Machine Knit Dead Fish Hat

At a machine knitting retreat earlier this fall, my friend Sheri knit some fish hats.  She knit them on the bulky machine, which I no longer own, so I needed to re-calculate stitches and rows for a standard gauge machine.  I haven't tried this hat on a human, so I'll have to wait for Christmas when my grandson comes.  Feel free to adjust anything I did.  You can try one with these directions and modify from that.  All credit for the design idea goes to Thelma Egberts, who first came up with it.

My Machine Knit Version of the Dead Fish Hat byThelma Egberts As featured in Knitty, Winter 2008.

MACHINE  standard gauge

GAUGE  for body of hat T7 7 st and 10 r = 1”

YARN  Tamm Bebe and similar weight yarns

FINISHED SIZE for age 3 (so far)  15” circumference; 13” from nose to beginning of tail 

As usual, I was lazy and just stuck the hat under the lid of my scanner.  Better pictures I coulda had.

  

DIRECTIONS

For Body of the fish   Knit two pieces the same

Lips...Cast on 56 stitches (28-0-28) with waste yarn and knit a few rows, one row ravel cord. (I started with waste yarn because the tension was tight for my machine and yarn.)   Change to lip color (main yarn). Ewrap cast on over the ravel cord.   At T5 knit 14 rows. 

Nose...Change to T7 and fish color.  Machine to hold.  Put 10 stitches in the center to work, the rest in hold.  Knit across, wrap N closest to carriage and push 1 N opposite carriage into work.  Repeat until 10 N are in work each side of zero.  Now knit across, wrap N closest to carriage, put 2 in work opposite the carriage until 40 N are in work.  Repeat the same method now with pushing 3 into work until all are in work.  Take machine off hold.  “Nose” is done.

Body...RC000 Knit 60 rows.  Change colors as desired (I did every 20 rows).  If doing stripes, leave a long tail of each new color for seaming so that you seam with the same color as the stripe.  Decrease 1 stitch full fashioned both sides, K 4 rows.  Repeat until you have 30 stitches left.  Take off on waste yarn or garter bar and decrease to 15 stitches.  Knit 2 rows and decrease to 8 stitches, k 2 R.  Bind off around the gate pegs.

Seam sides from lips to tail.  Hide yarn ends if you have any.

Top Fin  Knit one

Cast on in 1 x  1 rib, T 4/4 , 35 stitches.  A loose cast on is good, for a change.  18 on main bed and 17 on ribber.  Knit 10 rows.   Transfer rib st to main bed.  Knit one row with main carriage, take off on waste yarn and decrease to half.  Knit one row and bind off tightly.  Sew to the top of the hat, in the middle, about 6 inches back from the lips.

Side Fins  Knit two

Same as top fin except do 27 stitches and 14 rows.  Sew into the side seams about 4 inches back from the lips.

Tail   knit two pieces

T7  Ewrap cast on 20 stitches with tail color.  K one row.  *Increase one st both sides, k 2 rows* 3 times.  Increase one stitch both sides knit 10 rows.  Increase one st both sides K 2 rows.  Transfer every 4^th st to its neighbor and move stitches in so there are no empty needles.  Knit 2 rows. * Transfer every 3^rd stitch to neighbor, fill in empty needles, k 2 rows.* twice.  Knit 2 rows, decrease 1 stitch each side, knit one row.  Bind off.  Fold each tail piece in half and seam shut.  Seam pieces to tail end of the fish.

Eyes  make two

Out of felt, cut two eyes about the size of a silver dollar.  Sew onto the hat with matching thread using tiny stitches.  Embroider x’s with black yarn to make it look like the poor creature is dead.

Notes:  At 112 stitches this should fit the average 3 year old.  So, I’m thinking to make the hat larger or smaller, you could adjust with this in mind.  For example, an adult typically needs about 21 inches so at this gauge, 7 x 21 =147  stitches.  Maybe subtract an inch so it fits snugly, then don’t start decreases until row 80. 140 stitches sounds large to me for an adult hat, so you'll need to use your own judgement.  Using a tight tension for the lips will hopefully help the hat stay on, but it also makes the nose puff out a tad.  Probably when worn it will smooth out.  I love how it looks from the side--- like the fish is eating the person's head.  Ha ha.  Another fun aspect of this hat is that you can use any design you want for the body of the hat from snowflakes to scales to stripes.

Thelma's hats:

Using DAK placing a single motif on the front of a sweater

I'm designing a sweater for my grandson with his favorite (English) cartoon character on the front.  (Peppa Pig)  It's been a while since I've worked with single motifs, so I had to review the process.  It's not very intuitive, so I'm keeping the steps in a DAK Tips and Techniques file on my computer for next time.

1.  Design your motif and your sweater first.  On your motif, make sure your background color (right mouse button) is the color you'll use on the sweater background. Also, make sure your motif includes only the height and width of the motif and check that it is the right number of stitches and rows to fit comfortably onto the front of the sweater.  Baby and children's sweaters can be small so the right motif is important.  Go Options...tensions to put in your swatch information.

2.  In Stitch Designer, go File...new pattern set-up.  Choose the pattern and choose either back or front.  It's probably just my program, but if I chose front first then the pattern, it would flip to back.  IF I chose the pattern first then the side of the sweater, it stayed where I wanted it. 

3.  On the next screen, Tensions and notes, fill in what you want. 

4.  A blank screen appears with the background color you specified and the number of stitches and rows needed.  Go Edit...Import a single motif.   Choose the motif.

5.  If you click the 4th icon from the right on the top bar, you will get a cut out and it's easier to see what your piece will look like.  Left click, hold and drag the motif to the location you want.  Save.

6.  You can either knit the piece interactively with the motif integrated OR you can print the garment notation pattern out to follow.  Then download the motif to your machine positioning it where you want it.  Set your machine for fairisle.  The machine will take care of the design and you will just need to follow the garment notation chart.

There will be long floats because I just want the outline, so I think I'll purchase some of that iron on stuff that stretches a little to enclose the floats.  Let's hope he doesn't change his mind about who's the best character before I get this knit.  If you're interested in Peppa, you can swipe a picture from this website    http://www.peppapig.com/  There are coloring book pages that convert nicely to DAK stitch patterns.  I think it's ok as long as you don't sell items made with those images but knit them as gifts.  Maybe  I'll do George instead:

Machine Knit Flower Hat

I knit so many charity hats, I need a little variation on the theme sometimes...  this pattern has been around our knitting guild for a while.  It's easy and cute.  You can make it on any machine, but you would need to borrow the stitches and rows needed from another pattern for the size you want to make .  This one was knit on a Silver Reed LK 150.

Here are the basic directions:

Happy "gardening"!

The Baby Ballet Sweater wasn't pointing its toes correctly...

My apologies to those who tried to knit the original midgauge beginner baby ballet sweater and found that the numbers just didn't match up.  I revised it back in May for a class for our guild and realized then that I needed to correct some of the math.   BUT I forgot to update the blog.  Here are the correct instructions:
http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2013/07/very-beginner-level-machine-knit-baby.html

Who knows where my head was????  I guess we're all entitled to make a mistake now and then.  If you caught the mistake(s), more power to you!

Shortcuts to Machine Knit Charity Hats

I'm on a roll, trying to get as many charity hats done before the September 23 deadline when we have to turn them in for the Salvation Army. (IT'S SEPTEMBER ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!) I came up with a couple of time savers.  You might benefit by them too if you do a lot of charity knitting.  I don't think they compromise the looks, so they are working out great for me.  Here they are (nothing earth-shaking, just tiny tips):

Pardon the pictures........hat is squished under the lid of the scanner and the yarn is softer than it looks........................................

1.  I made some cast on rags a few years ago and never used them.  Now I am and although they don't save too much time, they save on waste yarn. Just don't forget to use one row of ravel cord or crochet thread before you knit the main yarn or it's curtains for the cast on rag.  You'd have to cut it out.  Add some claw weights.

2.  When you get to the top of the hat and are ready to decrease, with a one-prong tool, put 3 stitches on one needle across the work. Keep the out- of- work needles at the back of the bed so they don't knit and knit two rows.  Then take off with your seaming thread.  Cinch up tight and seam.  It closes up nicely and if it doesn't look perfect, add a little something to the top, like the gender neutral knotted cord.

 

3.  The gender neutral knotted cord doesn't have to be knit as an I cord.  Just pull 3-4 needles to work, ewrap on, at tension 2 knit abt 100 rows (for the midgauge), hanging on with one hand as you run the carriage with the other,  and bind off.  Sew the two yarn ends into the tube that naturally forms, knot both ends, knot the middle and tack on securely. This is twice as fast as the regular I cord because every row knits.

4.  Make the hat adjustable for size and age by knitting a large cuff that can either be folded up or down.  This adds extra warmth around the ears.  The cuff is stretchy enough to accommodate about a 2 inch increase in head circumference. The length of the hat also helps in adapting to different sized heads.  Slouchy at first, more fitted later.

If you don't want the cuff so thick, knit 15 rows T5,  15 rows T6, hang a hem and knit the rest of the hat at T 7. Compensate by adding a few inches to the main part of the hat.

 

Here's the pattern I've been using of late:

YARN  Pound of Love Baby Yarn -generously gifted to me by my good friend Sandy--so far 4 hats with enough for 2 or 3 more out of this one skein.

MACHINE: any midgauge, no ribber required

GAUGE: 4.5 st and 7 rows = 1 inch at Tension 7

FINISHED SIZE:  3-6 months 15  inches circumference/8 inches height (12 months 16 inches circumference/8 1/2 inches height, 18 months 17 inches circumference/9 inches height)

Directions

Start with waste yarn or cast on rag with one row of ravel cord over 78 (80, 82) needles.  With main yarn (no cast on, just knit)  Tension 5, knit 30 rows, Tension 6 knit 30 rows.  Hang a hem.  Change to Tension 7 and knit 40 (44, 46)  rows.  Decrease for the top.  Transfer using the 3 prong tool and move three stitches over two needles. Knit 2 rows, take off on long piece of yarn, cinch and seam with a mattress stitch. Remove waste yarn or cast on rag.    Hide yarn ends, add embellishment cord to the top.

These have been taking me about 15 minutes to knit, 15 minutes to assemble.  Try one and see if you like it. 

 

PS----How to make a cast on rag-- any machine.  At the left side of the bed, ewrap cast on 2 inches worth of stitches.  Hang a claw weight.  Knit 2 rows.   *Decrease one stitch on the left by transferring the left most needle to the second needle, pull a needle out on the right to increase one, knit 2 rows.* Repeat.   Make as long as you like.  If you want one that accommodates the whole bed, you might have to remove the rag from the right side and place it on the left and keep going.  By just pulling out a needle to increase, you get a loop that you can hang when using it.  At the end, bind off.  Steam/ kill the strip so it lies flat and is floppy.

To Wrap, or not to wrap. That is the question

I have been doing some charity knitting lately, mostly ear flap hats.  When I make them on the standard gauge machine, I don't wrap the edges of the ear flap because it goes more quickly and the holes are small.  They look ok.  But when I tried this on the midgauge machine, I got a totally different look.  It's not objectionable, could be called a design feature, but wrapping the edges gives a smooth look.  Compare these below:

I used my free pattern---- check out the right side of the blog and scroll down.  Thought I'd give another option in case you are using that pattern.