This was a very interesting hat to knit. It turned out fine in the end.
If you’re thinking of making this, I don’t recommend watching a highly emotive documentary about the life of Martin Luther King whilst you do so. My, how bitterly I cried into my increasingly deformed hat… and how loud I laughed afterwards when I tried on what only can be described as a Flipper – Clingon crossbreed hat.
Lying flat, you can see the effect of the mitring well. You increase at the front and the back, and decrease over each ear. This creates natural ear-flaps and a very nice shaping around the front and back. However, you need to stop increasing at the front very soon, much sooner than I anticipated. What I ended up was this huge FIN protruding at the top of the hat. It was pretty funny. I ripped it out and tried again, but the same thing happened again. This time it was more of a gill. I got third time lucky! I suppose my advice is just to keep trying on as you knit it. Almost straight after stopping the increases at the front, I started decreasing. You can see this and how it affected the shaping in this shot:
The back hugs so snugly around my head! But as you can see, some days there’s just no escaping a bad hair day…
Phew! I’m glad now to be finished this set of matching mittens and hat. Incidentally, the hat only took just over one ball of the Debbie Bliss Merino Aran, and I probably could have finished it with the left overs from my mittens. I’ll know for again!
I also finished my Pastille Socks on the train home yesterday afternoon. Every time I look at them I do a little dance.
Wouldn’t you?!
Love the socks. I’d definitely do a little dance everytime I saw them on my feet, too!
The hat is cute, but maybe it would make more sense if we knew what Ganomey meant. I do have to agree that knitting anything but miles of stockinette during emotional TV shows is not recommended, most notably that Italian movie (It’s a Beautiful Life, possibly La Vita Bella).
I want those socks.
Oh my goodness. WHERE is that sock yarn from? What is it called? I love it. I adore it. I must find some! It is BEAUTIFUL! (I searched your archives even, but no luck. Help!)
Hi! This is the first time I have visited your blog, and how I giggled at your hat description! Thanks. Actually I think it’s really neat. I do love hats. This one looks so well-made.
Your socks are covetable too. What lovely colours and tiny stitches.