Tutorial: Double brim beanies

Double brim beanies are lovely! Until I discovered them, I felt like all of the brims on beanies needed to be made up of ribbing. With double brims, though, you can use any stitch you want without the ends curling up, and they create a nice thick fabric so they stay snug even without being ribbed. 

To begin a double brim beanie, decide on your stitch pattern, how many sts you’ll need and how long you want the brim to be.

Cast on in the round using a circular needle and a provisional cast on, mark the first st of the CO with a removable marker, and work the brim until it’s as long as you’d like it to be. Then work a row of purl sts. These are are optional, but they help keep the bottom edge of the brim neat. Work the same number of rows as you did before the purl row.

Place the a quarter of the sts of the provisional cast on to a spare DPN. Remove the stitch marker and any waste yarn used for the provisional cast on from these sts.

Fold the brim along the row of purl sts so the sts on the DPN are on the inside of the round, behind the live sts. Line them up so the first stitch on the DPN is behind the first st of the round.

You will now knit the first stitches on both needles together.


Step 1. Insert the right needle of your circular needles into the first stitch on the front needle, then into the first stitch on the DPN.

Step 2. Wrap the yarn around the right needle as if to knit.

Step 3. Pull the yarn forward through both stitches.

Step 4. Drop the first stitch off both left hand needles. You have completed one stitch.

Repeat steps 1-4 for the remaining pairs of stitches.

Place the next batch of stitches of the provisional cast on onto the DPN, and repeat the process. Continue until all stitches have been knit together. Before knitting the last few sts closed, make sure the tail of your CO is tucked into the inside of the double brim - no need to weave it in to your work.

And you’re done! Now knit the body of the hat however you like, and you’ll have a beautiful snug double brim beanie.

Expanded Rib scarf

After getting a bit obsessed with their Cotton and Petite Wool, I bought a couple of balls of We Are Knitter's Wool to see what it was like. I was a bit hesitant to try it at first since I'd never worked with yarn that was so chunky before, but I decided to give it a go anyway.

I knew I wanted to try something textured but it can be difficult to do with super bulky yarn can since the thicker yarn gets, the less stitch definition you get. After trying a few different combinations of knits and purls, I finally hit on this stitch that I'm calling "Expanded Rib". It's ridiculously simple but it results in a really nice variation on seed stitch that looks completely different and equally lovely from both sides.

The scarf itself is the definition of cosy. I can see what all the fuss is about this yarn now - it's so soft and warm, and there isn't an itch in sight. You can use any super chunky or jumbo yarn that knits up to the right gauge though!

     

Anatomy of a Sweater Pattern: Inspiration

Welcome to a new series on how I write patterns! I'm going to go through the steps that I took to write a sweater pattern. This is Part 1: Inspiration.

Something I didn't anticipate about New York that I probably should've: the winters are cold. So cold. So I've been getting a lot of use out of the Talula pullover I finished just after we moved here:

It's the first jumper I've made, and I love it. But there are only so many times I can wear it in a week without it becoming conspicuous, so I decided I needed a new one. Enter the Necessity Jumper.

I came up with the name for a couple of reasons. First off, I made it out of necessity because, well, I'm cold. Secondly, the amount of yarn I have in my apartment is reaching breaking point so I really need to use some up. Lastly, some of the design choices were made because I needed to save my sanity and not knit an entire jumper's worth of stockinette.

I made a Necessity Jumper board on Pinterest with all of the images I used for inspiration. But if you'd like more of an explanation, read on!

2016 in review

So friends, another year's over, and while 2016 was a bit gloomy I actually had a blast. It was so full of adventure and achievement, because after years and years of scheming, I finally got this little creative venture of mine off the ground!

Here are the knitting-related things I'm most proud of:

• I opened my Etsy shop.
• I published my first knitting pattern.
• I pivoted my Instagram account to focus on my knitting.
• Patterns published: 7
• Items sold on Etsy: 20
• Finished items that other people have made from my patterns (that I know of): 8
• Number of people I taught how to knit: 22

Diagonal Stripe Scarf

I love cables, but have been wanting to play with creating texture and patterns with simple knit and purl stitches for a while. After making a bunch of Seed Stitch Scarves I figured giving a different textured scarf a shot would be fun. As it turns out, diagonal ribbing is fairly straightforward but looks amazing. The yarn is nice and chunky and warm so it's a pretty quick knit, and if you can't decide between the regular and infinity version, well, why not try both? ;)

  

The Basketseed Cowl

I have a soft spot for basketweave. When my mother realised that someone had taught me how to knit, she took pity on me and taught me how to purl. After I tried it for a while I realised that the knit and the purl sides of my knitting looked different, and I figured out how to do a somewhat modified basketweave stitch for myself. The first pattern I ever designed was a basketweave scarf.

Unfortunately the edges tend to curl up, but I've been wanting to try a chunky knit cowl pattern recently and knitting in the round seemed like the perfect solution to the problem of the edges curling. I've been playing with seed stitch a lot too recently and couldn't resist throwing some in, so the Basketseed cowl was born!

 

Click through for the pattern, or if you're pressed for time you can buy the finished product on Etsy!

Blanket capers

A long time ago, I stumbled across a crazy baby blanket pattern called OpArt on Knitty. The pattern was fairly hypnotic, and I wanted to make one but really didn't have an excuse to. Fast forward to mid 2012, and when one of my best friends found out that he and his wife were having a baby boy, I knew exactly what I wanted to make as a present for him!