Author: Mihir Yerande

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Aran) [Part 03] – Complete!!

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I am now officially DONE with the White Frost beanie (in Aran).

Here’s the finished product:

Final Thoughts

General Tightness

On the previous beanie attempt, I had decided to switch down a needle size since my swatches were coming out very large compared to the given gauge. That ended up with the previous beanie feeling a bit too tight. So this time I stuck with the given needle sizes, but it still ended up with a similar level of tightness. Both of them are still wearable, but I was hoping they would turn out baggier (like beanies should be! 😤).

Anyway as long as I can wear them, I don’t feel a need to redo them 🤷‍♂️

Tightness at Top

On the previous beanie attempt, I felt that I had closed up the top a bit too tightly, which gave it a bit of a dimple right at the top. This time I tried to knit a bit more loosely to avoid that, but I now believe that that can’t be fixed. I think the pace of decreases towards the end causes it to close up a bit too quickly, which forces that dimpled shape. However the looseness did at least help with making it feel better to wear!

Pompom Attachment

I had been planning on using this pompom on my previous hat, but decided against it since the pompom felt a bit heavy compared to the main hat. That turned out to be a good choice (in my opinion) just based on the color similarity.

Also, the previous pompom was cut off of a store-bought hat and was basically just a bundle of yarn ends. To attach that on the previous beanie, I just took the loose yarn from the end of the main beanie and repeatedly seamed it through the pompom to attach it.

This faux fur pompom was different because it had an elastic loop, which the other pompom didn’t have. I read one attachment method online where you basically sew a button onto the inside of the beanie, and then simply insert the elastic loop through the top of the beanie and wrap the elastic band around that button. That method turned out to be pretty easy! And it’s also nice because I can detach the pompom if I ever feel like washing the hat.

Next Project

For my next project, I’m thinking of knitting a sweater for my friend’s dog!

I made one for my own dog some time ago, so I was thinking they could have matching sweaters. It’ll be a bit difficult though, since he lives elsewhere, so I won’t be able to continually test the sweater on his dog to make sure it fits. Guess I’ll have to pester him for a lot of measurements 😮‍💨

Stay tuned for updates on that!

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Aran) [Part 02] – Almost Done

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Been a couple weeks since my last post, and I’ve made steady progress!

I’m nearly done with the main part of the beanie.

Here’s my current progress:

What’s Left?

There are only about 8 more rows remaining, and they’re used for the decreases to close up the top of the hat.

I feel like I knit the top of my last beanie a bit too tightly, which made it close up with a bit of an indent, rather than a rounder dome.

So this time I’m going to try doing it loosely!

And then the last part will be attaching the faux fur pompom 💭

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Aran) [Part 01] – Making Progress

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Here’s my current progress on the new White Frost beanie:

So far I’m about one-third of the way done! (28 of 84 rows)

Some Hiccups

I had to stop and restart a couple of times after getting some rows into it and then noticing some issues.

This project is meant to be done with double-point needles, since the circumference is not that large. However I’m working it with circular needles and a 15″ cord, so the stitches just barely make it around the cord with a bit of stretching. That led to a lot of issuing when initially joining in-the-round, since it was hard to connect up the two ends without stretching the yarn too much. I restarted a couple of times when that beginning part didn’t turn out well.

Also, I must’ve gone on auto-pilot during the ribbing section at the beginning, since I later noticed that I had forgotten one of the cable twists. I really didn’t want to leave the mistake in, so I had to frog the whole thing from there too 😭

Anyways… assuming I make steady progress of 4 rows per day, I should get the project done in about two weeks!

In the mean-time, I’ll be brainstorming ideas for my next project 😄

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Aran) [Part 00] – New Project!

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I’m back again with a new project!

This is just a repeat of the previous White Frost beanie pattern I just finished. However this time, I’m using my leftover Aran yarn (off-white-colored) and also the faux fur pompom that I had meant to use on the previous gray beanie. And actually I think this color combo should work out pretty well! 🤷‍♂️

Current Progress

Since I just started, I’m only 8 rows into it (about 10% done).

Here’s my current progress:

Oh and here’s the pompom again:

Gauging

On the last project, I was really torn about how to proceed with the gauging. I felt like my swatches were turning out too large, so I switched down one needle size from what was suggested. It ended up okay in the end, but probably would have been better with the original needle sizes.

So this time I’m sticking with the suggested needle sizes (US 6/7). And even if it turns out to be a bit big, I feel like that’s the point of a beanie anyway 🤷‍♂️. Plus the pompom is pretty big, so it would make more sense on a bigger beanie.

Here’s a link to the project on Ravelry.

I’ll be making steady progress on this in the next few weeks!

I’m just planning on doing 4 rows a day, since I have some other things to get to and also don’t have any particular time-constraint, so that should take me 3 weeks or so to finish. At least I’ll finally have something to work on at knitting meet-ups! 😋

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Gray) [Part 03] – Complete!!

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The White Frost Beanie (in gray) with pompom is complete!

Pompom Switcheroo

You maaaay have noticed that the pompom is a different one from the one I had originally decided on 😁

The original pompom seemed a bit too large for this beanie, so I opted for another pompom from my stash! This black one was actually stolen from a store-bought hat whose pompom I had cut off a while ago. It’s just a basic yarn pompom, as opposed to the fancy faux fur one from before. This one was a lot lighter, so it matched the weight of the beanie better. The combination of the gray and black also seems to work out well. Worked out pretty nicely in that I got to use up an old bit sitting around in my stash!

I’m planning on using the other (nicer) faux fur pompom for a second copy of the hat (stay tuned 🤫).

Final Thoughts

One thing I have to say about this project was that the pattern was very nicely written.

I think back on the fact that it’s a wrap-around cable pattern done in-the-round, so it can get weird where the rounds begin. But this pattern accounted for it pretty well and adequately explained how to handle the cables crossing over the round starts.

I’ll be back soon with my next project… 😏

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Gray) [Part 02] – Frogging

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I’ve had a bit of a mishap since the last post 🥲.

Soooo I was near the middle row (43) of this part of the pattern:

The even rows are pretty much just knit-the-knits and purl-the-purls, which means rows 42-44 were identical. I had stopped somewhere around there and wasn’t totally sure if I’d noted down the correct row number for where I stopped. I tried the next row and kept checking my work to see if I was doing it right or knitting a duplicate row.

It turned out I was fine, but I ended up forgetting one of the cables in the row because I was so distracted. Then while I was undoing the last row, one of my needles slipped and I dropped a bunch of stitches 😭.

By that point, since I was already pretty uncertain about whether I was doing it correctly, I just decided to start over 🤷‍♂️

Current State

I restarted and got back up to basically the same place that I was at last time.

Hopefully there are no more issues like that from now on 😩

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Gray) [Part 01] – Halfway There!

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Since my last post, I’ve gotten about halfway (40/85 rows) through the White Frost beanie!

Here’s my current progress:

Adjusting Gauge

I had a few false starts on this project since I was worried about the gauge and sizing.

I had settled on following the pattern for a size Medium, since that fit the desired head size. The pattern suggested using needles of size US 6 and 7. However, when I tested out my gauge with the larger needles, my swatch was a lot larger than expected. Since I didn’t want the hat to come out unnecessarily big and floppy, I decided to switch down my needle size to US 5/6. With that smaller needle size, my gauge swatch still came out a bit big, but I felt it was alright just from eye-balling it.

Knitting in the Round

Joining

In-the-round is definitely my favorite needle style, and I even prefer to use circular needles when the project isn’t in-the-round. So you’d think I would be pretty good at joining at the beginning, after casting-on, to continue the piece in-the-round. But for whatever reason, I always find myself redoing the cast-on and join since I end up with a bit of a gap at the join.

Initially I was doing the following to join:

  • Cast-on 1 more stitch than the pattern calls for
  • Slide the first switch on the right needle (the first that was cast-on) along the circular needle, up to the tip of the right needle
  • Slip that switch over to the left needle, so the first and last cast-on sts are adjacent on the left needle.
  • Work those two sts together as the first st of the pattern

I had seen this method of joining online and thought it would work here, but I kept seeing a gap at the join as I knit the later rows.

So I looked up other methods and ended up liking the one where you basically *swap* the first/last sts to link the ends together. This way of joining ended up producing no noticeable gap, so I’ll definitely default to that one in future projects.

Cord Length

Another issue I kept hitting was with the length of cord between the circular needle ends. Initially I used a longer cord than necessary (24 inches I think?) and kept having to bunch the sts and cord up in weird ways to slide them up to working position. Eventually I switched the cord to a shorter one (15 inches) and that worked out much better!

Cable Pattern

I really like the look of the cable pattern here, which has the look of a chain-link fence!

I was trying to account for cable splay near the edges of the cables, but it turned out to be a big hassle to focus so much on my tension as I went. After I had finally restarted enough times, I just ignored the cable splay and let it turn out however it would. But looking at the picture above, I’d say it really isn’t that noticeable (except maybe to other cable-knitters 😁).

What’s Next?

Continue Pattern

Most of the remaining rows are just repeats of what I’ve already done, so that’ll just take a few days to complete.

Decreases

The last bunch of rows is where the beanie gets closed up with decreases.

Looking ahead in the pattern, the decreases seems to just be k2togs, so nothing fancy.

Pompom

I received the faux fur pompom in the mail:

There’s a little loop which I can use to attach it to the apex of the beanie.

Right now I don’t know exactly how I’ll attach it, but I’ll deal with that when I get closer to the end 🤷‍♂️.

See you at the next update 🫡

Crafting Projects · Hats

White Frost Beanie (Gray) [Part 00] – New Project!

Mihir Yerande1 Comment

Now that I’m done with the Aran Sweater that I’d been procrastinating for so long, it’s time for a new project!

White Frost Beanie (Gray)

My next project is the White Frost Beanie!

I was looking for a beanie with some cabling, and this one really has a nice look!

I’m planning on making two of them in different colors, but first is gray.

Example Project

The plan was to make on in a nice gray color, so that the cables would be more visible. Initially, I was going to get the same yarn brand as mentioned in the pattern, but turns out they are in Europe and don’t ship to the US.

However I found a user project on Ravelry that had the color I wanted. Also it had the same yarn material composition as the pattern, which is something I wanted.

Here’s the project: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/susansknitworld/white-frost

Materials

Here’s the yarn I decided to go with.

I’m also adding a faux fur pompom, which I’m getting from Michael’s.

The combination of gray with the lighter brown fur pompom should look good (I think!)

Also, the pattern says to use double-point needles, but I’m going with circular 🤷‍♂️

Current Status

I’ve just received the yarn, so I’m now checking my gauge to make sure the size is right.

I don’t usually prefer to check the gauge, but in this case it’s a gift 💁‍♂️ so I will.

Will report back soon on progress!

Crafting Projects · Sweaters

Aran Sweater 1 [Part 11] – Complete!!

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The Aran Honeycomb Sweater is finally complete!

Final Steps

Weaving in Ends

Since my previous post, I (very slowly and tediously) sat down and wove all of the ends in.

That part wasn’t too difficult, but there were quite a few loose ends due to the multi-part nature of the sweater.

Neckband

I had been considering whether I should undo the neckband bind-off since it came out a bit tight. I ended up deciding not to re-open it and just let it stay as it was. That turned out to be a good decision because the collar loosened a bit over time! Even though it’s still somewhat tight, it’s not difficult to get my head through anymore. And also the tightness of the collar actually makes the fit more snug overall, which I think is a good feature for a sweater to have 👍

The pattern also called for the neckband to be folded and sewn down, but I just did this with the yarn itself and it turned out pretty well!

Final Thoughts

This was definitely a fun project and very straightforward to follow!

The pattern document itself was very well-written and nicely formatted too.

Also, since the cable patterns here aren’t very difficult, it’s a good project for beginners to get into cables.

Ravelry Link

Here’s a link to my project on Ravelry:

Happy to finally get this WIP out of the way 😮‍💨

On to the next project 🚀 !!

Crafting Projects · Sweaters

Aran Sweater 1 [Part 10] – Seaming

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I haven’t posted at all yet this year! Can you believe it??

In the meantime, I was slooooowly getting the seaming done, and now I’m nearly finished!

While I was getting the seaming done, I was a bit worried about whether my pace was even. Also the sleeve cuffs seemed like they might end up too tight, but I’d say everything turned out fine.

Remaining Steps

Weave in Ends

Lots of loose ends to weave in and hide in the mesh…

Not too difficult, but far from my favorite part of any project 😩

Fix Neckband

When I finished the last knitting step and bound up the neckband, I didn’t do it very loosely. So now the collar is a bit tight, and I may have to reopen it (snip ✂️ snip ✂️).

The neckband is also supposed to be folded inwards and sewed to its bottom, so that it becomes half its current height. But I think this will be difficult to do with the bind-off being tight, and it’ll probably make the collar even tighter. However, I’ll push off the decision on reopening the neckband until I’m done weaving in the rest of the ends.

Almost There!

Time to weave in those ends!

Here’s hoping I don’t procrastinate again and end up posting months from now… 🤞