Hat’s the way I like it

It’s often the way with knitting that if anyone sees what you’re up to, they pipe up and ask you to make something for them too. This was the case when Woody, my housemate at the time, saw me feverishly trying to get Ruthie’s mittens ready before her birthday. I was foolish enough to agree. Woody liked the pattern of the mittens, but they’re not really the thing for the fashionable man about town, so I made him the hat instead. Although the pattern is for knitting the hat flat, I did it in the round and was much happier when I reached the end and there were no silly seams to sew up. No pic of Woody modelling the finished hat (yet), just me. I really enjoyed making this and I reckon I might get round to doing one for myself one day.

The only modifications I made to the pattern were starting with 12 rows of rib instead of 8 and I swapped the colours around a bit, so that I got more of colour A than colour C (I wanted it to be mostly grey).

The link to the pattern is in the my first mittens post.

My first mittens

Ok, so they turned out more like oven gloves, but I’m still proud of my first pair of mittens! I knitted them as part two of Ruthie’s birthday present from a pattern I found amongst a haul of magazine cut-outs from the 70s and 80s brought in to Knit Club. I thought they’d be easier as they’re knitted flat, but all the sewing together of the seams was quite tedious and I think I pressed them a little enthusiastically. Still I really like the pattern and I know how to do Fair Isle now too, so altogether a good project and probably not that difficult to adapt to knit in the round.

Here’s a pic of me when I started making them on the beach on one of the last really sunny days of Sept 2009.

Click here for a pdf of the pattern.
(It may take a while as it’s a big file)

A Hat of One’s Own

I am two weeks away from the hand-in date for my MA in Professional Writing. I am meant to be writing a novel, but I have also spent quite a few hours in the last week making this lovely vintage hat. Well, I say vintage, it’s 1970s which I would prefer not to think of as that long ago, but I suppose over 35 years makes it vintage! Anyway, it’s the first hat I’ve knitted for myself and I love it. At least I’m doing something productive with my procrastination time!

I used 2 x 50g balls of Click Chunky in shade 0128: tarn which gives an equivalent tension to the discontinued Patons Husky wool that this pattern was designed for. It was surprisingly quick to knit up and it’s going to keep my ears lovely and warm in winter. Just remember that when you make the bobble, you slip the stitch you’ve been creating the bobble with off with the last purl stitch. I forgot to do this and ended up mucking up the whole pattern and having to start again!
Click here for the pattern. Enjoy!