DIY: a felted beret
Paris calls for a beret!
I was in Paris in the past few days, and started to knit a beret: because when you're in Paris, you bet chances are you get taken by the Parisian mode!I got home last night, finished the last few rows with the DPNs, felted, blocked and placed on the heater to dry! It was ready this morning and wore it already!
I sort of followed a pattern on Raverly: the Preyarn Beret by Elena Berezinskaya - this is a fast knit, very well detailed, free pattern. As usual, (I'm bad at following patterns) I made one modification on purpose and one by accident. Anyway, it worked out well and I'm really pleased with the result!
The "on purpose" modification: the pattern calls for 6 rows on stockinette stitch for the brim: I casted on with a provisionally cast on, and actually knitted 7 rows on stockinette, 1 row of purl stitch, and 7 rows of stockinette, this way, once the beret was done, I folded the brim in half and sew down the live stitches from the provisional cast on to have a thicker, fitted and slightly more defined brim.
The" by accident" modification: I did all my increases and decreases stitches stacked on top of each other, with the result that the hat has defined "slices": while felting and blocking, though, the slices get smoothed out and the result is a perfectly round beret.
: because I have a tight hand, I always put a tip of a smaller size on the non working needle, this makes my knitting much easier.
I used the smaller size connecting cable for the cast on, and later the 24 inches cable; while decreasing I knitted until I could (about 81 stitches) with the circular needles, and then I switched to the Boye 7-Inch Aluminum Double Point Knitting Needles (size 6US - 4mm)
I used the smaller size connecting cable for the cast on, and later the 24 inches cable; while decreasing I knitted until I could (about 81 stitches) with the circular needles, and then I switched to the Boye 7-Inch Aluminum Double Point Knitting Needles (size 6US - 4mm)
.
The yarn I had is the same yarn I used for the felted clogs I made last year, I know it shrinks a lot once felted, so I decided to knit the bigger version of the pattern, even if my head is 54cm/ 21-1/4" diameter.
Once finished, I felted the hat by hand rather than in the washing machine: it's a small item, and the hand felting took me about half hour, much faster than a cycle in the washing machine: also, by hand felting I was able to keep the felting process under control. Really happy with the whole process and result!
Now... I'll be busy making a matching scarf!
xox, d.
keep in touch!
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The yarn I had is the same yarn I used for the felted clogs I made last year, I know it shrinks a lot once felted, so I decided to knit the bigger version of the pattern, even if my head is 54cm/ 21-1/4" diameter.
Once finished, I felted the hat by hand rather than in the washing machine: it's a small item, and the hand felting took me about half hour, much faster than a cycle in the washing machine: also, by hand felting I was able to keep the felting process under control. Really happy with the whole process and result!
Now... I'll be busy making a matching scarf!
xox, d.
keep in touch!
facebook * bloglovin * pinterest
