I knitted a...a...

...Well, I scalped a muppet.  And it was glorious...the prickly thing put up a fight, but in the end I was triumphant!

The one I made for myself, on it's debut expedition for mushrooms.

About a year or so ago I picked up knitting as something to work on during down time at my day job.  I started with a couple of scarfs--the first 4th Doctor inspired Ravenpuff scarf taking all winter, then went on to a couple of hats.  Specifically, a thrum hat.

What is a thrum hat?  Well, thrums are best thought of as being like little dreadlocks, made of loose yarn worked into the weave of a hat, then kept from turning into a solid mat when the hat was felted.  Think of it as a kind of faux fur, especially as the thrums in modern knitting are often unspun wool and to the inside for maximum insulation.  I want to say there was a period pair of Norse mittens with thrums to the inside as well....

Phlegmaticus.  1600, Netherlands.
British Museum. 1868,0612.2120

You see the style on sailors quite often--no surprise there, as the hats are almost weatherproof and extremely warm, even up into the 18th century.  You also see them in some of the Bruegel peasant paintings; common colours are red (especially madder red), white (natural sheep), and blue (woad).

To go mushrooming, I wore my Dungiven Suit. 
Just because it needed to be worn..

I used the pattern by Sally Pointer (link to her Ravelry pattern), and found it fairly easy to follow, even with not knowing what I'm doing; there are plenty of knitting videos on youtube to explain things if you get lost.  For a brief time last year, it seamed like everyone was making them!  Or at least a few people were, including myself.

 I had never knitted anything which was not flat...i.e. a scarf.  Beginning to knit with the dpns was somewhat intimidating and prickly.

While the pattern called for size 8 needles, I accidentally read size 5 needles instead of 5mm (or size 8).  Which means my hat was much more tightly woven than it was supposed to have been, especially given that my tension tends to be high anyways.

I tried a variety of different placements for the thrums.  Eventually, I think I settled on every 4 or 5 stitches every 2 or 3 rows.  I am not sure at this point.

 The muppet scalp is taking shape.  For this project I used Valley Yarns Berkshires Bulky, which is an unplied wool/alpaca blend--it behaved fairly well, on the whole, and is super soft.

The finished hat, turned inside out.  Kinda reminds me of a sea anemone.

Hat completed, with zero yarn to spare.  I even unraveled the sizing swatch to use for thrums.    Naturally, I had to try it on....and I had forgotten what it is like to have long bangs in your eyes.  Most annoying.

Fulling something is always so cathartic, especially since I tend to throw it against a flat surface (often inside the sink) until exhausted and it comes to shape.

I did find that the thrum has was less enjoyable to full as I had to be careful to avoid the thrums from turning into a solid mass of fiber.  Therefore, I really do not recommend using a washing machine to do the job, as many knitwear instructions have you do.  But in the end I succeeded and resulted in this deflated sea urchin. 

Complete with googly eyes, per everybody's request.

This particular hat was intended as a gift, and I managed to finish it in time for her ~Censored~ birthday in February.  I have since completed a thrum hat for myself, in the same yarn but thrummed with a more copper or madder orange coloured wool--this is the one in the header photo.

For the second hat, I did do a couple of things differently in knitting it.  While I used the same yarn (mostly--the top 1/4th of the thrums is the lighter weight version of the same yarn, since I purchased the last two skeins of the bulky), I did my knitting on #7 bone dpn needles from Wm.Booth, draper (#7s are the largest they sell).  Other than the slight fear I was going to break them, they were wonderful to work with.  Smooth without being so slick the yarn would slide off, as was a slight issue with the steel needles.  The fact they /are/ potentially breakable meant my tension was slightly less, and plus was using a size closer to the called for.

On mine, it originally devoured my head before fulling.

  The other change was the density of the thrum additions.  For this hat, I used two strands (doubled) every three stitches, and every two rows--I felt the thrums were slightly scanty on the first hat.  I have been wondering if I have overdone it on this one...

...I don't think I did!  It fulled up fairly well--I don't think it was as difficult as on the last thrum hat, since the gauge was a bit looser this time.   I think it was also easier to keep the thrums from matting into a solid mass, since there were more of them.  Even though it looked like overkill of thrummage, apparently it wasn't.

Bonus shot of jelly fungi, or fairy butter.  I used to collect these as a kid, since they come in multiple colours.
Sadly, I didn't find any mushrooms on my woods walk, much less edible ones. 

© John Frey, 2019. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material.  Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research or educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies