Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Hat Crazy

Happy New Year to you all!

I've been knitting hats since my last major project was completed. Two scrappy hats were the first ones, followed by herringbone cloche/hat, cabled hats, and just completed berets. I have not established a habit of blogging regularly and just kept on knitting. So, this post will be rather long, I am afraid.



The herringbone cloche in Vogue Knitting Caps and Hats Two is something I wanted to knit for a few years. Its shape and stitch pattern appealed to me. It uses this neat stitch which is also used in My So-called Scarf and I knitted it last January. I thought it would be nice to have a matching hat. The only issue was that the pattern is written for size 20" only while my head is 23" plus. Besides, I hate snug hats. Also, the original pattern calls for Koigu Kersti in DK weight while I wanted to use Manos del Uruguay which is heavy worsted weight.

I started a test version with leftover Classic Elite Beatrice which happens to be heavy worsted weight. I followed the pattern with some gauge adjustments using 5.5 mm needles and aimed for 24" circumference. I did three sections for the crown as directed. Seaming these sections required thinking however. In the photo of the book, you see a vertical line along the seam which definitely does not belong to the herringbone pattern. As you can see below, in my cloche, it is less visible. It was achieved by just picking up the vertexes.



The Beatrice yarn was so bouncy and I loved the firmness of the finished hat. I wore it just about everyday, until I lost it on a cab. How stupid could I be? I just left it on the seat. I was so sad and was lamenting about it for a few days, wondering how I could recover from the loss. Well, I just bought more of the same yarn in different colors.

In the meantime, I’ve knitted another herringbone hat with Manos. This time, I knitted the crown as one flat piece. I love this version much better than the first. So, when Beatrice yarns arrive, I will be knitting the second version.



By the way, I found out that I don’t like the matching hat and scarf set, at least not with multi colored Manos.


Next hats are designed by a fellow Knitsmith, Thea. The pattern is available for free here.



When I saw her first baby version, I fell in love with the style. In a short while, she did adult versions, Woven and Cabled! I thought the patterns could work for my head and face shape which require a brim. I made it a bit larger than Thea’s original pattern and it really turned out nice, so nice that my DD1 decided it has to be hers. To be honest, she looks better in it than I. Big sister’s new hat leads to her little sister’s new hat usually. So, here they are in new hats. BTW, I used gold Roman coin buttons from my button collection.





The last project of 2007 was Rowan free pattern, Gemma Beret, for DDs. Have you felt Brushed Suri from Blue Sky Alpaca? If you have not, go to your LYS and touch it. It is heavenly, just as soft as clouds look in autumn sky. It looks like a regular mohair yarn which might feel scratchy to some people. The look is really deceiving. This is probably the softest yarn I’ve ever felt. I needed less than one skein for the beret which was knitted with the specified needles but with fewer numbers of stitches cast on. My DDs are very pleased with it.



6 comments:

  1. Such cute hats! love the number one - I think I need to give my crochet hook another chance (if I ever find it again!)

    You have so beautiful dds, you must be a very proud mom. They'll break hearts when they're grown up! ;)

    Hope the new year startet well for you - wishing all the best for `08!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your hats, and how awful to lose such a treasure! Glad you were able to recreate it even better than before.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:36 AM

    Thanks for showing your wonderful hats. Your work is always inspiring.
    Miriam

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:08 PM

    I really like how those Vogue hats have a stiff shape to them, which is unusual for a knitted hat (and something that I've been looking to achieve in a knitted hat). How do they look on your head? Care to give us a modeling shot?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your daughters are so lovely! Nice hats, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Coleen, a Japanese knitter in NYC has knitted my herringbone hat. You can see hers at the link below.

    http://d.hatena.ne.jp/ChaNY/20080203

    She used Noro Iro, a bit more than 1 skein.

    ReplyDelete