Grab your coat and get your hat . . . 2.0

“Live your life, do your work, then take your hat”
- Henry David Thoreau


Here's the final version - Hat 2.0 if you will. I remade Middle Daughter's hat last night. About 10 p.m. I had a cup of what I thought was herbal tea. Big mistake - I was unable to get to sleep until 2 a.m., Something wasn't caffeine free. So, I merrily knitted away, watching the Grammy awards and various other taped television programs. Right now, however, I am paying the price for all that knitting.

For the hat, I simply cast on 80 stitches and knit 1 and 1/2 inches of k1/p1 ribbing. After one round of stockinette stitch, I found some easy-to-duplicate-in-two-color Fair Isle patterns with 20 stitch repeats. After a few patterns, I put in a stockinette decrease round. Then I switched to 16 stitch repeat patterns until the whole hat was as long as my hand (kudos to Stephanie Purl-McPhee for that tidbit of measuring knowledge!) and began decreasing ever other round. The tassel was an afterthought requested by Middle Daughter.

Once again, I turned to Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting for pattern ideas. I bought this book on deep discount and just love it. It is such a resource for patterns and color ideas. I just wish I could afford her book on Aran knitting!




Although I ran the them throught the wash again, the Mad River mittens didn't get much smaller.

Here's another look at them and the hat. All in all, a fun and quick project. Now, I really need to get working on those sock miles!