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.
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!
A while ago I decided to make 2021 a year for knitting sweaters. Now we’ve entered 2022 and I am finishing up my projects on the needles.
I’ve seen the Jennifer Steingass patterns around and love many of them. Her Ravelry store is Knit.Love.Wool and her sweaters have colorwork yokes, cuffs, and bottom hems. Many of her designs look to be nature inspired with patterns that resemble leaves, stems, and feathers. The pattern I chose looks like stems of wheat coming down from the neckline.
Sweater Knitting is an Investment
Choosing to knit a sweater means an investment of money as well as time. The sweaters I have knit have generally required around 1200 yards of yarn. Depending on the type of yarn purchased, it can be over $100 in material. Choosing a good quality (non-superwash) yarn is worth it. Wool will hold it’s shape and the sweater won’t stretch like crazy when it’s washed.
I purchased seven skeins of Rauma Finull wool in blue and decided on a hand-spun skein I already had as my contrast color. I had no idea how this variegated yarn would look when combined with the dark blue. So far, I think it’s looking quite good. I did not want a completely opposite yarn color for the contrast. With this yarn I have no control over what colors are coming up on the skein. It’s fun to see the colors emerge.
The Meadow Moon pattern is well-written and very easy to follow. This is big. I’m also knitting another sweater and the directions are difficult. Some designers go the extra mile to help knitters and some don’t. I’m learning to avoid some popular designers who have made me unhappy by not going that extra mile.
After the Fun Colorwork…
The body is a slog… it has taken a while for me to complete. Finally I bound off the ribbing and tried it on. Fit seems perfect. On to knitting the sleeves. At least there will be colorwork at the ends.
Although round and round knitting can be tiresome, it is great for car trips, late night television knitting, and knitting outdoors and soaking up the sun. I like the fabric being created, and would probably knit more sweaters like this one.
Body is done!
The first sleeve is finished. The decreasing was easy and looks nice and I followed the directions for length, which seems to be perfect.
One thing I changed was the bind off. I found the i-cord bind off directions in the pattern to be difficult. I began with it, but it didn’t look good. Possibly, I was doing it wrong. So I did it my way.
My i-cord bind-off resembles the one Stephen West shows in his video here. Except, I only cast on 2 – to the left needle, not 3, which follows my sweater pattern more closely. Then, *knit one, k2tog tbl, slip both stitches back to the left needle. Repeat from the star.
This bind-off takes some time to do, but it does leave a nice rounded edge.
With one sleeve to go I can see the light at the end of the tunnel
Finishing Up My Sweater Knit
None of these photos are great, but here I am wearing the sweater BEFORE washing and blocking. The middle photo is AFTER the wash, and taken in the sun to show the colors of the contrast colorwork. All the bunching of the colorwork became flat once it was washed. Sleeve length is perfect for me.
The sweater is a perfect fit. I would do more short rows because I have a hard time figuring out which is the front / back!
The yarn has created a lovely, lightweight fabric. I think this is one of my favorite knits so far. *Also, it has become the most worn hand-knit sweater I’ve knit so far. It fits perfectly and is very light weight and comfy.
Read about what else I’ve been up to in my knitting world…
I’ve been caught in the trap of yarn buying and now I am overloaded with the stuff! Self control and knitting from my stash has worked while Covid kept my income too low to have much fun. I’m no longer a crazy yarn buyer!
No one ever told me I would have this problem when I began knitting. I would become a crazy yarn buyer.
All knitters probably have the over-buying bug when it comes to yarn. Yarn is pretty….very pretty. The more you realize the options available, you feel like you must try it all. Every skein, ball and hank will eventually be used to knit something … you tell yourself.
Sales Are Deadly
Sales are the absolute worst! Pattern sales are totally worth it, but yarn on sale, that I can’t pass up, will need a place to live in my small house. I’ve bought yarn in bulk even though I wasn’t crazy about the color. It would be cute as a sweater, right? And look at this self-striping yarn for making socks! It doesn’t matter that I had never knit socks, I might one day.
Eventually I created a short list (in my head) of what I like to knit, and which yarns were my favorites. Now, the choices don’t seem so overwhelming. I bypass sales on yarn I never use. There is a lot of “good” yarn out there, so I stick with patterns that would use my favorite types of yarn.
Jamieson & Smith wool skeins of yarn
I’ve come to love colorwork. Hats, mittens, cowls and other little projects that require use of two or more colors have become a favorite. Thin (fingering) wool yarn in smaller skeins are affordable and very useful and pretty for such projects. Jamieson and Smith’s small skeins are so affordable! And all those colors make me drool.
New Hampshire Travels
I’ve been vacationing in New Hampshire and have realized that fingerless mitts would have come in handy here! I could easily take iPhone photos without removing my mittens if I wore a pair of mitts, which I have knit, but didn’t bring. I could wear them for warmth in my chilly rental. So new colorwork mitts are on my to-do knitting list.
Now I buy a lot less yarn. I’ve accumulated bunches and don’t have a lot of space to store it. I guess having a big house could be a downfall for knitters with a lack of self-control and money to spend.
It comes down to being realistic. Knitting takes time. Before I get to that project I once loved, I have come across other patterns I love even more, and yarn needs change. You know what I am saying here. The yarn bought on sale gets pushed to the back of the drawer or bin and new yarn is added.
Left mitt done
Same pattern with different cuffs
Finished the Oulu Mitts before the end of 2020
Last year (Covid year) reduced my income greatly, so yarn buying had to cease. It was the perfect chance to find patterns where I could use up my yarn stash, or at least make a dent.
This is where I pat myself on my back for doing a fairly good job of sticking to my self-imposed no-buying rule! I caved when I needed a comfy and warm sweater for my trip and bought lots of Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter yarn to knit the Cobblestone Cardigan. I’m wearing it during my trip – a lot! So, I’m happy about that. My daughter is modeling the sweater below.
My daughter wearing the Cobblestone Cardigan and Katie’s Kep
If I Wear It, I must Like It
Living in a hot climate means I seldom get the chance to wear what I knit. When I visited a cold place for a few weeks, it was easy to see how much I would wear certain hand knits. The Cobblestone sweater is big and bulky and perfect to wear over anything.
And another item I brought was the neck wrap, which is a crescent shaped shawl. I have used that to keep my neck warm numerous times. Once I was back in Florida, everything was washed and stored away. Sadly, I won’t get much chance to wear those items again.
Sock Yarn Overload
Unfortunately I have lots of sock yarn – washable fingering in merino wool. I bought sock yarn back when I was simply buying yarn because it was pretty! I had no idea what I would use it for.
Now, I want nylon added to wool for knitting socks. I want earthy, rustic wool for warm clothing and colorwork. Sock yarn is often used for shawls, which I really have no use for.
Lime green sock yarn
Hedgehog Fibres “Beach Bunny” sock yarn
Practically Perfect Sock yarn by Emma’s Yarn in two tropical blue colors
Wool yarn from Finland – pretty colors but quite scratchy
Pretty purples
I’ve made progress in my knitting life by whittling down my list of must haves. I no longer randomly buy pretty yarn. I don’t knit to impress others online, or join in when everyone seems to be knitting “it”. If I won’t ever wear it, I won’t knit it. KAL’s were fun at first, but I’d rather knit on my own. And some patterns that go viral don’t interest me.
A lack of income has prevented me from buying this year, but I have a lot of yarn staring at me from the bins!
If you have the Milarrochy Heids hat-knitting pattern book, you have the pattern for the Tettegouche hat. ( It is also sold separately – see the link at the bottom of this post.)
It’s a beautiful book, with lots of pretty hat patterns and they all use Kate Davies Milarrochy Tweed yarn. I bought the yarn in a variety of colors and began this hat a while ago. I didn’t like the way it was coming out. I blamed myself for not being familiar with colorwork, good cast-on’s, or having the right hat gauge. Honestly I didn’t like the yarn. I put it aside.
Finished Tettegouche
When I joined The Woolly Thistle knit-along, I became familiar with Rauma wool and fell in love! Everyone was using it to knit colorwork projects. After knitting some mittens by this hat’s designer, Virginia Sattler-Reimer, I went back to try to knit the Tettegouche, only this time I used Rauma yarn. By the way, she has mittens to match the Tettegouche hat pattern!
Good size, with a bit of extra room at the top.
I made some changes to the pattern, and one was to do a 2×2 ribbing for the brim. The colors I used were what I had available and they are not the greatest. But I had fun with this. It has been a good practice hat after knitting Katie’s Kep. Because I had already knit that colorwork hat, I knew to try a smaller needle for Tettegouche.
Buy The Tettegouche Hat Pattern
The pattern is also sold separately and you can buy the Tettegouche hat pattern here. Please click the link to see it, because it is so much prettier than mine! You won’t believe it is the same hat…!
What Was My First Colorwork Hat?
My first all-colorwork, Fair Isle knitting project was Katie’s Kep, which is a fun hat pattern which is Free to download.
New England's Narrow Road 