Finished Object: Coline

My last hat of 2009 was Coline.  I saw it on {a black pepper} and the knit combined with her always gorgeous photography made this jump onto my list.  She has such wonderfully intricate sweater patterns that I would love to try but alas my knitting has now been relegated to things I can finish quickly (i.e. not sweaters) so I will have to settle for her rather extensive and lovely hat collection

Yarn: Queensland Llama Seta
Inspiration: Coline (Raverly Link Here)
Needles: Size 5 for the ribbing, size 6 needles for the rest
Yardage: approx. 176 yards (2 balls)
Modifications: Used Ysolda’s Cable Cast On.  Knit 1×1 ribbing using US5 instead of stockinette
Enjoyment Factor: 9

The Good:

• Yet another stashbusting exercise.  This one was a little less of a stashbust as I had allocated this yarn for sale, but because I loved the yarn as a hat with my slouchy copycat hat I decided to steal a few balls before I put my final count of yarn up.  Good decision on my part 🙂
• The pattern is very well written and produced a wonderful hat.  I just love how the inside of each bubble is a different pattern

The Bad:

• I really wanted a slouchy hat and this pattern just seems a bit stiff for the “just keep knitting and it will become slouchy” pattern modification I have been doing to the hats.  Unlike the other hats I blocked this one rather hard to get the slouch and it seems to have worked out…sorta.

The Ugly:

• I got nothin’

Sorry for the rather concise blog post on this one, but I am super tired and need to get to bed.  This going back to work after semi-retirement (a.k.a. 16 days off) is for the birds 😦

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Finished Object: Slouchy Copycat Hat

Having loved the slouchy hat my sister bought me from Nordstrom’s last year, I knew that slouchy hats were going to be in my wardrobe for the winter months.  Little did I know that my prophecy was quite an understatement as I am in love with the slouchy hat look.  So much so that I have been in a hat making frenzy as of late.  This is the first  of 4 hats that have come off the needles this season.  This is truly an amazing feat as it nearly DOUBLES my knitted output for the year!! LOL!  Ah well, I will take it where I can get it 🙂

Yarn: Queensland Collection Llama Seta
Inspiration: Slouchy Copy Cat hat (Raverly Link Here)
Needles: Size 5 for the ribbing, size 6 needles for the rest
Yardage: approx. 185 yards (2.1 balls)
Modifications: Used Ysolda’s cable cast on method
Enjoyment Factor: 10

The Good:

• I absolutely LOVED this pattern.  Quick and easy but with a look that looks a bit more complicated than it truly was.
• Stashbusting!  Given hats do not make THAT much of a dent when you are a yarn hoarder, but once again I will take what I can get.  Two balls out of stash…hooray!  Especially since they are scratchy against the skin due to the silk strands so it made the perfect hat.

• The ribbing.  I used Ysolda’s cable cast on and I don’t think that I will ever go back.  This cast-on produces a nice stretchy, neat edge to the hat.  Absolute perfection.

The Bad:

• I did start this pattern with the cast on and needles called for but once I was into the pattern I noticed that the yarn, although worsted as the pattern called for, was just not working right.  So I tore it out, used the cable cast on, and went down to size 6 needles resulting in perfection!

The Ugly:

• None

I will definitely be making this hat again in the future.  Of the 4 hats I have made so far I think this is the MOST perfect, but the others are good too 🙂