A&S 50/50 Challenge: Wool Cap #23

 Wool Cap #23
Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Blue Green
Stitch: Mammen
Notes: I decided to make another hat for the 4D Largess competition coming up in March. Even though the derby entry is supposed to be a group effort I figured it would not hurt to have a few extra items in the bag just in case some people forgo they promised to help out with this project.

A&S 50/50: Wool Cap #22

Wool Cap #22
Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Purple
Stitch:Oslo
Notes: Made with the Oslo stitch and a thin gold wool line embroidered into the edge after the hat was felted. The mannequin head is about 19" while my head is 23". Needless to say this hat does not fit me after it was felted.

Our Barony is hosting a Dirty Dozen Donation Derby(4D) at an upcoming event. Our Canton voted to enter a group entry of things made for children. Since the hat does not fit me but will fit a young child I have decided to enter this hat into the 4D along with the other items I made specifically for a child.

A&S 50/50: Wool Cap #21

Wool Cap #21
Brand of Wool: Handspun Bulky
Colours: Brown
Stitch: Danish
Notes: As a follow-up to my working out Hald's Type I stitch I decided I should make a hat using the danish stitch. It is very "lacy" making it usable only as a spring and fall hat. You can see some areas where the stitches look closer together there in the middle. That was were I tried to add an extra link to the previous stitch. Turns out that creates the Oslo stitch or something very near it.

At the bottom, extended in the hopes of using this to cover my ears in cooler weather. the stitches are danish but they are pulled much tighter than the rest of the hat.

A&S 50/50: Wool Cap #20

Wool Cap #20
Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Purple
Stitch: Mix of Aisle, Mammen, York, and Unknown
Notes: I started this hat sometime last year and put it away for some reason. While sorting through my wool stash this past Christmas I discovered the unfinished hat and decided to finish it. I started with the York stitch and moved onto what I thought was Mammen. It was at this point that it was put away. When I drug it out I continued in Mammen stitch only to find that my previous "Mammen" had much neater connection stitches. So obviously it was not Mammen. I tried a row of Aisle Stitch without the B1 connection and that wasn't it either. I decided this would be my winter cap so I finished it in Aisle stitch with the B1+F1 connection to make it thicker over the ears. Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn before I was long enough to cover my whole ear.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Hat #19

Wool Cap #19

Brand of Wool:Unknown Brand
Colours: Light grey
Stitch: Dalby stitch
Notes: This wool is very fine and is from a cone of wool I purchased at an event. It was left over from the Potsdam Arts Council and was being sold for donations. I made this hat very big so it could be felted down to fit the Spouse's head. Because the Dalby stitch creates a very smooth even fabric I plan to embroider the hat once it is felted.

I did the embroidery with a bone needle I created. It is to large to use on finer weaves but it worked very well for embroidering on the finished cap. I used the split stitch, the chain stitch, and the unequal cross stitch to create the different patterns.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #18

Wool Cap #18

Brand of Wool: Homespun
Colours: Light Green
Stitch: Dalby stitch
Notes: I dislike this wool intensely. It is lumpy and tended to catch on itself while pulling the yarn through the loops. The wool is very course and feels stiff but not waxy. I started this hat at the brim but it ended up being to small for me. To make it larger, I went back and added more rows to the brim. Finally just stopped as it did not seem to be working at all.

At some point I started making a different stitch of an unknown name. I completed a row just for effect but had issues with how it looked and occasionally the yarn would break creating holes. I want to use this new stitch to make a hat.

The new stitch is a Oslo in the second loop and a York in the first creating an equals sign bracketed on top and bottom by right slants.
/
=
/
Update: In May of 2013, I figured out that the "new stitch" was in fact the Dalby Stitch. So all the previous hats listed as Dalby are incorrectly labeled and I have no idea what stitch they are actually made with.  I figured this out while looking at Neulakinna's Nalbinding and I found a video she did of the Dalby Stitch.

Now that I have figured this out I need to make some hats from the real Dalby stitch and figure out what I did on the others. After analyzing it I think maybe I was just doing a reverse Aisle stitch with an F1 connection.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #17

Wool Cap #17

Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Fall Variegated
Stitch: Coptic
Notes: Second run at the coptic stitch. The stitches are looser  than on the first coptic hat. It is obvious that I have figured out how to increase with the coptic stitch. As with the last coptic hat the working edge curls severely, making it hard to measure width or depth of the hat.

The variegated yarn creates some interesting stripes with this stitch, rather than blocks of colour like other stitches. I assume this is because the coptic more closely resembles knitting and the yarn was made for knitting.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #16

In my book this entry is described as a fall variegated colours Aisle stitch with a B1+F1 connection that makes a ridged surface on one side and a flat surface on the other. I worked from the brow to the peak and as I make decreases the hat gets tighter and tighter on my head.

I think this is a double entry for hat number 10, and therefore throws my actual caps off by one.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #15

Wool Cap #15

Brand of Wool: Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool
Colours: Brown
Stitch: Broden's
Notes: Very comfortable hat. I consider Broden's to simply be a variation on Oslo just as the Mamman stitch it. With Oslo you pick up one loop, Mammen two, and with Broden's three. I Assume I could continue on with these variations picking up 4, 5, or even 6 loops but I suspect that after a certain point it would become unyielding and to stiff to take up more loops.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #14

Wool Cap #14

Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Fall Variegated
Stitch: Finnish turned Stitch
Notes: This stitch is similar to Broden's but the 3rd loop is twisted before it is picked up. Also there is 1.5 thumb loops where you go under the first thumb loop and over the working thread that creates a braided loop in the rows.I find this stitch to be very slow, even slower than Aisle.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #13

Wool Cap #13

Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Varigated Green
Stitch: Dalby Stitch
Notes: Second hat with the newly learned Dalby stitch. The stitch does not look right but I can not figure out why.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #12

Wool Cap #12

Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Bright Red
Stitch: Supposedly Dalby
Notes: After finishing this hat I found out that I pulled my stitches to tight and the hat is to snug for my head. Yet another hat that will gifted to someone else.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Nalbound Cap #11

Wool Cap #11

Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Yellow
Stitch: Coptic Stitch
Notes: Started with the Josephine knot but got the slip know backwards. As I was working the top row came undone. I laced a piece of yarn through and tied a knot to close the peak. I ran out of yellow so I used red for the rest of the hat. It actually looks nice and has a nicely shaped peak. I think I would prefer if all my hats were either smooth or shaped like this, instead of the pixie acorn cap shapes I get sometimes.

The coptic stitch is the only nalbound stitch that I know of that looks like knitting, and will unravel like knitting. Near the top my increases were quite sloppy but they became much smoother as I worked further down. The mistakes and sloppy increases are easier to see in the red than in the yellow.

A&S 50/50: Nalbound Cap #10

Wool Cap #10

Brand of Wool: Paton's Classic Wool
Colours: Fall Variegated
Stitch: Aisle Stitch
Notes: The Aisle stitch can be made using either the F1/ F2 connection of the B1 connection. B1 is the same as F1 but it is from the bottom of the previous row instead of the top. This creates a heavily ridged hat on the outside but a completely flat row on the inside. It seems that the Aisle stitch with the B1 connection uses more yarn to create the same amount of hat as other stitches. However, the thickness of the resulting fabric makes it more likely to shed rain or snow and keep your head warm.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Stitch Types by Margrethe Hald - Type I, Type Ia

I was extremely lucky to find someone who had a photocopy of the nalbinding chapter from Margrethe Hald's book "Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials", a book that is now out of print and very hard to find. When I was told this person had a copy of the entire nalbinding a.k.a. Needle-Looping chapter (pages 285-312) I begged, pleaded, and generally made a nuisance of myself until they shared their copy with me.


Now that I had a copy of the nalbinding section the fun of trying to figure out the stitches she lists and match them with the stitch names I know. To accomplish this I took a needle and some heavy white cotton cord and followed the directions in the book, compared the results with the pictures and drawings from the book, and finally matched stitch type with the modern name that I know the stitches by.

There was some difficulty with the text and images being labeled differently. An example is the first stitch Mrs. Hald analyses on page 285 and illustrates on 286. The text refers to the stitch as Type I while the illustration refers to stitch Type Ia. Since she never mentions Type I again I must assume that Type I and Type Ia are in fact the same stitch and list them as both.

I also found the text descriptions of the stitches hard to understand. But this was not a surprise. I learn easier by seeing something being done and following along, rather than reading the text and doing after, or even during the listed steps. Because it is taking me so long to replicate the stitches in the book and then find them online if they are unknown to me I have decided to make separate entries for each stitch type.

Along the way I took pictures and here are my results.

Type I, Type Ia - Not a stitch I am familiar with. Searching Neulakinnas Nalbinding and comparing it to all the stitches she lists I found  directions for the Danish stitch. I was pretty sure I had used the Danish stitch before but the needle motions are unfamiliar to me. Have I actually been doing the Danish stitch or is it one that I simply skipped over in my project to date?

Hald's version is created in the round, and as far as I can tell she does not create the stitch in a chain. Would she still consider it Type I or Ia if it was done as a chain? One advantage to using the Danish Stitch to start a loop is that fact that you can pull on the starting thread's tail and close the loop in on itself.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Cap #9

Wool Cap #9

Brand of Wool: Lion Brand Wool
Colours: Yellow
Stitch: Double Danish
Notes: This stitch is the normal danish stitch but there is an extra twist in the middle of each loop. This stitch is very open and stretchy making an almost lacey cap. But, it is also hard to work since the stitch does not use the thumb for tensioning and loop sizing. I do think it will make a nice summer cap.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Cap #8

Wool Cap #8

Brand of Wool: Lion Brand Wool
Colours: Yellow
Stitch: Mammen with an M1 Connection
Notes: This is the first time using the M1 connection. The stitch looks normal on one side but heavily ridged on the other. The M1 connection seems to draw the fabric tighter than the F1/F2 connection. I am getting the smooth scullcap look that I wanted but I started with a folded caterpillar instead of the Josephine knot so the peak looks awkward and ugly.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Cap #7

 Wool Cap #7

Brand of Wool: Bulky Wool - Bernet Roving I believe
Colours: Blue/ Grey
Stitch:Oslo
Notes: I made this hat very large so it could be felted. I still have the "spike" on top. I am definitely not increasing enough in the first three or four rows. After felting the hat is quite stiff and doesn't mold around my head when I wear it like some of the others. I believe this is due to the thickness of the original yarn and the thickness of the fabric after it was felted. Over all, I am not terribly pleased with this hat though the colour is awesome.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Cap #6

Wool Cap #6

Brand of Wool: Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool
Colours: Brown
Stitch: Mammen
Notes: Mammen Stitch with F2 connection. Again I did not add enough at the start so I have this weird little "spike" at the top of my hat. I need to go through Hald's section on nalbinding to verify which stitches I have to include from her notes, along with other stitches used elsewhere prior to 1000 A.D. Once I have made sure I have all of the documented stitches I can start working on stitches that are still in use in Finland.

At this point I believe the stitches I need to do are: Coptic, Danish, Oslo, Mammen, Broden's, Aisle, York, and Finish Turn. But I will not know for sure until I verify and find documentation on each.

A&S 50/50 Challenge: Cap #5

Wool Cap #5

Brand of Wool: Lion Brand Wool
Colours: Yellow
Stitch: Mammen
Notes: Started with the Josephine Knot but for some reason the hole pulled open during work. I was able to stitch it closed but there is still a larger than normal hole at the top. I think I created the slip knot backwards so that the working thread did not pull the slip know tighter to keep it closed.