Beachton Wind and Sun Hat

I made up a new hat the summer of 2016. I wanted a shape like a Panama hat with open work on the sides to make it summery. This is what I came up with.

Size Small in Lily Sugar'n Cream Light Blue and Hot Green

I worked on this pattern as a spreadsheet in Numbers. I converted the whole thing to a PDF and uploaded it to Ravelry where you can buy now for $5. If that link doesn't work try going to the pattern on Ravelry directly.

Size Small in Hushabye white and sage

This is the first pattern I've published. I recognize that I'm violating the scientific method by trying every new idea I have all at once instead of testing them one at a time against a control.

• Full row-by-row pattern written out as a checklist
• Duplicate entire pattern three times for different sizes
• Complete test fit patterns for just part of the design in three sizes
• Over an hour of video instruction for not only how, but why, I made the hat this way
• Links with time stamp to take you straight to the relevant part of the video tutorial embedded in the row-by-row pattern
• Precise weight of yarn used in the prototypes
• Video includes making mistakes and then fixing them

Regarding yarn

I tested this hat in two kinds of yarn, Lily Sugar'n Cream, which comes in all kinds of colors, and Baby Bee Hushabye, which comes in Angel, Naked, Baby Sage and not a lot else. (I bought up all the Apricot Jam they had when it was discontinued and I'm making a really cute dumbo octopus out of it.) Both of these are machine washable yarns. I have not yet washed one of these hats in the machine with the nylon cable in place.

I weigh my yarn before and after projects with a 3 decimal place electronic scale that is good for up to 500 g. I put this information in the pattern in case you have some partial balls of yarn left and you want to know if it's enough. A partial skein of Lily Sugar'n Cream will do the bottom of the brim but you need MORE THAN A FULL SKEIN for the main color of the hat. (If you have the regular 70g skeins of this yarn.) If you are buying yarn for a two color hat you need to get 3 skeins, 1 skein of contrast color and 2 of main color. 2 skeins is enough if you do it all one color.

In the Hushabye 50/50 cotton/acrylic blend you need one skein of each color. You could do the child size and adult small with one skein all one color. The size large requires almost a whole skein for just the main color so it would not be enough for a one color hat.

I tested the child size with the contrast color of the brim in a different yarn, a black microfiber. This did NOT work well. The top and bottom of the brim really have to be the same kind of yarn or it just doesn't come out exactly even. I also did the lace part of that one with US 10 needles and it just looked sloppy. That's why I went down to US 9 on the white and green hat.

That Fancy Brim

The brim of this hat is held out with nylon weed trimmer line. You can buy a wide variety of colors and sizes at Home Depot and in the Garden Center at Walmart. The orange color from Walmart has a strange dusty quality I don't like so I have been using the smoother .095" line from Home Depot. I have yet to find a white version. It's all outrageous colors. It doesn't show through the hat though. If you know somebody with a weed trimmer ask them to give you about two arm lengths of whatever they've got and you'll have more than enough.

The size large hat brim is so heavy the nylon line drooped. I redid that one with a stainless steel cable leftover from a curtain installation. It's the IKEA Dignitet curtain wire and it is outstanding. They give you a lot extra. You could hang your curtains and make several hats with the leftover wire.

I've used aluminum floral wire in hats and that works too. But you have to be careful not to bend it out of shape. This springy stuff is a lot more forgiving.

For the drawstring in the hat I used a shoelace in the white hat. I couldn't match the color of the other ones with a shoelace so I braided some of the yarn to make a drawstring.

My dad gave me a bag full of cord locks because he bought a bunch of them from China for some project. I looked on Amazon and found a lot of different kinds. But if you want just one email me and I'll send you one in the mail. I can throw in some nylon line too if you need it.

I got my clear heat shrink tubing from Parts Express.  I did the white hat with the ends of the cable butted together inside a stirring straw and then heat shrink over it. Since I finished my last hat I discovered Capri Sun straws at the family beach week. Capri Sun straws fit snuggly over .095"line (which is marked 1.65mm but that's a mistake. 0.095" is 2.413 mm) round trimmer line. The .080" (2mm) is small enough to double it over itself in the 1/8" heat shrink.

Round trimmer line from Walmart and a Capri Sun straw

Round trimmer line from Home Depot, Capri Sun straw, plus heat shrink tubing, no heat applied

I wonder if the heavier line, a Capri Sun straw cut down to 2", and 1/8" heat shrink over that would be even better than the overlapped green line I used in the 100% cotton hat in blue and green.

YouTube 

Here are some video links with time stamps for critical parts of the pattern. I can imagine a scenario where somebody prints out the pages for the size they are working or maybe their computer won't open the links from the PDF. I tested that my ipad will open the YouTube links in the PDF from iBooks on my iPad but I confess I only test print the first 3 pages of this. I'm seriously anti-paper.

Part 1
Pattern starts with a loose cast on in the main color yarn
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=2m19s
Arranging the markers for increases
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=7m24s
The lifted increase
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=8m33s
Change to main color
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=9m15s
New marker spacing
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=11m46s
Working decreases
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=13m08s
What to do when decreases get to end of round marker
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=9m15s
Pick up the cast on stitches
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=18m16s
Three needle join
https://youtu.be/ZZSEGOejvRg?t=19m57s

Part 2
Decreasing for sideband
https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=1m10s
Joining the draw string tube
https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=1m10s
Turn the work to leave a buttonhole for drawstring
https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=1m48s
Purl back

https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=2m34s

Pick ups for joining draw string tube

https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=2m50s

K2tog from 2 needles

https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=4m35s

Starting the lace side band 6:52
https://youtu.be/cMDoHtKjsxA?t=6m52s

Part 3
Joining a new ball of yarn
https://youtu.be/PFaf-v1ohOo?t=45s
Joining the tube
https://youtu.be/PFaf-v1ohOo?t=4m2s
Placing markers for decreases
https://youtu.be/PFaf-v1ohOo?t=6m
Decrease round
https://youtu.be/PFaf-v1ohOo?t=6m46s
Going to DPNs
https://youtu.be/PFaf-v1ohOo?t=8m8s
Prepare for kitchener close
https://youtu.be/PFaf-v1ohOo?t=10m31s

Part 4
Starts with washing and blocking and goes into reinforcing line and drawstring. Didn't break out time stamps as this is all sort of making it up as you go along.
https://youtu.be/1fujY52G3LM

This lace pattern I used is based on the Lily of the Valley video by Pleasant Seas. I modified it for exactly two vertical repeats so there aren’t any unconnected branches at the top and bottom. Refer to the original if you would like a repeating version of that neat lace pattern.

Knitting with an iPad: Numbers Template

I am a digital native. This may seem surprising since I was born in 1967. But I am the child of an electrical engineer who was an early adopter. Since he was buying computers early and often there was always some lesser machine rolling off the bottom of the stack for me. In 1983 I was the only kid in my high school with a computer. I was the copy editor of my high school yearbook. When all the other high schools were typing their copy on triplicate forms with typewriters, I figured out how to feed the forms through my daisy wheel printer and wrote the whole yearbook in a word processor.

This is to say I think in computer. When I want to take notes I reach for my iPad or phone. It never even occurs to me to reach for a pencil and paper. When I started knitting I kept notes in the aptly named Notes app. (Notes is especially good since the iOS 9 update because you can take pictures right in the middle of your note taking.) When I realized I was obsessed with knitting I started researching databases. I loved Filemaker Pro when I was an engineering consultant. The power of a database is compelling to me. I wanted the ability to design records with different kinds of data fields. But Filemaker Pro is way too expensive for me. I ended up buying an iPad app called Boximize. (It doesn't have a counterpoint for the Mac, which is a drawback. It also deletes everything you just typed into it if you callously go to another app. It's like the olden days when you had to actually hit Save. Only there is no Save in the app. You have to back out of what you're doing with Done. I keep thinking they'll fix their autosave in a future update.) I will discuss Boximize as a knitting app in another post.

What I want to talk about today is Numbers, the spreadsheet that comes standard on all iPads and Macs. While a database is what I need for all the assorted information about each design, like the yarn and needles I used, final size and weight, photos of critical parts of the process to refer to later, a spreadsheet is what I want for the actual pattern. Especially a spreadsheet on iCloud that syncs automatically between my computer and my iPad.

I often download a PDF of a pattern online, select all the text, and paste it into Numbers. Then I edit it into row-by-row instructions. I may duplicate the pattern into multiple sheets and delete the stitch count for all but one size. Once I have all this organized on my computer I can go anywhere with my knitting and use my iPad as a checklist. I can add notes on a row-by-row basis in the spreadsheet on my iPad. If I use the same pattern again I add a column and make a separate set of notes for the next time I make it. Then eventually I may duplicate it to a new sheet, change the version number and revise the whole pattern if I come up with a better way of doing it. You can do all this directly on your iPad but it's kind of frustrating. I clicked all around on it and couldn't figure out how to save a file as a template. But you can do it on your Mac and save it to the iPad to use it.

Here is my standard Numbers template for a knitting pattern, as seen in a screen shot of my iPad.

Here's how to create this knitting pattern template for Numbers on your Mac.

1. Open Numbers by clicking the bar graph in the Dock or find it in the Applications Folder in Finder.
2. File: New — Choose a Template should come up. I started with Basic Checklist. Click that choice and then Choose in the bottom right of the box.
3. Change the default words. I changed CHECKLIST to NAME, and the Checklist in the tab I changed to Version. Double click on the word to highlight it and type over it
4. I changed Date to Instructions and Task to Notes
5. I duplicated the checklist column because I kept forgetting if I checked it before or after knitting the row. If I have a box to check for both I know where I am when I pick it up again. If they are both checked I stopped at the end of the row. To duplicate a column select the letter at the top. Copy it (command C), select the C column and right click (two finger tap on track pad, control click for one button mouse) Select Add Column Before. Paste into the new column.
6. Select Column D now and add another column before it for the stitch count.
7. Resize your columns. You can select all of them and hover over the line between letters until the cursor has two arrows sticking out. Double click. This makes them all very small. Now stretch out Instructions and Notes to fill the window the way you like it. Select the column and hover over the line to get the cursor to change to two arrows. Click and drag to size.
8. Add more rows to your spreadsheet by grabbing the = at the bottom and dragging it down.
9. Now you can save this as a template to use next time. From the File menu select Save as Template. You'll get a dialog box asking Create a custom Numbers template? You can add this spreadsheet to the Template Chooser, or save it to your computer. Select Add to Template Chooser. (The Template Chooser is what you saw when you created a New File. A thumbnail of the spreadsheet you just created will appear in a box with a place for you to type a name for it. I named mine Knitting Pattern. If you right click it you can rename it or delete it.)

How to get this on your iPad? Save the file as Knitting Pattern. Open Numbers on your iPad. (If it's not there go download it from the App Store.) When you see the list of spreadsheets you'll see your Knitting Pattern file. Select it. You'll get a dialog box asking Add to Template Chooser? You'll be able to use this template to create new Numbers spreadsheets. Click Add. Now your creation is available on your iPad too.

Now when you go to File: New you can select My Templates and see your empty pattern. Or just scroll down and it's at the end of all the stock ones. If you download a PDF of a knitting pattern or see one on a blog you'd like to try you can select the text, copy it, go to your new file made with your template, select the top cell in the Instructions column, and paste. Try it with the numbered list above. It will put each paragraph in a cell of the spreadsheet. Now you can make your own notes for each step, delete sizes you aren't using, type the stitch count into its own column, and more. Whenever a pattern says Rows (17-28) or something like that I carefully expand that to the right number of rows to check off.

For patterns on double pointed needles I often add columns to keep track of how many stitches are on each needle. Or if I have a hat with a lot of markers I'll track stitches between markers in another column. If I am designing a hat and want to see if the number of stitches are going to come out I use formulas to calculate the stitch count for me. Spreadsheets are so handy!

Here's an example of a spreadsheet I worked on today while I was making a duck. This is an example of how sloppy you can be if you want. Just because it's a spreadsheet doesn't mean you have to make it feel like work. I am not really OCD about the checkboxes or stitch count when I'm making it up as I go. Precise row counts and stitch counts are more important when I'm doing a second of something, like a foot, to be sure they match. (Feet go from row 80 to 113, not seen in this example.) I try to jot down just enough that if I like how it turns out I can do it again, filling out the instructions to be more clear. The duck was way too hard. I'm not going to try to make this into a reproducible pattern. 

Also that yarn from the fabric store had such a strong smell it gave me a migraine for the two days it took me to make this duck. You'd think I would learn.