Another Day, Another Hat

I have recently been told, in no uncertain terms, by my almost-4-year-old that I am required to make "a lot of hats" for her because the ones I've made in past years are all starting to get small on her. I made her the Hearts and Butterflies hat a few weeks ago, and it has seen a lot of wear since it came off the needles, but apparently one hat does not cut it.

My LYS has made the difficult decision to stop carrying madelinetosh yarn -- they have good reasons for doing so, but I'm still sad about it -- and as a result I've been irrationally acquiring random skeins of whatever tosh they have in stock. Several weeks ago, I picked up a single skein of tosh dk in Nostalgia, a pretty lavender purple with a hint of gray, as I knew it would be perfect for a hat for Rainbow. Then I saw Amy Miller's new aviator-style hat and bought it immediately. I had to make some minor adjustments, because the pattern called for tosh vintage (which is an Aran-weight yarn) and my yarn was a bit lighter, but it worked out just fine. I knit a size larger than what I'd normally knit for Rainbow and it came out just the right size for her.

Pattern: Amelia E. by Amy Miller
Yarn: madelinetosh tosh dk in Nostalgia, less than one skein
Needles: 32" US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbos, used magic loop
Started/Completed: November 23/December 4
Mods: made the largest size to end up with a hat roughly 20" in circumference due to gauge change; used I-cord instead of twisted cord.

The length of time between casting on and binding off for this project isn't really indicative of the actual amount of knitting time. This was a very quick knit, and I probably could have finished it in a few evenings if I hadn't gotten so distracted by other things (though isn't that a case for a lot of things in my life?). The pattern is brief and to the point -- the instructions fit on one page, as a matter of fact -- and easy to follow. It's also very intuitive, so I didn't have to refer to the pattern all that often. The hat is worked from the top down, which made it a lot simpler to adjust for my difference in gauge because I could try it on Rainbow to check the length.

Other than the gauge thing, the only big modification I made was to do short-ish I-cords for the ties at the bottom of the ear flaps other than the twisted cord called for in the pattern. I didn't really feel the need for very long cords, as I doubt Rainbow would ever want to tie this thing under her chin, so I added them for decorative reasons alone. The directions have you decrease the ear flaps to five stitches (for this size) and then bind off; instead, I did one more decrease row with a double decrease to end up with three stitches and then worked about 5" of I-cord. I tied a knot with the cord at the end of each both to add a little weight and to help to secure the end that I buried in the center of the cord.

I have a decent amount of yarn leftover (I haven't weighed it and the hat to determine just how much yet), so I'll have to come up with something creative to do with the leftovers -- I hate to see good tosh go to waste!

As to the continuing hat replenishment project, I already have a skein of sparkly handspun wound and ready to become a Wurm. I have a feeling, though, that I might want to keep that hat for myself, which is a distinct possibility because I can get Rainbow's hats easily and only need a little more depth to fit my head (not a problem with a slouchy hat). There may be a hat fight in my future.