Copper Bowl

Thought today would be a good day to go back and post some more photos of the copper bowl my husband made.

We've been fighting a stomach bug...Me, Doodlebug and Mighty.  So Papa has been the "nurse".   I think he's pretty glad I'm feeling better!!!!
Love this bowl....he comes home and says "I made something for you today..." then pulls this out....

 It started as a flat piece of copper....this is all formed by hand using metal shaping hammers and the english wheel.

I've used it quite a bit in my jewelry photos.  The piece of slate underneath is an old shingle....love that too!  Saved by my Brother-in-law for me.  And my Dad just called today to ask if I'd be interested in some old spice tins...YES!  Just saw an idea for using those to store pencils on the fridge by magnetizing them....look for photos soon...

Crochet trim

Final "detail" to the hat... The little crochet trim....this is just a chain attached to the edge of the hat.  I start with a slip knot...

Put your crochet needle into the slip knot

 Then into the hat....I start at the back seam.

Then this can be however you want it.  I chain 4 and then count over 4 stitches (knit) and go back into the hat.  You can chain more than 4 to make the loops bigger.  But go into the hat every 4 stitches (--you have 56 knit stitches)

Keep chaining and going into every 4th knit stitch....

 Until you end up where you started.....tuck all your knots through the hat so they're inside.

I'm looking forward to some more jewelry making next week!  A new style mother's necklace for a friend of  mine....photos to come soon.  And hoping for some nice weather soon.  I' m itching to paint something.....

Finishing up the hat

So once you've completed all the decreasing rows you should end up with just 7 stitches on your needle.

Next you're going to snip your yarn leaving about 20" or so.  You'll use this to sew through the "live" 7 stitches on the knitting needle and stitch the sides of the hat together.

I have this nice long plastic needle I use.  You can buy them short too.

thread your 20" tail into your needle and you're going to run it through the 7 live stitches on the knitting needle.  See how my plastic needle is pointing the same direction as the knitting needle???  If you do it the other direction the live stitches will come undone....You're doing this to bring it around into a small circle at the top for the crown.

Pull the plastic needle all the way through to the right and then pull the knitting needle out.

Next you use the plastic needle to stitch the sides together.  The idea is to do this so that you can't see it.  So with the right side facing out overlap your sides.  If you sew right down the middle of the little "V"s that you get when you knit your sewing stitch won't show....

 This is what you're going for...check as you go that you're keeping it lined up at the bottom.

Next I'll show you how I added that little crochet trim.....It's a fun little detail to make it a little more girly.  At this point the hat is done and could really be finished if you want!  I also used my yarn to sew a flower on the first one I made.  I'm thinking I might do something different on these...haven't decided yet!

Part 3 of knitting our hat

Here's our hat again...just to keep you focused!  At this point you should have 26 rows of knit 2 purl 2 on 6mm needles with super bulky yarn.
So to create the top of the hat you have to start decreasing your stitches.  In other words-- knitting stitches together to make it get narrower, and eventually you want to end up with only 7 stitches on the needle.

On your pattern it would read like this...*K2tog, p2; rep from * to end 42 sts.
Translation Knit 2 together, Purl 2 repeat from the beginning of the row to the end.  You should have 42 stitches when you're done.
This is pretty much exactly how it sounds.  Instead of just putting your right hand empty needle into one stitch your going to put it into 2 stitches like this....

From here you do everything the same as regular knit.  Take your yarn around the right hand needle

and pull it through BOTH stitches

Slide the left hand needle out of the 2 original stitches.

Purl the next 2 stitches like you've been doing all along to the end of the row.
So the final rows after doing the above row go like this:
Row 2: *K2 tog, p1;rep from * to end (knit 2 together, purl 1 from beginning of row to the end)
Row 3: *K1, p1; rep from* to end (knit 1, purl 1 from beginning of row to end)
Row 4: *K1, p1; rep from * to end
Row 5: *K2 tog; rep from * to end -14 sts. (you should have 14 stitches on your needle now)
Row 6: *K2 tog; rep from * to end-7 sts. (you should have only 7 stitches on your needle)

Photos of Stripe

Here are some photos of adding a different color stripe.  I figured it would be better to just go ahead and add some photos of this as you can really change colors as often as your little heart desires!

 So snip off original color leaving a few inches (tail)....

 I always tie my new yarn on in a knot.  I have small children --translated You never know when you're going to get interrupted!  I like to know it's secure.  You can also just lay the new color with the old and start knitting then go back at the end and weave the tails into the knitting....

 Start back into your knitting with the new color....

 This is an even better photo of the knit/purl difference...you can see the knit stitches appear all cream and the purl stitches look like they have little black scarves around them....

knit or purl

So to make our hat you need to know how to knit and purl and the difference between the two.  So to start with here's our hat again...

 When you knit 2 purl 2 you should get this ribbed pattern....

The stripe is really easy too.  When you get to the end of the 3rd or 4th row, leave a 4" tail and snip off the knitting yarn.  Take your new color yarn and tie it onto the tail of your previous knitting yarn.  I try to get my knot right at the edge.  In the end you'll be "hiding" all your knots.   So in Knitting 101 I showed you how to cast on.  You should have 56 stitches on your size 6mm knitting needle.  The needle with your stitches on it now goes in your left hand.  The empty needle is in your right.  Let's start with knitting...

 The empty right hand needle goes into the first stitch at the bottom and toward the back.  This is how I hold my yarn in my right hand as I knit.  Do whatever feels comfortable.  You want it taut but not so tight it won't slide through your fingers.  The yarn on top of the right pointer finger is going to go up and get wrapped around the empty right hand needle...

 Sorry about the blurriness---I love my photographer but he lost patience with our not-so-great camera!!! I like to pull that yarn down in between the needles before I try to pull it through the stitch on the left needle.

 You then use that right hand needle to pull the yarn down and through the stitch from the left needle.  This is why you need to make your cast on stitches not so tight!  It's much more difficult if you're a tight knitter.

 Once the right hand needle is all the way pulled through and free of the stitch your going to pull the left needle out of the original stitch that was on it.  (There is a better picture of this step in the purling instructions)...below is when you've successfully transfered the new knitted stitch to the right hand needle.  For our pattern you would repeat all of that for the next stitch as well.  So then you should have two knit stitches on your right hand needle.

On to purling!  The difference is how you insert your needle and where the yarn is...

First you take that yarn that's resting on your right hand pointer finger and bring it in between your needles to the front of your knitting.

Now you're taking the right hand needle but your inserting it from the right hand side of the stitch like this...

 wrap the yarn from your pointer finger around the right hand needle...

 Use the right hand needle to pull that yarn back and to the right

 until you are free of the left stitch...

 The picture above is a good picture of pulling the left hand needle out of the stitch --you can tell just by looking at the left needle it's ready to come out of the original stitch....and the picture below is making the final transfer of the new stitch onto the right hand needle.  You repeat these purl steps again so now you should have 2 knit stitches and 2 purl stitches on your right hand needle.

When you get ready to switch back to knitting you'll have to take the yarn (in your right hand) that your knitting with and bring it back between the two needles so it's in the back-- BEFORE you knit your stiches.  Remember how you brought it forward to purl???  Same thing only you're taking it back.

Below is a small sample of what knit 2 purl 2 should look like.  The two stitches on the far right are knit 2 the next two stitches are purl 2...

 If you look closely at how they sit on the needle--the knit stitches look like little men straddling the needle.  You get the columns of little "V"s going up and down.  The purl stitches look like they have little "nooses" around their necks....or little horizontal bumps.   The first row is really difficult to see.  Once you get several rows it will be alot easier to tell which is which.

For our hat pattern you want to knit 2 purl 2 for 26 rows.  And you are going to knit the knit stitches ALWAYS and purl the purl stitches ALWAYS!!!!  So when you finish a row use your little row counter or make some slash marks on a piece of paper.  Swap your right hand needle to the left hand and the empty needle back to your right.  Then knit the knits and purl the purls!!!!

Tomorrow I'll show you how to decrease at the top of the hat...it's not nearly as hard as it sounds....Happy knitting!!!!

Knitting 101

I'd always wanted to know how to knit.  How hard could it be?!??!  So I bought a book last year and taught myself.  If you are a knitter don't be offended....I'm sure I'm doing certain things "wrong"!!!  But if you want to learn I think this hat is a great place to start.  I like the ribs because it lays flat and your wrong side looks the same as the right side.  This is a great pattern to use for scarves too for that same reason.

You may notice I've added a simple chain crochet trim --I'll show you how I did that later too.  The first thing you need to know is your needle size and yarn weight.  My advice---start with large needles (8.5 mm) and bulky or super bulky yarn.  It's so much easier to see what you are doing and follow the directions in photos and books.  This hat is made with super bulky yarn using 6mm needles.

So let's start with casting on...this is the method I prefer.  I think it's called the double cast-on.

Start with a slip knot

You'll want to make the not about 4 feet or so into the length of the yarn.  You'll be using the "tail" as you cast on.  If it's too short...guess what you have to do???  Yep..start over.  So take my advice and leave extra :)  Next you put your needle into the slipknot.  I'm right handed so if you're not you'll have to flip the instructions.  I'm also using the 8.5 mm needles for these photos so you can see better.

 The tail (short string) is around and across the thumb.  The ball of yarn string is around your pointer finger and down through your hands.  Your ring finger and pinky finger are holding BOTH pieces of yarn.  You 're going to take the right hand needle down and under the thumb string keeping your slip knot on the right needle.

 Now that same right hand needle is headed up to the yarn on the pointer finger.  You want the needle to go UP over that string and pull it down...

 Under the thumb yarn you originally went through.  Make sure that the yarn wrapped around your thumb stays BEHIND the right hand needle---it's OK to pull your thumb out I promise!

 I then use that thumb to help pull the stitch tight and it also puts you back into the original position to keep casting on stitches.  As you pull the right hand needle up you'll see that original triangular position of the two pieces of yarn.  One behind your pointer finger and the other behind your thumb.

 You want to be careful how tight you make your cast on stitches.  You have to be able to get your needle in once it's time to start knitting.

For the hat shown above you will need to cast on 56 stitches using 6mm needles.  Next we'll be alternating knit 2 purl 2.  On the pattern it would say *K2,  p2; rep from * to end.  This just means that you are going to knit 2 stitches then purl 2 stitches from the beginning (or *) to the end.  Tomorrow I'll post my knit and purl photos.