Masking

Because of everything (and if I try to explain it more than that, I'm going to get off track way too quickly), we are no longer allowed to wear cloth masks to work. (Well, we can so long as we wear a surgical mask under it.) 

From what I've been hearing on the news and such, we really should just have schools go virtual at this point. But no. Let's allow everyone to catch this virus by keeping everything open and pretending that we have adequate mitigation measures in place. Which we don't. 

Like I said, this'll turn into a diatribe if I start, so let me get back to what I was going to talk about...

The thing that was great about my cloth masks was that I had knitted the ear straps, so they didn't irritate my ears. Alas, the kn95s I have have elastic ear straps. And after one day wearing them all day, I realized that was not going to work. 

But, if you recall from the early days of the pandemic, a solution was found for the irritating ear issue. Button bands. 

So, I made one: 

I wore it the next day. And... it was a bit too long. 

This was eight inches long, long enough to almost reach to my ears along the back of my neck. But, it didn't pull the elastic taut enough for the mask to fit snuggly on my face. All day it felt like my mask was slipping off my face.

Well, not all day. I gave it up as too loose and put the elastic straps back on my ears.

Then that evening, I made another one: 

It was half the length at four inches: 

And that seemed to do the trick. 

It pulls the mask elastic taut enough so that it stays on the face (although it still pulls it down so that I feel like I have to adjust the mask frequently throughout the day). 

But, before with the straps on the ears, I felt like the mask was pulling up into my eyes all the time. 

It's a small price to pay. I'd rather wear a mask and avoid the 'Rona as much as I can.

It's a simple knit. (You could also use fabric cut to the right length and just attach buttons. But I knit, so it had to be knit.) I used stuff I had in my stash. Those are "vintage" buttons. The yarn was Caron Simply Soft. It's on the lighter end of worsted weight.

I cast on 15 stitches (using size 8 needles), and I worked something like 8 rows (I didn't count; I just knit until it was wide enough) in garter stitch (I knit every row). The buttons were sewn on about two stitches in from the side. 

That's more for me. I find when I do something simple like this, I don't write down what I did, and later, when I want to replicate it, I have to start from scratch. By writing it in the blog, I can refer back to it later.

What tricks are you using to wear your mask comfortably? Please tell me you are wearing a mask when you're out in public. 

What I Knit

There are all sorts of ways to make bags with knitting. I chose to do something a bit different.

Step 1: Knit a long, rectangular piece of fabric.

Step 2: Edge the finished piece in crochet. (My favorite, the crab stitch.)

Step 3: Knit a small loop so the bag can hook on things, and attach.

What it looks like at this stage...

Step 4: Line it. (Really, this is optional. I didn't need to line it, but I just kind of wanted to.)

Step 5: Whip stitch up the bottom and side, leaving an opening at the top.

And there you have it, all ready to hang and hold drumsticks...

Ask me to make this at a different time, and I'd probably do something completely different. This was what I was in the mood to make right now.

What are you in the mood to do right now?

Shark Scarf Solution

Ever since receiving the request, I've been stumped. Until this past Thursday...

I first mentioned the problem here on December 30th. Middle nephew requested a shark scarf to go along with his shark hat. (I finished up shark hats for his younger brothers in January.)

How does one make a shark scarf? There were some patterns, but I didn't think they worked well with the hat. Not as an ensemble. And the request was for an ensemble, kind of.

By last week I had kind of given up. I went out and bought some heavier weight yarn than the hat, but in the same color, so they would work together. My thought was I would knit a triangle-type stitch pattern to mimic teeth and call it a day.

On Thursday at work, I had some time and internet access. On a whim, I searched "shark tooth knitting pattern". The "tooth" part is different than the previous searches. Well, that, and I had specifically searched "scarf".

I found a very interesting scarf in that search, but it was on Pinterest, and Pinterest was blocked at school. But that led me to looking at the page from that search, which got me to this post with a bunch of shark knitting patterns, and that led me to the shark blanket. (Sorry, this link is only visible if you have a Ravelry account, but the shark blanket is on the previous link if you scroll down the page a bit.)

The shark blanket was made using a washcloth pattern. They made twelve blocks, tiling them 3 x 4. One column could work as a scarf...

And an idea was born.

Alas, the yarn I bought would have made those blocks 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide, which is way too wide for a scarf.

But... If I do the blocks sideways, the width works for me, and I'd have to make fewer of them to complete something scarf length.

(It's either that or buy finer yarn. I'm not buying finer yarn.)

I finished my first block on Friday...

I think I'm going to add a couple rows on the bottom and top just to give the shark a bit more "breathing room". But otherwise I think I've got it. The back even works...

The plan is to knit five of these, sew them together, alternating "right" and "wrong" sides (because scarf), and hope that middle nephew likes it.

I'll show it off when finished.

(There were a few turtles sunning themselves while I took photos...

I couldn't resist including the picture.)

It's nice to have a plan. Now that I have a plan, it shouldn't take too long to complete the scarf. It's the planning that takes forever.

I Knit a Hat

This is what I accomplished this week on the knitting front.

Or back.

It's a bulky weight yarn. I used size 13 needles. Cast on 48 stitches. Did a 2 x 2 ribbing for 2 inches. Increased by 2 stitches for 50 stitches total. Worked until the piece measured 7 inches. Then decreased by 5 stitches every row until 5 stitches remained.

(That was for me, in case I ever want to replicate this hat. It's easier to find it online, although my knitting notebooks are fairly organized.)

Redid the Witch Hat Headband

A couple weeks back, I showed off my little witch hat headband...

And you agreed that it was a little small. So, this past week I remade it with a larger hat...

I think that came out rather nice. (It's too late to make another before Halloween, so this'll have to do for this year.)

I even got my new camera to cooperate and take some headband-only photos. (I have to do selfies with my phone. If I had gotten the headband done a day earlier, I could have found someone to take pictures of me.)

The one above is the smaller size. The larger size is below...

If I'd been thinking ahead, I would have gotten these done early enough to offer them for sale. Sigh. Maybe next year. Someone, remind me, OK?

But there is plenty of time to remind you of the original iteration of this idea. From last year...

I will make these for sale if anyone is interested. Just let me know.

If there are any knitters out there, you can make your own. You can find the "ingredients" here:

• Headband instructions
• Santa hat pattern
• Assembly instructions
• Small witch hat pattern
• Larger witch hat pattern

If you happen to make one, I'd love to see it. Just tag me on Instagram, Twitter, or Ravelry. I'm @ZiziRho.

Another Weird Santa Hat

Two weeks ago, I showed you my project in progress...

...and I said that if it worked out, I'd post it "next week". But "next week" came, and I hadn't gotten much more completed.

Sorry about that.

That was last week. This week, however, I did manage to finish it...

It's another Santa hat, this one more of a sketch, really...

It's been a few years since I saw someone wearing something like this. I saw it and decided that I just had to have one. And I could make it myself.

I'm not going to post a "pattern", but I'll tell you how I did it.

First, I took a 6 ft length of wire (that I got at Dollar Tree). I curled the ends (no sharp edges!). Then I "knit" (read: crocheted) an I-cord over the length of it, tying the yarn ends around the curled wire ends.

Then I picked up and knit around 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the bottom spiral. I cast on a few more stitches after that, joined in the round, and knit a 2 by 2 ribbing for about 2 inches.

I attached a "poof" to the top. (A pom-pom would work as well.) And that's it.

What do you think? (I think I like the headband better, but I'm glad I made this attempt.)

Mini Santa Hat Headband

As of "press time" I had not completed the project with the wire covered in knitting (crochet?). I got sidetracked...

It's a mini Santa hat on a headband!

I saw a kiddo wearing one a year (two years?) ago, and it's been sitting on my "knitting to-do list" since then. I noticed it the other day, and I realized I had all the pieces I needed. I repurposed the white headband I'd already made (the kitty ears came off easily), and I found a mini Santa hat pattern on Pinterest.

Et voila!

In case any knitters want to take a stab at this, I'm including all the links you'll need:

The headband pattern I posted this past February.

The mini Santa hat pattern is here. I used Caron's Simply Soft yarn (I had this on hand already) on size 6 double pointed needles. (I ended up with a gauge of 6 sts per inch.) My hat ended up bigger than the pattern intended, but it was about the size I wanted.

I can't find the link for the "poof" on the tip of the top. I used Lion Brand Fun Fur and made a knitted bead. (If I can track down the pattern I used, I'll edit this post and include the link.) However, the hat pattern has a "pom pom" part, or you can improvise something different.

Assembly:

Once the headband and hat were complete, I put a little fiberfill into the hat (just enough to fill the bottom half lightly), and I grafted the hat to the headband using white yarn. (It was the same yarn I used for both the brim of the hat and the cover of the headband.)

Then I folded the hat so it had that jaunty angle, and I tacked the top to the middle.

This thing is too much fun. If you make one, would you please tag me if you post it to Instagram, Twitter, or Ravelry? I'm @ZiziRho. I would love to see other people's interpretations of these.