I'm tired of mis-estimating the tail length for a long-tail cast on!

I started a project in the workshop conducted yesterday at Yarn Shop and More in Overland Park, Kansas. The instructor was Steven Berg, owner of the store and brand called StevenBe. Here is his website. http://www.stevenbe.com.  If you want to see hilarious videos of his adventures on tours with another designer named Stephen West, see http://www.stevenbe.tv. Stephen West has his own website at http://www.westknits.com.

For the class, we were to pick a StevenBe design from a list and bring or buy yarn to use. Steven helped us learn his techniques of combining colors and textures to make more of what we have. The pattern I chose is the Eyelet Ponchini, by StevenBe. This is where you can see the pattern and pictures on Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stevenbe-eyelet-ponchini. I'm pasting a picture here from the pattern book I purchased (signed by the man himself!).

I have some nice fingering weight Shibui Linen that I bought at Stitch Space in Webb City on sale. I thought that would be a good summer yarn. I didn't have any yarns in my stash that I'd like to combine with it, so I searched the store and came up with a couple of possibilities. Naturally, Steven advised the Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, since he is the Glitter Knitter. That's pretty expensive stuff.

The pattern begins with a cast-on of 88 stitches for the large size. Steven also taught us how to do what he calls Mama Christa's Cast-on. Christa is his mama, so there you go. Here is a Youtube video of him demonstrating it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLBjK2oWMKI

It gives a stretchier cast-on than the simple long-tail. Every other stitch is essentially a yarn over.

So, I held my two yarns together, learned the cast-on, and estimated the tail length with the usual methods, such as wrapping around the needle once as a stand-in for each stitch, or simply guessing and starting. I ended up with a too-long tail the first time and sacrificed a couple of yards of yarn. Next it was too short, or I messed it up or something. Anyway, I ended up casting on about three times at the workshop, and finally commenced to knittin'.

Last night I decided I wasn't happy with my selvage edges, so I frogged it and started over. Same troubles. I vowed I would not waste another inch of my expensive yarn and decided to go about this in a scientific manner.

When you do a long-tail cast-on, you use yarn from the tail and from the working yarn on the ball. I estimated it was about half from each. I got out my trusty scrap yarn and got going.

Picture 1: I tied a piece of gray onto my red to show where the beginning of the tail is. I gave it about 6". Then I knitted on 20 stitches, all from the working yarn.

Picture 2: Here is the completed cast-on. I tied another piece of gray onto the red to mark the end of the yarn it used.

Picture 3: I laid out the length of yarn to show how much is contained in those 20 stitches.

Picture 4: I tied another piece of gray onto the red to mark the middle.

Picture 5: I laid out a piece of gray yarn and tied red bits on to mark the desired beginning spot for my tail and a distance equal to the center of the red yarn that I had used. The red marker on the right will be the beginning of the cast-on.

Picture 6: Casting on the gray using the long-tail method.You can see the little red marker at the desired end of the tail and another close to the needle on the right where I sarted, and the working yarn trailing off to the right.

Picture 7: You can see the completed cast-on of 20 stitches showing the red marker bits I tied on when I measured out the tail. Hypothesis proved.

The Mama Christa actually uses a little less yarn than the normal long-tail, due to not all of the stitches actually being "knit" on.

Here is my plan for the next try:
1. Knit on 22 stitches of the expensive stuff. This is one fourth of the 88 I want, and a number that takes very little time to knit on.
2. Add marker ties to the end of the cast-on yarn and the beginning of the tail.
3. Take it off the needles and stretch it out.
4. There is no need to mark the middle. Following the 50/50 theory, a tail of this length should provide enough yarn to do a long-tail cast-on of 44 stitches.
5. I need double that amount, then, to cast on 88. I'll just lay out another length of the working yarn alongside what I have stretched out.
6. There is no need to mark it, but just beginning the long-tail at the point closest to my working yarn should be just about right.

I'll let you know how it worked out when I blog about actually making the ponchini.

Holly Nan

Purple and Ivory Lace-edged Chemo Hat

Another one! I used up some remnants of cotton for this one. It's the scallop option, whereas the previous two were the Madeira lace. I think I like the Madiera better with its little points, but this lace pattern can be memorized, since it just repeats two rows, one of which is just a round of knit stitches.

There will be more.

Easiest stocking hat

The finished hat has 56 grams of yarn in it, nearly a whole ball.

I loosely based the hat on this pattern https://web.archive.org/web/20100910120425/http://knitone.biz/pdf/chemocappattern.pdf , but I started with 80 stitches, because it made the ribbing easier. When I got to the decreases, I worked them over 8 stitches, with the k2tog coming first, like k2tog, k6 all around, knit a row, k2tog, k5 all around, knit a row. I worked it down to 5 stitches and cinched the top shut.

I had started out with 88 stitches and had completely knit the hat because I had recently made a couple of ladies' lace edged hats that began with 84 stitches. The difference between the two styles is, the lace hats are not meant to stretch to be held in place by the  brim. They just lie atop the head.

After I finished it and discovered how wrong it was, I was going to frog the hat and wind up the yarn in a ball, but it dawned on me that there was no reason to make a ball. So I looped the first hat over my forearm and unraveled it as I re-knit the smaller size. This will definitely be my go-to worsted weight hat, since the pattern is easily memorized. I'm hoping some of the uneven stitches will wash and dry out.

This will go to Sunflower Head Huggers for distribution to a chemo patient.

Best portable yarn management ever.

Next try used Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in the color way "Woods". I like that it has some variation in masculine colors, but not being segmented, the colors don't pool.

Cotton Hat with Spirals

Sally's head is smaller than mine, or possibly smaller than any average adult woman's.

I wanted something to throw on over dirty or just-washed hair that would be cool for the summer. I recently made a couple of hats from a lace-edged chemo hat pattern that uses worsted yarn. The yarn I used is Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton (now discontinued). It is classified as a worsted, but it is fluffier than Lily Sugar and Cream, so it knits looser. I cast on 84 stitches and placed markers every 14 stitches, just like the lace-edged hats using the Lily worsted cotton.

I started out with a seed stitch brim for stability. After 4 rows of seed, I did an eyelet row (k2 tog, YO, k2 tog, etc.) followed by another three rows of seed and a purl row.

Then I worked the hat around doing [K2, {YO, K2tog} 6 times] in each 14-stitch section. The solid K2s give a dense area between each holey section. With the fluffy yarn, the holes aren't very large. With the lumpiness of the yarn, the seed stitch is not very distinct, either.

Because there are dense sections, the spiraling nature of knitting in the round is very obvious, and I kind of liked that.

When I got to the decreases about 5 3/4" above the bottom edge of the brim, I replaced the K2 with K2tog 2 times, and did the usual K2, YO, K2tog to the end of each marked section on the rows in between.

I regretted the eyelet row in the brim almost immediately, but I didn't want to rip it out. It turned out to be useful.

Since the hat is too loose, I crocheted a chain and threaded it through the eyelet holes and tied it in a bow on the inside, snugging up the hat a little bit, and filling in the eyelets. This is the hat inside-out showing the crochet chain and the bow. I'm putting this one in the disaster averted column.

Cable Owl Dishcloth

My darling daughter-in-law loves owls and has them all over her kitchen. I made her promise to use them. It was surprisingly easy. There are three rows that require a twist using a cable needle, and diagonal squares require almost no counting. The yarn is Lily Sugar and Cream in Potpourri. I got both from one large ball. The pattern is free on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diagonal-owl-dishcloth

The Almost Lost Dishcloth

I whipped up a couple of these to enclose with a birthday gift for a party I didn't know I would be attending. This is a super easy, very satisfying knit. The free pattern is available on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-almost-lost-washcloth 

The Great Booda Hack

EDITED TO UPDATE: I AM SAD TO REPORT THAT NELEA WAS EUTHANIZED ON JULY 6, 2016
https://www.facebook.com/holly.hurley/posts/10207094926517541

The older my sweet Nelea gets, the more I learn. She's 18, so I don't know how much smarter I can get.

She has always been a very faithful user of her litter box. She tends to back up to the very edge, and she would often have her rear hanging over the edge and the pee would end on the outside. She's also a vigorous digger. 

I tried a few high-sided boxes, but the only successful one was the Booda. We have been using it for at least 10 years. 

I got tired of fighting her off while I was in the process of her monthly litter changeout and eventually got the bright idea of two boxes. One to use, one to wash. 

When we moved to our present house, Kent made a kitty door by cutting a hole in the downstairs half bath closet door and made a floor liner by cutting a piece of cheap shower stall siding and gluing a little moulding fence around the edge to contain litter. 

Just a couple of months ago, I realized it's much easier to do the scooping of all the litter if I pull the box flush with the door, instead of practically crawling in the closet. See, slow learner. 

The next thing I learned was that World's Best Cat Litter lives up to its name. I used Swheat Scoop for years. It's cracked wheat, flushable, and biodegradable. When we lived in Joplin and had a yard, I would dump the leftovers around the base of a tree as mulch.

In our apartment in KC, and now in our townhouse, there is no yard, so I double-bag it and put it in the trash.

When Kent was found to have celiac disease, I tried to purge the house of wheat. We like to think the chances of ingesting kitty litter are nonexistent, but it gets tracked pretty much everywhere, so I switched to the corn-based World's Best. It clumps faster, but the clumps are also very fragile, so you can flush it right away. Swheat Scoop recommends 20 minutes of soaking before flushing. 

I do think the wheat gave better odor control than the corn.

Since the only reason to have the Booda is because of its high sides, I popped out the center piece beneath the handle that holds a charcoal filter. The filter does nothing.

Then I cut round holes in the dome. There was already one round place with a grid across it to get air to the filter, so I pulled out the trusty multi tool and cut three more. 

The edges are ugly, but I sanded them enough to avoid sharp spots. Now she has high sides to keep her in the business zone, but the dome won't be able to concentrate odors. When we leave her alone for up to two days on weekend trips, it gets pretty rank, and I have been afraid she would try somewhere else. Now that is much less likely.

Oh yeah, I have only had a long-handled scoop for about a year. Why? I dunno.