Sheep Shots

I like to knit! I tried selling my stuff and became disgusted with myself (for selling so cheap) and at my "customers" (for being so cheap). My family has more knitwear (sweaters, socks, afghan) than they know what to do with. So I turn, a lot of the time, to giving the stuff away.

Currently, I knit for Petfinders.com , Ship Support (more later about this), and folks on the Cheyenne River (Lakota Sioux) Reservation in South Dakota .

Lots of folks do charity knitting. It's what Carol Anderson (Cottage Creations) calls "projects for the community." Indeed, she has produced 3 wonderful booklets of unisex (mostly) multi-sizes-fit-most patterns. The booklets are available at LYS across the country, or direct from the source: cotcreat@rconnect.com.


Carol's simple designs prompted me to develop some of my own.

Like this hat:



On my Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine. It's the same hat, outside in, and inside out.

Since I make these hats to give away, and there's always a head that will fit into one, I use a generic formula, not a pattern. If you have a specific head in mind, you wil need to swatch and do the math. Sorry!

The recipe: Using worsted weight smooth yarn (acrylic, wool, or a blend), open cast on 70 (for a toddler) or 80 (for an older child or small adult) stitches, leaving a relatively long (12" or so) tail for weaving the edges together.

I like to use a variety of similar yarns in coordinating or contrasting colors. Frankly, this is a good way to use up small odd balls. I used all my pink odd-balls for the sample, cast on 70 stitches and knit until all the yarn was used up.

Knit plain for about 150 (toddler) to 180 (bigger) rows (or more if you want a wider cuff, or a deeper crown). Last row: k 2 together across by hand manipulating every other stitch to the needle to the right (You will have 2 stitches on every other needle, with an empty needle between. Move the empty needles to non-working position.) then slowly knitting this last row.

Cut the yarn, leaving about 12-18". Thread a yarn needle with this tail and draw up the open stitches.

Remove the cast on hem, using the long tail at the cast on to "capture" all of the open stitches. Do not draw this tight yet.

Return to the cast off end and close the seam using the cast off tail and mattress stitch. Fasten off and clip the yarn. Using the cast on tail, draw up the cast on stitches, secure the ends. Don't clip the tail yet!

Push the cast off end inside the cast on end. Straighten the seam. Use the cast on tail to tack the two layers together at the gathers. Turn up a cuff.

Make another and another.

Donate them.

The first fall that I had my USM (2001), I bought many pounds of mill ends and made about 50 of these simple caps.

Bonus: My mattress stitch got pretty darned good from all the practice.

Labels: knit recipes