I will be making this for my son, Luke. I figured that with the ribbon tie, he can get a couple of years out of it before outgrowing it. I am making it from a sort of country blue that should bring out his eyes, with the blue, black and white dicing pattern.

After completing this, I intend to make a green one for myself.

9/6/2014 My Denise Interchangeable needles arrived this evening. (They’re the only brand that make a 20” circular needle called for in the pattern.) Guess I should swatch, so started swatch. I’ll consider that starting this project.

9/7/2014 Finished first swatch with recommended 10-1/2 needles. Running 18 sts and 22 rows in 4”x4”. A little tighter than the 16 sts and 20 rows of the pattern. I have no experience how needle size changes gauge, so I will try a swatch with 11’s to see if that’s closer. Since this is for Luke, and with the adjustability of the felting, it might not matter much. But being my first project, better safe than sorry.

9/8/2014 Maybe a third of the second swatch done, and it looks like its right at 4 sts/in with US 11. I need to finish this swatch just to know that I did it right.

9/10/2014 Finished the second swatch. Gauge is dead on at 16 sts and 20 rows in 4”x4” with US 11 needle. Going to cast on! Finished the three garter stitch rows this evening.

9/11/2014 Closed the round, and began the two-hand Fair Isle patterning. Completed three rows. Urgh! Despite the practice projects, I think I slipped two early stitches with my “continental” hand. Hopefully, they will be hidden with the fulling.

9/13/2014 Something funny happened while two-handed Fair Isle knitting today: I began to look forward to the Continental stitches and dreaded the English ones.

Finished the Fair Isle dicing part, and feel like I’m home free, even though the remainder will involve detailed bookkeeping, and is maybe another 75% of the project. In addition to the slips, I found on stitch in the back where I used the wrong color. Ugh!

Got to the beginning of the increase row, and decided that was a good place to stop for the evening.

9/15/2014 This is the part where I need assurances that this thing is going to shrink significantly during the fulling. Especially in height. It is looking ridiculous.

I only bought one skein of the relatively expensive blue wool yarn. I am hoping between the small size and starting with the black and white, that I’ll have enough for this without having to go buy another (and wondering how well the color will match.)

Got through the big increase. I put in markers between the sections of instructions (like the KFB 2, K1x5). Before I finished each set, I could easily count back to see if I were on track. Then I could fix before that section was done instead of making the fix in the following even rounds as the instructions suggest. There were two times I was off a stitch. Probably from when the kids come running and screaming into the room (where they never go unless I’m there.). I probably failed to put in the “B” in the “KFB” or lost count of consecutive KFB’s).

I am well into the even rounds of 120 sts. (The max. width of the crown for the small.)

9/16/2014 Whew! Finished the 2160 sts in the 18 even rounds at the maximum width (120 sts). Starting the decrease!

I thought this project would take 3 - 6 months. I am surprised. Although my bagpipe practice has suffered a bit in the last couple of weeks.

If I didn’t mess up something, my spreadsheet says this small bonnet has 6698 stitches.

9/19/2014 It’s a race to the end. The hole in the bonnet is getting smaller, but so is my ball of yarn. Which will run out first?

I replaced the #11 tip from the source end of the circular I was using with a 10.5 to build another circular in anticipation of switching to two circulars. Wow! Having the smaller tip on the source end makes it REALLY easy to slide the stitches on and knit them off. I think it’s really speeding me up. Putting a smaller tip on the source end will be my SOP from now on with circulars.

EIGHT short rows left, and switched to TWO circulars. Hope I know what I’m doing. I only learned about this the other day, and realized that I already had the parts to do this, and I would not need to go out and buy another set of DPN’s. But unlike everything else needed for this project, I haven’t practiced this.

Not too thrilled with the two circular technique when you get down to so few stitches that they’re all on the needle ends. That’s hard to deal with. Like being on only two DPN’s.

Argh! Finished the last stitch and was about to run through the house screaming in joy, and then saw a dropped stitch several rows back. Maybe this explained why my count was off by one a few rows back. (Need to examine the work when that happens in the future.) Couldn’t really just rebuild that column - it goes through all of these decreases. Well, maybe the fulling would hide it, but I didn’t like that all those neatly planned decreases would be off. I HATE frogging because I am no good at getting the stitches all back on the needle. I haven’t learned that secret yet. But I saw no other way. Frogged back to the where the drop stitch ended - the first 32 stitch row, it turns out. Carefully made sure that all of my stitches were on the needle and properly oriented. Ascertained which row I was on. Determined where I was in the round. Carried on.

9/20/2014. FINISHED THE KNITTING! Not perfect, but there are no giant holes from accidental yarnovers. I am quite proud of it. Not much yarn left, but I made it. (See photo of remainder). Weaved in the ends.

I am quite surprised. Less the two weeks from start to finish, and that included making two gauge swatches. I am caught off guard. I don’t have the ribbon to finish it, not had I even thought about ordering Luke a cap badge yet.

Oh….the red clump in the photos is not the toorie. It’s just marking where the center is so I can find it after fulling. It’s acrylic yarn.

Put it in on “quick wash”, hot wash, cold rinse, slow spin. We have a front loader, so I don’t think I can stop it within the wash cycle to check it, so picked shortest cycle it had. First wash, it’s definitely fulling, but I can clearly see the individual stitches still. Second wash, so almost there, but I can still make out vertical furrows from the rows of stitches. Third wash, ZOWIE! It’s small! Luke is not here at the moment for me to try it on him. It certainly doesn’t fit me any more. I hope I didn’t overdo it.

9/21/2014. I think it’ll be alright. The headband seems to flare out a bit. I hope I can get that under control with the trim. I’m now just waiting until probably Friday when I can go by JoAnn after work and pick up the ribbon for the trim, adjustment ties, and cockade.

9/25/2014 I made a practice red toorie. My wife saw it. She nixed it. Said I needed to make it in MC or black. I think the red would look fine here. Maybe not with the green balmoral that I am about to start for myself. She was COMPLETELY indifferent to this whole project until she found the red toorie.

9/26/2014 Made a toorie from the leftover yarn. 100 wraps as in the pattern left me with about 4” leftover! I am quite happy with it.

9/28/2014. Spent what seemed hours sewing on about 3/4 the first side of the edging. Probably less than an hour, really. Made me think I should spend the time learning to use the machine. I was working hard at tucking in the perceived flare in the band. Checked it out on Luke, and it was way small. Need to rip it all out and start over. I want to finish this, but it might take a while. Don’t want to rush it.

9/29/2014 This is getting very frustrating. Took off the trim I started. Checked it on Luke one more time, being careful that I was positioning it where it should sit. It’s just small. I’m going to try to steam it and stretch it. I read the sewing machine manual the other night. I’m going to set that up for the next attempt at putting the trim on. Did I mention that I started knitting MY balmoral?

9/30/2014. Steamed it over a pot of boiling water (my tea kettle has gone missing), and it’s stretching over a pot. I forgot to measure Luke’s cabbage before he went to karate tonight. It might need another attempt.

Some steaming and tugging, and it seems to be a good fit now. Set up the sewing machine, but it seems the needles are lost.

10/11/2014 Sewing was tedious. I got out the machine and learned to use it, but decided it was too difficult yo use to sew along that thick edge. I still think it fulled too much. I told Luke I’d make him another, and he asked for a plain band. (That will be so easy.)

The cockade is from “So You’re Going to Wear the Kilt” by J. Charles Thompson (3rd. Ed., p. 105, Figure 16.)

10/18/2014 Anne the Pleater from xmarksthescot gave me advice on stretching out the crown. I think it’s a little better proportioned now, but mainly, since it was wet, it gave me a chance to block it into a better shape. Size is just where I want it. I have the ribbons tied as tightly as possible, and it’s a little loose. There will be a little room for him to grow into it.