The Fabric of Time

I wasn't even looking for knitting patterns when I recently stumbled across a picture of a knitted hat on the Internet (https://halcyonyarn.com/knitting/2580001P/checkerboard-hat-_-bulky-weight). It looked so interesting and beautiful that I just had to make one. My father is the perfect victim for projects like these--I knew he would look so dapper in this fair isle/stranded colorwork checkerboard and that he would wear it and love it even if he thought it looked dorky. He appreciates everything I make for him. There was a pattern, but not a free one. With me being so cheap, I decided to try making the hat just by looking at the picture. I zoomed in on the image and counted the stitches, then I researched how to knit the false braid, and finally jotted some notes for a makeshift pattern. I loved the colors of the hat in the photo and I just happened to have the perfect yarn in my stash for it, only it was DK weight and not bulky. So, I created my own pattern for the th...

We had a living history event coming up at Fort Dobbs in North Carolina. Typically, it's not too cold there, but for a change there was some December cold weather the weekend of the event. I rushed to make some mittens in time for the event. I used the pattern from The Packet III by Mark Tully (https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/306/1/BOOK-TP-3). Tully writes that this pattern is based on a surviving original from an American Revolution campsite. I really struggled with this pattern. I checked my gauge, and it was perfect, but then I couldn't believe how large the mittens were turning out to be. I started over a few times, testing different needle sizes and yarn weights. I got pretty far knitting a version out of sport weight yarn on size 2 needles, but they were really thin and seemed like they wouldn't be warm. Finally I bit the bullet and knitted with worsted weight, as the pattern dictates. I used size U.S. 2 needles, smaller than the ...