Twined Hat

I started my twined hat yesterday at knitting at the Wild Ramp.  Here is a photo of Sally's hat:

It is even prettier in person.  Sally took a class in Lexington to learn how to do this technique and she is sharing it with the knitting group.  I think only Susan and I are making the hat.  I am not convinced that I will ever wear the hat, but I couldn't stand not to try it.  Here is the yarn that I am using for the project:

The purple mix in the colors is Noro Silk Garden Lite.   The two solids are Louisa Harding Grace-Silk and Wool.  The yarns are chosen because they have a special twist.  Sally calls it a Z twist.  I am knitting the hat on 16 inch size 5 needles.. 

 Washing directions are to hand wash in cold water or professionally dry clean.  Suggested needle size is US6.  50 grams and 110 yards.  50% Merino Wool and 50% Silk.  The above is the red/coral color.  The green is the same brand (Louisa Harding Grace Silk and Wool) as shown on the above label.  However it is Color 35 and Dye lot 66.

The pattern started with a three color cast on in which you use two of the colors and some scrap yarn as the third color.  Read at the end of this blog post for how I did this.  

  The twining is very easy.....you just cross the two colors with every stitch.   The three decorative rows that are done in the green and Red/coral color are Crook stitch.  I alternated purl and knit stitches with the yarn used for the purl stitches held in the front of the work and that of the knitted stitches held in the back   This results in a decorative stranding of the purl yarn across the row.  Next week the Deep stitch between the rows of Crook stitch.

My version of the hat ended up being a child's size.  I have not yet decided whether to block the hat so that the bottom pattern shows or whether to leave it as a roll.  I need to try it on a child before I make that decision.  

Here are the twins modeling the hat....doesn't need to be blocked:

I wanted to start the second twined knitted hat in October 2016, but I could not remember how I had cast on the last time.  It calls for a three strand cast.  My notes on this blog say to hold the waste yarn in the left hand and the other two strands in the right hand, but no other suggestions on just how I did it.  So I started googling.  I can NOT remember what I did.  But it looks great.

The first idea that I found is how to get around having to try to estimate how much yarn to use when using the long tail cast on method.  I thought this was such a good idea that I decided to add this into this blog post:

http://cocoknits.com/tips-and-tutorials/techniques/no-more-estimating-tail-length-for-a-long-tail-co/

I had estimated the way that Sally suggested and ended up with a REALLY long tail that seemed quite wasteful.  NOT Sally's fault...my fault for no believing that the amount that I had estimated from just wrapping the yarn around 92 times (number of stitches to cast on) was OK....didn't need to add in some excess. But I think that I will try the above next time that I cast on....

OK....looking for something better for my problem at hand.  And then I found it!  It incorporated the above as well.  And, of course, I can not find the link this morning.  So I will try to describe what I did on the cast on.  I used three strands of yarn.  Two of one of the colors and one of the other color that I was using for the first part of the hat.  I used all three strands to make a slip knot to hold the yarn in place on the needle just as I always do.  Then I put the two strands that I will be using in my right hand and the other that basically serves as waste yarn (but MATCHES) in my left and cast on normally alternating the two colors.  DO NOT count the slip knot as a stitch.