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After Your Hat Is Done

5/9/2014

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...or how to have a good excuse for playing around with balloons as an adult!
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
I just finished my new hat yesterday and thought I'd try out this trick I remember reading about somewhere. It allows you to block out stitch patterns on a hat, without getting folding lines at the sides (something that usually happens when laying it on a flat surface to dry after washing). 
Entrance.... 
The balloon!
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Picture
So you find yourself one of these (I bought mine at the supermarket) and start blowing it up just a little bit, so that you can easily fit your hat onto the balloon.
Then, with the ballon already inside, you continue blowing it up until it's filling out the whole hat - you might need to adjust the position of the hat by sliding it deeper into the balloon: The point is to have the top of the hat opened up without distorting the stitches too much!
Tie a knot into the mouth-piece, but don't tie it up too tightly! Being overzealous, I had overfilled my balloon and then needed to open it up again to let some air out and make it much smaller (and it's not easy to re-open a wet balloon, believe me!). In my giant balloon, I noticed that not only the stitch pattern got too lacy for my taste, but the whole hat would have been huge in the end if it stayed on there to dry.

To continue with the actual blocking, go and get one of those water-spritzy-thingies, like the one pictured on the right!
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
And now the real fun begins! Wet the hat up until it's completely soaked in water!!!
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
And then, just let it dry in a shady, well aired spot.
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Find some bowl that allows the balloon to stand upright, without the hat touching the ground.
Especially if you have a pom-pom attached to the hat you don't want it to lie down on one side and have a flat part at some spot, after blocking. Besides, it will dry quicker this way with all the water flowing away from the pom-pom...
Try to leave the ribbing hanging freely at the bottom, so that it won't get too stretched out.
(in the picture on the left you can see that I already had taken out some of the air to make the balloon much smaller in size).
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
After the wool is completely dry, fluff the badly treated pom-pom up a little bit with your fingers before taking the air out of the balloon.... And then admire your hard work: Bloomed stitches and a neatly blocked out hat without folding lines!!!!
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie
Balloon Blocking for hats by Rililie

The hat is worked in Shibui yarn (Maai) and will probably become a pattern soon...
The pom-pom was made by following my latest tutorial crush in this youtube video.
The balloon on the other hand has been thrown away quite unceremoniously...


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Socking News!

24/4/2014

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Since I have knitted my first pair of socks one and a half years ago I never have been without a sock-project in my knitting bag. There is something utterly soothing and nice when knitting a small project like this.
Socks on knittingtherapy blog by Rililie
It is portable: which means that I can throw it in a smallish (for my standards at least) handbag and take it out quickly at any time without having to cope with too much bulk (at a train station for example) and put it away equally quick (when said train is rolling in). 
It's perfect for traveling and can be very easy and repetitive if a simple pattern is chosen, so that I don't even bother taking a pattern with me most of the time.
There is always a sock WIP in my bag and when it's finished I immediately cast on another sock, to have it ready when needed.
When working on my socks I like the simple aluminium DPNs the most, they bend and are flexible (which is especially handy for the toe-up version I prefer, when starting with Judy's magic cast-on) and in my opinion slide much quicker and make for smoother, rhythmical knitting.

I have quite a lot of these in 2mm and 2,5mm sizes and since they are fairly cheap I am less sad when I frequently loose some here or there....
Socks on knittingtherapy blog, by La Maison Rililie
When traveling by plane I tend to use bamboo DPNs (most companies don't allow metal needles on board), but I quickly remove them when I get off, since I find it annoying to knit with them. At least in the 2mm size they tend to be too flexible, don't let the yarn slide off as smoothly and my knitting tends to look much more irregular! 
So I quickly get quite irritated by them...

I have tried the carbon DPNs in the same size and found them great - but after some use the metal tips loosened up a little (at least it got like that on my pair) and the yarn snags at the connection of the tip to the carbon body, which is no fun at all. So I got back to my old, bended, cheap aluminium version and I am happily knitting my socks again.
Socks on knittingtherapy blog, by La Maison Rililie
My preferred construction is the toe-up version I am describing in this free recipe here. I find the fit of the gusseted heel perfect for my feet: so I play around with the texture or colouring of each project but keep the main construction the same. In my last 2 pairs I have purled the gusset stitches which not only looks nice but also has the added bonus of making stitch markers for the gusset stitches redundant, since one can see immediately how many of them have been worked already!
To keep things even simpler I don't keep notes at all, but put safety pins to mark rows or crucial points I need to remember for the second sock. 

Like this I can see immediately when exactly I started the gusset increases by counting the rows on my first sock until said safety pin, or how many rows I added after the toe increase and things like that.
I also bring the cast-on tail to the RS after knitting some rounds, so that the yarn end that hangs on one side tells me where my rounds start - again without having to use any marker!
(It seems that the elimination of stitch markers makes me incredibly happy!)
Socks on knittingtherapy blog, by La Maison Rililie
The last one and a half year I am exclusively wearing home-knitted socks and I really hate store bought ones with a vengeance! It is such a difference to wear a sock that just fits you perfectly (without having it slide into the shoe when walking and producing a huge wedge underneath one's foot) and they are so much warmer and dryer and just pure bliss and perfection when worn!!!!
So, after all this sock-talk I wan't to know: 
What do you think of knitted socks? 
And do you have a preferred method or pattern?
Socks on knittingtherapy blog, by La Maison Rililie
Hm? By looking at my latest 4 pairs I seem to notice a preference for grey toes (and heels)!?!


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It's done

16/10/2013

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I finished the hat!!! You remember, my first project using my brand new gorgeous indy-yarn?
Quadrifurcus hat pattern by La Maison Rililie
I really like how it came out, even with its slightly unconventional shape… the fabric is quite dense because of the weave-pattern (which makes it very warm thankfully) and this allows the hat to take on different forms: so it can be worn either as a béret style hat (when pushed down at the back)….
Quadrifurcus hat pattern by La Maison Rililie
….or - my personal favorite - in a more hipster style (when just crunched a little bit at the top)! 
Pardon my slightly crazy eye in this pic… I don’t know what was *that* shocking… :)
Quadrifurcus hat pattern by La Maison Rililie
I did the ribbing with a slipped stitch detail and with diagonal shaping to keep it less bulky at the neck (since I always look like an idiot with either bulky & scrunched ribbing in my neck area or the wider part of the hat starting too high up)!
I think that the biased shape gives also a nice “turbanesque” touch to the whole hat (and keeps the top of the hat slightly lower & near the nape… a good thing when you wear a tall hat and you don’t really dig the smurf-look).
Quadrifurcus hat pattern by La Maison Rililie
The weave stitch seems to be a little complicated at first, but one gets into the rhythm soon enough…
…but the best thing is: it perfectly hides the jog when knitting in the round!!!!
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    Rililie

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