Knitters’ Row

I was tired of having to wear a hat, or having my hair flop all over the place in a messy bun while doing work, camping, dog training, and being at the park with my daughter.  I have very thick long hair, so I designed this to solve the problem.  These can be made from your wash cloth left overs.  The elastic band in them holds the hair in tight all day long.  With them being so inexpensive to make you can have one to match every outfit.

I just kind of winged this project as I went along.  I still had leftovers of the Mission Falls 1824 Super Wash Wool……I swear, that stuff breeds in the yarn bin because there is still enough left to make a coffee sleeve or something small like that.

Supplies:
size 7 10in needles
200 yds of aran weight wool
Darning Needle
Stitch Holder

Pattern:
Cast on 45
Knit 40 rows of the red in garter stitch
Knit 12 rows of grey in garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of red
Knit 12 rows of grey
Knit 26 rows of red
Cast off 15 sts, knit across row
Cast off 15 sts, knit across row
SSk, k to last 2 sts, k2 tog
k next row
Repeat till you have 9 sts

The 9 sts are your handle.  Knit them for as long as you want your handle to be.

Make one more for your other side.

Put the wrong sides together and stitch up the sides, not the bottom.

Fold the purse so that the handles are on the sides and the seem is in the front.  Backwards to how you would usually do it.

Seem the bottom.   At this point you can turn it inside out and sew the bottom edges to create a false bottom.  Lining this would be smart if you are worried about the yarn stretching or loosing something.

I wanted to use the leftovers from my Birthday socks for something simple yet something I hadn’t done before.  So I decided to make a hat.  This is from the Mexican Wave – Pink color DK weight yarn.  It was supposed to be more tight fitting according to the pattern, but it ended up working wonderfully as a good hat for holding all of my hair under while cleaning, gardening, and dog training =)

I am not sure that I exactly like the outcome of this shawl.  It curls on the edges despite blocking.  The original pattern calls for Garter stitch throughout, but that was too boring especially on sock weight yarn, so I used a lace pattern that is like little diamonds with a mountain peak at the top.  I planned on making this bigger, but with some of the early on blocking problems I was having with this yarn I decided to keep it smaller.  If the yarn wasn’t as itchy I would have used it for a head scarf.  I am not sure what I will use this for because it doesn’t keep the shoulders warm or look that great with the curling ends in front.  Maybe this will be sent off as a gift to a swap buddy who wants it.

I used Red Heart Sock Yarn….Heart and Sole.  I don’t remember the color way though.  It does have some nyon in it, and is kind of nice to knit with but there are strands of undyed wool in the yarn that are really coarse and bothered me, trying to pick them out the whole project.

These socks were made with the Plymouth Toddler sock pattern that is free on their web site.  I used the leftovers from the socks I made for Gee….my husband’s mom.  (Paton’s Astra DK weight).