At the beginning of December, I got a feeling to start knitting. You know, sitting in the corner of a sofa knitting and watching a good series or film, drinking tea after a long day. A bit over a year ago I knitted a beanie when visiting my family in Finland but then I lost it somewhere during the winter. I was so proud of it. First of all, I got it done, second, it looked like a beanie. I’m more a sewing person even though I knitted a lot of socks and mittens when I was young.
I bought knitting needles in bamboo so that I could take those with me to an airplane for example when travelling to Finland for Christmas. I really like the feeling of bamboo needles: less cling clang and knitting stitches seem to stay better on the knitting needles. Win-win for me. I will invest in bamboo needles also in the future. They cost a bit more, but I think they are worth it.
I started knitting a new beanie. I had no idea how or with which instructions I did my previous beanie so I started from the beginning by googling instructions to see with how many stitches I should start. I decided to go with 90. Then I just started knitting with a plan that I had discovered in my head. To keep ears warm, I designed triple layers next to them. After I thought the beanie was high enough, I googled how to narrow and close the beanie. Here I edited the instructions a bit, and in the end, the beanie turned out okay. It became a real myssy (one of the words for a beanie in Finnish), and that is why I call this model myssykkä.
If you are interested in this myssy take knitting needles, yarn in a colour of your choice, and start knitting by following the instructions. I’m sorry that I’m not a professional in knitting language. I tried to find out the right terms, but to keep instructions simple so that everyone can understand. So no sign language here. Just leave me a comment if something is unclear. I really would like to know the right terms as well if I’m using something wrong, and all the other comments of course! When you are ready, share a picture of your myssy with #vlmyssykka.
Myssykkä
What you need
– 1 ball (100g) of yarn
– 1 circular needle 40cm / 4-5m- 5 knitting needles 20cm / 4-5mm
I used Socki from Adlibris, 75% wool, 25% polyamide in medium grey melange. It has a same thickness than for example 7 veljestä from Novita. For needles, I chose 4,5mm.
What to do
1. Create 90 stitches to the circular needle
2. Start knitting: 1 knit stitch – 1 purl stitch (inside out stitch) – 1 knit stitch – 1 purl stitch. Keep going until your work is approx. 6 cm high
3. Continue only with purl stitches. These stitches will look like knit stitches in a ready-made beanie since the back side of the work at this point will be the right side in the final product. Keep stitching until the purl stitch part is approx. 7 cm high. We want this part to be a bit higher so that the knit/purl stitch part will not be visible in the end
4. Repeat part 2, but this time until the new knit/purl part is approx. 5,5 cm high
5. Now, the easiest, most fun and fastest part: just knit stitches until the part is about 10 cm high
6. Then let’s start decreasing rows, narrowing and closing the end of the beanie:1st row: knit 2 stitches together with knit stitch + 8 simple knit stitches, 2 stitches together + 8 simple stitches etc.2nd row: 2 stitches together + 7 knit stitches. The first one of the stitches that is knitted together should be the one that knitted two stitches together on the previous row.3rd row: 2 together + 6 knit stitches4th row: 2 together + 5 knit stitches5th row: you got the pattern maybe already, but 2 together + 4 knit stitches. Change to knitting needles when the circular needle becomes too big. I would say here, latest. Three sets on the first needle, two on the second, 2 on the third and 2 on the fourth.6th row: 2 + 3
7th row: 2 + 2
8th row. Now you should have 3 stitches on each set which means 9 stitches on the first needle, 6 on the rest three.
9th row: 2 +1
10th row: last 2 together. Now you should have 3 stitches on the first needle, 2 on the rest three.
7. Cut the yarn by leaving 7-10 cm long yarn hanging. Pull the yarn through the stitches and fasten off by finishing the start and end yarns into the work with yarn needle.
Enjoy knitting, leave a comment, share your myssykkä with #vlmyssykka and keep yourself warm!
VIIVI