side line project -- aqua hat

Let's just say I needed something easier than socks,
socks that need a heel knitted, so:



and up close:



I was going to a soap dinner with a friend last night, and it was a long drive (she was driving) and I needed something to knit during the drive, with poor light, and minimal attention to the knitting, so I grabbed the yarn left from the aqua socks finished last weekend. There's really quite a bit of it, and some dye-yur-own sock yarn (two strands of aqua, one strand of dye-yur) and a 7us circ (16 inch). I cast on 54. It was going to be 48 but 48 stitches didn't seems to want to stretch around the circ. 54 wasn't too happy to stretch around either but it did. Actually, it was 55 and I knit together the first and last to make the join "nice" and connected.

Then I knit around once, because I usually do. Then I started a k3, p3 rib. But not your normal k3 p3 rib. I was inspired by a neck warmer (or maybe she has a more elegant name, but functionally it was a neck warmer) that Angela was knitting at knit night. It was of her own design and the k3, p3 rib moved diagonally around by shifting over by one stitch every two rows. Now you might say I stole her design, but we'll say I was inspired by her design. There was a recent discussion on our SOW yahoo group about reverse engineering and inspiration. And she was ok with the inspirational use of others designs. Hope it applies also when it was hers. Thanks Angela.

In sock news, and there will be sock heel knitting when I finish this post (and read a couple of blogs), I wanted to answer Deborah's inquiry in the comments. She asked about the heel on rpm. Actually, it's a method I use for afterthought heels, and it is my standard method for toes, for socks that are knit top-down. It is a double decrease every other row. And the double decrease is a Jeri special. I described it, or a variation of it, in a very early blog post.

To do this special double decrease, I mark the center stitch on each side. I place a marker just after the chosen stitch. When I get to two stitches before the marker, I k2tog, remove the marker and place the resultant stitch back on the left needle. Then I ssk (slip as if to knit, slip as if to purl and knit the two together through the back loops). And place the marker back. Generally I knit one row with this decrease on both sides, then knit one row plain. But on toes, after some point where about half of the decreases are done, I decrease on every row. This gives me a rounder result.

If anyone knows where some knitting authority, or someone who writes knitting books, who has written about this double decrease, please let me know. If it has a name (or names), I might want to call it by the right name(s).

more later,
j