This weekend is closing weekend for Mariemont Players' 110 in the Shade, a production that I started out helping with a few vocal rehearsals and ended up vocal directing. It's a very touching, sweet show (by the creators of The Fantasticks!) with a good score and a real live, 100% H20 rain storm on stage at the end.
One of the characters, Snookie, wears a Little Red Hat. In fact, there's an entire song about it (not coincidentally called "Little Red Hat".) And it needs to be a certain type of Little Red Hat - one that doesn't seem out of place for 1936, that can be shoved into a pocket, and doesn't look like it should be on Nanook of the North. After all, it's 110 degrees out there, and there's a drought, so a cabled ski cap is out of the question.
And so, Sunday of the week the show opened (known to theatrical folks as "Hell Week"), I agreed to knit a Little Red Hat for Snookie. The director drew a quick sketch of what he had in mind, I went home to see if I had any appropriate yarn in the stash, and I started what became this:
Patten: Made on the fly, using the Diagonal Madeira Lace pattern from Barbara Walker's Lace book.
Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, approx. 1/2 a skein, in colorway 2623.
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm.)
What I did (for my own memory):
CROWN: Cast on 88, join in the round.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: (K1, YO, K2tog, K1), repeat all the way around.
Row 3: Knit.
Starting with row 4, work in Diagonal Madeira Lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s Lace book, until piece measures approx. 4”.
Decrease, keeping in pattern as best you can, as follows:
Row 1: (9 stitches in pattern, ssk), repeat all the way around.
Row 2: Knit.
Row 3: (8 stitches in pattern, ssk), repeat all the way around.
Row 4: Knit.
continue in this manner through (4 stitches in pattern, ssk).
Next row: (K3, ssk), repeat all the way around.
Next row: (K2, ssk), repeat all the way around.
Next row: (K1, ssk), repeat all the way around.
Last row: (ssk) all the way around.
Pull the tail end of the yarn through all the remaining stitches and draw up tightly.
BRIM: Pick up 88 stitches along the cast-on edge.
Row 1: (K4, kf&b), repeat all the way around.
Rows 2 & 3: Knit.
Row 4: (K5, kf&b), repeat all the way around.
Rows 5, 6 & 7: Knit.
Row 8: Purl.
Row 9: Knit.
Row 10: Purl.
Cast off in knit.
And, of course it looks adorable, not in the least because of the cute-osity of the actress playing Snookie. These photos don't do her justice.
And 110 degrees and drought make a nice contrast to the snow and ice storm we've had this week.
Just sayin'.
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