Scarecrow Wig

Thinking about being a scarecrow for Halloween? Well, there is still enough time to whip up a warm and cozy scarecrow wig.

I used 1 1/4 skeins of Encore worsted, in yellow. For crazy scarecrow hair, you can mix colors.
Size 7 needle
Size G crochet hook

Cast on 84 stitches
Join and knit in round, in 1x1 ribbing for a few rows.
Switch to stockinette stitch (knit each round) until it measures 4 inches from the edge.
Begin decreases
row 1: (Knit 10, K2tog) repeat to end
row 2: Knit
row 3: (Knit 9, K2tog) repeat to end
row 4: Knit
continue in this way, alternating a decrease row, with a plain knit row, until you have 7 stitches left on the needle. Pull yarn through remaining stitches.

Now comes the fun part. Turn hat inside out, so that the purl side is showing.
Cut a bunch of yarn, approximately 6 inches long--to do this, I loosely wrapped the yarn around my hand (as many wraps as I could manage) then carefully cut the yarn (don't snip your hand!).

Starting with the first row above the ribbing, I used the crochet hook to hook each piece of yarn to a purl bump. I attached one to every other purl bump. Then I moved up 3 rows, shifted over one purl bump, and repeated the procedure. By shifting over, this keeps the "hairs" staggered, so they don't all line up. Continue this way until your wig is full.

You can make the hair on your wig longer by making the strands as long as you like.

Although this scarecrow wig was made for a preschooler (who never wore it--he thought he looked too girlie), it also fits me,
as well as my parents. For an adult, you might consider working the hat until it is somewhat longer (maybe 6 inches) before beginning the decreases.
This could also be used for Raggedy Andy hair (do kids still know who Raggedy Andy is?)

Fall Colors

Finished up a bit more dyeing. This is gift yarn. I was in a Fall mood when I made it. Who knew you could get colors like this with Kool Aid.

I started with this:
And got this:Similarly, I started with this:
And made this:

Look the same? Well here they are side by side--one is bit brighter. More pumpkin, less brown.

Back to the dyeing board

So I've been playing around with Kool Aid again this week. Here is what I've got to show that is both dry and reskeined.

I started off with this pink sport weight sock yarn. I had bought it from Webs a while back, on sale, thinking I might use it for my niece.


Then I thought, well there is enough there to make socks for me--but the color isn't quite right. It finally hit me that I can fix that. So off to the cupboard to see what I had in the Kool Aid department.

After a bit of playing around, I ended up with this:


Much improved, I think.

Stripey Mock Cable Hat

I used twisted stitches and some lovely squishy wool to make this hat for my son. Although it was made for a preschooler, it is stretchy enough to fit me (and my husband—although our son has told him not to wear it, “because you’re gonna stretch it out!”)

5 colors of heavy worsted weight/aran yarn
I use Valley Yarns Berkshire
A—Navy
B—Burgundy
C—Olive
D—Gold
E—Cooper

Needle size 8—or what works best for you (this is one needle size down from the recommended needle size)
Gauge—unstretched, 5 stitches per inch

RTwist: K2tog and then work first stitch again before removing stitches from left needle to the right needle

Cast on 80 stitches using color A.
Join and knit in the round.
For the first 10 rounds:
K1 (P2 K2) repeat until 3 stitch remain, P2 K1

then
Purl one round

Still working with color A, switch to the following the pattern, keeping track of the color changes noted below

Row 1, 2 and 3: P1 (K2 P2) repeat until 3 stitches remain, K2 P1
Row 4: P1 (RTwist P2) repeat until 3 stitches remain, RTwist P1

Color A—10 rows
Color B—10 rows
Color C—8 rows
Color D—6 rows
Color E—3 rows
Color A—3 rows
Color B—3 rows
Color C—3 rows
Color D—3 rows
Color D—3 rows

Or chose a color pattern that you prefer.

End on a row that does not include twisted stitches.
Turn work inside out and do a three needle bind off, so that your tube looks like a rectangle. Using the tail of the yarn, thread into a yarn needle and attach one corner of the rectangle to the other corner—the side where you started the bind off.

Weave in ends. Flip up brim.
Enjoy your nice warm hat.

Hint: Before I switch colors, I used the Philosopher’s Wool technique of weaving in Fair Isle to “catch” the new color of yarn in the last knit stitch (before the color switch). This secures the yarn so that your tension stays even at the color switch. This is the Third Stitch in the video.

My Mom, the knitter 2

Look quick--I have figured out how to put up the video.

My Mom, the knitter

I was showing my Mother how to do a Log Cabin blanket this weekend. And I took the opportunity to take some pictures (and video also) of how she knits.

I haven't looked a the video yet, but she is so fast it is nearly impossible to see what she is doing once she gets going. But here are some snap shots of her hands.

Notice the completely different way of holding things. Keep in mind all she is doing is knit, knit knit each row. This is not purling, at all. See how the yarn comes from the front, not the back. With a flick of her thumb she is flicks her way through the row. (I have no clue how she purls--maybe I'll get that on film next time)

The tension of the yarn is from holding it around her neck as well as the fingers of her right hand. She's got the yarn wrapped around her right hand fingers, then it goes around her neck, before getting to the actually knitting. When she is sitting comfortably (not standing by the window trying to catch some light), and prepared to knit for a while, the yarn actually goes through a safety pin that she pins to her shirt.


I never could figure out what she was doing. Still can't.

The Fair

We spent some time at the Topsfield Fair over the weekend. A good time was had by all. We saw the birds (and even fed some),
the giant pumpkinsand some lovely veggie art.
We also went on some rides (but for some reason, it won't let me upload any more pics).

We were part of the scarecrow school for the parade--funny thing about being IN the parade is that you don't get to see THE parade. Interesting concept, to be there the whole time and miss the entire thing.
My hand knit scarecrow wig was deemed to be too girly, and so was not worn. I still may post the pattern--someone else might want a scarecrow wig--you never know.

We also spent some quality time watching the carding and spinning. Oh, and the fried dough was good--if not quite $5 (!!!) good.

38,516

gulp
That is the current estimate of the number of yards of yarn in my stash. Yes, me--the one who denies having much of a stash at all. And this does not include some of those partial skeins lying around. Whoops
I guess I better get knitting.

To get your own estimate, make sure your stash in Ravelry is updated, then use the export to excel button. From there it is a simple task to sum up the total yards (or meters if you prefer).

Oh crap--I just calculated the number of miles of yarn.
1 yard = 0.000568181818 miles

So I own approximately 22 miles of yarn.
gasp