An accidental hat, part 1

It was supposed to be a scarf, my design for the DudeLace (Ravelry log in required) project. DudeLace is a challenge that grew out of  #knitchat, a one hour Twitter chat that takes place every Thursday at 9:30pm ET/ 6:30pm PT.  A DudeLace Ravelry group was formed with Knit1 Eat 1 as our moderator.

Is it possible for designers to create lace that the contemporary man would feel comfortable wearing? Can we create manly lace? How shall we define lace? These are some of the questions that were up for discussion. DudeLace is not a contest; there is no deadline. People design, discuss and upload photos.

I was pleased with my original swatches for the project. Because the group had settled on a broad definition of lace, I chose not to do the machine knitted equivalent of traditional hand knitted lace. As long as the fabric was knitted of yarn and had holes (eyelets), it would be considered lace for our purposes. I chose to create a stitch pattern using racking. (Ha! Regular readers of this blog could have guessed that one! ;))

My two original grey and black DudeLace swatches.
They were dubbed "houndstooth" lace by natknit.

I consulted with the DH, the dude who would eventually be the recipient of my first DudeLace sample scarf. After addressing his concerns about warmth, "Yes!" he said. He would wear a scarf knitted of either swatch. Interestingly, he suggested more highly contrasting colors. "...more like the black and white jacket," he said.

Detail of black and white jacket in perle cotton

Fortunately, I also had the baby alpaca and merino wool yarns I would be using in a gorgeous ivory. I knitted new swatches. What a surprise a change in color made! Suddenly, I liked the back of the swatch as much as the front, especially when rotated 90 degrees.

Although both sides of the fabric are usually visible when wearing a scarf, I redesigned the scarf to feature each fabric face. There will be pictures when this scarf is eventually knitted.

I knitted half the scarf and came across a problem. After a large portion of the scarf fabric was completed, there was a definite ruffling effect on the rib cast on edge. The main stitch pattern, when coupled with the small amount of plain ribbing at the start, made one edge of the ribs gather, creating a ruffle. Ruffles were not part of my DudeLace plan.

I now believe I've come up with a solution to the ruffling effect -- an extremely tight tubular cast on. I will give it a try soon.

In the meantime I have an alternate use for the fabric of the incomplete scarf -- a hat.

To be continued...