Rob's Wellington Cap

Day 139: Thanks to a friend with a 3D printer, I was able to fill a request from Rob (a friend in New Zealand) to "make me one of them flash beenies in Wellington colours, please." Seamus printed up 32 intarsia bobbins in assorted colours using an internet image for the basis of his design. They work perfectly! I prefer using bobbins to making yarn "butterflies" because when you're working more than a couple of changes, the strands tangle. Bobbins hold the yarn securely through the untangling process, but butterflies tend to fall apart and frequently need rewinding. Horizontal stripes don't require bobbins or butterflies, but unless the yarn is carried on the back of the work, vertical sections are best worked in intarsia. I experimented with both techniques as well as several ways of effecting decreases before I was satisfied with the pattern for Rob's Wellington cap. Originally, I'd planned the hat to be a Christmas present, but Christmas falls in mid-summer in New Zealand, so I mailed it off to him this week.

Knittive Species

Day 107: My "Bee-Wear" hat design brought lots of favourable comments from friends, along with a number of requests for a ladybug version. I was somewhat reluctant. After all, the little red critter with black spots we call "ladybug" is an introduced species, brought here from Europe to control aphids. Our native species do not have the red and black colouration. My immediate reaction was that it would be inappropriate for a nature center, but who doesn't love ladybugs? I decided to give the idea a whirl. However, I was faced with the problem of being able to produce the hats quickly and easily as knitwear, and dismissed the options of using felt patches or big black buttons for the spots.

Although it's been many moons since I took up bobbins/butterflies to do multiple colours, I decided that the best way to attack ladybugs was with intarsia coupled with Fair Isle. Here, I carried the red yarn around the row, performing a wrap-and-turn at the end of the round so that I could work on circular needles in a back-and-forth manner, knitting one row and purling back, a technique which allowed me to pick up the black butterflies where I had dropped them at the left edge of each spot. This worked very well, although my execution of the carryovers was a little too snug on this prototype. Developing the head and antennae required a bit more thought. I finally decided to knit the piece in the round on only seven stitches. Cute? Yes, and although this "knittive species" of ladybug may require a bit more time to produce, I suspect they'll be popular in Joppa Flats' gift shop.