labourer's cap a.k.a. the Monmouth museum cap third attempt

So just under the wire for my third and last attempt for the labourer's cap in our regional arts and sciences competition held yesterday.  I worked within the information I could gather from studying the museum photo and the dimensions written by Rutt.  Something doesn't jive but I couldn't tell you exactly what that is so I went in between the two.
The hat is comfy, functional and well received.  It doesn't look the same as the museum photo but at this point, I'm pretty happy with my hat.
The original picture is here:  http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/large/item/GTJ01788/
The dimensions from Rutt are 22" around at the base and only 8" tall.  The image looks to be taller than the diameter.  Was this from the camera angle?  Was it stretched after being on this stand for too long?  Was Rutt incorrect in his measurements?  Can't answer those unless I go to Monmouth and measure myself so I guess I'll have to be content with what I have.
I was wondering about the gauge.  The hat I estimate to have about 50 rows and 60 sts around.  At one stitch per centimeter, that's 2.5 sts per inch.  At 8" it would be 6.25 rows per inch.  Whew that's compact.  The closest I was able to get was 5 rows per inch on my first attempt but I think my stitches were a little more per inch too.
So my final hat was in my own hand spun shetland yarn.  The rows ended up being half of the museum photo's but the dimensions were pretty darn close.  It's comfy too so next winter I have a hat!

labourer's cap a.k.a. the Monmouth museum cap

So number two of the cap has been done for a bit now.  I've had two or three false starts with the third rendition of the cap.  At this gauge (2.75 sts to the inch) I've discovered that it's easy to incorrectly measure gauge.  I thought I had 3 sts/inch.  That makes a big difference in your cast on sts.
Argh.  Well, I'm trusting Fate to deliver me a good outcome.  I was going to use a commercial yarn, but it has synthetic in it.  Now I have the practice enough to spin the right thickness of yarn, so I'm using hand spun now instead.  Come on now, the competition is only three days away ;-)

Here's second attempt below the first.  They want you to full the hat down to size.  I can't see the people in the 16th century using this technique like this, but hey, who am I?

A Boobie Hat

Okay, so the running gag involves a woman breast feeding and someone else complaining about her being in public.  So apparently the boobie hat for baby is to bring attention to the completely natural act of breastfeeding and the fact that there's nothing wrong with it and nothing to be ashamed of either.  Anyways, I was asked to make a pattern for our charity group to knit.  Here it is:

The Baby Boobie Hat

Stephanie Goodchild

Yarn

Worsted weight or #4 medium weight

Example done with Vanna’s Choice “beige” and Bernat Waverly  “Bitter Rose”

Needles

5mm or US8 dpns

gauge is 5 to 6 sts per inch

Cast on 48 sts

Work in Stockinette stitch for 8mm or 3”

First decrease row: k2 tog, k4, repeat to end of round

Next row: k

Decrease: k2 tog, k3, repeat

Next row: k

Decrease: k2 tog, k2, repeat

Next row: k

Decrease: k2 tog, k1, repeat

Change to secondary colour

K row

K2 tog, repeat

K row

Cut yarn and use yarn needle to loop through remaining 4 stitches and tie off on the inside.

Weave in ends.

Voila! Boobie for baby ;-)

labourer's cap a.k.a. the Monmouth museum cap

So as my A&S competition entry this year I decided to work on a simpler and quicker project than the warp weighted loom weaving I did for last year's entry (which incidentally took a year's worth of weaving).  This is one of the largest gauges I've seen in pre-1600 knitting.  According to Richard Rutt, one stitch per centimetre.  As to whether this item was also fulled to the point of shrinkage or not seems to be up on debate.  That would mean the gauge was originally bigger.  However, the stitches are quite distinct so I'm inclined to think it was either fulled only to increase water resistance or simply fulled through use.  The image from the museum (http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/large/item/GTJ01788/) I have found to be very helpful in deciphering the construction.  The first of my attempts is based mainly on Rutt's interpretation and I've found some major oversights in his pages.  Such as cast-on method he thinks may have been used or where the cast on takes place.  Whether it's cast on at the inside part of the brim and knit as one piece, or cast on at the edge and picked up later to make the inside brim is not stated.  The "button" is not defined.
I decided to pick up at the bottom edge after a knitted cast on for the main body of the hat.  It does not produce the edge shown in the museum picture.  I knew it wouldn't but I wanted to show the progression of my research and experimentation.  Believe me, knowing this wasn't the right method did not sit well with my OCD, lol.  After speaking with several ladies on Ravelry my second attempt will look much more authentic to the original.

Post holiday lull

So I can post all of my project results now that the holidays are past.
The Polish coat is completed and delivered.  He'll be trying it out at tonight's fencing practice.  I'll be crossing my fingers that it isn't too bulky and annoying.

My sister posted that she's using the gauntlets I made for her.  I can't imagine Edmonton being very toasty warm this time of year so I made these for her and she seemed to love them.

The girls seemed to like their stuff as well.  I chose three patterns from "Vampire Knits" a book I bought for the purpose.  A tourniquet scarf, a werewolf hat, and pulse protectors or palm readers or something for the gauntlets.  They all have cutsey names but the patterns aren't too bad.  I do want to make the beer covers with the blood type based on the True Blood series ;-)

I also made some stuff for my honey including some nalbind socks.

No rest for the wicked.  I"m off to the next project and the charity knitting.

holiday knitting

So since I don't have enough projects at this time of year my boss asked me for a favour.  She's having her first grandchild and asked if I could knit a sweater and hat for the baby to come.  She wants it for christmas of course :-P  How could I say no?

I found a pattern for the "baby surprise jacket" in my Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop book.  On Ravelry there are something like 1600 people who have done this pattern.  In the knitting podcast that I listen to (yeah I know how geeky that sounds but I don't care, ha ha), by Kelley Petkun of Knit Picks, highly recommends it.  She's done several of them over the years.  I even found some YouTube videos with tips and tricks to make more sense of the vague wording of the pattern.
http://youtu.be/xMirlP_YuXo

So far I'm almost finished the first batch of decreases and I'll be onto the next stage of the sweater today.  I would have liked to have done stripes or a variegated yarn but she wanted plain jane so I guess I'll just have to make a second one for another bundle of joy somewhere down the road.  There are always more baby showers to go to right?

I used Bernat Satin Sport weight so it's super soft to the touch.  I wanted to avoid wool as I didn't know how they'd feel about that.  Some people are funny about wool.  I figured the washability was cool and you could throw it in the dryer without worry.  This line of yarn is a little fuzzy but I don't think it'll be an issue of wear for a baby as they grow so fast.  I hope they like it.

knitting

I've been working on some knitting projects but I can't post them as they are presents for this coming yule.  However, I've also just finished a baby hat for the charity I work with called LeeLee Hats.  I have a feeling I'll have to make a few of these due to the cuteness factor.

I don't have a baby to model it so this little guy will have to do.

Knitting

So I'm reading through Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop book (http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0942018001) and it's kind of a knit-a-long.  It asks you to knit a very large swatch for preparation for a sweater in the round.  I figured I'm knitting 5" in the round with 80 sts (stitches) so why not have some fun.  I need to wash the swatch so it's not like I can pull it out and reuse it for the sweater.  I thought, I need a new purse.  I love doing colour work and want to add it to the sweater.  A while back I found a chart for the Norwegian star pattern and added it to the 5" swatch.  Voila, a new purse after I line it and add a handle.