Menu

Blog
Books
Patterns
- Ravelry
- Payhip
Information

April 13, 2009March 3, 2022

Ensnared

The newest socks, Ensnared, are done and available for sale. I think I’m in love!

Share

Post tagsEnsnared Finished Pattern

Instagram

Secret additional bonus, the inside is darn tidy a

Secret additional bonus, the inside is darn tidy and the folded over bit gives you a good place to ditch your ends.⁠
⁠
I've got a long tail there because I am for sure going to embroider the snot out of this, because the thought of lots and lots and lots of embroidery is all that's going to keep me sane(ish) as I knit all that plain stockinette. And I figure why not just go ahead and leave myself a piece to start doing that with.⁠
⁠
But the other end of the orange and the starting end of the gray are all now nicely woven in and tucked up out of sight (it bugs me if I have loose ends flopping in the breeze as I knit, so I often get them out of the way early on).

Was that a whole lot of work and bother for a very

Was that a whole lot of work and bother for a very simple result?⁠
⁠
I mean possibly? But really, you can say that about pretty much any thing you knit by hand.⁠
⁠
And honestly, that was literally the first time I'd done a turned hem, it took me about thirty minutes more than a plain cast on would have (a big chunk of that because I stopped to take pictures), it is satisfyingly tidy, and I'm completely delighted to have done it.⁠
⁠
So yeah, I'm calling it a win, because my brain could very much use a bit of soothing and successful novelty these days. And I don't know about you, but I don't need my knitting to be as efficient as possible, I need it to be as delightful as possible.⁠
⁠
And this is delightful beyond words.

Ok, so here's the actual joining bit.⁠ ⁠ Look

Ok, so here's the actual joining bit.⁠
⁠
Look at the wooden needle. See how it's got rather a lot of stitches on it? And how they're jammed up awfully close to each other? Yup, well that's the sets of stitches we picked up in the earlier post. One from the live stitches, one from the cast on edge, one from the live stitches, one from the cast on edge, all the way around.⁠
⁠
So now you go along and work one new knit stitch into each pair. So you make one new stitch, and that new stitch joins together one of your live stitches with the one from the cast on edge that was right beside it.⁠
⁠
You literally just doubled the number of stitches on your needle (by picking up a all those stitches at the cast on edge) and now you're decreasing them away by working a series of decreases.⁠
⁠
The result looks unspeakably smooth and round and tidy, and I'm madly in love.⁠
⁠
It is very very very slightly fiddly. But if you understand what you're doing, it all makes sense and isn't hard and is totally worth it.⁠
⁠
Or, alternately, you don't have to do this if you don't want to and you can say 'um, yeah, no' and nope out and do a more regular brim.⁠
⁠
But oh, oh I'm delighted by it. And I shall be doing it again in the future.

This is two views of the same thing.⁠ ⁠ I'm ta

This is two views of the same thing.⁠
⁠
I'm taking the stitches freed up by my provisional cast on (on a metal needle) and the live stitches already on my needles (on a metal needle) and interspersing them (on the wooden needle). I've got two different kinds of needles just to more easily see what's going on, you for sure don't have to do it that way.⁠
⁠
It's just one from the live stitches, one from the cast on, one from the live stitches, one from the cast on, back and forth around the whole hat.⁠
⁠
And you don't even actually /have/ to do this. You can just hold the two needles next to each other and knit off both at the same time. But that felt wrestling with one to many octopuses* at once, and I know my limitations. So I took a minute to get my stitches all arranged and making sure everything is smooth and tidy before sealing everything up.⁠
⁠
If you, as a much cooler and more coordinated person, want to join battle with the octopuses, you totally can!⁠
⁠
* anyone about to come at me for my pluralization of octopus will get a three minute lecture on words and how not to be a jerk about them. And while I absolutely revel in a chance to say octopodes, and pronounce it correctly while we're at it, this is not the day for that. But you can go read what the lovely folks at merriam webster had to say about the word if you click the link in my bio then click this picture if you want to know more.⁠
⁠
⁠

So I was one of those kids who would play with the

First things first. Forthwith is out today, and it

See, I told you, appropriately confident.⁠ ⁠ I

See, I told you, appropriately confident.⁠
⁠
I did a provisional cast on, knit until I had about double the depth of fabric I wanted for the turned hem, then freed up the end of my provisional cast on and yoinked it.⁠
⁠
As I did, it slipped out of my work, one beautiful, perfect stitch at a time, and I caught those newly freed stitches on a spare needle.⁠
⁠
And now...now I'll do a weird foldy upy bit where I get the live stitches mashed up next to each other with the wrong sides of my fabric together and the right side facing out, and I'll knit the newly captured stitches together with their more recently created brethren, and order shall reign throughout the land.⁠
⁠
At least that's the idea.⁠
⁠
Hold tight...

So remember how I wasn't loving the ribbing on the

So remember how I wasn't loving the ribbing on the orange and gray hat ('the' orange and gray hat I say, as if I didn't have, um, several things that could reasonably be called orange and gray hats within a few dozen feet of me at this very moment).⁠
⁠
Right, well, so I decided what that hat really truly wanted was a turned hem.⁠
⁠
Which means a provisional cast on, then join it in the round, then whang on in stockinette for a bit, then join everything up, and if you did it all right, you get a damn near magical bit of fabric with no clear beginning or end or right or wrong sides, just a beautiful self contained little slither of delight.⁠
⁠
Have I ever actually done this before?⁠
⁠
Nope.⁠
⁠
All (or at least most) the various pieces of it sure, but this actual thing, nope.⁠
⁠
Am I worried about it?⁠
⁠
Nope. I know how to do all (or at least most) of the parts, I have the google machine, I have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. It'll be fine.⁠
⁠
Does this sound like astonishing hubris?⁠
⁠
Nah. In the words of the absolute treasure that is Dr. Jen Gunter, this is appropriate confidence.⁠
⁠
I can do this (you totally can too). Watch!

Pssst, the first of these two patterns is schedule

Pssst, the first of these two patterns is scheduled to come out Tuesday (you know, assuming the world doesn't do one of those things where the news or a more personal catastrophe makes it just too fundamentally awful to even think about bringing out something as inconsequential as a knitting pattern that day, which sure does seem to happen a lot these days).⁠
⁠
Each piece (so the hat or the pair of mitts) uses most of a 100 gram skein of yarn. So if you want to have a matching set, you'll probably need two skeins (you might possibly be able to squeak the smallest sizes out of one very large skein of lighter yarn, but you'll be stressed about it the whole time, and who has the energy for that right now).⁠
⁠
I made mine in DK weight yarns, but the pattern will work at a bunch of different gauges, so you can really use most anything from a substantial fingering weight up through a worsted weight and you'll be covered.⁠
⁠
As always, mailing list folks will get a discount when the pattern goes out. If you're not on the mailing list and want to be, click on the link in my bio, click this picture, and sign yourself up (sorry, but the rules around mailing lists are, um, intense, so you do need to sign yourself up, not ask me to do it for you).⁠
⁠
Here's hoping we make it to Tuesday without an exciting new crisis.⁠
⁠
⁠

Load More... Follow on Instagram

Twitter

Tweets by @HunterHammersen

Books

Search

Archives

Archives

Copyright Hunter Hammersen, 2009-2019