Brioche and a Commissioned Pattern

  The test hat grows.  One thing I wasn't anticipating was the fact that when knitting this style of brioche in the round you will have two knit-below stitches next to each other every other row.  For the most part that was leaving a bar of yarn across the gap.  I wasn't a fan of this and so I tried to see if adding a plain row between the brioche rows would fix the problem.

  Here is the quick swatch I did using the yarn farther down from the hat.  Yes, the hat is pushed down these needles, I just don't want to take it all out to find out I don't like this version either.  While it is a fun stitch, it doesn't have the same look as the one on the top.  Another note to make is that I'm knitting the hat inside out, so the top picture just shows the inside.

  I have figured out a fix though, an odd number of stitches.  That way I just keep repeating the two pattern stitches and it automatically offsets itself and no bar.  I have a plan to decrease one right before I start the ribbing without interrupting the pattern too much.

  The stitch pattern shows up the way I would like, but it is a bit hard to see it unless you are looking at it closely.  I'm wondering if that is because I'm working with cotton yarn, so I might end-up making another hat like this anyway.  It might also work itself out once I block it.  Cotton does have a tendency to grow.

  As you can see from the picture, I'm left with almost a full wrap around after my sewn bind off.  This could be for a few reasons.  It could be that I just allocated too much and have extra.  It could also be that since you have to pull all of the yarn through each step that between binding off the first time, taking it out, and binding off again I was just stretching the yarn more and more.  I don't feel like taking it out again, so this is how it is going to stay.  The yarn was already starting to get a bit fuzzy and frayed looking.

  I was looking through older posts and I thought I had mentioned it on here, but I somehow forgot!  It is also a pretty funny story.  I was watching random TikToks when a video showing someone making a granny square sweater popped up.  I watched the other parts of Topknot's Trunk video series on it and on the last one they mentioned that they were looking for someone to help them write a pattern for the sweater.  I decided to comment that I've written patterns before, even though I didn't think anything would come from it.  They commented back for me to email them and after sending a few examples they hired me!

  It was a bit tricky for me because I usually write knitting patterns, but they seemed to like what I did.  If you like the look of it, you can buy you own copy of the pattern on their website under Crochet Pattern - Make Your Own Granny Square Sweater.

Geocaching

  Since I got so many more states for my Geocaching souvenirs during the long road-trip, I decided to take a quick trip to Harper's Ferry so I could get West Virginia as well.  I had to try and navigate and drive, so when I was stopped at 7-11 I looked at the map and it looked like Church Street would lead to somewhere I could find parking at.  Turns out it is a road that goes sharply up and had signs saying that parking was just for residents.  I drove very close to someone's back porch at one point.  I ended up parked at a Church parking lot, which I probably wasn't supposed to, and hiked some of the Appalachian Trail in flip flops.  I drove off before I got a ticket or my car was towed, but because the street took a sharp climb at the beginning I had to deal with a downhill.  My GPS told me to turn right and I ended up trying not run into a Coca Cola truck and scrapped my front bumper a little.  I would have been fine if I had gone left.

  While I took my short hike in inappropriate shoes I got to see the ruins of St. John's Episcopal Church.  Someone I passed said it was in ruins because they must not have prayed hard enough.

  I was also too late to go to a breakfast place I passed on my way in.  I also spotted a seafood food-truck but didn't react in enough time to go there either.  I'll have to make another trip out to visit those before too long.  I think I'll also want to go back at some point, earlier in the day and when it's less hot out, to just wander around the area.

  There's a little heart in my yarn.  I'm almost done with the cowl.  I started binding off, then thought to myself that I should have a project to see if I really use all of the 2x circumference that I use for the sewn bind off.  I then realized that this could be that project and had to take the bind off out and knit some more.  Luckily I got to do this while sitting with some knitters on a warm (but not hot) Saturday afternoon.

Knit Night!!

  I stopped working on the cowl because I wanted to get the last hat made before I lost my drive to make them.  I'm still not sure if I like the more subtle or the more busy version of this hat pattern.  I did fudge the numbers on the increases a little because I like the way it looks when they are just growing out of the center of the previous one.

  The row count went like this:

6 - 7 - 10 - 4 - 11 - 3

  Knit night!  I didn't go the week before, but I did go this previous Wednesday.  It was great to be back at Santini's with some of the group.  We used to stay until about 9pm before the break, but they have asked us to leave around 8pm.  They have less staff and need to do more cleaning because of Covid-19, so that makes sense.

  I've gotten a lot farther on the cowl than I had before.  I never know how long to make these things, so I think I'm just going to use the whole skein.  Doing this has given me another idea for a hat, so I hope you aren't tired of those yet.  I'm not sure which yarn I will use for this new hat yet, since my initial plan had been to use the remaining bits of the same skein I used for the cowl.