THE HALF-HOUR HANDSPUN HAT: How We Did It, and What We Learned (OR: "Two Old Bats, Six Fast Hats!")
Let's get the “secret ingredient" on the table right off: find a partner with a sense of humor, adventure, and a competitive spirit. Ideally, she should be possessed of a house full of colorful fiber, both man-made and natural, which she is skilled at feeding into a drum carder for fun and profit. And a size 19 circular needle. My only serious contribution to the speediest hat of the inaugural GVHG "Batts to Hats" competition in February was a key memory from Rita Buchanan's final workshop here in April of 2005. Rita said she was often asked how one could hasten the spinning process, and she had a simple answer: to make yarn faster-even if you intend to make a plied yarn—you must spin fatter singles. She reminded us all that, when we were first learning to spin, we spent a lot of time mastering how to make a yarn of a consistent diameter—which, for most of us, also meant taking pride in watching our yarn become thinner and thinner. She gave us each a chunk of brown top, about the thickness of our thumbs, and announced a five-minute mini-competition: who could spin the fattest yarn? As I walked back to my wheel, I wondered how one could draft the top to maintain the maximum quantity of fiber (thickness) in the yarn—and practically giggled aloud as I realized that the answer was not to draft at all, but merely feed the top into the orifice of the wheel in measured increments! Sure enough, five minutes later my unattenuatedbut-twisted top was the fattest on display. Fast forward to the announcement of a "Batts to Hats" competition at our February 2012 meeting. I wondered, first, whether the knitting of a hat to fit an adult head could be completed inside of two hours, even by two people; ditto the spinning. I sat down at my Louet S10 with 4 oz. of fiber freshly processed by Acorn Works Fiber, and threw caution to the wind, tightening the brake band to maximize draw-on of the twisted fibers. I automatically wished I had a Woolee Winder, so I would not have to stop to switch the yarn from hook to hook as I spun, since my bobbin filled so quickly. When I had spun for exactly half an hour, the bobbin was quite full of 4 wpi singles. I took an untimed break to weigh this yarn and measure my yardage, which was almost precisely 55 yards. I made coffee and sat down with a circular needle, size 10.5, to clock how long it would take to make a hat. I worked from the top down, figuring it would be easiest to try the hat on for size that way. I began with an I-cord knot and added some diagonal ribbing and a reverse stockinette turn at the crown for pizzazz—-because I knew for certain that our sister competitors would offer plenty of pizzazz in addition to speed—and still finished the hat in one hour and fifteen minutes of knitting, working all by myself. Hmmm...could two people possibly cut this total time in half? I had used a long circular needle, "Magic Loop" fashion, which likely slowed me down, so I made a mental note to use a 16" circular on my next attempt. That night, as I fell asleep, I wondered whether a hat could be knitted by four hands at oncewhich would be a fun thing to watch as well as to work, if it were indeed possible! The next day, I showed the hat to a friend and told her about the competition, and she suggested I should call it "Rumplestiltskin." (That pattern is offered below.) When Serena Rachels (proprietress and crankster of "Batts for You," whose handiwork is available through many local yarn shops) invited me to join her in the competition, I was sure she was making a mistake. She convinced me that every team would be meeting to practice together--but we agreed that there was little likelihood we could ever beat the spinning and knitting talent of so many others in our guild. Nevertheless, we were determined to give it our best. We examined all our wheels in turn, noting what could speed us up or slow us down. A "delta" orifice—a V-shaped bend of wire, rather than a mere hole-—-seemed as though it could handle the fattest grist...but the wheel with that orifice had remarkably small hooks on the flier, which would certainly snag a fat, fluffy yarn. Several wheels would require the repeated use of an orifice hook if we wished to use every hook on the fliers to evenly distribute our yarns on the bobbin. (Who thought this up, anyway? Even if you're spinning thin yarn, having to pause to re-thread through the flier neck is an inefficient pain in the neck!) In the end, the Louet wheel won out: it has terrific draw-on (which can be a bane in many circumstances, but not this one); a large orifice; large hooks all arrayed on the same face of the flier and—-most important—its “ordinary" bobbin holds a good deal of yarn. By sheer magic, it was also the only wheel Serena and I each own in common, which made it easy to assume we could comfortably play "musical chairs" as we worked. I would begin by spinning enough to get started, then simply remove the drive band and knit directly from my bobbin. As I ran low on yarn, we could just switch chairs and I would knit directly from her wheel while she replaced the drive band and continued to spin on mine: no need to stop and remove bobbins! Serena began by blending what she called "Garbage Plate" batts made of this and that: old crummy "Peace Fleece" with short, neppy fibers; some slippery, soft alpaca whose color she didn't like, etc. The colors were awful, and the fiber worked against us—clearly, longer staple lengths would speed the drafting. (Duh. You can't draft further than about 1/2 the staple length without losing the integrity of the yarn— give it a try!) We divided the knitting, too—I knit from the top down and she from the brim up. When it came time to fit the pieces together, we were already at the two-hour mark AND the singles wanted to kink on themselves, making the threeneedle bindoff we had planned a real challenge. Back to the drawing board. At our next meeting, we agreed Serena would begin by spinning a couple of yards of a balanced two-ply yarn to use to SEW the hat sections together. This worked but, as we completed our second hat again at the two-hour mark, Serena wondered whether I was really using the best needles for the job. She brought out a shoebox of circular needles and fished out a 16" circular with size 17 needles—and she spotted a Susan Bates 29" plastic circular with size 19 needles. I took these both home with remnants of that day's spinning to play with. The working portion of the needles on the 16" circular was so short that it was hard to knit with them. However, the thicker needles of the longer circular offered plenty of "purchase," and a quick soak in boiling-hot water untangled the kinks in the cables. When I realized I'd have to revise my pattern from 48 stitches in circumference down to just 28, I knew we were golden. The next time we met, Serena carefully spun the two-ply sewing swatch, but ran into troubles with her wheel after the clock started, which made it hard for her to get much ahead of my knitting. We switched wheels three or four times, at least—-but as she was asking whether it might be time for her to begin knitting, I announced that the hat was done, and plunked it on my head just as the clock showed half an hour had passed. (We actually doubted our eyes and had to check to determine the clock's accuracy.) Serena pulled out all the color stops, in developing the batts for the Saturday competition: the whole rainbow got into the act, with angelina and sparkly nylon and whisps of silk playing supporting roles. It was hard for me to set aside spinning and get cast on, because it was such an adventure to see what would appear next in her magic batts. We were sorry not to be sitting nearer our competitors, both so we could observe what wonders they had devised, and to have a clearer idea of how nervous we should be! Oddly, we only changed seats twice during the contest. I knitted a couple of extra rows on this hat, because we were nervous that we could be “disqualified" if ears weren't well-covered. (A concern that seems silly in retrospect: a literal hats-off to the clever ladies who hadn't ever teamed up in advance of the contest, and who dreamed up a crocheted yarmulke with earflaps to meet the letter of the law!) And we rocked the clock, weaving in ends at the 35- minute mark. Perhaps our hat wasn't in the running for the beauty competition, but it's warm and colorful, and has real personality. Of course, now our secret is out: fat singles and fat needles make a fast hat. There wouldn't be much sense in trying to hide what worked. But it seems to me that this need-for-speed has its place in every spinner's daily bag of mad skills. Who hasn't had the experience of realizing, just before bed, two days in advance of a loved one's special day that—OMIGOD!—we promised something handknit, and how the heck could we make that happen at this late hour??! The HALF-HOUR HANDSPUN HAT is your solution. Besides, if we've all had a chance to practice, won't the next "Batts to Hats' competition be piles more fun?? (c) 2012 - Marcia Weinert
HALF-HOUR HANDSPUNHAT
@ 2012 by Marcia Weinert - Undeniablyloopy@gmail.com) (Sure, make 'em, sell 'em, give 'em away--but please credit the designer. In the right fiber, I bet these would make dandy chemo hats! Just as cute inside as out.) Fits an adult head, to cover the ears. (As per the rules. :-) NOTE: This hat can be made by two people working as a team in 30 minutes. It might take 45 if you're working alone. SPECIAL TECHNIQUE: The simplest and fastest way to “make one" (m1) is demonstrated in videos at knittinghelp.com. “Make one away," if knitting Continental, or "make one towards," if knitting English. These are, however, apt to be loose-ish stitches. If you care, and are not actually competing for speed, use a different method; knitting into the front and back of the previous stitch would work just as well, and be almost as fast, but leave blips on the fabric surface—-more personality! MATERIALS: roughly 4 oz. any fiber, any prep (crimp equals loft, so I'd argue against alpaca and the like; longer staple length equals speedier drafting), spun to singles of just 2-3 wraps per inch. (At fewer wpi than that, you'll be struggling to knit a THICK hat, not a FAST one.) GAUGE: 3 sts = 2" Place a slip knot onto a size 19 circular needle. Knit into the front and back of this stitch; replace these sts on the LH needle (faster than sliding down the cable) and knit them again. (You may work several rows of 2-stitch I-cord if you want a top knot and are not in a hurry.) Begin increases: Round 1: [k1, make 1] twice; 4 sts. Round 2 and all even rounds: knit. Round 3: as round 1 (8 sts). Round 5: [THE FIDDLY BIT!] \*k2, m1, [k1, m1] twice; repeat once from \*. (14 sts) Round 7: as round 1 (28 sts). Work even until hat covers ears. Bind off. Weave in ends. Check the clock. Exult.
RUMPLESTILTSKIN" HAT
Developed for a “Batts to Hats" competition, this easy-spin, easy-knit hat takes about half an hour to spin, and just about an hour to knit up—the perfect last-minute gift! SIZE: For adult heads, approx. 22" around. YARN: Bulky singles yarn, 5 wraps per inch; approx. 55-60 yards (roughly 4 oz.) NEEDLES: 16" circular needle size 10.5 or size to obtain gauge AND a set of four double-pointed needles size 10.5 GAUGE: 2.5 sts per inch DIRECTIONS:Using 2 dpns, CO 2 sts. Work an I-cord topknot: \*knit these 2 sts and slip them both, purlwise, back to the LH needle; repeat from \* for 2", tucking the CO tail into the center of the I-cord as it isworked.
RUMPLESTILTSKIN HAT - p. 2
BEGIN CROWN: Round 1: \*K1, make 1 (twisted loop placed on RH needle); repeat from \*. Round 2: \*K2, make 1; repeat once from \*. (6 sts) Round 3: K2 onto each of three dpns. Round 4: [K1, make 1, place marker] around (12 sts) Round 5: Knit Round 6: [K to marker, make 1, slip marker; k to end of needle, make 1] twice on each needle. Repeat rows 5 & 6 til 16 sts on each needle. (48 sts) Round 17: Using 16" circular needle, K2T0G, k to end of round, removing markers as they appear. (47 sts) TURN WORK; the hat is worked from the WRONG SIDE from here to end. Rounds 18-20: KNIT 3 rounds Rounds 21-32: [k3, p3] continuously for 11 rounds, or to 1" shorter than desired length. Rounds 33-35:KNIT 3 rounds BIND OFF: (also worked from WS/inside of hat) [P2TOG, slip the resulting st back to the LH needle] until one st remains. Break yarn and feed tail through this st. Weave in end. Tie a knot in the I-cord at the top of the hat. Pattern is copyrighted. Please feel free to use, share, sell, teach— and credit the designer.Thanks!
