Posted on 2 Comments

Boys and their hats

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Every time I sit down to blog lately, my head fills up with lazy thoughts: I don’t feel like uploading my photos to flickr; I don’t know what to write about; maybe I’ll have a quick peek at my email first.  And on and on.  Until here we are six days since my last post, which must be some kind of record for me, and I still just want to curl up on the couch under the bankie o love and watch some mindless tv.  What’s up with that?!

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Well, I’m making an effort to shake that urge, and do a little bit of sharing.  While I haven’t been posting at all, I have still be making things.  Like this Santa hat.  It’s an improvised pattern, a fact which becomes very clear if you look at it closely.  I used Malabrigo Gruesa, and started off knitting it in the same manner as my Fiesta Hats.  After a while, I began decreasing one stitch per row until I was down to 4 stitches or so, at which point I bound off, made a pom-pom, and attached it to the tip of the hat.

There are two major problems with this hat:

  1. The ladder effect on the decreased area is profound.
  2. It doesn’t fit me at all.

The first problem, I have figured out, would be lessened considerably if instead of decreasing once every row, I decreased twice every other row.  It looks like you need one regular knit row in between the decreases to keep everything nice and tight.

As for the second problem, once I realized it was too small for me, I asked Aidan to try it, so I could see what size head it did fit. Well, it turns out it fits nine-year-olds, and he showed such enthusiasm for it, I let him keep it instead of proceeding with my original plan to frog it and try again.

I still wanted a hat for me, though, and so I ran out and got some cheaper wool this time and tried again.

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This is Lion Brand Alpine Wool, which is not as bulky as the Malabrigo, and so it’s been a much slower knit.  I have been keeping in mind the issues I had with the first hat, and compensating for them in this hat, but wouldn’t you know it, two new problems have cropped up?

  1. I’m running out of red yarn and this was the last skein the store had.
  2. Eamonn thinks it’s for him.

It’s sounding like I am going to need to make a third hat if I want one for myself.  I think I’m just going to scour the countryside for another skein of that yarn, finish up this one hat that’s still on the needles, surrender it to Eamonn, be happy that my boys still want handmade things from Mom, and move on to something else.  I’m all Santa-Hatted out!

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Posted on 2 Comments

2 thoughts on “Boys and their hats

  1. If they’re out of the red, get some green–it’ll still be a Santa Hat.

    And then make yourself a New Year’s Hat. What’s that? Well, it’s whatever you want it to be, but I recommend something that uses absolutely no red or green. (I suspect a great New Year’s Hat uses whatever spectacular yarn is on sale on December 26!)

    1. I’ll have to ask him what he thinks about green. That’s a good option…

      And, ooh, a New Year’s Hat can use the ball of leftover bits of the Fiesta Hat yarn that I’ve been saving! It will be a total mystery, as it comes together – kind of like the new year 😀

      You’re always so full of great ideas!

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