I had yarn left over from my mom’s shawl so I decided to make myself a hat. I have the hardest time knitting things for myself because I am so picky. I had actually knit another hat with this yarn but decided that I didn’t like it… so I ripped it all out and gave this pattern a go.

This hat was such a pleasure to knit! The pattern was written really well and I loved that the cable decreased into the crown. (I couldn’t believe that this was a free pattern, actually, because of the clever construction.) The only modification I made was to knit the brim in 1×1 rib for 1.5″ instead of 1″ because of my own preference for longer brims.

I think it turned out really well (albeit slightly too slouchy) and I hope to get a lot of use out of it. I haven’t really worn hats this winter yet because the weather has been so unpredictable: it’s 30°F one day and 60°F the next! Overall, though, this winter has been very temperate — but I’m not complaining! It’s great biking weather so I don’t have to bundle up too much when commuting to work.

The yarn I used was too heavy (bulky weight) and the needles were too big (size US 8).  As a result, I have a huge rasta hat!  Seriously, the slouch part of this “slouched hat” is ginormous.  It’s hard to tell from the photo but this hat really would make a great rasta hat.  I’ve decided that I’m going to frog the thing and re-knit it on size US 6 needles instead.  Hopefully the new hat won’t be so big and heavy (and slide too far back on my head after wearing it for a while).

The cables are messed up because I am still very new to cables and knitting in the round.  (The stitches on my 4 double-pointed needles kept shifting.  I started off with 14 stitches on each needle but, soon, I had 20 stitches on one needle so all the others were messed up.  When I tried to fix it, I ended up losing the beginning of my round… so all the cables ended up shifting, too.)  However, I don’t mind!  I think it looks fine as it is.  I can only hope the recipient of the hat, my 10-year-old cousin, won’t mind (or notice!).

I’m still surprised that I was able to do this.  The hat went from looking like this:

…to this:

Perhaps I am easily impressed… but I marvel at the ability to turn a skein of yarn (or half a skein, as the case may be) into a practical, stylish, wearable item.