J'ai tricoté des chapeaux!

And that title would be my concession to the fact that I should probably be studying for my French test...

There's been an outpouring of hats around here, and the construction has finally clicked for me. I've always been confounded by the decreases. How soon? How many? However, there seems to be a rather simple formula. And without further ado, I present the basis for my basic beanie:

First you make a swatch and figure out gauge. From there, I cheat a little and enter my numbers into the Hat Calculator to figure out how many stitches to cast on. I don't like that method of decreasing, though. It's too bunchy for my taste. So after some ribbing, I continue in St st until the piece measures 5.5-6". Then I begin decreases as such: divide the total number of stitches by 6 and place markers to delineate these wedges. From there, k2tog directly before or directly after (whatever you fancy) each stitch marker every other row. After you complete a row of k2tog around, break the yarn, draw through the remaining stitches, fasten and weave in the ends. Voila! A hat!

Of course, this is very plain and simple, but sometimes it's necessary to showcase a particularly delicious yarn. Or, if you're D, you want plain and you want it in every color.


Here's the hat I made for her so far, with many more to come:

The stats:
Pattern: My own- basic St st with a turned up 2x1 ribbed brim.
Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa 127 Print in color 33.
Needles: Size 3 Clover Bamboo DPNs for the ribbing, Size 5 DPNs for the rest.

The hat blocking, using my favorite hat blocking method.


And being worn:

I love the randomly interspersed variegation. This yarn was very nice to work with.


For myself, I made this:

The stats:
Pattern: My own- St st with a 2x2 rib brim.
Yarn: Interlacements Alamo, a mohair, wool, nylon blend, in color 203
Needles: Size 8 Clover Bamboo DPNs.

The listing online calls this an eyelash yarn, but it's really just very fuzzy. Also, this skein never ends! I'm made the hat, half a hat that I screwed up, but has proved unfroggable and a 6 foot long Branching Out that has yet to be blocked.


Here you can see the nice, neat decreases:



And the other night, while I was not speaking to my gargantuan water bottle sling, I made myself another hat.

The stats:
Pattern: Tychus, by Brooke T. Higgins in Knitty.
Yarn: Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes in Grass and Cherry Blossom.
Needles: Size 8 Denise Interchangables



This was an extremely easy pattern and a very quick knit. It's "one size fits all," so I took took the needles down a size and increased the stitches per inch so it would fit my not-so-large head. However, I have quite a few issues with this design. Because it's double stranded garter stitch, it's really too bulky to fold the brim up. I realized this as I finished the first wedge, but I had a feeling I wouldn't like the crown, so I wanted to keep going and reknit it shorter if necessary.

And I didn't. It's not overly apparent in the picture, but there's a bit a nipple effect going on at the top.


In addition, there's a seam in the back, grafting the cast-on edge to the bound-off edge, which is rather bulky. If I was to do this again, I would cast on fewer stitches so that it wouldn't haven't to be folded up and I would use a provisional cast-on and graft the live stitches. However, this would all be contingent on whether or not I could refashion the crown. While I love the thought and the theoretical execution of the short row shaping, I don't particularly care for the third-boob-on-my-head look.


As for the water bottle sling, it's reconfigured and back on the needles. Coming along nicely. Pics to come soon.