Friday, October 02, 2009

Swamp Monster Cubba

In the last week or so before we moved out of our house in Germany, I started on a 4-oz-bump of Organic Merino in the Swamp Monster colorway from Spunky Eclectic. I continued to work on it in the hotel, then finished spinning the two bobbins of singles at my parents' house. Finally, a week after arriving in the States, I plied it at a friend's house (the local spin/knit circle that I attend whenever I'm visiting my parents').



At my in-laws, I swatched my new yarn. This is not the most exciting picture, but I always find it interesting to learn others' methods of swatching. Whenever I change to the next needle size, I do YO, K2tog to coordinate with the needle size just used. That way I keep track of what I did later. I used to think I'd remember, but now, with 4 children, I don't take a chance on anything, especially my memory!



I liked the feel of the fabric knit up on size 3 needles at 22 sts to 4 inches, so I immediately cast on for a Cubba hat by Woolly Wormhead, and kitchnered up the top just as we were driving to the airport to fly to Texas.



My only modification is that I made the largest size, but knit it 6" tall instead of 5-1/2". Babies grow so fast; I wanted to make sure that it has a chance of fitting him for the entire season! Also, I knit the I-cord ties to a generous 10-1/2 inches instead of the 8-1/2 in the pattern. I'm not a fan of struggling to tie too-short ties under a drooly, chubby chin.



As always, Woolly Wormhead's designs are as charming to knit as they are to look at. The I-cord ties and earflaps are knit first, separately, then joined with a backwards loop cast-on. After that, the whole thing is knit in the round with no shaping at all. The pattern changes to a diagonal rib of sorts for the body of the hat.



I preferred the way the diagonal rib looked on the inside of the work, so I simply turned it inside-out before kitchnering the top together. The little corner "ears" are just far too precious. Most importantly, Billy can't pull it off of his head, making it a practical choice for stroller walks and bike-rides. It would be very sad to have a handspun, handknit hat go missing.



If you're wondering at this point if there's a possibility of me including too many pictures of the little guy, I will assure you that no:



It is simply not possible.

Find out all of the details that there are to know on the Ravelry page, if you care. :)

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