The Phi Hat

Project Name: The Phi Hat (personal project)
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids, 100 g / 240 m
Needle: 3.5 mm rib, 4 mm body
Time to knit: one week (?!)

I knit a new hat for Gaby and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to make a slouchy hat, that could be worn as a beanie with double brim for greater warmth in cold days. I searched for inspiration on Ravelry, browsing through aran sweaters and one of the cables on Fulmar sweater caught my eye. Later that day I browsed the blog of one of the best designers of accessories - Olga and came upon a hat with a similar cable. It might have been serendipity, or rather - my mind was already working the Fulmar cable and Olga's hat was the nudge I needed.

I sampled the cable, made my calculations and cast on the hat. My first attempt was a bit too tight and I was not sure if the yarn would be sufficient, so I started the hat anew, trying to knit the rib not so tightly and adding one more purl stitch to each cable figure for greater volume around the head.

And that's my Phi hat: worn slouchy ...

or as a beanie with double brim:

Alpacana Jane

Pattern: personal pattern, using the idea of Jane by Jane Richmond
Yarn: Lanoso Alpacana 130 m
Needle: 4.5 mm rib, 5 mm body
Time to knit: a few hours

The weather this February is quite dynamic, as the weather people call it. Only two days ago it was +16C and skate time, today it's sleigh time. It was gloomy and rainy all day yesterday and during the night the rain must have turned into snow, because this morning we woke to a super beautiful winter fairytale scenery - white streets and trees and bright blue sky.

I'm so glad I have another hat to show you on this beautiful background. And though the hat is nothing special, the background is hopefully compensating :)
The yarn is recycled from another hat I knitted last year. It was my most favourite and warm hat, but it relaxed too much, so I decided to reknit it. This time I improvised a pattern, similar to Jane Richmond's Jane. I don't have her pattern, and anyway my gauge, yardage (only 130 m) and yarn are all wrong for her pattern, but I love those mock cables and the double brim.

This time I cast on a significantly smaller amount of stitches for the brim - only 60 sts and used a smaller circular needle (4.5 mm). For the body I increased every two stitches to 3 for a total of 90 stitches and knitted evenly in the round until I had about 10 m of yarn left and then started improvising decreases, until the yarn was all knitted up. That's it :)

And now a most curious series of pictures - find the hidden hat :) 

That's the camouflage hat to go for, if you need to hide in a snowy forest :)))

Odilia

Pattern: Camellia by Kim Hardgreaves
Yarn: YarnArt Summer, cotton and viscose, 50 g
Needle: 2.5 mm, 3 mm
Time to knit: 4 days

 

Another version of my copper Camellia, this time in black cotton-viscose yarn. Initially, the hat was intended for a friend's daughter, but my own teenage one liked it so much, and though she has many hats, it's a fact, that she doesn't have a cotton one, so this one goes to her. And I'll probably have to make one more Camellia :)

With this hat I experimented another way of decreasing at the top - the stitches are decreased quickly in only five rows. I like it better this way, so I redid my own Camellia too.

The amazing place this photo session was shot - in my next post. Stay tuned :)

Camellia

Pattern: Camellia by Kim Hargreaves
Yarn: Madame Tricote Camilla 6/4, 100% mercerized cotton, 65 g
Needle: 2.5 mm, 3 mm
Time to knit: 2 days

I decided I needed an autumn cotton hat, so I bought a ball of my favourite brick-colored Camilla cotton and made this slouchy beanie. The original Camellia is a short beanie, but I'm into slouchy hats lately, so I just continued knitting in the general style of the hat, until I ran out of yarn. Still thinking wouldn't it look better from behind if the decreases were more steep and dispersed ...??

Purple Flower

Pattern: DROPS Basque Hat 123-20
Needle: 3.5 mm rib, 4 mm body
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 100 g (reused from a previous hat)
Time to knit: two days

I've finally got my knitting mojo back. I did miss it all summer ...
I think I lost it somewhere in the middle of my (n-th) summer cardigan - I do have now too many of these, which is probably the reason why I lost momentum and stopped knitting it.
Until, at the end of August a whiff of fall is kind of felt in the air and wooly winter hats do not seem that much ridiculous to knit.

The pattern is fine and makes for a beautiful slouchy beret,
I'd definitely recommend it!

Joining Natural Suburbia and Tami's Amis FO Friday