Tres Chic, N'est-ce Pas?

This knit up so quickly, I didn't even have time to take a progress shot.

Pattern: Foliage by Emilee Mooney, fall 2007 Knitty
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, colorway Verdes, one skein (with leftovers!)
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) 16" circs and dpns and US 5 (3.75 mm) 16" circs
Started/Completed: October 25/October 28
Mods: see below

I'd wanted to knit this hat for a while because I really liked the stitch pattern, but I didn't really want another beanie-style hat. Instead, I wanted a slouchy beret-style hat -- something that would cover my head but not smoosh my hair. So, I decided to take the basic pattern and enlarge it.

How did I do it? Luckily for you, I took notes so that I could remember what I did.

First, you should know that I did the worsted version of the pattern, so these mods will not necessarily work with the chunky version (though I'm sure a little experimentation could yield similar results).

I started by following the crown directions, working rows 1-19 of the Crown Chart. Then, I repeated rows 14-19 of the chart until I had 196 stitches on my needle. After completing the decrease round that begins the body, I had 192 stitches.

Next, I worked one repeat (rows 1-12) of the Leaf Lace chart. At this point, I had to decrease some stitches, so I worked rows 1-4 of the Leaf Lace chart again, but this time around I omitted the yarn overs in the stitch pattern. These decreases got me back to the 96 stitches called for in the body of the hat in the original pattern. I worked the brim as written and bound off using the larger needle. And voila! Instant beret!

I know some of you will have difficulty believing this, but this was actually the first time I'd knit with Malabrigo! I'd had a number of skeins in my stash that I was hoarding, but now that I've had the pleasure of actually knitting with it, I have a feeling that the remaining yarn won't be left in the stash much longer.

I do want to point out to the knitters out there like me, who constantly worry about running out of yarn, that I completed this hat with less than one full skein of yarn.

In the end, this hat is perhaps a bit larger than I was intending, but the numbers worked out really well -- without planning, I might add; math was never my strong suit -- so I didn't have to fiddle with the decreases. I think this chapeau will come in handy on those slightly damp winter days when I don't want my hair to get messed up by any precipitation; I can just shove it all inside the beret!