The 2013 Christmas Present!

One of the greatest things about January is that you can finally blog about the Christmas Presents you spent all those dark and rainy fall months making. I’m not sure how I actually ended up with this idea, all I know is that I wanted to make something for all my loved ones and after a unplanned trip to a little store that sells yarn in Heidelberg, this little idea came to life! The Christmas Present 2013; the Misscrk Beanie!

It all started with finding this really soft and great yarn that came in all these different colors, and since I haven’t been knitting in a while and since it’s one of those fun things you can do while watching Tv or spending time with others (meaning, I don’t have to sit in my sewing room when I’m knitting), it simply seemed like the perfect idea to knit again! And of course, what is better than to give people something that can keep them warm in the winter?

The idea to make a Beanie simply came from me having seen a lot of then and wanting one myself!:) So I looked around for inspiration and patterns, but I couldn’t find a pattern that I understood (there are so many intricate and beautiful ways of knitting, however they all seem so complicated when you try reading and understanding how to do it) nor exactly what I wanted. But then I stumbled over a Blog called Litlo and Kalen and a post called Mønster på hue med vri and just fell in love with this Beanie, it is simply so cute. I guess you have guessed by now that I’m not very good at reading knitting patterns and I must admit that I didn’t really understand the instructions given on the Litlo and Kalen blog either. I had also already bought a different type of yarn and I wanted more of a ribbed boarder at the bottom of my beanie, so I figured that I would just try do to it my way and see what happened! And the result ended up being 10 Beanies in different colors and sizes for all our siblings and friends!

How to knit this beanie:

1: Cast on 60-65 stitches on a 4mm circular needle thats 40 cm long (How many stitches you need really depends on the type of yarn you choose to use, so knit a 10 x 10 or even 20 x 20 stitches swatch in a ribbed pattern first to see how many stitches you need with your yarn. I ended up opening the first Beanie I knitted several times before I found the perfect size).

2: Knit a 3 cm ribbed boarder = knit 2 ( x ) and purl 2 ( o )

then your pattern will look something like this;

x x o o x x o o x x o o x x o o

x x o o x x o o x x o o x x o o

3: Then take a 7mm circular needle that’s 40 cm long. You will now knit over on the thinker circular needle and you will start like this; knit the first stitch and the I purl the next 2, then knit 2, purl 2 and then so on and so fort for the next two rounds (you will see that when you finish your first round that your last stitch will also be a stitch, making it a perfect ribbed pattern again).

4: After your two rounds, you will once again knit the first stitch, then purl 2, knit 2, purl 2 and once again keep going for two rounds. This technically just means that you move the pattern that you used for your ribbed boarder one stitch over for every 2nd round your knit.

your pattern will now look like this:

x o o x x o o x x o o x x o o x

x o o x x o o x x o o x x o o x

And the result will be a pattern that twist itself around the Beanie.

5: I made these beanies two different sizes. The long ones (the like one I’m wearing in these pictures) are about 25cm long, but the shorter ones with the faux fur poms  are about 20cm long.

6: When you reach the wanted length simply start knitting two and two stitched together until it closes up on the top.

7: Add your own personal tag, pom or any other fun applications to personalize your Beanie! I added my own little tag to my Beanies, which I ordered from Dortex.

This is me in my Misscrk Beanie!

I did of course like always have a lot of fun making these Christmas Presents and I’m sure I will make more of then in the future too!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

– Christine