on any multiple of 4 (so you can also do it on a 36 peg loom).  For the 41 peg loom, the last peg should be purled.


Yarn size and gauge don't really matter, but I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn and doubled it up.  You just need a fairly thick yarn (5 and up, or doubling up yarns) for the 41-peg loom. I broke the pattern down into 4 parts.

Stitches you need to know:

Knit (k) - normal stockinette stitch. Do not use e-wrap (twisted stockinette) stitch

Purl (p) - if you do not know how to do this stitch, please see this past post of Youtube compilations

Knit 2 together (k2tog) - In the pattern, for the first repeat of the ladder slanting to the right, your first k2tog occurs on peg 4.  To do this, take the loop off of peg 3, and then put it on top of peg 4. Yarn over peg 3 and knit together as 1 on peg 4.

Slip slip knit (ssk) - ssk - slip slip knit. This is weird in loom knitting because you don't have to do anything (whereas you have to slip the two stitches off the left needle, but I digress).  To make a ladder slant to the left, you take the loop off peg 3, and put it above the loop on peg 2, which will now have 2 stitches.  Knit those together as 1, and yarn over peg 3.

Yarn over (yo) - this is mentioned in combination with the k2tog and ssk. You do a yo before a k2tog. Basically bring the working yarn in front of the empty peg (because you moved the stitch to the next stitch for a k2tog) very loosely.  Do not e-wrap. You do a yarn over after the ssk has occu


PATTERN:

CO: 
Use whatever you like. I love the cable cast on for hats, because it looks like a thin line from afar and is stretchy. A long-tail cast on is a bit thick, but it also works nicely and is elastic.

Rib stitch
Row 1: *p2, k2
repeat row 1 until 1" is knitted

Ladder slant to the right
Row 1: *p1, k1, yo, k2tog, repeat *
Row 2: *p1, k3, repeat *
Repeat row 1 and 2 until you have knitted 4" for a beanie, or 4 1/2" for a regular hat

Ladder slant to the left
Row 1: *p1, ssk, yo, k1, repeat *
Row 2: *p1, k3, repeat *
Repeat row 1 and 2 until you have knitted 6" for a beanie (or even less, if you like them really short), or 6 1/2" for a regular hat

Decrease
Because the second half of the hat uses ssk I did a decrease using ssk instead of k2tog.  I didn't touch the purl stitches and only decreased on the knit stitches trying to maintain the pattern of the hat. After doing the amount wanted, bind off and weave in ends.

If you are having trouble, please read more.

Stitch guide open AND Lace hat preview - patterns coming soon

WOO! I started the basic stitch guide (look for it as a link on your right!) The first page I did talks about the difference between the two knit stitches loomers use; the twisted stockinette and stockinette (normal).  Yeah, I know people know, but I just wanted to reiterate the stuff that's already been said.  It takes a bit of time for me to write these things and take pictures, so I don't know how long it'll take me to do the other ones.

Also...

I have 2 lace knitting patterns I will post! I debated the second hat, because it's so pretty...and I forgot how I did the pattern. I still don't remember one row, so I will be posting that one second!

Anyway, these 2 patterns will be coming your way soon, loom knitters! I knitted them both on the 41-peg loom, but they are easily able to be done (and more symmetrical) on the 40-peg looms. Apparently no one is able to fit into anything I make on a 36-peg loom unless you want your ears smashed, or have the hat zooming off your head.

Zig-zag Spring hat

I don't know why, but this is such a simple hat, and this pattern really gets to me. I really love it for its simplicity, and I hope you love it too!

Intricate lace hat
I am bad at names, maybe I should start posting pictures on my twitter and asking people what I should name these things.  This name is deceptive because it's a ridiculously easy hat to knit.

Lace tip - getting your yarn overs to look like regular knitting

So I've been experimenting with lace lately. Well, no, not lately. I started knitting with needles and crocheting too, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  I tried to mention in my last post about getting really nice yarn overs.  So here I have a sample of knitting that has a regular yarn over that one would get with needle knitting, and the e-wrap yarn over commonly done in loom knitting.  There isn't much of a difference, but I think the e-wrap yarn over looks a little more messy (the knot is at the side, whereas a normal yarn over creates a nice twist) and is slightly smaller when you are making eyelets.

There are reasons why I do my yarn overs that are initially e-wrap instead of just laying the yarn in front of the peg. For one, they are loose and easy to knit, whereas just laying the yarn in front of the peg may become too tight. Even if you leave space and do it loosely, the more you knit, the more you pull on the working yarn, so it's easier to just leave it as an e-wrap and unravel it later on.  This method provides the cleanest looking eyelets, and it doesn't take long at all! If you want your loom knitting to look like needle knitting, this is it.

I hope this tip helps!  Proceed onto the pictures for your perusal.

Lace tips..coming soon... with pics

I know I have non-English people reading my site (Hiya!) so I will post some pictures soon.

I've really been experimenting with lace. I've also found some quick tips that I may be able to post over Easter weekend.

Firstly, when you're making eyelets, whether you're doing ssk (decrease to left) or k2tog (decrease to right), and then doing your yarn overs (yo) for lace, the yo is an e-wrap.  When they tell you to knit over the peg that you e-wrapped the row before, you should unravel the e-wrap and knit it over like a flat stockinette stitch, I've noticed that if you don't do this, your eyelets don't look like they're knitted together.

Lace Saturday

With the emergence of Spring I've switched to practicing lace knits. This is one of the latest ones I've tried. Unfortunately I couldn't find my biggest loom so I could only practice one column.



People said the patten was easy on ravelry. I honestly thought it was confusing because the pdf was messy, and went back and forth. The underlined words made it hard to read. Can you guess I'm not good at chem labs? I would be the equivalent of Ron in potions class. I persevered though as you see.

Check out the link and try it yourself. Tell me how it goes!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wavy-feather-lace-stole-loom-knit

Lace again

I've been practicing some lace patterns because of the unusually warm march weather.



I really hate the cast on I did for this lace sample. I like how it is scalloped but I really dislike the loose loops. I haven't figured out which cast on I like for lace yet.  Anyway, this design is actually Isela Phelp's fern lace pattern, so view the full post to see the video on how to do it.  If you try it, make sure to tell me how yours worked out! I used a Knifty Knitter, so it wouldn't look as good as a loom with a smaller gauge.

Spring is near... Or here already!

It was so warm earlier this week, I could open my windows without fearing a cold! It felt like spring, although spring has less to do with temperature and more to do with the equinox... although it is technically "spring" if you're a climatologist (I watch the weather channel too much, but I digress)

So I started knitting a lace scarf. It's been busy so I haven't had time to think of a design, so I used a free lion yarn pattern again. It's quite easy, you just need to know k2tog and yo.

I made a few mistakes I didn't catch too far into knitting that I couldn't frog it, so I kept on going. The times when I could catch them, I messed up going backwards to fix it. I'm not used to the e-wrap because the twisted stockinette is a stitch I quite despise.

My greatest mistake was slipping the stitch at the ends when turning. I realized this too late, but I won't make the mistake again! I love the nice braid that comes with slipping a stitch but the garter stitch needs to be done on both ends to prevent curling. It's a lace pattern so the curling isn't as noticeable. I still haven't weaved in the ends yet, but it is nearly 1 am.