Hats Hats Everywhere
I’ve knit myself several hats over the years but the ones I’ve made for myself I’ve never fully been in love with. The patterns are great, but either the fit was off or I didn’t like the yarn I chose. I’ve knit Jon tons of hats too over the years and he wears them all the time, which is great to see, but I realized even his hats could be better. He likes his hat to have a tight fit meaning I usually have to make modifications, in the past I just knit them and handed them over, but now I am taking the time to make sure they fit how he likes them. This of course has meant that I am now also modifying my hats for a better fit and not just settling for what the pattern says. I love that knitting allows you to take a pattern and modify for exactly how you want something to look and fit. The downside is this isn’t always easy and can lead to a lot of frustration and frogging. Typically, I can knit a hat in 1-2 days depending on how complicated the pattern is, but lately with all the modifications I have been making it can take several days now. I often have to step back and put the hat down and knit something else because I get so frustrated.
My Frosted Rose hat is the perfect example of this. Brioche knitting is tricky but always results in beautiful hats. When it comes to using brioche as a brim it tends to make hats huge and does not provide the snug fit Jon and I like. I decided to knit the smallest size of this hat and go down 2 needle sizes for the brim and follow the rest of the pattern as written. Well, that worked out great for the brim but then the rest of the hat was too short, so I had to frog back to the ribbing and knit extra repeats. I could have just frogged back to right before the last decrease, but I had a few mistakes I wanted to correct. Well after I fixed this issue I love it, but I went to try it on and gasp! Too tight, ugh. Back to frogging and reknitting the whole thing in the other size. Sigh, this hat is beautiful but now I am worried it won’t give me the fit I want so badly. I am at the point of, do I just keep knitting and see how I like it once I’m done or just abandon ship and pick a different pattern.
With Jon’s hats it’s similar but not nearly so difficult. For Jon it is more about getting a nice tight fit. For his hats I tend to pick ones with a lot of cables which tend to fit nice and tight without a lot of stretch. He has a big enough head that I had always knit him the biggest size but have now realized he really wants the adult small size and even then, sometimes they aren’t tight enough. Through this I have learned the art of going down several needle sizes to get the correct fit without having to make crazy modifications. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to frog on his hats as well, in fact I think I frog more with his hats then I do with my own.
Regardless of all of this I really have been enjoying knitting lots of hats and cast on a new one every Friday. We will have very warm heads this winter and if I keep this up, I am going to have to start donating some because we will have way more than we will ever wear. Next up is ear warmers for when my hair is in a ponytail. Those are fun too, but just like hats come with a host of modifications.
