About a Dalek

Well, in part anyway.  I was looking at my blog stats the other day and noticed a search for keywords "how to knit dalek hat for baby."  Which, quite frankly, sounds like something I would search for if I weren't, you know, designing said hats.  I took that as a sign to quit limping along with my lopsided cardigan and polish up my hat pattern and get on with it.  So with that in mind, enjoy the slightly prickly fruits of my labor.

Dalek Hat

Materials:

approximately worsted weight yarn, roughly 200 yards or 1 skein apiece main color (tan) and contrasting color (brown), small amount black and blue yarn (waste yarn will do) for eyestalk

Abbreviations:

mc = main color

cc = contrast color

k2tog = knit 2 together

ssk = slip slip knit

p2tog = purl 2 together

m1 = make 1: increase 1 by picking up stitch from previous row and knitting that stitch

kfb = knit front and back: increase by knitting into front and back of stitch without dropping from left needle

Body:

Cast on 60 sts in main color, join and start working in round.

Rounds 1-4: (k2, p2) to end—forms 2x2 rib.

Round 5: knit

Round 6: purl

Round 7: knit

Round 8: p1 mc, (k8 cc, p2 mc) to last 9 sts, k8 cc, p1 mc

Round 9: k1 mc, (k8 cc, k2 mc) to last 9 sts, k8 cc, k1 mc

Round 10: Repeat round 8.

Rounds 11-13: Repeat rounds 5-7.

Repeat rounds 8-13 twice more.

Continue hat crown in main color:

Rounds 1-4: knit.

Round 5: k21, p2, k4, p2, k to end of round.

Round 6: knit.

Rounds 7-12: repeat rounds 5-6 three times.

Round 13: (k8, ssk) twice, k1, p2, k4, p2tog, (k8, ssk) to end. 54 sts.

Round 14: knit.

Round 15: (k2tog, k7) twice, p2tog, p7, (k2tog, k7) to end. 48 sts.

Round 16: k16, p8, k to end of round.

Round 17: (k6, ssk) to end of round. 42 sts.

Round 18: knit.

Round 19: (k2tog, k5) to end of round. 36 sts.

Round 20: k5, make long bobble, k17, make long bobble, k to end of round.

(long bobble: kfb twice into same stitch, turn, p resulting 4 sts, turn, k4, turn, p4, turn, sl first st, k2tog, pass slipped st over, k1, pass previous stitch over so that 1 st remains)

Round 21: (k4, ssk) to end of round. 30 sts.

Round 22: knit.

Round 23: (k2tog, k3) to end. 24 sts.

Round 24: (k2, ssk) to end. 18 sts.

Round 25: (k2tog, k1) to end. 12 sts.

Round 26: k2tog around. 6 sts.

Break yarn, draw through remaining sts.

Eyestalk:

Using main color, pick up and knit 14 sts in the round within garter bracket center front.

Knit 2 more rounds.

Change to black yarn. Knit 1 round.

Next round (let's call this round 1): m1, k7, m1, k7. 16 sts.

Round 2: (m1, k4) to end. 20 sts.

Rounds 3-4: knit.

Round 5: k2 tog around. 10 sts.

Lens (continuing from eyestalk stitches):

Row 1: using blue yarn, knit bottom 2 sts. Turn.

Row 2: pick up 1 held black st either side. Purl across (4 sts). Turn.

Row 3: pick up 1 held black st either side. Knit 1 black st together with 1^st blue st. K2. Knit last blue st together with black st.

Row 4: repeat last row but with purl sts.

Row 5: for last 6 sts, k3tog twice with black stitches on inside of circle.

Finishing:

Weave in ends. Block if desired/depending on yarn.

Incidentally, if you're still reading after that roller coaster of a pattern (don't panic, it actually makes sense as you see it growing right before your eyes), I'm also making progress on green capelet.  Ooh, that sounds superhero-ish until you realize it's basically a petite lace shawl.  I've attached pictures now that I'm about 2-1/4 repeats through the 3-repeat lace pattern.  Also it was a chance for me to bust out the phone camera.  That's right, the phone camera.

See, I've got a story about that.  It started with a very post-call me slogging through a very long day of clinic and not realizing until about 6:00 when everybody was packing up for the day that my phone was no longer on the workbench where I'd left it in case of calls from the other office, the hospital, my boss/coworkers, my realtor, or anybody else I'm not allowed to put off if at all possible.  Also suspicious was the fact that it was off when we tried to call it.  I never turn my phone off.  Ever.  But, hey, this was also the week that culminated in Match Day and being able to bid this all goodbye and plop myself into the much more expensive to live in (but presumably less kleptomaniac) Big Apple come July.  Yes, I said less kleptomaniac.  Never, in all my days in St Louis, aka the "most dangerous city in the US," have I had more than an umbrella go missing (and likely through my own carelessness at that).   Here the tally is 1 ophthalmoscope, 1 prescription pad with attached wallet, 1 cellular phone.  Clearly somebody has a habit to support or nothing better to do or both.

Which meant I had to unyoke from the company plan a couple months early.  Eh, not to anger my Android-loving Apple-hating friends or anything, but I'd had some serious issues with my Samsung anyway.  Smartphone that functions  quite reasonably as a computer but makes me want to throw it at the wall every time I try to use it as a phone?  Check.  I admit it: I'm a bit smitten with my new iPhone.  Look at the pictures!  And we won't even go there on video quality.  This sort of speaks for itself.  And I had 2 back-to-back prolonged phone conversations Friday night, aka Match Night, without so much as an echo.  I have a phone again!  Hallelujah!


But enough with the gushing already and tell us about coming attractions (wait, is anyone still reading this?).  They should include...1) April mystery shawl KAL, 2) Die Zauberball/Papagena scarf which I hereby dub Project Mozart, 3) yellow yarn acquired during Beatles' anniversary yarn sale which wants to become Foreign Correspondent scarf from Ravelry, 4) Focus Pocus 2-at-a-time fingerless mitts (not an actual published pattern, mind, I just had leftover sock yarn and wanted to use it up), 5) if the Knit 'n Purl gang ever ask me to knit a display shawl out of Lorna's Laces I'm so in.  Is that all?  Better be unless I feel like quitting my day job and...not being able to afford the yarn.

On that note, it's off to the laces.  Ow.