More yarn has been added to my stash. I do have patterns in mind for it, but of course buying is quicker than knitting.
After I finished knitting the latest Warm Up sweater, I knew I wanted to have another. The Warm Up is an easy pattern and is perfect for worsted weight yarn. I have a particular affinity for yarn that comes from a place I love.
Peace Fleece yarn now comes pre-washed and it is squishy and soft. I used three colors to knit my Warm Up #2. The red tones were something new for me. Usually I stick to more earthy and neutral colors.
I saw this yarn in person when I visited Harrisville Designs during a trip back to New Hampshire. I knew I wanted to knit more sweaters using it.
Harrisville Designs is a yarn company located in an old mill in Harrisville, New Hampshire. I lived near enough to shop there, but at the time I knew nothing about this place. I wasn’t much of a knitter back then. I couldn’t wait to stop in when I was back in the area for a visit. But I need to buy the yarn online so I don’t get to see the colors in person.
I don’t remember what happened, but as soon as I saw the Siberian Midnight colorway, I wanted it. The yarn is black with white specks throughout. I believed it would knit up into a pretty pullover.
Of course the yarn, in the Siberian Midnight colorway, was hard to find. It seemed to be sold out everywhere. Then I found it for sale at Firefly Fibers and bought enough for a new sweater project. They also had some Daylights yarn for sale, and I bought enough of that for a different sweater. I chose the colorway Chirp. I’m thinking I will try to knit a cable sweater with the lighter color.
Peace Fleece – worsted and Daylights -DK
I now have two new sweater patterns in my queue. I just need to find a cable pattern I think I can handle.
How to make a tassel for a knitted hat. Finding a way to attach the tassel to a lined hat with no underside access.
Making a tassel is not difficult, and I was looking forward to making the one for my Doublemassa. But there was a problem. How is a tassel added to this type of knitting project?
I have now assembled the tassel (and it’s far from perfect looking). But, my big problem is how to add it to this hat. Ordinarily, when finishing up a hat, you have an underneath, or wrong side, where the yarns are pulled through and tied off under the crown. The Doublemassa is knit in a way that the underneath can’t be accessed. It is completely closed up. The pattern is no help.
Tassel Making Video
It was hard to envision tassel making in the Hat’s On book where the Doublemassa pattern is found. This video on YouTube was very helpful. However, I still must figure out how to add the tassel to my finished hat.
One of the Doublemassa knitters mentioned opening up the top of the hat and making a big knot to tuck through. Then, she closed up the top again. I ended up doing this, but a little differently.
My Tassel
I wrapped both yarn colors 60 times around a six inch cardboard. I tied two strands of yarn around the top and then braided the 4 strands. I wish I’d used more strands for this.
Next I wrapped the blue yarn around the tassel.
Wrapping yarnMaking braidWrapping the tasselTassel finished
I do not have a bodkin (Amazon paid link), which is a special flat “needle” which is used by the woman in the video. My larger sized embroidery needle worked fine. This is used to wrap the tassel and tuck the yarn down inside.
After my washed hat was dried, I noticed that two stitches at the very top were loose and not bound off! Somehow they did not unravel (wool is so awesome). It left a small opening.
Two loose stitches!Attached
Adding the tassel was a challenge, but I simply did as one of the other knitters mentioned. I made a big knot and pushed it through the top. My dropped stitches mistake turned out to be the thing that saved me. Then I used the two yarns, one blue and one off-white, to close up the top tightly. I wove the ends down through the hat and cut the yarn.
A Better Way to Attach The Tassel
Now that I have done it, I feel lucky that it worked out. And I know that there is a better way to achieve this. The pattern simply says make a tassel and attach it – which is very unhelpful.
My advice is this: When knitting the last rounds of the crown, do NOT close up the top of the hat. Leave a tail and tuck one tail down inside the hat. Put the open stitches onto plastic holders, or waste yarn, for washing.
Make the tassel and wash the hat.
Once the hat is washed and dried, open the top and tuck the knotted end of the tassel braid down into the hat. Use the remaining yarn tail to close up the top.
Alternatives
A few of the Doublemassa hat knitters decided to begin knitting the hat with the colorwork. By using a provisional cast on, the lining of the hat could be knit last. This would do away with the need to begin the hat with a tiny disappearing loop cast on, and magic loop knitting.
It also makes adding the tassel easier. Then, the tassel would be washed along with the hat. I’m not sure how that would work. It could take a while for a tassel to dry.
Have you knit this hat, or one like it? Do you have ideas about adding the tassel?
An update on my latest hat knitting project. This one is a very long hat called the Doublemassa.
The dark blue yarn skein is just about finished up. This morning was quite chilly for a March morning in Florida. I was bundled up in my newest Warm Up sweater, hat and mitts while I checked on the garden and filled the bird feeders. I decided to show my progress on the Doublemassa hat.
As you can see this is a very long hat! It looks huge, and I am hoping it will fit properly.
The colorwork designs are pretty cool, and I just finished up the birds rows. When looking at this hat finished, on Ravelry, the brim will fold up to either the birds or the hearts (which I have not even begun yet)!
Here is how the hat will fold: From the top of those snowflakes down, everything is tucked up inside. Then the snowflake brim part will be folded out and up. The snowflakes will cover most of those two colorwork sections above the snowflakes. This creates 4 layers of fabric at the brim. I’m not good at visualizing this and can’t wait to actually do it. (See my finished Doublemassa hat.)
Even though this hat is already quite long, I have many rows of colorwork left to knit. It’s been a very fun pattern, as I love doing Fair Isle. The Rauma yarn is quite awesome as well.
As I knit more, I will be attaching a new skein of blue, and will probably need more of the natural color eventually.
If you have knit the Musselburgh hat, the Doublemassa hat style is very similar. It is more involved because of all the colorwork, but begins at one end and makes a tube to the other end. The Musselburgh can be worn inside out, as if it were two hats, but this one is worn on one side only. It will have a tassel too!
Learning new things keeps the brain engaged and vitalized. Knitting can involve lots of learning opportunities. I suspect that this hobby is greatly helping my brain health.
My family has a recent history of dementia. For this reason, I especially pay attention to my brain’s health. In the beginning of my knitting journey, I didn’t know I’d encounter a continuous learning curve. What a wonderful surprise!
Staying healthy while aging can be a job all in itself. Becoming stagnant, and doing only what is familiar, can be detrimental to health. Illness, aches and pains can certainly sideline many to the armchair in front of the television. (Hey, I do watch TV a lot, but I’m knitting while I watch. And, I sit after I do my gardening, blogging and working. A little bit of lazy is okay. At my age, I have earned it.)
Health and Hobbies
Genes play a big part in our mind health. Some of us are simply born to be inquisitive and adventurous. Others prefer to be alone and sedentary. Studies have shown that, in general, we need to keep our brains active. Keep those synapses firing and making good connections for the thought process. I knit because I enjoy it, but I am always thinking that it is also good for my brain health.
How I Began Knitting
The knitting bug bit me when I lived in New Hampshire. With long, boring winters, and so many farms and creative people everywhere, how could I not begin to knit?
My projects consisted of weird scarves full of practice stitches, and funny looking hats. But it was all fun, and I was hooked on trying all the stitches. I took knitting lessons from an older woman in the back room of her farmhouse. She taught me to knit simple hats. This was in 2006.
Now, I still enjoy knitting hats, but I have branched out and learned how to knit colorwork and cables.
Then, I moved on to knitting sweaters. This meant learning a bunch of new things about necklines, cuffs, sleeves, and yokes. The variety really interests me.
Blueberry Vodka LemonadeRandom colorwork pullover
If you are a knitter, or want to be, the field is full of opportunities to expand knowledge. After a few years of constant knitting, I still have difficulty with certain stitches. I can ignore these challenges for now. Alternatively, I can try them whenever I feel ready for a challenge.
On my short list for learning is: Brioche and Steeking
Knitting in a Hot Climate
Now I live in Florida, and I am not too happy about it, but I make the best of it. Just because it is mostly sweltering, and ungodly humid, I have not stopped knitting. In fact, I knit all the time … with wool! I love wool. Yarn shops around here don’t even sell wool, I don’t think. Go figure!
Almost every project you read about on this blog happened in the last few years while I lived in Florida. I had given up the idea of knitting when I first moved south. Eventually I decided that I needed to continue. I still had a lot to learn – about everything! From yarn types, swatching, pattern reading, chart reading, shopping for yarn, and blogging about this hobby, there is never a dull moment. Oh, and of course, taking time to knit my projects and photograph them. Skittle and Fontana are a big help.
SkittleFontana
Get Off The Wrong Path
I absolutely believe the single largest problem with society is the food we eat. Without the correct fuel (food and drink), we lack initiative and energy. We become lethargic and get sick. We can’t help but decline without goodness going in. On top of that, the medical community insists that we – especially older adults – need medication. They make us believe we can’t make it through our golden years without it!
I began paying close attention to these things when my mother, at the age of 66 was diagnosed with Alzheimers. My sister recently died after having another form of dementia, and she is younger than I am. I simply refuse to let my brain break down. These things are not random.
Have Hobbies, Plural
I totally appreciate the time I have for myself. My hobbies are important to me and they keep me going. They do not cost me a lot of money, which is good because I don’t have much. I knit and I garden. I also enjoy cooking healthy food, and studying about herbal medicines.
Hobby definition: An activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.
I raised children for over 40 years. My kids were widely spaced in age and I put them first (as good parents do) for many years. I now work from home and no longer get up to an alarm clock. Having leisure time for myself is wonderful. I can sleep in if I want to. Every day I appreciate that I made it to this time in my life, just so I can relax.
It was a very tough journey. I’m certainly not living the wonderful retired life I envisioned and worked for. But, I am able to do things now that I never had time for. I am at peace, and daily enjoy the little good things.
Besides knitting, I have become interested in growing my own food. I have a blog that has been turned into a “Gardening in Florida” site. I write mostly to remind myself of what I’ve grown and how it’s going. Growing vegetables in Zone 9B (East central Florida) is very different from growing in Zone 5B (southern New Hampshire) . I have a lot to learn about gardening – once again.
My small backyard garden space – Winter 2024
Blogging is a great hobby too. I’ve had to learn technology for my online business, and that has been a good thing! Besides working online, I run three blogs and regularly update them all. When we go boating, I update that blog with pictures from the water. After a camping trip, I write about that.
The point is, keep going. Don’t give up. Always question the way the world is working. Find something to do that makes you happy, but don’t stop there. Most of all, keep your brain thinking and in good working order. We can’t do anything without it.
