Flint Knits

One of the best things I did this spring was go to a big-ass cabin in the middle of central Michigan with some of my favorite people and dearest friends, who also happen to be knitters. There’s about a dozen of us, we live all over the U.S., and this was the fifth time we’d (almost) all gathered in one place to spend a weekend together.

We loafed around, we drank tequila, we ate cheese, and we swapped hats.

Photo by Minty. Also pictured: Christy, Caro, Nova, Julia, Ashley, Diana, & Sarah.
So many hats!

I used the occasion of the Hat Swap to design a jaunty chapeau for Ms. Frick Knits, otherwise known as JulieFrick.

I give you, in keeping with the FlintKnits tradition of silly pattern names …

*** Frick Frick BERET! ***

(This and all subsequent FrickFrickBeret! photos were taken by the amazing Caro Sheridan.)

I loved knitting this hat so much that I immediately made a second one for a swap with Chawne (she, like Julie, looks smashing in red). The second version is slightly less slouchy – un soupçon de slouch, more of a classic tam shape.

Sarah was kind enough to model it before I blocked it and sent it off to Chawne.

The angular leaf lace ends in star-shaped crown decreases.

A closer look at the two sizes, side by side.

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About the pattern: The Frick Frick BERET! pattern includes instructions for two sizes; options for either plain or rolled-edge brims; and both charts and written instructions for the lace pattern and crown decreases.

Skills needed: Knitting and purling in the round, increases and decreases, yarn-overs.

Materials:

• 1/2 skein Little Red Bicycle Hipster Sock (430 yards; 80% merino/20% nylon), or about 215 yards of another fingering weight yarn
• US 3 (3.25mm) circular or double-pointed needles (or size needed to get gauge) for your preferred method of knitting in the round
• US 2 (2.75mm) circular or double-pointed needles, for brim (or one size smaller than main needles)
• stitch marker
• tapestry needle

Sizes:

• un soupçon de slouch (a hint of slouch, pictured on Sarah)
• un petit peu plus de slouch (a little bit more slouch, pictured on Julia)

Brim circumference for both sizes measures 17″ unstretched, and up to 24″ stretched.

Gauge: 8 sts and 8 rows per inch in main lace pattern

Cost: $5 US

Let’s hear it — Frick, Frick, BERET!

 

**UPDATE! A LIST OF COMMON MODIFICATIONS TO THE FEBRUARY LADY SWEATER PATTERN IS NOW AVAILABLE HERE.**

As soon as I finished knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Sweater on Two Needles (more commonly known as the “February Baby Sweater”) for my niece, I thought, “I need that sweater.” Not for any other babies I know (and I seem to know an awful lot these days), but for me me me.(If you don’t already own Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac, you should. It’s the best $7 you will ever spend on a knitting book. For reals.)

Jenny was steps ahead of me, and had already made her own “giant” version, in baby pink. But I wondered if there was a way to make it more fitted on top, so the whole thing had a kind of 50s a-line shape to it. Enter the top-down raglan cardigan—the easiest sweater structure known to knitterkind.

I started with basic raglan shaping for the collar and yoke, then stuck in a row of eyelet increases just above the bust to add fullness all the way around. (I may still make an icord with pom-poms on the ends, and thread it through the eyelets, like so.)

And ended up with my new favorite sweater.

yarn: Sundara Worsted Merino in Green Over Ochre
needles: 5mm circular
buttons: 7/8″ wooden

Want to make your own? Sweet! I wrote up a free pattern.

[ravelry link]

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YARN: approximately 750 (850, 950, 1050, 1150) yards of worsted weight yarn. This lace pattern is especially lovely in semi-solid yarns—I used Sundara Worsted Merino in “Green Over Ochre.”

NEEDLES:
• US 8 (5mm) 32” circular needle, or size needed to get gauge
• US 8 (5mm) double-pointed needles, or size needed to get gauge

GAUGE: 18 stitches / 4” in garter stitch

FINISHED BUST SIZE: 35 (37.5, 41, 41, 44, 49.5, 52.5) inches (bust is the same for S and M, but sleeves are 1.75” larger on size M)

A note on sizing: You can easily make this cardigan smaller or larger by casting on fewer or more stitches at the beginning, and/or doing fewer or more raglan increases—just be sure that your final stitch counts for the sleeves and body are a multiple of 7 so that the stitch pattern works.

My raglan math (such as it is) owes a great debt to Barbara Walker’s Knitting From the Top, and to Laura’s fabulous (and free!) “Easy and Top Down” pattern.

All mistakes are, of course, my own—bring them to my attention at flintknits@gmail.com.

This was my first allover lace project, and it was great fun — even this simple pattern kept me interested and challenged, which is good. Plus, I feel a bit more prepared to take on my new copy of Victorian Lace Today…

But is it no longer a ‘party’ scarf if I leave off the beads? My sister is a very basic dresser, so even the lace scarf was a leap for her. Crystal beads were just not going to happen.

pattern: by Lisa Sisk for MagKnits
yarn: 1 skein ArtFibers Alfabeto, 100% silk
needles: 4mm bamboo
mods: skipped the beads for my low-maintenance sister

Here it is, pre-blocking, at the bottom of my bathroom sink. What a sad little blob it is!

And lit from behind by my sister’s attic window: