Tag Archives: Purl Soho

Library Blanket

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This is Purl Soho’s Library Blanket, designed by the shop’s owner and founder, Joelle Hoverson. This is what purlsoho’s profile says about itself on Ravelry: “Purl Soho is best known for bringing a modern sensibility to traditional fiber arts. Our own brand yarns and an extensive collection of (mostly free!) patterns have been inspiring crafters around the world since 2002.” And so they have.

For this project I decided I wanted to follow the pattern precisely, even the color choices. So I swallowed hard and bought the kit from the NYC Purl Soho shop (with its California warehouse). A few times each year all the Purl Soho shop-brand yarns are on sale (usually for 25% off) so I at least waited for a sale.

The kit for the larger size blanket includes 7 skeins of Purl Soho Lineweight. Lineweight is a fingering weight in 50% wool, 35% alpaca, and 15% linen/flax. Not an easy mix to reproduce in another yarn. For the larger blanket, the pattern suggests you buy one extra skein of the natural shade because–unless you knit to perfect gauge–you’ll be very close on the yardage. I decided to buy one extra skein. Somehow I ended up buying two. And, part of the story on this blanket, I ended up having yardage leftover even from the first skein of the natural Lineweight (“Heirloom White”).

Library Blanket is knit double-stranded throughout with one strand of Lineweight and one strand of Purl Soho Linen Quill. Linen Quill is a light fingering weight 100% merino. Changing one yarn, or the other, or both, as the work progresses creates the interesting marled effect.

My blanket, minus its border used:

Line Weight (494 yards per 100 grams):

94 grams (475 yards) Heirloom White
60 grams (297 yards) Bright Flamingo
82 grams (405 yards) Red Plum
108 grams (534 yards) Lotus Flower
116 grams (573 yards) Blue Jeans
Total Line Weight used in the body of the blanket was 460 grams, 2284 yards.

In Linen Quill (439 yards per 100 grams) I used:

80 grams (352 yards) Pale Oats
52 grams (229 yards) Super Orange
46 grams (202 yards) Dark Iris
20 grams (88 yards) Crocus Bulb
284 grams (1247 yards) Cobalt Blue
Total Linen Quill used in the body of the blanket was 482 grams, 2118 yards.

If you’re knitting this blanket in yarn other than the Purl Soho, the yardage of each color could be helpful. Of course, your mileage may vary. I have a ridiculous amount of excess yarn from this project even not including the two extra skeins of Heirloom White Line Weight I purchased. It’s great yarn though and I am already thinking about what uses I’ll put it to.

As a number of folks who’ve knit this blanket have observed, the blanket looks a tad raw without a border. Plus, there’s a noticeable difference in the cast-on (and off) for the vertical rows as compared to the edges of the horizontal rows. The perfectionists among us might want to knit a border.

I used a double strand of Linen Quill in Cobalt Blue and Heirloom White in Line Weight for my border. It used 90 more grams of yarn. I hooked all my Chiaogoo cords together. Then I picked up stitches all along the outer edge along with 1 stitch in the corner (which I framed with 2 stitch markers). Then I worked garter stitch in the round. On each right-side facing knit round, knitting in the front & the back of the stitch before and after the corner marked stitch created a nicely mitered corners.

This turns out to be a lightweight but very warm blanket. Actually, Library Blanket is more of a throw than a blanket, measuring about 40 inches wide and 56 inches long. That’s assuming you agree that the horizontal rows establish the width. To my eye, those rows represent the bookshelves and the vertical rows are the books of various thicknesses.

Here’s a few thoughts I jotted down to remember in case I knit this again:

(1) When working the slip stitch on the vertical stripes, it looked best to me if I slipped the stitches purlwise.

(2) Using a double-pointed needle in a shorter length or a shorter length circular helped make the vertical sections knit up more quickly.

(3) After working the PSSO on the vertical sections, tightening up the last stitch a bit before starting to work the wrong side row worked well and closed up the sloppy stitch that seemed to want to form.

(4) Even the thought of weaving all those ends in only after completing the knitting made me want to take a long winter’s nap. I worked the ends in as I knit along, using the same technique I use in Fair Isle knitting.

(5) When picking up stitches at the start of the horizontal garter stitch rows I didn’t follow the directions in the pattern. Instead, I picked up stitches between the “bumps,” not into them, because that’s always worked well in my Rambling Rows afghans.

(6) Before cutting the yarns at the end of each section, remember to look ahead to what yarns are used in the coming section. The pattern always says to cut both yarns. But sometimes one of the colors is continued into the next section so you only need to cut one yarn.

I can’t get enough of looking at this one. I love the colors. It doesn’t “go” with anything in my decor, but honestly I don’t care. I like the cut of its jib.

And how cool is this? The shop also sells a matching 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle!

The shop even includes a postcard you can send to a knit buddy announcing your blanket’s completion.

Classic Ravelry freebie hats

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This is Kristine Byrnes’s 1898 Hat. I first put this hat into my queue in…in…possibly closer to 1898 than 2021. Byrnes explains that the pattern is inspired by a photo of a hat pictured in a magazine that was published around 1910. Odd details sometimes trouble me about pattern naming. And that leads me to ask why this isn’t the 1910 Hat. But my brain on fiber fumes is an unruly thing.

This is a great pattern. Truly. It’s double garter stitch over the ears. So this is a very warm hat. The pattern calls for worsted weight. That’s what I used. I knit this one in Stonehedge Fiber Shepherd’s Wool in the Aurora colorway.

Here’s a look at the well-behaved crown decreases.

Off-head it looks a tad squat. That’s an illusion. It’s just a deep head-hugger.

The construction is clever. Before I knit the hat, I assumed that was an applied i-Cord edge at the bottom of the hat. It isn’t. Possibly I should just leave it that and entice you to download this freebie and give it a test drive. But Byrnes provides the reveal in her Ravelry pattern page description. The edges of the headband, that is the part that fits around the head and over the ears, are folded together along a slip stitch seam. Then the edges are knit together as you move from the garter stitch section to working in the round for the stockinette section. So what seems to be i-Cord is actually a slip stitch section running through the flat section of the garter stitch.

I finished my first 1898 and immediately started a second one.

This one I knit in a yarn that’s new to me: Novita 7 Veljesta Solid. Before returning to 1898, my apologies to any Finnish speakers I’ve offended. The yarn name has what I know as an umlaut above the “a” in Veljesta. I have no idea how to type an umlaut on my keyboard. So think “:” over that last “a,” but with the dots cozying up to one another, flipped over sideways. I hope leaving off the umlaut hasn’t said something naughty. Veljesta is an interesting 75% wool/25% nylon mix. I highly recommend the yarn. It has the warmth of wool, with nylon for strength, and was great to work with.

Back to 1898. My first one was a tad small for an adult. FeltHead’s head size is smaller than Glassheads. And I wanted to fiddle and flatten the crown decrease just a tad. So this time I added 2 rows to the ear flaps and 4 rows (or thereabouts) to the front. I ended up picking up 93 stitches–a few more than the pattern directs. Basically, you need to pick up a stitch for every furrow in the garter stitch. I reduced the stitches down to 91 in the first round. Then, in the decrease section, I started out with K11, K2tog across the round. I knit 2 rows after the first 3 decreases, and 1 row after the next 2 decreases, and then I decreased each round. The resultant crown turned out a bit more round than in my first version.

If I can just find 2021 heads who like this 1898/1910 look, these hats will be popping off my needles like crazy.

One thing that occured to me (and I’m not the first)? Just stopping after the headband and stitching the edges together makes for a great headband. This past winter…oh, wait, it still seems to be winter in the north country…this winter lots ‘o folks were asking me for headbands.

This next Ravelry classic is really a Purl Soho classic. It’s Garter Earflap Hat. Every newborn I’ve encountered in the last several years has almost gotten one of these hats. I finally knit one.

I had one ancient skein of Nautika, an Aran-weight by Knit One, Crochet Too. The pattern calls for Aran weight. So I was off to the races. More than 11,000 Ravelers have project pages on the site with their version of this cutie. Except for the Pixie top, it’s got a bit of 1898 going. Obviously the earflaps are much less exaggerated.

The pattern is easy, but oddly written–especially in the short row sections. After you set the markers and work the first set of short rows, you are wrapping the stitch after the divide/space in your row. I’m not sure why the directions on that are a bit garbled.

There are also quite a few questions that arise around the double decrease directions. What I did, which worked well, was to put a removable marker at the first double decreases. Then vertical rows of stockinette make it clear where you work the decrease: slip the stitch before the vertical row and the vertical row stitch, knit the next stitch, then pass the two slipped stitches over the knit stitch.

It’s such a sweet thing. And I think the bright topper was a great finish.

Garter Earflap Hat is sized from infant to large adult. If there are large adults out there wearing this hat I don’t think they’ve made their way into Montmorency County, Michigan yet. But babies? Babies pretty much let you put anything on their heads especially if it doesn’t have chin ties. They will look so cute in this one!

Cowl weather is coming

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Before I became a voracious knitter, decades ago now, I didn’t know what a cowl was. Now I sometimes even wear them in the summer or to take the bite out of an air-conditioned chill. This cowl is Purl Soho’s freebie: Floats Cowl. I knit mine out of Heritage Yarn’s Prime Alpaca. It’s a 100% alpaca sport weight.

I had difficulty with what should have been an easy knit. It’s a 2 row pattern and you work it looking at the non-public side. In other words, the floats, formed from slipping two stitches, form on the inside. On the next round, you purl the slipped stitches. For me, it was very difficult to look at my knitting and know which round I was on. Even when I started counting rounds, “odd round are slip stitch rounds and even rounds are plain rib,” my brain would lapse into the wrong stitches. Plus, it’s a very hard stitch to fix when you goof–at least it was for me. And every mistake shows up very obviously. I tried stitching a repair in one spot. That worked…poorly,

I tried working the stitch facing the public side. It doesn’t look the same. Moving the yarn before and after you slip the stitches anchors the yarn (or something like that) and it gives a different look.

I am typically good with really boring knits. Miles of garter stitch bore many experienced knitters. But not me. Apparently knitting something that’s only a bit boring and I lose my concentration and screw up. Sigh. This cowl is very warm. I’ll get good use out of it.

I knit the full 11 inches that the pattern called for. I blocked the cowl after soaking it in Eucalan, toweling out the moisture, and laying the cowl flat (without using any pins). I had lots of yarn and didn’t worry about the gauge. Mine came out to be 42 inches in circumference and 11 inches deep. A worthwhile knit. And because there’s a few mistakes in it, I will keep it for me!

This next cowl is Jenny F’s No January Blues Cowl. The blue is Tosh DK by Madelinetosh, a beefy DK that matched Mirasol Yarns Umina, which is actually a rather light worsted. Jenny F says “This DK/light worsted weight cowl uses 2 colors to create a gorgeous melange accessory that will effortlessly fit into your wardrobe.”  I knit this awhile back, as part of a mystery knit-a-long (MKAL). Honestly, I have been following the bandana cowl craze with disinterest and I don’t think I’d have knit it if I knew what I would end up with.

This.

But it’s a pretty thing. I wore it, once, and people commented on it without mentioning that it’s a melange accessory. At least they didn’t ask if I was getting ready to rob a bank.

Here’s an easy peasy one, Boxing Clever, in bulky-weight Duo, by Jarbo-Garn. It’s an acrylic gradient-like yarn. Quite beautiful. This freebie cowl, designed by Susan Ashcroft of Stichnerd Designs, includes instructions for changing the size and yarn weight.

I cast on 108, despite this being a bulky-weight. This was me in stash-down mode, which continues apace. So I used up nearly all my remaining skein by working 5 rows of boxes, 60 rounds. It’s a wonderfully extravagant major cowl that you can easily knit in one night.

For your neck

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Felt Head is wearing Diamond in the Rough, a Baah Yarn scarf. Baah set the price at $6 and it’s available (for that price) on Ravelry. The local yarn shop where I bought my skein of La Jolla, a 100% merino fingering weight, said the pattern was free and gave me a copy. They are, excuse me were, a reputable shop that I assume had Baah’s permission to distribute the pattern for free with a purchase. I don’t whine about pattern prices on this blog or in the real world either. But I make an exception for $6 for a three-stitch repeat across every row of the scarf. C’mon–I’m definitely going to bleat to Baah about that!

This planned pooling pattern is supposed to work well with Baah Yarn’s “dipped and dappled” La Jolla. I used the Tequila Sunset colorway.

I’ve knit this pattern, twice, in Baah’s Savannah. The planned pooling worked out great.

The pattern says it’s designed for both Savannah and LaJolla. It’s also supposed to work itself into a plaid (sort of) in LaJolla. This time it didn’t work as well as I’d have liked. In the center part of the scarf the pooling worked perfectly. I have a rough but fairly distinct plaid. But on both ends? The patterning is dramatically off. I thought maybe the first part of the skein was dyed incorrectly. The end section is “off” in a similar way.

It’s still pretty. Well, except for the sections that look like long drips of blood. So, not what I expected or hoped for.

I have one more skein of LaJolla in my stash. I may give Diamond in the Rough one more try sometime soon.

LaJolla is fairly expensive yarn, in the $30 range for 400 yards. Noro Transitions is competitive with LaJolla price-wise per 130-yard skein. Actually, was competitive. It’s been discontinued. But I found a few skeins at a deep discount. Transitions is 51% Wool/ 14% Silk/ 7% Cashmere/ 7% Angora/ 7% Alpaca/ 7% Mohair/ 7%Camel. Yep. You can’t make that up!

I used Purl Soho’s free mistake rib scarf pattern. Mistake rib works with any multiple of 4, plus 3 stitches. I cast on 23 stitches, which turned out to be about six inches wide, using size 11 US needles. I knitted until both my skeins were exhausted. This kind of knitting goes so very, very quickly that there’s no chance the knitter will be exhausted by the effort. I ended up with a 60-inch scarf.

You’re wondering what Wool/Silk/Cashmere/Angora/Alpaca/Mohair/Camel yarn feels like? As the skein progresses, through (apparently) a series of blends of fiber, one fiber or the other dominates. I could distinguish the wool, the angora and definitely the silky sections. The other fibers are less familiar to me so I didn’t recognize the feel–except, different. It’s a fun super bulky and if you can find any skeins I recommend it for a quick knit.

Cooper’s Hats

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So, there’s a little guy I’ve not met named Cooper. But I know his uncle. He’s six years old. Cooper, that is. Not his uncle. Cooper needed some hats pretty quick. Fun ones. Sporty ones. Ones to cover up some bad hair days his doctors have decided he needs. Cooper’s not an “off-the-rack” kid, so finding some not-off-the-rack hats seemed like a good idea.

This is Capitan Hat, a free pattern by Rosie Garmendia. Cooper’s is knit in Valley Yarns Superwash Bulky, the Webs house brand. It comes in 26 colorways and, unfortunately, what I had in my stash was not the most exciting of them. But I pressed “tan” into service anyway and I’m quite pleased with the results. I was concerned if the two-surface brim would hold up without stiffener inside. It does.

Here’s a view of the interesting crown decreases:

Just the thing for a baseball fan, I’d say.

This next one is an old stand-by. Cooper has a connection to Michigan State University so the Sparties were the inspiration.

This is a vintage (but still available) Fiber Trends pattern: “School Colors Hat, AC-53,” by Betsy Lee McCarthy. That’s a double roll brim. You start out with the green and do reverse stockinette. Then you do the white, in stockinette, then the green at the top. You sort of pull the white down and roll it back on itself, so the reverse side shows, and then the green from the first band of knitting falls in place.

Bottom line: follow this pattern exactly as it’s written and it will all work out. There are no errors.

I wanted something very comfy so I used Berrocco Comfort, worsted weight. No scratchiness.

Very well-behaved crown decreases.

Bet you can’t make just one!

This next hat is another Susan Villas Lewis’s “The Thinker.” I have knit so many Thinkers it’s getting kind of embarrassing to keep linking to them all. But search for Thinker here on my blog and up they’ll pop.

Cooper’s is knit in Plymouth Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash Solid. Soft. Easy care. Great stitch definition.

My trusty Clover pompom maker worked overtime on this batch of hats.

I know, The Thinker in this size doesn’t fit Glass Head really well. But Cooper’s a little guy.

Cooper like clowns. So I bought a skein of clownish-looking Plymouth Yarn Toybox Candy. It’s  an acrylic that can’t help but put a smile on someone’s face.

This is Purl Soho’s “Classic Cuffed Hat,” another freebie available on Ravelry and on the Purl Soho website. Everything this designer produces is classic. Sophisticated. So I gave in to the temptation to knit her design in a gaudy colorway. That’s because Purl Soho patterns go to art galleries. In New York City. They practice yoga. But Cooper’s Classic Cuffed Hat shouts.

And this last hat is Clayoquot Toque, a modern fair isle freebie from tincanknits that tincan says is a great blank canvas for testing yarns and color combinations. It really is. I wasn’t sure about whether these three colorways of Shalimar Yarns Breathless DK would play nice together.

But I think they did. And this 75% merino, 15% cashmere goat, 10% silk concoction is so soft it should keep a little guy’s head brightly covered but not overheated.