Finished Shedir

This hat is for a very old friend, who I haven’t actually seen for 15 years.  G is the mother of one of my oldest school friends, J, and G was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. J and I were in the same kindergarten class, and were friends throughout school.  By the time I became a teenager, I had learnt to be impressed by G; she worked overnight as a nurse, studied for her degree as an external student, and she was a mother, and step-mother.  Despite her busy schedule, she always had time and humorous advice for her childrens’ friends.  When I heard that J had moved back to our home town to take care of G, I felt far away, and thought that I could make a tiny contribution in the form of a chemo cap.

I wanted to knit one out of the yak/wool blend that I will be selling, but the yarn was not elastic enough for the cables, and the gauge was going to be a serious problem. I then tried a merino yarn where I only had one 50 gram ball, and realised after 2 repeats of the main cable braid that I only had 16 grams left. Given that the pattern specifies 5 repeats of the braid, I frogged it. 

Project Details

Pattern: Shedir by Jenna Wilson.

Modifications: Main cable pattern only repeated 4 times, instead of the specified 5. Some plain rows in the crown shaping deleted, because the hat was looking huge. Hat was knitted without a cable needle, and I don’t think my cable needle will get much use any more.  There are probably several unintended modifications – all those cables are difficult! Hat fits my generous head and then some.

Needles: 3.5 mm Knit Picks circulars using magic loop.

Yarn: Worsted weight Australian Merino spun in China, and purchased in Beijing. 116 grams used (definitely not a one-skein project).  No yarn details available in English, apart from “100% Australian merino”.

Slow Progress

It has been slow progress generally here.  Hong Kong has been cold, the heating has not been working properly in our apartment, and I have been wrestling with a cold/sore throat.  I am feeling mildly peeved at most of my projects, and really want to finish the Debbie Bliss Isabella vest, but am having serious difficulties summoning any enthusiasm for acres of stockinette.

We went to Australia over Chinese New Year, and had a lovely trip, but very little knitting.  I made no yarn related purchases except the row counter featured in the photo above.  I made two attempts on Shedir in the yak/wool blend that I will have in stock soon, and realised that the needle size/yarn combination was not doing me any favours. The yarn was is too fuzzy to really show off the cables, and I think that cables normally look better with a slightly firmer tension that might normally be recommended. I did learn how to cable without a cable needle (a la Grumperina) in the process. This method works wonders, and really speeds up the hat. 

 I restarted Shedir in the 100% merino worsted weight yarn that I will be getting in.  I only have one ball (a mill sample), and realised on the third repeat of the cable pattern that I was going to have no-where near enough yarn.  I am otherwise happy with the yarn, and will knit a hat for younger daughter out of it. So the knitting above is to be frogged again! 

I am going to restart the hat in 100 grams of lovely 100% merino that I picked up in Beijing.  It is slightly smoother in texture than the merino that I will be stocking, and should show the cables a little better. I know have a cold blooded determination to just finish this hat!  I do love the row counter, and can’t believe that I have not used one previously.  Part of the slow progress was due to the fact that I put the hat down when I was in Sydney, and could not figure out where I was up to afterwards, and threw the project aside in disgust. 

For those people who Google this blog for yarn store information.  The row counter was purchased in Port Macquarie at Wool World. I probably would have bought more there but I arrived as they were locking the front door, and had to plead with them to just reach inside and hand me a row counter!  They’d closed the cash register, so I had to rummage around for the exact change. It is a very traditional Australian yarn store, with very traditional Australian yarns, but they have always been very helpful, and they do have very reasonable prices.