Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Knitted Hat--Re-do!

If you remember, last December I made this hat and posted about it. I posted about the process of making it here as well.

There were a lot of things I didn't like about it--the pattern (being my first attempt at using a chart rather than written pattern) was difficult to follow, the headband was much too big for my head, and I ended up with a cone head at the top of the hat.  But the cabling pattern was so lovely that I needed to make it again and fix those problems.

A note about this post: I'm glad I printed the pattern out last year and kept it.  While looking for the pattern electronically for this update post, I realized the pattern link is actually dead.  It seems that Sarai, the owner of www.sweetsassafras.org (the site from which I found the orginal pattern), has rolled her old blog into the blog for Colette Patterns, a fairly amazing collection of sewing patterns that she owns.
I must say that the second time using a chart was MUCH easier than the first.  I know how to read a 
chart now, so the stress of not having to look up tutorials and you tube videos on the whole process made it go much more smoothly.

The original pattern called from size 5 needles for the headband, and 6 for the hat-at-large.  I went with size 3 for the headband, and continued using a 6 for the hat.  It is definitely a better fit, but I may go down to a size 2 for the head band if I do this hat again--it seems to migrate down my forehead more than I would like.  

I also used a very inexpensive yarn for this one--Red Heart (~$2 skein) as opposed to the 100% cotton, hand-dyed yarn I used last time (~$12 skein).  I found it blocked better, and I can wash it with the rest of my laundry if I need to.

The plan is to make at least one of these for a Christmas present.  My mother requested one over Thanksgiving weekend, so I best get knitting!