Tag Archives: Evelyn A. Clark

White knits

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So far I’ve recently written about my new orange, blue, brown, and red knits. I know. Not really much of a way to organize my presentation. This is the last planned post that plays with just one color. And this time it’s white and sort-of-white.

Didn’t this turn out sweet? It’s Knitwise Design’s Hunting Season Hat. In my version, I’ll have to dub it Snow Season Hat. This is my third time knitting this hat and I’ve yet to knit it in blaze orange. This version is knit in Blue Sky Extra. There’s a bit of story to that. I bought my Extra in New Orleans on a business trip at a wonderful shop in the French Quarter. I knit most of it up in my Minnie. It’s a wonderful Aran weight yarn, in 55% merino 45% alpaca. And the extra must refer to extra soft because it definitely is.

I had extra Extra, so I lengthened my Annie Baker Designs Minnie to an extravagant 69 inches. It’s 11 inches at its widest point.

It was such a pretty thing. “Was” is the operative word. I simply couldn’t figure out how to wear it. I watched some videos on how to wear shawls and scarves. I got advice from friends. I finally decided to wear it once and someone told me it made “a bit of a statement.” Indeed. I frogged it. The yarn had been garter stitched for more than three years when I unravelled it and rolled it into a nice big ball. It was very kinked up but, honestly, I just didn’t feel like going through the effort to wash it and re-skein it. I just knit my hat, kinks and all.

I couldn’t be more pleased with it. Here’s a look at its crown decreases.

Hunting Season Hat barely made a dent in my frogged Extra. So I decided to knit Antonia Shankland’s Hello Cowl. It’s a Ravely freebie.

It knitted up very kinky looking and needed a complete soak to relax into the pattern. The soaking caused the crispness of the patterning to disappear. But I still like it. A lot actually. I cast on 130 stitches rather than 110 to widen the circumference. We’ve had some very chilly pontoon rides on the lake this week. I wore the cowl, some of the time, as Glass Head is modeling it. Sort of a snood.

I know I will get much more use out of this hat and cowl than Minnie. Minnie is a very sweet pattern, though. Don’t shy away from it just because I couldn’t get it to look quite right on me.

Maybe you remember that I totally overbought on my Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran when I knit two Canada Geese for my grandkids?  The pattern said one skein of white. I was making two geese. I bought two 100 gram skeins.  Think about a Canada Goose. Their only white markings are a neckband and their chest. So I had gobs of acrylic Aran weight yarn left to work with. Hats. Knitting hats in warm weather is a thing with me.

This one is Lea Petäjä’s Neulepipo Novita 7 Veljestä. When I put the title into the Google translator it translates as “Knit Hat from Novita 7 Brother.” Novita 7 Veljestä is a yarn from Novitaknits, a Helsinki company. I’m a fan of no-nonsense pattern names so “Knit Hat” suits me.

It’s an excellent combination of meandering cables and nice beefy bobbles. I’ve always enjoyed working a rolled brim when the rolling is tamed by ribbing. And the crown decreases work well too.

My white Paintbox Aran yarn Canada Geese purchase still wasn’t exhausted. This next hat from the goose stash is another Ravelry freebie: Foryla by ArtbyTekora.

Foryla means “whirl” in Cornish. These alternating medallion cables do have a whirl quality to them. They were a boatload of fun to knit. The crown decreases got rather untidy though. But unless someone is filming a drone video above you that doesn’t matter too much. This time, I think that the body of the hat makes up for it. And it’s entirely possible I goofed on following the crown decrease instructions.

For a closing laugh since I know how many of you are not dishcloth knitters, here’s Evelyn A. Clark’s Bathtime Blossoms, a Fiber Trends pattern. I knit mine in sportweight Appalachian Baby Design US organic cotton. Call it a spa cloth if that better suits. This yarn was left over from a baby hat kit I knit up years ago. Such a pretty thing! Using up oddments  is yet another good excuse for dishcloth knitting. If you need any excuses, Dot, now that you’ve begun your journey into dishcloth knitting.

Orange stuff

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Maybe orange really is the new black.  At least of late I’m not knitting anything black (aging eyes). And orange is popping up repeatedly on my needles.  Not Halloween orange. Not hunter blaze orange. Warmer and rustier oranges.

This DK weight hat is Foliage by Irina Dmitrieva. It’s free on Ravelry. Gobs of knitters have knit it and raved about it. I figured it was time I gave it a try. I had one skein of HiKoo Sueno, 80% superwash merino, 20% rayon from bamboo. I’d never knit with Sueno before this. The yarn proved to have excellent stitch definition. It has a soft next-to-the-skin feel.

Foliage has an OK crown. It gets a bit disorganized at the very end. So if any drones photograph the top of my head maybe I’ll deny I knit it. Overall it’s a beautiful hat and a well-crafted pattern.

Knitting with Sueno set me to wondering about how they manage to get rayon from bamboo. Generally, rayon production of any kind isn’t a pretty picture. It’s all chemically reshaped cellulose. Bamboo will do as well as wood pulp to produce rayon. And since bamboo grows fast it’s likely a more ecologically sensitive choice if you want to end up with rayon. But both processes create carbon disulfide as a byproduct. That’s very nasty stuff. Especially if anyone inhales the fumes. I’m hoping that the workers who have to cook up this stuff are adequately protected.

This next orange hat is Jennifer Myrick’s Skywalk. I knit mine in Plymouth Yarn’s Worsted Merino Superwash.

Such a clever combination of knits and purls. There are no cables here. I love the reverse stockinette droops.

Gatlinburg Tennessee’s SkyBridge inspired the pattern. SkyBridge spans 680 feet and is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in North America. In the center there are three glass panels that give a better view of what’s 140 feet below.

Oh dear. That figure in the middle is checking out SkyBridge’s glass panels. In June of 2020, some goofball did a baseball slide onto the panels and cracked the glass.

In addition to not wanting children to grow up to be rayon production workers, let’s add glass maintenance workers on pedestrian suspension bridges. That said, it is easy to see how the bridge inspired the hat. Nice crown decreases too.

In case you’ve had enough of hats, let’s move on to another knitting passion of mine.

Yep, dishcloths. This one is Amy Marie Vold’s Blooming Basket, complete with butterflies. These mosaic dishcloths are totally easy and totally addicting. I knit mine in DROPS Garnstudio Paris, a good workhouse kitchen cotton slightly less rustic than Lily Sugar ‘n Cream. It’s already been doing yeoman service in my kitchen.

This next cloth is Scattered Flowers, from Evelyn Clark’s Bathtime Blossoms collection. It’s the rarity in my cloth knitting because it’s knit in sportweight. Somewhere I picked up a skein of Classic Elite Allegoro. Allegoro is, well was, 70% cotton 30% linen/flax. It doesn’t make for a hearty dishcloth. Consider it a spa cloth. I just wanted to try Clark’s pattern again. I’d last knit it many years ago.


Even though I picked up my skein of Sueno from the sale bin, it was still fairly pricey yarn. I didn’t want any to go to waste. This next hat is Aimee Alexander’s cute Sleepy Sunday. It comes in a full range of sizes. But I had only enough yarn for the toddler size, modeled here by my Ravatar.

So sweet!