The big beanie

My mother was knitting the twisted rib beanie from Knit Issue 6, for my brother-in-law, but when she finished, it was too small. How annoying. When we looked back at the pattern to see what could be the problem, we found that the pattern stated that finished measurement was 40cm in circumference, and this was exactly the measurement my mum had ended with. Now beanies are worn stretched, and single rib, or even twisted rib are stretchy stitches, but as standard male hat sizes are from 56-63 cm, this is asking the beanie to stretch around 50%. This is a big ask, a bigger beanie was clearly required.
Increasing the size involved re writing the pattern for a cast on of 84 stitches, and a nice even set of decreases at the top. It was also re-written to allow circular knitting - I much prefer pulling through a single stitch at the end of a beanie to stitching up the back.

Here is the not quite-Knit 6 bigger beanie.



It did take more yarn than orginial pattern - 2 and 1/2 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra, in colour 722 cement.



The new pattern is available free in the shop with the purchase of the yarn required.

Fortunately, my mum ravelled her too small beanie, and knit it up again in the new pattern, so I get to keep this one. This also means that we know that the pattern takes only one x 100g skein of Alsan Trends Guanaco.

It is warming up here, but this beanie will be just the thing for a September school holiday camping trip. It gets cold at night when you travel inland.
It is actually lucky that there is half a ball left over, as now my husband wants a beanie for this camping trip, and I can make him a nice striped one.

Knit 6 Garter Stitch Jacket

In my usual out of season knitting, I have just finished this jacket from Jo Sharp Knit 6. I do have some excuse, it is my sister's birthday present, and I have finally finished it only a fortnight after her birthday! It may be a little sandy, as I knit most of it at the beach, taking advantage of some cooling breezes, and the majority of the project was not sitting in my lap whenever I could avoid it. This is a very warm yarn!


The yarn is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed, in shade 116 Ivy. The jacket is oversized, and boxy in design, which will look very good over a turtleneck and a scarf in a Melbourne winter, but looks a little too much on me, over a summer dress. I hope you can get an idea of how the jacket looks from my photo - try to imagine it at a football game :).

The length is in between version 1 and version 2, to finish at high hip (it is a little longer on me, as I am shorter than my sister.


I have used the neck from version 2, but the two high buttons from version 1, as I my sister likes this better.
I had some trouble with the armsyce, similar to the problem I had with the Knit 5 eyelet cardigan. I found the armhole very large again. In this case, although my tension was correct for garter stitch and stocking stitch as shown in the pattern, my sleeve was considerably smaller than the armscye. I am using this as my excuse for being 2 weeks late with the present. I had to add a gusset in the armscye by picking up stitches at the base to fill it in, and this was sufficiently annoying to make other projects much more attractive to pick up and knit.

I am pleased to have made this for my sister, but am ready for some more lightweight knitting. It is still cotton and silk weather here.