Knit hat

Despite that this hat is made of very chunky yarn and with huge needles, I am ridiculously happy that I completed it!  I consider myself an advanced beginner when it comes to knitting with a pretty horrible track record of actually completing projects.  As it stands, it took me 7 (!!) tries to complete this hat.

I had decided to make the Lion Brand Snow Day hat after seeing it in one of the links in their newsletter - you may have to sign in to see the pattern.  This was the first time I made a knit hat and the first time I had (unsuccessfully) tried my hand at fair-isle knitting.

Some background to put things in perspective.

I learned to knit when I was fairly young - 9 or 10 years old.  My first project, and I hate to admit, one my few completed projects, was a blanket for my doll.  The blanket was made of nine squares which my mom sewed together and finished off the whole thing with a crochet border.  I recall my mom fixing most of my squares and making a few herself, but she says I did most of the knitting.  I think she's just being nice:)  Once the blanket was done, I had a ball of yarn and my knitting needles that I would sporadically pull out every few years.  Each time the knitting came out, I would ask my mom to teach me a few things, then I made a few swatches and put everything away.  Throughout the years I managed to learn how to purl, make increases/decreases, cast on, bind off, cables (I loooooove making cables!), spiders (which I have since forgotten how to make) ribbing and a few basic stitch patterns.

The next time I actually completed a project was in college.  I made a cardigan for a teddy bear and a scarf for my boyfriend (now husband).  The teddy bear is only ~ 12 inches tall, so this was not a large undertaking!  I made it primarily to practice adding ribbing to the sides of a knit item and seaming.  My grandmother gave me nice leather buttons though, so my teddy bear actually looks like a distinguished professor:)  The scarf did not fare so well - I made it in stockinette stitch so the thing curled like crazy and I am surprised my husband still has it.

After that I tried making a few cardigans and sweaters but didn't get too far.  I did complete another scarf and a tank top (no sleeves to worry about...)

The last time I picked up my knitting needles was about two years ago and I was due for another knitting kick.  I joke although it's fairly accurate that I get inspired to knit every two years or so.  After seeing this hat, I decided it was time to knit again and that I would try to make a hat.  As mentioned above, it took 7 tries to get it done, with this being the third time it was either finished or almost finished.  Each time I ripped it out, I said to myself that the yarn cannot take any more.  It somehow made it despite my best efforts to shred it.

Just because this is amusing and so I will remember this in the future, here is why it took me seven tries to get to the finished product:

1. forgot to make ribbing - realized about 4 rows in - at least it confirmed that the pattern as written would be too small
2. working with double pointed needles, when joining the start and end, I forgot to use an extra needle. As I was working on the first row, stitches were falling off my needle in the back (again, beginner knitter...)
3. got past the first few rows and started the fair-isle pattern.  A few rows into the pattern I realized I was not leaving enough slack in the yarn carried in the back.  I think this pattern would be much better worked on circular needles for that reason.  When I tried to stretch out the pattern, stitches fell off the needles...

At this point I realized that if I had *any* hopes of wearing the hat this year, I should not worry about the fair-isle pattern

4.  Got to within a few rows of the end and realized that I didn't take the extra stitches that I had cast on into account when doing decreases.  The decreases didn't form a nice spiral and I had odd numbers of stitches left after each decrease
5.  See bullet No. 2
6. Almost done and tried it on more time before cutting off the yarn.  Good thing I did - the hat was too small!  It fit, but was not very comfortable.  It also had a cone-head-ish thing going on which I wasn't too crazy about.  It wasn't as noticeable on the head, but it still kind of bothered me.
7.  Finally done (and yarn cut off)

All in all, despite what it sounds like, this was an enjoyable project to make.  Luckily I read the reviews of the pattern which indicated that the hat tends to run small.  This way I actually kept an eye out on the size and was not too surprised when I had to increase the number of stitches cast on.  One thing that keeps me from knitting is that I don't understand it.  I don't understand garment construction too well and I am certainly not in any position to fix something if it doesn't seem right.  That's why I was happy that I managed to make the hat fit.  Not only did I adapt it to make it fit, I also made the crown flatter and more round, which I think looks better.  Not bad for a first hat!

Made with Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Gemstone with US size 13 knitting needles (13 mm).
*I think it was the silver thread that sold me on this yarn!

I'm happy to report that I've actually worn this thing a few times!

Maybe some day I will post about my ill-fated sock knitting adventure.