Happy Solstice!

BadKitten and her Cousin Ben made us cookies to celebrate the season. They are getting very good in the kitchen, eh?
I wanted to bring all of you a gift for the holiday season, and what could be better than a hat? Quick to make, fun to wear and it chases the winter chill.

This pattern began life as a basic doily, which I shared for free. You might recognize Little Flower... Catherine Dunlap took the doily pattern and made a lovely hat, which she was kind enough to share with me. Her hat is made on larger needles than are in my comfort zone, so I reworked things for a finer gauge. Her hat is styled as a tam, with a decrease at twice the rate of the increase. My version is a classic beret. This pattern contains three charted versions. The first version is a beret in sock weight yarn. The second is a beret in DK weight yarn, and the third is Catherine’s original, a tam in DK weight yarn. Thanks to Catherine for generously sharing her concept! Special thanks to Mary Rose and Judith Gilbert.
BadKitten graciously humors her mother by showing off the light weight beret. I believe that she looks gracious...
I think she is getting a little fed up, but hiding it well...

Materials for Light weight Beret
-1 skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino 100gms/460 yards in color 103
-1 set of 5 US 2 double pointed needles (7 inches or longer)
-Yarn needle for weaving in ends
-12 inch dinner plate to block (optional)
Gauge:
7 stitches to the inch blocked in stockinette.

Materials for DK weight tam or beret
-1 skein of Baby Bee Sweet Delight Twist in color yellow
-1 set of US size 8 double pointed needles (7 inches or longer)
-Yarn needle for weaving in ends
-12 in dinner plate to block (optional)
Gauge:
5 stitches to the inch in stockinette.

Directions
-Cast-on 8 stitches to four double pointed needles and join in the round being careful not to twist.
-Work one round plain.
-Begin following the chart
-Repeat chart eight times for each round (twice per needle.)
-After completing your chosen chart, cast off loosely in ribbing.
-Soak in cool water and block to shape. You can use a 12 in plate to block the berets.

For those of you who have been with me for the long haul, you know what to do with the following pictures! Click on them and print in Landscape mode. First you have the chart key...

Second you have the chart for the light weight beret...

Finally you have the chart for both the DK beret and tam...

Here are Cathrine Dunlap's photos of the tam that she made. Here model is Lauren Ruff, who was kind enough to let us use her photograph.
You can see the shape in this picture.
And the front edge here...
Finally, you can see the original Little Flower right here!
Both Little Flower and now this remix are available as PDF files at my Ravelry Pattern Store. They are both free! If you want to know more about Little Flower, check this old post for details.
I wish all of you a wonderful, wonderful whatever you are celebrating. I hope it is filled with fiber and cookies!

Workshop Announcements!

I will be doing a few workshops in February and March, and I thought I would share the information with all of you. If you go to the Knitting Nation website and click on the link for the Winter 2009 class schedule, you can scroll down to Workshops and see what there is to see. Under each of my workshops, there is a link to a PDF file with a flier. Check those out for details!

On Sunday February 8th, 2009, we are doing a Center Start Workshop, exploring different techniques to start a knit lace piece at the center. We will use the Little Flower doily pattern as our workshop project, and try different cast-ons. Everyone will leave with the confidence to finish the doily.
On Sunday March 8th, 2009, we will be doing a project based workshop called Burnish Gold Gauntlets. Techniques will include basic lace concepts and knitting lace on double-pointed needles. Adding beads to your lace will be an optional technique. The project is a pair of gorgeous lace mitts and picture are coming soon! This will be a fun class for beginners and experienced lace knitters alike.

The last workshop that is currently scheduled is a basic drop spinning workshop. Saturday February 22nd, 2009, BadKitten and I will be teaching Drop Spinning and if you want to learn how to spin or want to learn how to spin finer yarn, you will have a great time with us. See details on the flier (you have to scroll further down the workshop list to find the link.) We will supply all the materials for this workshop, so if you have always wanted to try spinning but never had an opportunity, this is it! Kids 13 and older with a serious interest in fiber-arts are welcome. Below is a selection of spindle-spun silk threads for embroidery, along with the spindle and fiber they were spun with. The scissors sheath is embroidered with similar hand-spun threads.

Aside with learning to use a top-whorl drop spindle, several types of spindles will be demonstrated and various yarns and projects will be available for inspection. We will discuss yarn structure and look critically at what yarn qualities work best in which projects. This promises to be an enjoyable afternoon.

On other topics:
Don't forget to cast your vote for our Valentine's Day project. As of right now, it is looking like a shawl. If that remains the case, as soon as this poll comes down I will be putting another up asking for you input on shawl shapes. If you have an opinion, please make it count!

I have another post coming soon which is very exciting to me. I have two new designs debuting at TNNA TODAY! I will post pictures and details of those projects tomorrow. Until then, keep knitting!

The Little Flower Doily Pattern

As promised, here is my first try at a traditional doily pattern. In my last post, you saw several versions, using different yarns, needle sizes and starts. Please refer to that post for final dimensions. The pattern is in three pages, with page one being the cheese-cake shot of my finished doily relaxing after a firm blocking. I didn't use starch, but if I wanted the doily to really hold her shape well, I would...actually, I wanted to use starch but I didn't have any in the house.
The second page of the pattern lists the basic materials. Again, I refer you to my previous post with the Little Flower label, where you can see how the doily looks with several different yarn and needle choices. Use whatever you have available. The instructions follow, and are very basic, with most of the real "meat" being in the chart. The chart is my version of a typical doily chart. There are no fancy needle-moves. If you use the key from page two I trust it will all make good sense! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. I will be back in a few days with an update on what is on my needles, and maybe I will get around to showing you all my new fiber goodies...let's see what I have time for.

I remind everyone that I am unable to post PDF files on my blog. I can only post JPG files. Click on each picture and either print it out or save it. The first and third pages are in landscape and the second page is in portrait, so print accordingly. Knit on!

I'm back...

And I hope to be here for awhile. Life keeps throwing punches, and I try to roll. My mom has been sick, and I was using my extra time (that means blogging time) taking care of family stuff.

Behind the scenes, much was happening Chez BadCat. As some of you know, I have been bitten by a doily bug. I decided to try a small doily design of my own, to learn new techniques and possibly venture out to a more complex design in the future. I asked for a few volunteers (victims) and I have results to show you today! This first specimen is my work. I call this pattern The Little Flower. Sweet, yes? I used a standard cast-on from a German doily pattern, making a loop with the thread and picking up stitches with my needles from either side of the loop. I used #10 crochet cotton and US 2 needles. The irregularity in the center is actually the yarn end, which was not woven in yet. It measures about 10 inches across.
This lovely specimen is from Cindy Perra, who used Alpaca/Merino and a US 2 needles. It measure 12 inches across and she used the Emily Ocker start. This link show some nice pictures of that start: http://www.spellingtuesday.com/circular_co.html
You can visit Cindy here: http://craftycinderella.blogspot.com/
Next, we have this wonderful specimen from Mary Hudzinski. She used the Emily Ocker cast-on and it measures just a tad wider than 11 inches across. She used Euroflax laceweight linen on US size two needles.

This beautiful blue specimen is from Judith Gilbert. Judith used Rosemarie's Belly button start, which you can see here:

http://mytwosticksandsomestring.blogspot.com/2006/05/belly-button-start-for-circular.html

She used Socka sock yarn, US 4 needles and is measures about 13.5 inches across.

This petite and lovely specimen is from Jeri Riggs. She used #10 cotton, US 00 needles and this cutie measures 7.5 inches across. Jeri used the same standard German doily start that I used. You can visit Jeri here: http://jeririggs.blogspot.com/

This lovely specimen is from Judi Farley, who used US 1 needles and Knitpicks Palette (fingering wt) It measures 12 inches across. And I love the picture as much as the doily!Last, but certainly not least, this terrific specimen is from Susie Jordan. She used # 10 crochet thread in a cream color and US 1 needles. It measures 10” across. Isn't it lovely?

I just adore how all these little flowers look and was thrilled to have the knitters above share their skill and time with me to get this pattern ready for all of you.

I will Post the instructions and chart later this week. I hope this will be a perfect project to work on your circular starts. Until later, knit on!