Stripy Tundra Hat

So yes, I did re make it - when I have something in my head, I just cant leave it be.

Even though, i have had to put my knitting of Fad Classic on hold for it!! Which is nuts, as I am not going to wear this for ages yet!!

Anyway, i did re do it - I wanted make something different so I went for stripy.

I did start to think about experimenting with something other than stockinette, but I wimped out!! Next time - i promise! Actually, I have a borrowed idea up my sleeve, so we will see how that turns out later on.

Here it is then.....

I need to finish it off with some icords and pom poms - as i think these are a must have!! I have been having great fun with the original hat, swinging them around!!

As for the learned lessons - i didn't use the double twisted cast on - i used the knitting on cast on - the way my mother taught me!! and this was better i think - there wasn't as much slack as there was with the double twisted. I did start casting on with the cable cast on - but this felt so rigid. I don't know if its my tension, but the hat looked tiny because there was no give between the stitches. I took them out - I had only done 10 or so, and started again.

I knitted it in the round as i did before, listening to some advice I found online about trying to avoid the colour jog. This worked for most rows, some rows you can see a bit.

When it came to decreasing - i started decreasing a whole inch earlier. I also divided up my decreases with more stitches in the front and back, and less on the sides. I didn't start decreasing the front until after 10 sets (1 row decrease - 1 row plain) of decreases. I don't know if you can see from the pictures, the hat started to get a tent like shape - then I began decreasing the front and back to begin to finish off the hat.

I finished with 2 stitches each side and 6 stitches front and back. I used the 3 needle bind off to finish. This has given me this little sticky up bit at the back - to a sort of point, and i think its quite cute.

Anyway, must go finish the icords now so I can put this one to bed!

Addition .....

I just finished the I cords and bobbles - so here are a few pics

Birthday Money

So what else am I up to...

It was my birthday recently and my mam gave me some money. I bought some cotton yarn to try and make this - http://www.knitandtonic.net/knitandtonic/2006/04/fadclassic.html Fad Classic by Wedny Bernard. I got Patons Leila DK 100% cotton, which should cover the pattern and much to spare.

I thought i would do the right thing on this one and knit up a test swatch to check the gague.

Here is where I am so far..

It looks like its going to knit up small to me, but i will finish the swatch and measure it.

Tundra Hat

Now I know that winter is over, but I saw this hat on another blog and I thought if I dont make it now I will forget about it. Plus, I have been looking for a good reliable hat pattern, and this hat was kind of what I had in my minds eye.

Here is what I saw. http://knittyinpink.blogspot.com/2007/11/glam-rock-ski-hat-aka-vinces-tundra-hat.html It was a take off, from a hat on the Mighty Bosh, wich a few people were making, but I loved the style of the crown and the long ear flaps. I thought - perfect!!

Knitty had also posted a PDF of what she did, so I followed that.

The wool she used is recommended to be knit on a 6mm needled, but her pattern notes stated that she had knitted on 4.5mm needles. She also stated that the hat made was purposely large. So with that in mind, and also only having DK yarn, I thought that if i knitted on a 4.5mm needle also, the hat might turn out the right sort of size. This was a guess, and didnt bother with a swatch. I thought i would be able to tell quite quickly if it was drastically out, as I started on the earflaps first, and they would have been to the wrong scale if the yarn and needle size didnt suit.

So I knitted it up fairly quickly, just taking my time as I know that I wont wear this untill later on this year! Here is how it turned out.



I am really happy with this hat, it fits, slightly over sized, which is good for when im snowboarding as it will need to accomodate my goggles, and also be easy to take on and off without messing my hair up!!

The earflaps are the perfect length - I think i will be quite cozy in this one.


The weight of the hat, and thickness of the knit - about spot on for what i want to use it for. I already know that the yarn will be mega warm, as this is the same yarn i used for the aphrodite jumper.


Some points to note - this was the first time i used the double backward loop method for casting on. I think this possibly was a mistake for me, as the edge then became quite loose. As you can see from the pictures, where i crocheted over the edges, they are still puckering out a bit.


Also, the earflaps still curling a bit, but the crochet edge has helped a lot to stablize them.


The only other thing I might want to try again on this hat is the crown. I do like it, but mine doesnt seem quite the same as the one on knittys site. Now this could quite well be because i used a different weight yarn and therefore knitted up smaller. If you compare my hat to knittys, the crown shaping is quite a bit longer and kind of frames the crown up to a point. where mine just neatly nips in and blends in to a round head!!


I think if i was to redo this, I would think about adjusting the increases and decreses - maybe start earlier and even not work in a square decrease but maybe a oblong one to make the side panels smaller than the top and bottom panels. Now if that didnt make sense to anyone else, it did to me!!