knitting chooks
What is a "Chook?" you might ask, if you happen upon this blog and aren't the two people who already read it and already know what it is. Urban dictionary calls it " A positive amount of anything". In Australia, "Chook" is slang for chicken. The "chook" I am referring to is not a chicken. It is a hat or a beanie, which has a variety of different names as I found out. But to me, it is a hat for winter with a roll up cuff on the bottom. It conjures up "a positive amount" of good memories of growing up and all the things my mom knitted for me and my siblings. My mom also taught 4H and taught a lot of my friends how to knit. My sister could knit socks which I never learned how to do. I have knit a few sweaters. One took me 14 years but I finished it.
I thought the word "Chook" came from the Finns but I guess it is just the term we used back in Upper Michigan and maybe a few other places. This wool (or acrylic) beanie sort of cap was a staple in my growing up years and you can read more about the origins of this cap here.
A "Chook" looks like this:
It's not fancy (and neither are the people who wear it) or hard to knit. So far in the five weeks I have been "retired" I have made 4 and am finishing up a fifth one. I found a lot of yarn at my mom's old house after she died, and also some knitting projects that she had not finished. The chook I am working on now is such a project. I think she was making it for my daughter. As I work on it, I can see the place where she left off and I started. We all knit a bit differently - tight stitches or loose stitches - I guess just like we are all different. I found a place on the unfinished chook where my mother purled instead of knitted, but that makes it unique and I wasn't about to fix it. I wonder why my mom didn't finish this and why she quit knitting in the first place. Only she knows for sure. I think that some things just became overwhelming - she had too much unfinished business. I do know that when I knit with her old yarn I think of her and wish I could ask her. I also think of work and what I accomplished and what I wish I would have. I think of the friends I have and the people who weren't my friends in the first place. I try to have no regrets. I don't want unfinished business but who can finish everything they start or do everything they want to do anyway. Sometimes we just have to let go of things without really having a resolution or an end point I guess.
I have also knit two (and a third in progress) prayer shawls from my mom's old yarn, as well as 3 scarves. Prayer shawls are called that because people make them to comfort others who may have suffered a loss or have a chronic illness. The ones I made out of my mom's yarn are of many different colors and have all gone to my family members...belated gifts from my mom in some ways. My sister keeps finding more yarn at the old house. We think we have it all and more turns up. Hopefully I will knit all of it into fine things so the yarn becomes useful. My mom would have liked that.
So...if you want to make yourself a chook, the pattern is below:
Use size 6 or 7 knitting needles and midweight yarn - 4 0unces
cast on 100 stitches (88 for a smaller size adult head)
Row 1: Knit 2, purl 2...keep this up until you have ten inches
Decrease row 1: K 2 together, purl 2, repeat across row
Next Row: K2 P1, then next row, K1 P2
Repeat these two rows alternately 2 more times
Dec Row 2: K2 together, P1 repeat across row
Next Row: K1 P1 across, repeat this row till you have 12 inches
Dec Row 3, K2 together, repeat across row
Next Row, Purl Across
Next row Knit across
Break off yarn, leaving about 15 inches, thread a needle with this piece of yarn, and draw it through remaining stitches. Pull tight and fasten securely on wrong side - sew side edges together for back seam - and there you have it...a chook.
I thought the word "Chook" came from the Finns but I guess it is just the term we used back in Upper Michigan and maybe a few other places. This wool (or acrylic) beanie sort of cap was a staple in my growing up years and you can read more about the origins of this cap here.
A "Chook" looks like this:
It's not fancy (and neither are the people who wear it) or hard to knit. So far in the five weeks I have been "retired" I have made 4 and am finishing up a fifth one. I found a lot of yarn at my mom's old house after she died, and also some knitting projects that she had not finished. The chook I am working on now is such a project. I think she was making it for my daughter. As I work on it, I can see the place where she left off and I started. We all knit a bit differently - tight stitches or loose stitches - I guess just like we are all different. I found a place on the unfinished chook where my mother purled instead of knitted, but that makes it unique and I wasn't about to fix it. I wonder why my mom didn't finish this and why she quit knitting in the first place. Only she knows for sure. I think that some things just became overwhelming - she had too much unfinished business. I do know that when I knit with her old yarn I think of her and wish I could ask her. I also think of work and what I accomplished and what I wish I would have. I think of the friends I have and the people who weren't my friends in the first place. I try to have no regrets. I don't want unfinished business but who can finish everything they start or do everything they want to do anyway. Sometimes we just have to let go of things without really having a resolution or an end point I guess.
I have also knit two (and a third in progress) prayer shawls from my mom's old yarn, as well as 3 scarves. Prayer shawls are called that because people make them to comfort others who may have suffered a loss or have a chronic illness. The ones I made out of my mom's yarn are of many different colors and have all gone to my family members...belated gifts from my mom in some ways. My sister keeps finding more yarn at the old house. We think we have it all and more turns up. Hopefully I will knit all of it into fine things so the yarn becomes useful. My mom would have liked that.
So...if you want to make yourself a chook, the pattern is below:
Use size 6 or 7 knitting needles and midweight yarn - 4 0unces
cast on 100 stitches (88 for a smaller size adult head)
Row 1: Knit 2, purl 2...keep this up until you have ten inches
Decrease row 1: K 2 together, purl 2, repeat across row
Next Row: K2 P1, then next row, K1 P2
Repeat these two rows alternately 2 more times
Dec Row 2: K2 together, P1 repeat across row
Next Row: K1 P1 across, repeat this row till you have 12 inches
Dec Row 3, K2 together, repeat across row
Next Row, Purl Across
Next row Knit across
Break off yarn, leaving about 15 inches, thread a needle with this piece of yarn, and draw it through remaining stitches. Pull tight and fasten securely on wrong side - sew side edges together for back seam - and there you have it...a chook.
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