Red Scarf #2 World AIDS Day

 I figured I might as well post scarf #2 right after scarf #1. 

This is trying to show the alternate rib cast on compared to the sewn cast off. Both techniques are in Montse Stanley's "Knitter's Handbook". This is a fantastic book. I had originally got it out from my library, but then I was able to find a copy at a thrift store, a LONG time ago, judging by the scribbles one of my kids did on the front. First published in Britain in 1986.

It's a very simple rib, one strand Bernat "Super Value" from the lot I bought off Marketplace a while ago, and one strand Patons "Astra" that was left over from custom Christmas stocking orders. I used 8mm needles, and 21 stitches. However, it's actually only about 4.25" wide. It feels wider. I was thinking I might need to steam block it, but the thought of doing that...

It was super squishy and cushy before I washed it. I just did it in with a load of clothes. I took it out of the dryer after 15 minutes, and it felt terrible.  I had kept it in the mesh bag, in the dryer, so I took a risk and took it out of the bag and threw it in. I was hoping that getting properly tumbled would help soften. And it did!  Back to being soft and squishy!  145gr.   

My red stash is getting very low. I went to two thrift shops, hoping to find some yarn or sweater to unravel. I did find a very soft red sweater at one that would be a good candidate. It was $6.99, so $7.90 with tax. I washed it, dried it in the machine, and unpicked the seams. 

I set up to unravel and wind into balls with my new electric winder. More on the winder saga later. I quickly found out that two of the pieces had been knit alternating rows from two balls. What a pain. So odd on a commercial sweater! The yarn broke quite a few times too. However, I now have 300gr of a super soft, slightly boucle yarn. 

In other news, I found out I had two YouTube channels under my TracyKM Designs name! One had no subscribers and 1 video. I deleted that one. The other one had 122 subscribers and a bunch of videos! One video, on how to fold the Baby Surprise Jacket, had over 14K views!! It even had comments from 8 years ago, that I didn't know about! 

I decided to resurrect that channel. A bit scary. I made a video, and I hope you'll go watch it, and maybe subscribe. https://www.youtube.com/@tracykmdesigns1684

Yarn In: 300gr

Yarn Out:  145gr + 1819gr = 1964gr

Balance:  1664 gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $7.90

Red Scarf #1 2026 World AIDS Day Charity

 I was procrastinating a bit on a couple projects, and also, my wrist has been a bit sore, so I decided it was time to work with a bit thicker yarn and make the first red scarf for the year. I was hoping to donate even more this year, but 1) my red yarn stash is low, and 2) I got obsessed with hats on the LK150 and the ribbed beanies. 

This is my "Mix it Up" version. I had a LOT of small balls of red yarn from previous scarves, and I think some were Patons "Astra" from a series of Christmas stockings that I made years ago when I did custom stockings. It's a simple double crochet, I believe it's 20DC, on a 5mm hook. 

Red is so hard to photograph! There's a lot of textures in this scarf, from very thin sections, to chunky, to the red eyelash stripes. 

One tip I have is to crochet over the old yarn tail when starting the new yarn. Not all the way to the end of it though. Then on the return yarn, crochet over it again. Then you meet the tails of the new yarn, and again, continue it along for an inch or so, then on the return, crochet over the rest. I try not to change yarns at the edges as I found last year that was making the edges a bit more bulky and untidy.

This scarf weighs in at 122gr.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 122gr + 1697gr = 1819gr

Balance:  1819gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

Black....For Once it Was Easy! Ribbed Beanie

 Many people hate working with black, especially as they get older. I'm no exception! However, I've been on this ribbed beanie kick, and put together two yarns from my stash. I have this "Mirage," in white, silver, black and dark grey (I think). It's not the most pleasant feeling stuff.  Feels like acrylic (it's only 16% acrylic, 84% polyester). It's a thick and thin, single ply. Supposed to mimic handspun, I guess, but the shininess gives it away. 

It was combined with an unknown standard black worsted (but not a thick worsted). 

Not sure what happened with this photo! 

You can see the texture of the Mirage. I was hoping the solid black would help the feel of the Mirage, while still allowing some texture to show.

I used 60sts again, 8mm needles. I like the fit better. I did run out of the black at about 9" and I didn't want to use a different unknown black. So I just did the decreases. This hat used 94gr.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 94gr + 1603gr = 1697gr

Balance:  1697gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

Easy, Thick Ribbed Beanie

 Recently, I expanded the YouTube channels I watch.  I was going to crochet a simple sweater, and wow, there's a whole lot of YT channels for crochet! One I found is PassioKnit Kelsie. She was working on some beanies, and mentioned she had a free YouTube video tutorial for it. So I checked it out! I needed some mindless knitting!

It's very basic, 2 strands of worsted weight, on 8mm needles. I should be able to find that easy in my stash, right?

OMG. I have a lot of yarn, but at the same time, sometimes it feels like I have no yarn.  

I found two balls of this satiny bright pink Red Heart "Soft Essentials", as well as a large ball of an unknown pink acrylic that sort of felt like cotton. My winter coat is bright pink. I don't need another hat, though I did discover my other favourite hat, the pompom is too big in my new truck and hits the roof LOL.

The two different yarns worked well together. I thought the "Soft Essentials" might be too limp on it's own.

It weighs in at 162gr, and this time I did some before and after weighing. The light pink, I used 58gr, and the bright pink was 98gr. Mmmm, this doesn't add up to 162gr. It's possible the bright pink wasn't a full ball I guess. Well, it's only off by 6gr, perhaps the yarn tails account for most of that. It was definitely nice to knit the whole item and not have to add in more yarn anywhere. Just the cast on end and the top end.

Speaking of cast on, I did change the cast on that I used. In the video, she does a long tail cast on. I did an alternate rib cable cast on. Usually, you start with the slip knot. Pull a loop through and put on needle. Put needle between the two loops, draw through and put on, and repeat. With the alternate cable cast on, you then enter between the two last loops from the back, and draw through. Then go in from the front, and alternate. This cast on looks really nice with ribbing. 

I also added an extra row at the top, of SSK around. This makes it easier to close up the gap.

Having completely tossed around my stash, I went down to shop again. This time it's Cascade Yarns Pinwheel--a two strand yarn with one strand being a colour shifting strand. The second yarn was plain old white "Impeccable".  This time I cast on 60 sts. The pink one fits, but it feels like it's going to pop off after a bit. And my head is not big. I almost fit children's sizes.

This one feels a lot better on. Being ribbed, they are stretchy, but you don't want it to have to stretch too much. It weighs 103gr. Wow, so much less than the pink one. Maybe I should double check that light pink and do a burn test! Or check my scale? It used 54gr of the Pinwheel, and 46gr of the white. Again, that's not adding up to 103gr, but it's only 3gr off. 

It's hard to see the difference in size between the two hats. Another reason I'm thinking that pink yarn might be cotton--it doesn't stretch. Stay tuned. 

And yes, I have cast on another one!

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 265 gr + 1338gr = 1603gr.

Balance:  1603gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

A Charity Hat NOT Made on the LK150

 I wanted to use up the last bit of the yarn I was gifted in the Secret Santa exchange at work.

It's a simple 1x1 rib. I don't remember how many I casted on. It's kind of child size.

Apparently I didn't weigh it. It took a couple attempts to get it long enough to use up most of the yarn. I started with 62gr and probably ended up with 10gr left. But I'm going to count all 62gr because the rest just went in the waste yarn pile for the LK150. 

For the decreases, I fudged the first row, so that all the following decrease rows (every other row until down to about 24, then every row) would have the knit stitch leaning to the right. I didn't worry about breaking the 1x1 rib when it would end up with two knit stitches.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 62gr + 1276gr = 1338gr

Balance:  1338gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

The LK150 Got Me Again

 We were having a big snowstorm on Sunday, Feb. 1. It didn't seem as bad where we were, compared to downtown Toronto, and what was expected for us. The school board said they'd let us know by 5 or 6am on Monday if schools would close. We were shocked when around dinner time on Sunday, the school board announced full closure on Monday. The week prior when we'd had a terrible storm they didn't close schools and they received so much criticism, so we think that was why they called it early. 

To celebrate, I decided to knit another hat on the LK150!

Another Anna Haferman hat!  They're super simple to make.

The mock rib is so much better than reforming the stitches (it's easy to reform stitches, but we're talking over 100 stitches, though it would be only every 4th...).

I pulled this yarn from the same bag (a thin, commercial type bag, like with the 1lb Mystery Fiber bags at the discount stores) as the last hat. That one had a Bernat "Mosaic" label on it, but this one didn't. It felt very similar, but it weighed 20gr more (total 107gr). I wanted it a bit longer, more manly slouch, but that didn't happen.

As I was sewing it up, the yarn kept breaking. That did not happen with the red one. So perhaps it wasn't Mosaic, or maybe they had changed it?

It was only a tiny bit wider. I think I kept it to the same stitch count, but tried a looser tension. 

I finally donated all these hats (there's one more post to come) yesterday. I really need to get going on red scarves, but I'm crocheting a sweater, and I have a Christmas pair of socks on the go for Lucy's boyfriend, who works outside. Except that he just injured his hand really bad and won't be working for awhile. 

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 1169gr + 107gr = 1276gr

Balance:  1276gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

I Need to Stop Making Charity Hats on the LK150!

 I seem to have become addicted to making hats on my LK150. I can easily make one, start to finish, in 2.5 hours. Less for some of the designs--depends also on the number of tails to weave in. I have a lot of stash, but I'm starting to feel limited--colours that don't go together, yarns too thick, etc. So I'm trying to get creative. I'm also going into the yarns that I had bought long ago for planned projects that just never happened. These pictures are actually in reverse order to when I made them this weekend.

I thought I had been through the bins on my shelves, but another search yielded a bag with 3 different balls of Bernat Mosaic. I loved this yarn, many years ago, but HATED how it felt. It's acrylic, unspun, and has a very dry feel, like raw silk. 87gr

I had said I was done making hats this weekend after the one below, but then the school board announced schools would be closed today! It's SO rare to close schools here, and to do it the night before is really unusual--but greatly appreciated. Last week we had a terrible snowstorm and they only cancelled buses and got a LOT of upset feedback. We had more snow then but yesterday, it was really hit or miss if you got a lot.  Toronto itself got pummeled, but here just to the east, we got a fairly manageable amount--it's just a lot of clean up now. I did see yesterday that one town sidewalk leading to a school hadn't gotten cleaned after last week's snow! I'm happy because this was a day I was supposed to work (I work two mornings a week in one job and then supply at other times), and I was to have recess duty! I'm also annoyed because all my classes were having assessments and now it's delayed. But, if it had just been a no-bus day, then so many would have been away that I wouldn't have been able to do them either.

Same pattern, but this time, I used the inside as the outside. When hanging the hem, I use both strands of the empty needle, instead of just the cast on strand. This keeps it a little tighter and I didn't do any other finishing to that. The tuck pattern is 5 rows, the yarn colour changes is four rows. I'm not sure what yarn this is as it was donated. It's a very shiny acrylic. I had used the beige as waste yarn for another hat, so I had several small balls unwound from that, and then I realized the green was the same yarn. Neither was enough for a hat, and although they don't really go together, I felt this tuck pattern, offset from the stripes, would blend them. In the end, I used every bit of the tan, and had a bit of green left. 89gr.

This was all the hats, up to the first two in this post.

Random blue worsted weight from my stash.  98gr.

This is the same as the olive green one that I did last time, but did an extra section or two.

It looks a little odd because it's really stretched for the brim, but then that one knit section sort of stands out. I think with hair, it would nestle all together better! This is the bright green that I used in the second hat in this post. 86gr.

I originally tried this pattern with that yarn I'm not sure what I was using for the contrast) but there wasn't enough. It's another Anna Haferman pattern. It creates these sort of 3D bubbles, which you could steam out if you wanted.

Instead, I pulled some Sirdar Country Style DK from my stash. I had collected a fair bit to make a Fair Isle cardigan but it's been over 10 years so I'm probably never getting to it. The inside shows all the dimples. It's pretty cool. 

I think it's rather   quirky! I wouldn't use too thick of yarn though. 49gr

I had noticed some mistakes when I was seaming it up, so I made another using more Country Style DK.

This time, I tried to be super careful about checking for stitches that hadn't knit properly (tuck stitch needs a LOT of weight), and totally didn't notice until I was done sewing it up that I had messed up the second row of hexagons! I polled the family and they said it looked fine!  47gr.

There's still a month until the cut off for winter hats but I think I'm done. I'm having some wrist pain, I think from pushing the carriage. I've suddenly become obsessed with crocheting a "quick" sweater. I don't often wear sweaters, especially not something thick. Also, I need to make some red scarves to get a jump on that donation. And I still have a pair of socks I was knitting for Lucy's boyfriend. Although, he just hurt his hand pretty band and will be off work for awhile.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 456gr + 713gr = 1169gr

Balance:  1169gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0