I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore
Teacher gift number 2 is the Lina hat I made for Nina's teacher, Miss Eke. This year was Nina's last in Primary School. It's been ridiculously a little bit emotional for her as well as for me. Miss Eke has a lot to answer for in that department. Nina loves her to bits. She made it so much easier on them all and we're very grateful indeed. I was a little concerned that this was going to be her first year as a qualified teacher - I mean, year 6 is tricky - but I had no reason to worry. She's amazing and I hope Liam gets her, too, when it's his turn.
I cast on the recommended 120 stitches but only knitted 9 rounds rather than 10 in between the cable rounds. I only worked 4 repeats, not 5. And I used a 3.75mm needle. The hat turned out spot on sizewise. All the ribbing and cabling makes it very stretchy and easy to fit a range of head circumferences, which is great.
I really love the final result. The cables look very pretty and it was a lot of fun to make as well. I almost made it in a day. I cast on on Friday as we were driving to Filey for the weekend. By the time we got there I'd done just one repeat and didn't touch it again until the drive back on Sunday morning. It was done by Sunday night and it blocked in time for the last day of school on Monday. I used my old reliable King Cole Merino Blend DK and I don't think I need to sing its praises anymore. It's great!
I've got to be honest though, the pattern is pretty poorly written. It is a free pattern and I am grateful that it's available but I still think a little improvement wouldn't go amiss. The cables are knitted in a way that, once they're twisted you end up working purls into knits and vice versa. But that isn't made clear within the pattern instructions so it took me AGES to figure out that that is how it's supposed to be - and judging by other ravellers' comments, I'm not the only one.
Another issue I had with it was the way the decreases were worked. In my opinion, if I was to follow the instructions as written, the crown of the hat would've looked like a hot mess. So I worked out how to make them more seamless and I think I've succeeded. Look at the photo below. I don't think that's too shabby at all. So here is how I did it.
First things first: this is just a rough guide and I am not a designer so don't expect my instructions to be crystal clear (though I will try). The rounds I've written out are the decrease rounds, to be done starting after the last cable twist round. All even rounds require you to knit the stitches as they present themselves. Lastly, I only knitted this once and wrote them down for my own benefit, so if something doesn't add up, do let me know, please.
s2p psso: slip 2 knitwise, purl 1, pass slipped stitches over the purl you've just worked.
Dec rnd 1: (ktbl, p, ktbl, p, k2togtbl, ktbl, p, ktbl, p) x 12
Dec rnd 3: (ktbl, p, ktbl, k2tog, k2togtbl, ktbl, p) x 12
Dec rnd 5: (ktbl, p, ssk, k2tog, p) x 12
Dec rnd 7: (ktbl, p, k2tog, p) x12
Dec rnd 9: (ktbl, s2p psso) x12
Dec rnd 11: k2tog all round
Fasten off.
I hope that helps someone. If I make this again - I'm sure I will - and feel like I can improve the crown shaping I will update this post.
Thanks for stopping by!