At long last, a hat for me =)

As I mentioned earlier, I usually use knitting and sewing as an excuse to make gifts for people, but recently I decided to make myself a hat!  I think for the first time!  I started off planning on crocheting a hat – since I had never done that before.  So looked around online for a cool pattern, and found one with diamonds, similar to the pictures you see here (except these are knitted).  But the pattern was SUPER complicated – much more than I could do as a novice crochet-er.  Well, I probably could have done it, it just would have taken a LONG time and I would have to look up a lot of new terms and how-to videos on youtube.  I was going to do all that, until I saw that the crochet pattern was actually based on a pretty famous knitting pattern by Jared Flood called the Koolhaas Hat.  Turns out it is not a free pattern…and I rarely buy patterns (you can find SO many free ones that are great too!).  But I really liked it, so I took the big $5 plunge. =)

Well, turns out the pattern is actually pretty complicated, which when I’m knitting, is great because it keeps it interesting, and I get to learn some new skills. (sorry, i have a problem with run-on sentences)  Anyways, here is the hat most of the way done.  It is basically a TON of cables that crisscross back and forth.  The pattern also uses a chart for the main pattern, which I had never used before (TIP: If you are working in the round, you read charts from RIGHT to LEFT on each row.  If you are working on regular needles, you read them R –> L, then L –> R and keep switching off).

The instructions say to use a cable needle for the cabling that you have to do on every other row, but I found it much easier to just use a tapestry needle.  Each time you cable you only have to cable one stitch at a time, so you dont need a long needle.  AND, it is so small, that it is easy to hold in your hand during the stitches that you are not cabling.  I thought it worked really well.

This is the finished hat.  To be honest, my impatience got the best of me, which is why I ended up with a brown hat (I’m usually into brighter colors).  One night a couple of weeks ago I basically decided to make the hat, found the pattern, and then wanted to start right away!  When I looked through my stash of yarn, I found that I didn’t have many options in the right weight yearn.  So without knowing how complicated the hat was going to be, I figured I would make one with the brown for the hell of it (a present?) and then make another one for myself with a color I really wanted.  Well, once I got started, I decided it was taking too long to make another one any time soon (I dont usually like to be tied down to one project for too long).  So i ended up keeping the brown hat, and embellishing it with a flower!

I have only crochet’d a couple of flowers before, but I like this one the best.  Unfortunately once I made it, I thought it was WAY to big – likely because I just wasnt used to seeing myself with flowers on me…but I think I will keep it as is!  HERE is the website where I found the pattern for the flower, and HERE is the website where you can buy the hat pattern. Enjoy!