Friday, March 11, 2011

More hats! I will eventually either learn or learn my lesson.

Hat attempt #5 (or whatever the heck number I'm on now) spurred from the Irish Hiking Hat - Bulky Version that I came across on Ravelry. I really liked the unique design and that fact that I didn't quite understand how it would all go down before reading the pattern. After being reassured by my mom that it wasn't too feminine for my dad, I was totally sold.

I got some more practice with cabling with the band of this hat, which is made first and then sewn together. I did not want to sew fleece in as a liner, so I used a seed stitch on one side of the band to prevent rolling and stockinette stitch on the other. Then along this side a whole bunch of stitches are picked up (another thing I still need more practice on as well) and used to knit the rest of the hat. It then has a decrease pattern that makes a fun spiral on the top.


This pattern is actually pretty funky and leaves you alone to figure much out for yourself. I was lucky enough to get a measurement from my dad of his head size (28.25") and a classmate with the same size head for an example for the band. How many decrease rows to knit and when to add in the second set though... I was knitting blind on that one.

I made this hat twice. Go figure. The first time it ended up looking really nice! But... it was just to short. It didn't even quite cover my entire ear, and my head isn't as big as my dad's. Well, I guess I'll just hold on to that one for now.


For the second attempt, I added an inch of straight stockinette up from the band before decreasing. This came out to the right height! But when I finally got it on his head, I found that it's just kind of poofy in places that I don't want poofiness. In some ways it looks great, but it's still just not great. I was a bit bummed, but not really surprised.

If I were to make this again, I think I might go with the worsted version instead. Might make it a bit cleaner.

Also, it looks like this hat will need that liner after all. Since Dad is sensitive to wool but not as severely as Mom, I figured I'd give another natural fiber a try and went with super soft Alpaca. Turns out that itches him too. Good thing Mom is a master sewer!

Yarn:
Plymouth Yarn Company Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed (90% baby alpaca, 7% acrylic, 3% rayon)
100g/110yd skeins
1x dark gray (500) (plus just a little bit of another skein for the larger hat)

Needles:
US9 (5.5mm) 16" circular needle
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While I was working on that, I really wanted something else that I could just knock out and that I knew would fit someone, so I made Erich's A&F Knockoff Hat, too. This one got orange and gray acrylic and it was definitely fast. It's still hanging out in my apartment but it might go to the dads eventually, especially if I can't make anything else that works, haha.

Yarn:
Berocco Comfort Chunky (50% nylon, 50% acrylic)
3.5oz/150yd skeins
1x Dusk (5713)
1x Filbert (5745)

Needles:
US15 (10mm) 16" circular needle

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