TARDIS Bag

This was a project that almost happened accidentally. I just wanted to take a picture of myself crocheting, so I grabbed some blue yarn I had lying around and a hook and got started. Before long, I decided I was making a smallish handbag. And since the yarn was TARDIS-blue, I added some white and black embellishments to suggest the windows and "Police Call Box" sign of a TARDIS. I made one little loop at the top edge and one longer loop for handles. I can feed the longer loop through the smaller one to close the bag while I am carrying it. I'm very happy with the results!

Materials
Caron Simply Soft Royal Blue
Caron Simply Soft White
Caron Simply Soft Black
Crochet Hook Size E

Directions
Start with Royal Blue

Bottom
Rnd 1: Sc 6 in a Magic Circle (6)
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each st (12)
Rnd 3: *Sc 1, 2 sc in next st*, repeat 5x (18)
Rnd 4: *Sc 2, 2 sc in next st*, repeat 5x (24)
Rnd 5: *Sc 3, 2 sc in next st*, repeat 5x (30)
Rnd 6: *Sc 4, 2 sc in next st*, repeat 5x (36)
Rnd 7: *Sc 5, 2 sc in next st*, repeat 5x (42)
Rnd 8: In the front loop of each stitch only, sc around (42) - creates nice edge on the bottom

Sides
Rnd 9: *Sc 21, 2 sc in next st*, repeat 1x (44)
Rnd 10-27: Sc around
Rnd 29: *Sc 2 with Royal Blue, sc 2 with White*, repeat 10x
Rnd 30-31: Repeat rnd 29
Rnd 32-33: Sc around with Royal Blue only
Rnd 34: *Sc 3 Royal Blue, 2 sc Black, 1 sc White, 2 sc Black, 1 sc White, 2 sc Black*, repeat 3x
Rnd 35-36: Sc around with Royal Blue only

Handles
Rnd 37: Sc 10, ch 10, skip next 5 st; starting with 6th st, sc 16, ch 40, skip next 7 st; starting with 8th st, sc 6 (94)
Rnd 38-40: Sc around

Fine print: Not guaranteed to be bigger on the inside.

For the Horde!

This bag is a celebration of my World of Warcraft guild Inevitable Betrayal. I often have a hard time finding yellow wool for felting projects; all I could find this time was roving. Since it was thicker than the red worsted that I found, I used one strand of yellow and two strands of red throughout the project. I pulled each strand of red from a separate skein, so that I was using an equal amount from each. Later that helped me make the two straps an equal length, because I used what was left of each skein to make each strap.

Materials
Patons Classic Wool Worsted Bright Red - exactly two skeins
Patons Classic Wool Roving Yellow - one skein
Size 10 1/2 circular needles - 2
Tapestry needle

I developed the chart for our guild standard myself, and found a chart by Mindy White for the Horde symbol on Ravelry (see link below). I also decided to knit the bag in red with the two yellow stripes first, then embroider the letters and designs afterwards.

Directions
I used Judy's Magic Cast On* to cast on 40 stitches on each needle, then I knit the bag in the round.

Using red, knit 7 rounds.
Using yellow: knit 7 rounds.
Using red: knit 45 rounds.
Using yellow: knit 7 rounds.
Using red: knit 6 rounds.
Bind off.

Use charts to embroider letters and designs.

Chart for Inevitable Betrayal standard

Chart for lettering on the Horde side

I found Mindy White's chart for Horde symbol on Ravelry.

Add tassels to the bottom edge.
Knit two long I-cord** straps using one strand each of red and yellow and knitting three stitches in each row.
Before felting, the bag was 12 in. X 16 in., the tassels were 4 1/2 in., and the straps were 62 inches long.

I threw the bag and straps in a pillow case in the washing machine on hot for a few cycles until it came out felted to my satisfaction. The letters became very blurred, but I like how the tassels got kind of crazy. Finally, I used a large straight knitting needle to poke holes near the top edge to push the straps through and knotted them together on each side.

I don't have a lot of experience with writing out patterns, so let me know if you have questions!

Happy knitting and Lok'tar!

*I learned this method in Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Here's a YouTube video with information about its origins with Judy Becker and directions on how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhBIS0AhhQY.
**Simple tutorial on knitting I-cord: http://www.purlbee.com/knitting-tutorials-advanced-te/2006/9/29/i-cord.html.

Worsted Big Fish Hat

A friend of mine asked if I could knit him a nice warm hat to wear fishing. He didn't really have any other specifications other than it might be black or brown, but definitely warm. I looked around a little for patterns and found this Big Fish hat pattern by Northern Purly Girl. I really liked the fish pattern, but I wanted to use Wool Ease Worsted instead of Wool Ease Thick and Quick, so I was going to have a completely different gauge.

It was time for...MATH!

After knitting a test swatch, measuring the gauge, and doing some figuring, I cast on 90 stitches using Wool Ease Oxford Grey (MC) and two size 8 circular needles and continued thusly:

Rnds 1-10: *k1, p1* ribbing
Rnds 11-13: Knit
Switch to Wool Ease Fisherman (CC2)**
Rnd 14: *k11, m1* repeat 8 times, end with k2 (98 sts)
Rnd 15: *k14, pm* repeat to end of round
Rnds 16-24: Using CC2 and Pines Print (CC1), follow chart in original pattern, repeating the pattern 7 times (Remember to knit loosely!)
Rnd 25-26: Knit with CC2**
Switch to MC
Rnd 27: Knit
Rnds 28-32: Knit
Rnd 33: *k12, k2tog* repeat to end of round (reducing round = 91 sts)
Rnd 34: Knit
Rnd 35: *k11, k2tog* repeat to end of round (84 sts)
Rnd 36: Knit
Rnd 37: *k10, k2tog* repeat to end of round (77 sts)
Rnd 38: Knit
Rnds 39-48: Continue alternating a reducing round (with one fewer stitch before the k2tog each time) and a regular knit round (Stitch count will be 70, 63, 56, 49, 42)
Rnd 49: *k4, k2tog* repeat to end of round (35 sts)
Rnd 50: *k3, k2tog* repeat to end of round (28 sts)
Rnd 51: *k2, k2tog* repeat to end of round (21 sts)
Rnd 52: *k1, k2tog* repeat to end of round (14 sts)
Use kitchener stitch to sew together remaining stitches.

**If I'd paid closer attention to Northern Purly Girl's pattern, I would have switched to Pines Print (CC1)

This made a lovely hat, but it was a little slouchy and decided that it was too thin to keep my fishing buddy warm enough. My daughter's friend quickly commandeered this first one, while I started over using a double-strand of yarn. I also used Black as my main color (MC) and Oxford Grey as my contrast color 2 (CC2). To avoid the slouchiness of the above hat, I cast on fewer stitches and ended with fewer rounds altogether. This gave me a nice snug hat.

C/o 84 with MC

Rnds 1-9: *k1, p1* ribbing
Rnds 10-12: Knit***
Rnd 13: *k12, k2tog* repeat to end of round (78)
Switch to CC2
Rnd 14: *k7, k2tog* repeat to end of round (70)
Rnd 15: *k14, pm* repeat to end of round
Rnds 16-24: Using CC2 and CC1, follow the chart in the original pattern, repeating the pattern 5 times
Rnd 25-26: Knit with CC2
Switch to MC
Rnd 27: *k10, pm*, removing markers that are in the wrong places
Rnd 28: *k8, k2tog* repeat to end of round (63)
Rnd 29: Knit
Rnds 30-37: Continue alternating a reducing round (with one fewer stitch before the k2tog each time) and a regular knit round (Stitch count will be 56, 49, 42, 35)
Rnd 38: *k3, k2tog* repeat to end of round (28)
Rnd 39: *k2, k2tog* repeat to end of round (21 sts)
Rnd 40: *k1, k2tog* repeat to end of round (14 sts)
Use kitchener stitch to sew together remaining stitches.

***At this point, I was worried that the hat was going to be too big again, so I did a couple of rounds to reduce the circumference. You might just c/o 70 st to start with and not reduce on rounds 13 & 14.

My Tiger Hat: a Hybrid pattern

My daughter saw a tiger hat on Shana Logic that she thought would be a good Christmas gift for a friend.  But instead of asking me for $40 to buy the hat, she asked me to just make one myself.  And excellent idea.  I wasn't completely happy with the look of the one on Shana Logic, so I surfed around for more ideas.  I tried Lion Brand's site - they have a lot of good free patterns - but I couldn't find what I wanted. And I searched Ravelry.  They had some cute ones, but I still wasn't satisfied.

I was imagining tiger stripes that got wider and narrower they way they really do on a tiger.  The idea of wider and narrower reminded me of a hat I made once from a Lion Brand pattern called "Famous Designer" Hat.  And I wanted earflaps and found Lion Brand's pattern for a Warm Up Hat that had them.  I decided to cobble these two patterns together using tiger stripe colors and adding ears at the end.

(I have more pictures on Flickr.)

Here's my pattern:

Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn: Terracotta, Black, and White colors - I used less than a half a skein of each color.
Needles: Size 9 circular needles
Gauge: 16 st = 4 in.

Earflaps
With Terracotta, cast on 3 sts.  Work in k1, p1 rib until piece measures 8 in., ending with a WS row. (I did 40 rows.)
Row 1 (RS): K1, (k1, yo, k1) into next st, k1 - 5 sts.
Row 2 and all WS rows: Purl.
Row 3: K2, (k1, yo, k1) into next st, k to end - 7 sts.
Row 5: K3, (k1, yo, k1) into next st, k to end - 9 sts.
Continue as in Rows 1, 3, and 5, increasing 2 sts in center st of each RS row until you have a total of 23 sts. ending with a WS row. Sl sts onto a holder.
Repeat for second Earflap, but do not sl sts to a holder.

Join for Hat
Continuing on same needle as second Earflap, with black, cast on 6 sts.
Next Row (Joining Row): K across cast-on sts, k23 Earflap sts, cast on 19 sts, k23 Earflap sts from holder, cast on 6 sts - 77 sts.

The above directions are all from Lion Brand's Warm Up Hat (small size).  At this point, I diverge, knitting in the round instead of in st st and using ideas from their Famous Designer Hat for my tiger stripe.

Divide stitches between two circular needles and join to work in the round.
Rnds 1-3: Knit, continuing with Terracotta

Stripes
Rnd 4: Switch to White, knit, adding one st near end by k1 f & b - 78 sts.
Rnd 5: Switch to Black, purl
Rnd 6: *K2, yo, k1, yo twice, k1, yo twice, k1, yo, k1, repeat from * 12 more times
Rnd 7: Knit in sts, letting yo slip off
Rnd 8: Switch to White, purl
Rnd 9: Switch to Terracotta, knit
Rnd 10: *K1, yo twice, k1, yo, k3, yo, k1, yo twice, repeat from * 12 more times
Rnd 11: Knit in sts, letting yo slip off
Rnd 12: Knit
Rnds 13 - 21: Repeat rnds 4 - 12

Shape Crown
Rnd 22: Switch to White, *k11, k2tog; repeat from * across - 72 sts.
Rnd 23: Switch to Black, purl
Rnd 24: *K6, k2tog; repeat from * across - 63 sts.
Rnd 25: Knit
Rnd 26: Switch to White, *p5, p2tog; repeat from * across - 54 sts.
Rnd 27: Switch to Terracotta, knit
Rnd 28: *K4, k2tog; repeat from * across - 45 sts.
Rnd 29: Knit
Rnd 30: Switch to White, *k3, k2tog; repeat from * across - 36 sts.
Rnd 31: Switch to Black, purl
Rnd 32: *K2, k2tog; repeat from * across - 27 sts.
Rnd 33: Knit
Rnd 34: Switch to White, *p1, p2tog; repeat from * across - 18 sts.
Rnd 35: Switch to Terracotta, knit
Rnd 36: K2tog across - 9 sts.
Rnd 37: Knit
Rnd 38: K2tog across, end k1 - 5 sts.
Cut yarn, pull tail through remaining st and pull to gather.

Ears: Make 2
For inner ears: using Black, c/o 14 loosely.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: Knit.
Slip each stitch over the first st.
Pull end of yarn through the first st.
Repeat for second Inner Ear.

For outer ears: using Terracotta, c/o 16 loosely.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: Knit.
Row 4: Purl.
Slip each stitch over the first st.
Pull end of yarn through the first st.
Repeat for second Outer Ear.

With White, use Blanket Stitch to sew Black Inner Ear and Terracotta Outer Ear together.
Repeat for second Ear.
Sew Ears to crown.

Finishing
Work Blanket Stitch around entire edge of Hat and Earflaps using Black.
Weave in ends.
Make tassels using Black and Terracotta yarn.