Adventures with Scandinavian Hats

Last year was my introduction to the Sievers School of Fiber Arts on Washington Island in Door County, Wisconsin. My friend Roseann has been going up there from Chicago for many years, exploring knitting, basketmaking, sewing and felting. We made silk fiber paper last time, much of which I haven't done anything with. The silk fibers have come in handy, however, as I've incorporated them into the collage on my glass vases and candle holders. This year, in her effort to find something we'd both be interested in, we signed up to knit Scandinavian hats with Carol Anderson. I'm a basic knitter, so I wasn't sure how this would work for me. But with the cooler weather hitting the Midwest, I got back in the mood for knitting!

Monday we left Chicago in plenty of time to make the last ferry from Gills Rock to the island. But the weather got worse the closer we got. By the time we reached the dock, Lake Michigan was filled with white caps banging against the rocky shore and the wind was blowing hard as the rain hit our car. There was no ferry to be seen, just a note on the ticket stand that said "Closed due to weather." Fortunately, the class didn't begin until 2:00 pm the next day. We called the school and they suggested an inexpensive motel for that night. We found ourselves in a line of Washington Island refugees seeking shelter when we got there. Making lemonade out of lemons, we indulged ourselves with a fish boil in Ephraim. The cold wind whipped up the flames as the kerosene burned off the grease in the big pot. Hearty food on a cold and windy night is a great comfort! We ate it all and staggered out to the car with full stomachs.

The next day, I looked out the window to see the trees still blowing violently in the wind. The ferry was not operating, but they would re-evaluate around noon. We arrived at the dock before noon to find a line of cars. I called the ferry's number again and they were loading from the Washington Island side. We waited patiently and were fortunate enough to be among those who made it on the ferry for that run. We rocked back and forth with spray hitting the car window. The class started a little late at 2:30 with only one student missing.

I hadn't knitted in a while, so I had practiced the night before. But for the decorative Scandinavian hats, I had to use the smallest needles ever - size #4. Carol had a number of hats, all named after her male family members. I decided on the Christopher hat because it was "easy." As it turned out, none of it was easy for me. I've decided that knitting is all about counting and making sure your math is perfect, as well as paying close attention to what you're doing. I picked a beautiful gray paired with an oatmeal white. But the gray was a mix of subtle colors and turned out to be hard to see. Not used to the small needles, and hampered by the color, my ribbing was way off. Roseann checked it out and suggested I leave it as is and call those first few rows "a design element." But the more I knitted, the worse it got. I ripped the whole thing out and started over sometime after midnight. By the next day, my ribbing was looking good. I was supposed to have 2 inches done when I walked in the door, but I had to finish that on Tuesday morning. But I was glad I ripped it out and started over. I was finally on my way to a beautiful hat!

I closely followed the pattern, though I occasionally missed a stitch in the sequence and had to keep ripping. We used two colors at a time, and I learned how to trap the many loose strands of yarn on the inside of the hat. I added a band of teal with gold accent stitches in the middle of the pattern. That really set off the grey and oatmeal! We had our pictures taken as a class for Sievers posterity, wearing our hats with open tops and the skeins of yarn still tethered to them.

For knitters, this was a loud and chatty group! Still, they had more experience and finished their hats, while I kept ripping out but gradually completing the pattern. A massage therapist came in with her chair on Thursday night and soothed our aching shoulders, necks and backs. I asked her to do my hands, as well as my head, since I felt a migraine coming on. It helped. We had a few other adventures, too, like getting Lawyer Pizza, drinking Island Wheat Beer, attending a Bead for Life party, and buying fresh veggies at a Farmers Market. Through it all I kept knitting that darn hat! Roseann completed hers and it looked beautiful on her - light blue with accents of dark blue and gold, it was perfect for her coloring. Like the other knitters who'd finished their hats, she started on a new one. We knitted while the ferry took us back to the mainland, sad to leave.

Roseann has her favorite places to shop on the way back through Door County. We bought apples, cherry wine, jam, cider donuts, limpa rye, smoked salmon and a lot more. It just kept piling up in the back of her car. Then we stopped to see my friend Lois in Algoma and followed her sister Mary to her farm, where we got pumpkins and squash right out of the garden. More stuff to pile in the back of Roseann's car! On to Milwaukee, where we had sushi in a restaurant with Roseann's daughter Jena and her boyfriend Eric. By the time we got back to Chicago, it was 1:00 in the morning!

I vowed to finish my hat over the weekend, and I did late last night, working with double point needles for the first time while watching Saturday Night Live. What a thrill to thread my yarn through the loops and pull that sucker tight! But I bought more of the Norwegian yarn that doesn't pill or scratch at Sievers, so I'm planning my next Scandinavian hat. My husband Clinton doesn't seem keen on the decorative design, so maybe it will be for me. I just want to hone my skills while it's still fresh in my mind!