Hello,
Today's blog is something that I wanted to do
a while back for my Christmas stockings, I wanted to give a behind the scenes
look as to how I came up with making Christmas stockings and showing the trails
and errors that I went through to get the final result. But other blog posts
came up and just generally enjoying Christmas got in the way, so maybe that
post will be up for next Christmas, only a year late. However I didn’t want
this to happen this time. I feel like on my Instagram it was all about making Christmas
stockings then there was a break and then bam here’s my hats for sale, so I
want to go back and show you how I came up with the final design and show that
it didn’t just happen like it appeared to on my Instagram it actually took a
few weeks to finalise everything. You might be thinking why show us your
errors, but without those errors I wouldn’t have got to where I am now and for
anyone who is a knitter and knows how temperamental knitting and a knitting
machines are I want to show you to stick with it. You might think what your
making is going well until it comes off the machine and that can be disheartening
but it’s all about learning, I can’t believe how much I’ve learnt since I left university
and I’m hoping that as a results this blog it will encourage you to carry on as
you will get there in the end.
I chose hats as my next product to make as it
was something that I had recently started to use a lot more, before I always
use to feel a bit self-conscious in a hat (not to sure why) but now I’m always
in a hat I’ve realised that they are actually really good at covering up greasy
hair whilst on a dog walk. So with my new found use of hats I though I would
make my own, that way I could choose exactly the colour I wanted. I’ve always
been someone who goes shopping looking for something in particular but I can
never find what I want so this way I could make it instead. Below you can find
the 5 trails/steps that I went through to figure out how to make the hat I
wanted. Apologies in advance if the content is too knitty (don’t think that’s a
real word but I mean it might be very knitting based content).
Trail 1:
My first challenge was to be able to make a
rib using a single bed knitting machine. Knitters out there might be wondering
why I didn’t just use double bed and the reason is I was scared. I was worried
that the yarn I using was too thick for double bed knitting and I am a bit of a
chicken so I choose to try single bed. This wasn’t taking the easy way though
as I had never done this technique before, as I said, I’m still learning new
things since university. Below you can see pictures of me trying to make a rib
myself. I found that making a rib by hand wasn’t too bad, it just took lots of concentration
and time but once you got into the rhythm you were fine.
Process of me making my first hand manipulated rib on a single bed knitting machine.
Process of me making my first hand manipulated rib on a single bed knitting machine.
Process of me making my first hand manipulated rib on a single bed knitting machine.
Trail 2:
After I had learnt my new technique I decided
to try and apply it to making a hat. I was following a pattern from a book
however I found the instructions quite confusing so I had to wing a lot of it. Hence
why I haven’t added a link to this book because I mainly made it up. I wanted a
hat with a rolled up rib cuff with the rest of the hat being plain knitting
with a pompom at the top. So I started off by creating my own 3x2 rib then I decided
I wanted to turn the knitting around so that the messy rib I had created wouldn’t
be shown when it was worn, so I took it off the machine and reattached it the
opposite side. However this was a huge mistake. As you can see from the images
below this then didn’t create the crease that I had intended instead it created
this roll where the non-rib knitting would show at the bottom of the rib and I didn’t
want that to happen. So that was my first fail. Although when I showed my nan
she fell in love with this hat and wouldn’t take it off, even though I never
fully finished it and it had threads hanging down and a big hole at the top
(due to the threads hanging down I like to call it the jellyfish hat) she still
wanted to keep it and wear it outside, but as it wasn’t right I couldn’t let
her have it. I know it might seem mean but I did make her a new one as I didn’t
want her having a rubbish hat which you will be able to see how rubbish it was
below. I think she was probably more proud that I had made something new then actually
liking the hat because just look at it.
Making a 2x3 rib.
The rib once it was turned around and reattached.
My first hat, also known as the jelly fish hat but I've tried to hide the threads.
Here you can see the roll of normal knitting under the rib.
Look at the horrendous seam, I'm actually embarrassed.
This hole didn't stop my Nan wanting to wear my hat outside.
Trial 3:
After the first fail I just wanted to move on
and forget about it, so I decided that I didn’t want to have the rib cuff with
plain knitting and I chose to do a full rib hat. I kept the same 3x2 rib design
as I thought by only making a 2 needle rib would save me time but how wrong was
I. As I was creating a rib by hand for the full length of the hat it took so
long, over a day. After a few rows I had had enough but I wanted to see how it
would end up. It was better than the first hat but I thought how could I sell
theses, it takes over a day to make and that’s just the knitting plus I didn’t
enjoy knitting it so I knew I wouldn’t want to sell them. However the time it
took to make wasn’t my only issue with it, as I was making the rib by hand my
lines weren’t always straight and I think it made it look a bit rough (you can
see what I mean in the pictures below). Some might say that thats the charm of being handmade
but I didn’t want something rough going out with my name on it and whilst we
are talking about that look at my seam it’s horrendous, luckily with practise
and trying different techniques my hand sewing is a lot better.
Process of making a full rib hat, unfortunately this is the only photo i have of actually making the hat.
Trial 3 hat.
Here you can see the uneven ribs that aren't straight.
Oh no another lovely seam.
Just wanted to squeeze this one in, back in December we had some snow and this is my trail 3 hat in the snow.
Trail 4:
After trail 3 I was back to the drawing
board, I didn’t like how long it took to make my own rib, so I was second
guessing do I give up and find another product. And as you can guess no I didn’t
give up else there wouldn’t be hats on my Etsy. After my two hat fails I thought I might as well try double bed, yes I
was nervous as I’d had a few issues with my ribber machine before but I might
as well give it a try. I’m planning on doing a blog post on my ribber issues
and how I solved them, as the issue was something I wasn’t even aware of again
another thing I have learnt from playing around with my knitting machine since university.
Anyway out came the ribber machine and I am happy to say it actually worked; my
yarn wasn’t too thick although I did have to have a very high tension, but it
still worked. I should have tried this in the first place. I kept the 2x3 rib
design so I had to do a mock rib design in away as I had to transfer the
needles in the 2x3 pattern after casing on. Now the double bed knitting might
have worked but once it came off and I turned it into a hat, I still wasn’t
happy as you can see below the edge of the knitting didn't fit the rib design,
as it was knitted using full bed (all the needles not just the rib
design needles). Once off the machine it didn’t shrink in the same way as the
ribbed knitting did, so it stuck out like a sore thumb as you can see below. I
really should have thought of this before but my mind was on if my yarn would
knit or not.
My first time trying this thicker yarn whilst using double bed.
3x2 rib on the machine.
3x2 rib on the machine.
Trail 4 hat.
Can you see how the edge sticks out and doesn't shrink down like the rest of the rib.
Here the edge creates a sort of scallop effect, but not a nice scallop edge more like its too big, not a pretty design idea.
Trail 5:
I am so happy to say that this is the last
trail. Based on what didn’t work last time I decided to go with a 2x2 rib
design as then I could knit in that style from the start and not have to start
on full bed knitting and then have to transfer needles. Sorry if you’re not a
knitter and you’re confused and sorry if you are a knitter and are still
confused, I’m not very good at explaining things but I know what I mean. Knitting
this way didn’t give the exaggerated edge which the previous trail did, so I
was a lot happier and this is the method that I use to create my hats. I’m also
happy to say that my seams have improved too, I found a different technique and
to professional hand sewers and embroiders my hand sewing might be terrible but
there has definitely been an improvement, I wear my mustard hat most days and
the seam is living up to expectations.
2x2 rib on the machine.
2x2 rib on the machine.
Final hat design, which you can by on my Etsy shop.
Can you see that the edge doesn't stick out as much as it does on the trail 4 hat (purple).
This edge is nicer than trail 4.
At last a better seam.
That’s it for today I thought I would give
you all an insight into the behind the scenes of Karmann Jean and also to show
any non-knitters how machine knitting works. I also want to apologise if
you didn’t understand anything that I was talking about. But I suppose only I
need to understand it as I’m the one who makes these hats, but I hope that you
can see the evolution of my hats through the photos and can see that they have improved,
as I like to think that they have.
As always thank you so much for reading,
Love Karmann Jean.
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