These beanies got knit up so fast I never even posted a WIP note.
In February I visited the Loop and had my reasons for picking up some new yarn. I've been doing very little stash enhancing lately, which has been great, but in this case I needed something charcoal gray-ish that would knit into a cozy hat for a friend who has decided to move to northern Manitoba later this year for a job.
He actually requested a hat way back when he could have gotten some real use out of it this winter, but I just never got around to it with other projects that took priority. So I found some yarn, bought plenty (Berocco ultra alpaca light), looked at some basic hat patterns online, wanting something simple, swatched, cast on for something like Yarn Ball Boogie's BasicSimpleLazy hat.
My first effort turned out to fit me perfectly!
Oops, that was not the goal.
So I now have a lovely fitted warm alpaca beanie hat, wore it out last night, it just covers my ears so I love it (Quincy is wonderful and stylish, but not well fitted and therefore not that warm) but the original goal was a hat for someone other than me.
My gauge after blocking was 20.5 sts/4 inches on 4s, so the original hat had 92 sts. I rejigged the bigger size hat with 100 sts. Finished it up, had my friend try it on. Fit well enough around, but it was too short, even though I knit an extra inch, thinking five inches before decreases didn't sound like quite enough. Yesterday I ripped out the decreases, knit an extra almost 2 inches, and instead of doing half the decreases on every other row I decreased on every row because I noticed when my friend tried it on it looked kind of puffy on the top. Even though I did the decreases the same exact way on my hat and it fits perfectly. Everyone's head is shaped differently, I suppose! I hope I've got it right this time.
ETA: Gave the larger hat to my friend last night, I think it's a winner. Definitely long enough now, yay! (29 March 2010)
In February I visited the Loop and had my reasons for picking up some new yarn. I've been doing very little stash enhancing lately, which has been great, but in this case I needed something charcoal gray-ish that would knit into a cozy hat for a friend who has decided to move to northern Manitoba later this year for a job.
He actually requested a hat way back when he could have gotten some real use out of it this winter, but I just never got around to it with other projects that took priority. So I found some yarn, bought plenty (Berocco ultra alpaca light), looked at some basic hat patterns online, wanting something simple, swatched, cast on for something like Yarn Ball Boogie's BasicSimpleLazy hat.
My first effort turned out to fit me perfectly!
Oops, that was not the goal.
So I now have a lovely fitted warm alpaca beanie hat, wore it out last night, it just covers my ears so I love it (Quincy is wonderful and stylish, but not well fitted and therefore not that warm) but the original goal was a hat for someone other than me.
My gauge after blocking was 20.5 sts/4 inches on 4s, so the original hat had 92 sts. I rejigged the bigger size hat with 100 sts. Finished it up, had my friend try it on. Fit well enough around, but it was too short, even though I knit an extra inch, thinking five inches before decreases didn't sound like quite enough. Yesterday I ripped out the decreases, knit an extra almost 2 inches, and instead of doing half the decreases on every other row I decreased on every row because I noticed when my friend tried it on it looked kind of puffy on the top. Even though I did the decreases the same exact way on my hat and it fits perfectly. Everyone's head is shaped differently, I suppose! I hope I've got it right this time.
ETA: Gave the larger hat to my friend last night, I think it's a winner. Definitely long enough now, yay! (29 March 2010)
I love that you swatched for that, you're such a good little knitter, haha. It came out perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that problem with Quincy isn't specific to me - pretty little hat that leaves my head freezing. D'oh.
Haha - I swatched so it would fit my friend's bigger head, and then failed to get it right anyway! I had the advantage of knowing that if it turned out too small I would keep it and still had enough yarn for the second one.
ReplyDeleteI thought Quincy would be a good winter hat but maybe it's more of a fall one, when the sun's still out and temps aren't too low...