Cthulhu hat begins

[cdave]

The advantage of knitting a hat top down, is that I don't need to know the gauge at all. I was just doing that way so that I could leave the needles in as place holders for where the scarf and tenticals would join.


Cast on 8.
Split between 4 needles.
4x K2
4x KFB2
4x K4
4x KFB K2 KFB
4x K6
4x KFB K4 KFB
4x K8
4x KFB K6 KFB
4x K10
4x KFB K8 KFB
4x K12
4x K12
4x KFB K10 KFB
4x K14
4x K14
4x KFB K12 KFB
4x K16
4x K16
etc.

I'm up to K22 now, and need to increase the size by about a quarter again. I won't start doing 3 K rows until I'm a bit closer to the size of my head.
If I started again, I think I'd leave it on one round of knits for a bit longer. It's curved a bit quickly. Plus I was pulling it a bit tight at the start, so it's very slightly concave at the top. On the plus side there's no holes around the lines between needles.

I saw another interesting technique at Angel Knits last night. I didn't find out if it had a name, so I'm calling it Cuttlefish edging. Cast on twice as many stitches as you need then decrease to the number you need in about 4 or 5 rows. It leaves a random wavey edge that looks something like a cuttlefish wing. I thinkg that'll look good at the back between the tenticles

So far the techniques I want to use on this are.
Knitting in the round (Hat)
Increases (top down hat)
Decreases (Ribbing wouldn't look right, so I need to tighten the bottom of the hat the hard way)
Reverse Cuttlefish (for the back)
Braids (for the start of the scarf)
icords (for the front tentacles)
Fair Isle (using dark green wool to make patterned eyes)

This is turning into quite a complex little project :)