Convertible Gloves: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 79

Knitting

Convertible Gloves: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 79

00:00 / 25:41

Convertible Gloves

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Knitter – Convertible Gloves, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects, sponsored by Ecoflap home draughtproofing products including the Petflap draughtproof pet door. Find out more about the Petflap at thepetflap.com.

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This time: what happened to the alpaca socks, dishcloth rundown, convertible gloves and of course, Christmas knitting.

Apologies for the sound issues in this episode. I had lots of technical problems, which is also why I sound a bit grumpy!

Ft patterns

Convertible Gloves

Let me start by telling you that gloves with individual fingers are an order of magnitude more complicated than making mittens. Convertible gloves are fingerless and have a little hood that you can flip over the tops of the fingers to keep them cosy when you don’t need your fingers for anything. Of course fingerless is the greatest misnomer – this particular pattern has four half fingers and a thumb on each hand. Alternatively you can just knit one big cuff across the knuckles.

These were an enormous learning curve for me. From swatching to putting stitches on stitch holders, I learnt a tremendous amount, which stood me in good stead.

The anatomy of knitting convertible gloves with fingers goes more or less like that: knit the cuff then switch to stocking stitch and go up half a needle size. At so far along, knitting from wrist towards fingers, you put in a purl row which later on you come back and pick up along to make the flap. Around this point you begin to create the thumb gusset, and shortly afterwards you create the little finger. The thumb gusset stitches go on to a stitch holder while you carry on the nand for a little while, then most of the hand stitches go on another stitch holder while you start the little finger. There’s a lot of stitch holder action and I found lengths of 4 ply less intrusive than metal stitch holders while I knitted, but more of a pain to restore stitches from.

This DROPS pattern is what I call a knitter’s pattern, in other words the instructions are sketchy and not for a beginner. After a page and a half of instructions for the first glove the instructions for the second read ‘reverse all shaping’. AHHAAHAHAHAHAH!

When you create glove fingers there’s a good chance you’ll end up with gaps in the knitting between the fingers. No matter how hard I tried to avoid this I ended up filling in two or three as I wove in the yarn ends. However, to cut a long story short, when the first glove was finished I decided it was too small. Chain mail sprang to mind when I put it on and tried to bend my fingers. I knew it wasn’t good enough, so I started again in DK and did the fingers in the larger size needle. It was a bit frustrating to be starting again but knitting the first one had been a very valuable lesson and it meant I had a glove for reference as I started again.

In fact, shaping the second glove wasn’t a problem, or at least nothing like I expected it to be when I saw the instructions boiled down to a single sentence. It helped to line it up with my hand whenever I had a 3D visualisation fail, something that’s the norm for me. My verdict on knitting this type of glove is that it’s a right faff and I think this particular pattern comes out on the small side, but in a perverse way I’m glad to have had the experience.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Eye of Partridge: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 78

Knitting

Eye of Partridge: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 78

00:00 / 19:35

Eye of Partridge

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Knitter – Eye of Partridge, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects, sponsored by Ecoflap home draughtproofing products including the Petflap draughtproof pet door. Find out more about the Petflap at thepetflap.com.

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This time: eye of partridge on the flat of the heel, knitted dishcloths, repurposing unloved knits, and knitwear on TV.

Ft patterns

Purl Soho Evening Shrug (link to Ravelry)
King Charles Brocade dish cloth (link to Ravelry)

Ft needles:

KnitPro SmartStix

Eye of Partridge

This is the traditional stitch used to form the upright back of the heel on a sock that’s knitted in the round on three or four needles. A flap is created that’s then joined to the rest of the sock.

This stitch is used to create a strong piece of knitting that will withstand rubbing against footwear. What I wanted was a strengthened piece on the flat of the heel, as that’s where my husband’s socks wear through first, so I decided to use this stitch.

Simple in one way, but on the other hand I couldn’t find any tutorials, so I took the stitch pattern and planned to keep that to a static number of stitches – 38 in this case – and increase for the heel in plain stocking stitch either side of it. I marked this out as I went along, keeping the partridge bit betwee markers, so that I knew where I was.

I’m astonished to say that it worked exactly as I’d hoped. I was aware that the Fleegle Heel might not work entirely as usual as it was from a base of different stitches from usual, but I could just knit a plain row of stocking stitch if necessary. To be honest I can’t now remember whether I did that, but suffice to say the heel shaping worked like a lamb.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Knitting Socks Flat: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 77

Knitting

Knitting Socks Flat: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 77

00:00 / 44:36

Knitting Socks Flat

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Knitter – Knitting Socks Flat, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects, sponsored by Ecoflap home draughtproofing products including the Petflap draughtproof pet door. Find out more about the Petflap at thepetflap.com.

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This time: DROPS Nord yard, my new KnitPro SmartStix, an interview with Punam Farmah, and when is it a good idea to buy yarn?

Ft books:

Knit Your Socks on Straight by Alice Curtis

Ft yarns:

DROPS Nord

Ft needles:

KnitPro SmartStix

Knitting Socks Flat

I was delighted to talk to Punam Farmah, aka The Horticultural Hobbit and to be found on Twitter and Instagram. Punam is a woman of many parts: teacher, counsellor, allotmenteer, knitter and writer just for starters.

Punam got in touch recently to ask about interpreting a pattern, which led on to a conversation about knitting socks flat. I’d never heard of this. I admit my mental picture at first was something very elongated that you seamed up both sides. The reality is that you knit one much wider piece and seam it up just one side, which makes far more sense.

In the interview Punam tells us how she learnt to knit, and what led her to try socks. She describes how to knit socks flat, how she’s responded to learning a new skill, and whether she plans to knit socks again. Just a trigger warning – we mention the c-word: crochet. If it brings you out in a sweat as it does Punam and me, just take a few deep breaths and think about alpacas.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Interchangeable Cables: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 76

Knitting

Interchangeable Cables: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 76

00:00 / 22:00

Interchangeable Cables

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Knitter – Interchangeable Cables, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects, sponsored by Ecoflap home draughtproofing products including the Petflap draughtproof pet door. Find out more about the Petflap at thepetflap.com. The Energy Efficiency Podcast is also available through Apple Podcasts, or at podcast.ecoflap.co.uk.

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This time: finally finishing Taylor, strengthening sock heels, tussling with interchangeable cables, and new yarn, new needles.

Ft patterns:

Tayler by Kim Hargreaves
DIY Pattern Weights from Positively Splendid

Ft tutorials:

Interchangeable Cables

On eBay I’ve found KnitPro SmartStix, which were entirely new to me. They have colours printed along them in 2cm blocks. Now this is pure gimmick for me, I don’t need the markings (see them turn out to be the most useful thing ever in the history of the universe) but I just loved the stripey effect so I splashed out £5.50 and have a pair of green stripey needles on the way! I’m really looking forward to them. I think they’re sharp tips too which could be useful if this new yarn is slightly hairy.

I’ve been meaning for ages to relax my inerchangeable cables as they can become very springy and lively coiling back on themselves through use and my type of storage, which is just stuffing them in a bag and trying to ram the zip home. One reason I prefer interchangeables is that they’re just so much more manageable when you need to put them away.

My husband has mentioned before that all it needs is to dunk the cables in some warm water, as he’s a materials man and knows about these things. I wanted to double check so I looked up a couple of videos on YouTube. Yes, you do dunk your cables in water hot but not too hot, and they magically unfurl into nice manageable lengths. So I used the warm water that was already sitting in the kettle and carefully added some freshly boiled, as I was worried about melting my cables.

I can’t say they unfurled as magically as in the videos. They are a bit less curly, but perhaps mine are just unsalvagable as they’ve been tangled for so long. Interestingly, the one that unfurled the best was the KnitPro cable as opposed to all the circulars, so maybe there’s something specific to interchangeable cables, or those interchangeable cables. I’m not sure it was really worth the bother to be honest. The comments on one video have people putting a damp towel over the cables then ironing them, and someone else uses a hairdryer. I might try the hairdryer and rope in my 11yo and call it a lesson in the qualities of plastics.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Mirror Knitting: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 75

Knitting

Mirror Knitting: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 75

00:00 / 22:37

Mirror Knitting

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects, sponsored by Ecoflap home draughtproofing products including the Petflap draughtproof pet door. Find out more about the Petflap at thepetflap.com. The Energy Efficiency Podcast is also available through Apple Podcasts, or at podcast.ecoflap.co.uk.

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This time: the second time of making a jumper for the second time, creating ears to go on a shop-bought hat, mirror knitting, and the misery of hand-knitted socks wearing through on the heel.

Ft patterns:

Tayler by Kim Hargreaves
Sport Boot Socks by Christina Owen
Kat’s Devil Horn Ear-Flap Ski-Hat by Kathryn Williams
Capitan Hat by Rosi Garmendia

Mirror Knitting

25 miles of rib, just where I used to drop stitches all the time

There’s been a bit of a buzz around this for a wee while now, but I’d never really paid much attention. I don’t mind purling, and one reason I changed my yarn-holding technique a few years ago was so that I could switch between knit and purl effortlessly. I had a terrible clunky hold before and kept accidentally pushing stitches off the needle as I moved the yarn back and forth on rib. So purling holds no fears for me, oh no sirree.

However, as Taylor is knitted in pieces and seamed, rather than knitted in the round, there’s an awful lot of purling. I am slower at purling than knitting so I thought I might give it a wee shot. I looked up the Very Pink video and got the hang of it straight away, to my astonishment.

I started along what would have been a purl row, but although the technique made sense straight away, my ability to wrangle the yarn while maintaining proper tension was more than a bit dodgy. I realised after about five stitches that the upper front of a jumper for my daughter was not the place to be learning a new and entirely unnecessary technique, so I did the boring but sensible thing and decided to leave it for another day. It looks really interesting though and I can see how satisfying it would be to do. I don’t think it would take long to get to grips with holding the yarn properly, so the next project that has purl it it I’ll give it a go.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Nine Men’s Morris: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 74

Knitting

Nine Men's Morris: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 74

00:00 / 25:08

Nine Men’s Morris

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects, sponsored by Ecoflap home draughtproofing products including the Petflap draughtproof pet door. Find out more about the Petflap at the petflap.com. The Energy Efficiency Podcast is also available through Apple Podcasts, or at podcast.ecoflap.co.uk.

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This time: knitting a nine men’s morris board, 5 ply socks, DK jumpers, and plans for Christmas knitting.

Ft patterns:

Spongy Dish Cloth by Stephanie Lindner
Tayler by Kim Hargreaves
Brick by Clare Lee
Sport Boot Socks by Christina Owen

Nine Men’s Morris board

My daughter’s very interested in the Anglo Saxons so in the summer we went to the Brimingham Museum and Art Gallery to see the Staffordshire Hoard. As part of the exhibition there’s a Nine Men’s Morris board, and we had fun at a few rounds of that.

I thought a Nine Men’s Morris board and counters would make a good Christmas present for her and then it occurred to me that I could knit one. I looked for a pattern as I thought charting it would be a nightmare, but I couldn’t find a pattern, so I had to chart it!

It was mind-bending, I freely admit, not least because it took quite a while for the penny to drop that the lines and blobs weren’t evenly spaced. Once I’d grasped that it all fell into place.

I’ve knitted enough wee mats and flannels to know that I needed a seed stitch border, so I wrote one of those in all round, and embarked on a test knit. I expected to use Aran so used some that I had already as all I wanted to do was test the mechanics of the pattern, not its beauty. It took me quite a while to finish as I couldn’t do it when my daughter was around, and it got quite involved.

One decision I had to make early was intarsia or colourwork. I started off with colourwork as I had great long stretches of a single colour, as in 60-odd stitches with just one or two of the second colour at the edges, and I could just carry the second colour vertically up the edges. That’s not appropriate for intarsia.

As the pattern gets more involved however there’s an argument for intarsia as the lines and blobs are closer together in the middle but there are longer gaps to the furthermost edge lines, so I ended up combining the two, partly also as I wanted to test the effect. I decided in the end that it’s not a bad approach although my god it gets complicated with all the bobbins and so on sprouting out of the back. It was absolute spaghetti, in fact it was more spaghetti than spaghetti is.

As I say, this was a test knit, and there were learnings. I realised early on that the seed stitch border was too short. As I got to the other end of the piece I extended the border to see how it behaved, and another three rows or so made all the difference. I’d realised as I’d gone along that the piece would look better with a smaller needles. This is particularly because there’s so much colourwork and therefore lots of places where the knitting can get a little bit slack if you aren’t really careful. With a smaller needles that’s less of a risk and less obvious if you do get it a bit loose.

What I need to do now is knit it for real with proper yarn. I’m going to choose a high wool content yarn. At this point I expect to use a cream background with brown lines and blobs. I suppose I really should get on with buying the yarn as I’ve got to get it made by Christmas. I looked in my local yarn shop but couldn’t find anything like what I wanted, so I’m going to go to my usual haunts online. I am so looking forward to that! I do intend to make the pattern available, or at least the chart, when I’ve proven to myself that the tweaks work and have had a chance to polish it up into a socially acceptable pattern. If anyone wants a copy of the rough and not-so-ready version just get in touch.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Produce bags: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 73

Knitting

Produce bags: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 73

00:00 / 14:12

Produce Bags

Welcome to Produce Bags, episode 73 of The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects. Find it on iTunes or acast, or subscribe via the feed link on the right hand bar (https://www.theordinaryknitter.net/feed/podcast).

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This week: produce bags, exfoliating mitts and the role of knitting in life.

Ft patterns:

- Christine’s Corset by Ariel Sage
- Jackie’s Goodie Bag by Susan Carnegie
- Reusable Produce Bag by Tia Stanfield

Ft cast ons:

- Judy’s magic cast on

Ft techniques:

Yarn over (YO)

Produce bags

Lately I’ve been dedicating myself to produce bags. I don’t skip from grocer to baker with my basket over my arm, I go to the supermarket like everyone else, but I do avoid plastic wrapping where feasible. This takes many forms and hasn’t come together overnight, but buying loose fruit and veg is an obvious step.

The problem I have is that I can’t carry six apples at once. I often end up dropping one, so to speak, then at the self-service tills if I have to put them on the bagging scale in two lots the till squawks at me because it thinks I’ve tried to sneak on an item I haven’t paid for. Produce bags are the answer.

I made one before, in February last year, but because it’s just the one and as I have about twenty shopping bags in the car boot I never have it to hand. I decided to make a few more, to use up aran odds and ends. It helps that gauge is (in my opinion) utterly unimportant for these projects, so you can use up what you have and tweak the pattern. I should make the distinction here between shopping bags and produce bags. I’m not making a bag to take round town to fill with purchases. These are just for holding loose fruit and veg together for containment purposes in your trolley and going through the till. Ideally they’re sufficiently light that you won’t be charged extra for your produce or upset the all-seeing bagging scale. The main distinction is in size and attachment of a handle.

Jackie’s Goodie Bag

My favourite pattern is Jackie’s Goodie Bag. The finished article is designed to have a handle but as that’s added at the end it’s easy to leave it out. This bag has a simple yarnover element for extra stretch and a seed stitch band at the top. It’s designed to be knitted top down, but! I used the supposedly foolproof method of knitting the seed stitch band rows flat then joining to knit in the round – the idea being it’s much easier to spot and prevent any twisting as you join, I still twisted the bloody thing so I made a change of tack. I decided instead to cast on with Judy’s magic cast-on, designed for sock toes. This gives you a seamless base to the bag. In progress it looks like a mitten, but as soon as you have produce in the bag it will flatten out. So I’ve done that, casting-on with half the required number of stitches and working alternate increase and knit rounds, exactly like a sock toe increase. I got up to the normal required number of cast on stitches and began the pattern at that point.

I made a small one a week or two ago, managing to join without twisting, using 5 ply and small needles – 3.5mm, something like that. It will be ideal for 10 or so mushrooms. That used up a bit more of the lake of lilac 5ply I bought in Aldi ages ago. I’m currently doing another in 10 ply, the lovely Lily Sugar’n Cream Twists that I bought to make a hat and sleep sack for my cousin’s baby last summer. There won’t be enough of it, so when it runs out I’ll move on to the Sirdar Cotton Rich Aran I bought to make Purl Soho’s Evening Shrug three years ago. The colours will go well together and are cheerful reddish shades and orange. This is the one I’ve started bottom up.

Tia Stanfield’s Reusable Produce Bag

I know Jackie’s Goodie Bag is a reliable pattern, but I thought I should try something else too, so I found Tia Stanfield’s Reusable Produce Bag. This has far more yarnover action and a longer repeat than Jackie’s Goodie bag – not one I can keep in my head this time – and it does up with a ribbon, which is probably straying slightly into twee territory for me and I’ll likely not actually do that.

It’s a pick-up and knit construction, with picking-up around a section you’ve knitted flat. I don’t usually rate my skills and pick-up-and-knit but this was a good practice project as it’s not going to bother the onions if the bag base is slightly lumpy. From the picking up you naturally knit in the round. I found I had extra stitches once or twice, probably because I was adding in a YO at the start or end of a round without noticing, and I dropped stiches here and there too and as I picked them up would have been skewing the stitch count. In the end this pattern is a little too involved for me, but it was interesting to try it. This isn’t to give a negative review in the slightest, it just doesn’t suit my style as well as Jackie’s Goodie Bag.

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Floats: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 72

Knitting

Floats: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 72

00:00 / 40:11

Welcome to Floats, episode 72 of The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects. Find it on iTunes or acast, or subscribe via the feed link on the right hand bar (https://www.theordinaryknitter.net/feed/podcast).

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This week: keeping your floats in their place, teeny tiny hats, and the joy of four ply.

Ft patterns:

Fair Request by Sue Mitchell
Maart Muts Fair Isle by Puk Vossen
Horizon Highlights by DROPS
Chemo Cap

Ft cast ons

- Three ways to make a stretchy cast on

Ft techniques

K2tog tbl (knit 2 together through the back loop)

Floats

Floats are the little stretches of yarn that sit loose on the wrong side of a piece of Fair Isle knitting. To prevent great dangly stretches of yarn flopping about on the wrong side, the unused yarn is anchored every so often to keep it under control. You can have vertical floats, when a yarn completely unused for at least a couple of rows is tethered but taken up the work until needed, and horizontal floats, when yarn not needed for a section is kept tidy until needed. There are no hard and fast rules, but it’s common to anchor a float every five stitches or so if a yarn isn’t needed for a longish section of a round. If it isn’t needed at all it can just be taken upwards.

Keeping floats neat and properly tensioned can be tricky, but develops well with practice. The two biggest banana skins are pulling too tightly, and anchoring in the same place on each round. Pulling floats too tightly is tempting when you’re inexperienced with it, but it wrecks the overall look of a piece so it to be avoided. Keeping the piece at a natural tension – the magic Goldilocks zone of not too tight and not too loose – is what you’re looking to achieve. Floppy floats create a poor effect too, as the stitches you make with that yarn when you need it again will be at a tension all at odds with the rest of the piece.

Anchoring floats in the same place every time gives rise to a visible streak of colour on the right side. Combating this is simple, just make sure floats are anchored in different points each time. As I explain in the pod, if I’m anchoring vertically because a colour isn’t needed for a few rows, I choose a stitch within a five or six stitch section and choose a different one each time. It isn’t necessary IMHO to anchor an unused yarn on every round anyway, so it usually all works out okay. The only way to master floats is practice, but if I can do it it can’t be that hard!

Music credit:

“Carpe Diem” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Cast Ons: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 71

Knitting

Cast Ons: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 71

00:00 / 22:10

Welcome to Cast Ons, episode 71 of The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects. Find it on iTunes or acast, or subscribe via the feed link on the right hand bar (https://www.theordinaryknitter.net/feed/podcast).

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This week: losing needles and choosing a cast on.

Ft patterns:

Lace Beret by Sara Kay Hartmann
Chemo Cap

Ft cast ons

Cast Ons

No project starts without some sort of cast on, and I’ve come to the conclusion that choosing the right one is a cross between a dark art and an arcane science.

I could kiss the designers who have identified the best cast on for their project, even if it means spending half an hour with YouTube on half speed, watching someone demonstrate the cast on and always missing that thing she does with her thumb. The bigger the project the more this matters, as for instance a beautifully made cardigan can be spoilt by a badly-cast on edge that makes the item hang awkwardly or with a wibble when it should sit straight.

I’m going to re-start the Chemo Cap now that I’ve got laddering happening too, and I’m hoping for quite astounding results with a different cast on. In a project the size of this hat it’s no more than a minor nuisance to re-do it, but it has taught me to think about it before I cast on. If nothing else, using the right cast on for this hat would have made the lace pattern much easier. The backwards loop cast on that I used is a bit of a pain to knit into as you start the pattern, and worse to do fiddly things with like SSK and so on.

Researching cast ons is a simple matter of googling, asking your resident knitting oracle, or looking in a book such as The Knitter’s Knowledge. Some are nice and clear: if you’re casting on and going into a cable pattern, use the cable cast on. If you need a lovely stretchy cast on for a cuff, use Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Cast On. You get the idea. In theory there’s a cast on for every occasion, and if there isn’t, I’m sure someone will develop one soon.

Chemo caps: The Ordinary Knitter – episode 70

Knitting

Chemo caps: The Ordinary Knitter - episode 70

00:00 / 24:59

Welcome to Chemo caps, episode 70 of The Ordinary Knitter, the knitting podcast that’s (mostly) about the projects. Find it on iTunes or acast, or subscribe via the feed link on the right hand bar (https://www.theordinaryknitter.net/feed/podcast).

My name is Heather and I’m @theordknitter on Twitter, @theordinaryknitter on Instagram and @ordinaryknitting on Ravelry. This week: podfade – what, me?, not being allowed to get on with a nordic jumper, finishing projects, socks and more socks, and knitting hats.

Ft patterns:

Slip Stitch Beret by Lisa Gentry
School Run Socks Multi
Lego socks
Little Houndales Wrist Warmers by Kath Foster
Lace Beret by Sara Kay Hartmann
Striped Cashmere Beanie by schneckenstrick
Horizon Nighlights Hat by DROPS
Race for Life 2009 Chemo Cap by Erica Downs (which on the PDF I downloaded is titled Alex Beret and is credited to Debonnaire)

Chemo Caps

chemno caps — Cherry and Natural in Rico Creative Cotton, and DROPS Cotton Light in Khaki

Cancer is shit, but there’s no need for your head to be cold. A friend of mine will be needing hats, so I’ve been on a research bender finding suitable styles and yarns, and complexion-friendly colours. Perhaps because I’m bolshy and bloody-minded in the face of convention, I didn’t want to knit just chemo caps, so I found a variety of hats and appropriate yarns. I’ll talk about each of these in more detail as I come to them, but in a nutshell I’ve identified a lacy beret, a slouchy beany, a cuffed beanie, and a chemo cap. If all goes to plan there will be three chemo caps and three other hats. I don’t want to wear the same type of thing every day, and there’s no reason why a cancer-sufferer should have to wear only chemo caps, hence my determination to include variety.