For a while there, I had forgotten that I even had a blog, or really, that I was even a crafter. My day job became my day, night and weekend job for a while meaning the "leftover" time was spent sleeping or zombie-like on my couch... not fun.
Just as the latest crazy period was coming to an end in gainful employment land, I stumbled upon a pattern that made my heart zing! The beautiful "A most bespeckled hat" pattern by Alex Tinsley which is on Ravelry here... and has a fun pattern page here.
Within a day of finding and purchasing the pattern, I had sent a link of it to one of my best friends. She has a birthday in November and I usually try to make her something and there was something about the speckles and the pom pom that screamed her name to me... or maybe it was that she shares a name with the designer. Within seconds of sending her the pattern, I had an excited email telling me all of the colour combinations that she'd love and what coats she'd wear it with! I'm a knitter that loves that level of excitement from a knitwear recipient so I got started straight away and within a day, I had this gorgeous number. Oh just look at that pom pom!
Within moments of finishing the first hat, I dove straight into my stash and found some lovely grey mystery yarn. I think I'd purchased it from a fellow knitter who was doing a little bit of a yarn purge and I paid about $2 for about 90g of this stuff... It looked a little bulkier and I remember the knitter saying something about it being 12ply (so more like Aran weight than the Worsted called for) so I went down a needle size and paired it with some yummy red Zara yarn that I had languishing in my stash and less than 24 hours later, I had another yummy hat (and only a couple of metres of yarn left!) Phew!
Now, it was as I was knitting the second hat that I realised that I'd actually misread the instructions a little (totally my own fault for being so keen on knit knit knitting) and had left off a repeat on the first hat. And because I had a very limited amount of yarn for the second one, I chose to keep that modification (especially because the first one fit great). I'm glad I did because the second one also fit great. Although I sometimes wish that I had made it using the size 7 needles that it called for because the fabric did come out a little denser than I'd normally go for in a hat.
My mojo for this hat didn't stop there, within a few days, I had finished another (although for this one, as it was 8ply or DK weight yarn, I did the full number of repeats called for in the pattern and I love the result)... I also love how they all look together!
And I may or may not have another on the needles. This time, I'm trying something a little different. I'm doing the pattern in sock weight yarn and size 3 needles. I only did about half the amount of ribbing and I'm just going to see how it goes... I'm hoping for an adorable little baby shower hat.
Now, credit where credit is due, I actually found the pattern on the project page of the wonderful Dani of the Little Bobbins Knits podcast (which can be found here). Little Bobbins Knits is fast becoming one of my favourite knitting podcasts! Dani has great taste in patterns and makes just beautiful stuff!
I'd also like to take this opportunity to admit something shameful. When I found the pattern, I thought (only for a moment) that, as there was only one size and the design is relatively simple, the $5.50 USD price was a little steep. I can, hand on heart, say that I was absolutely wrong. Maybe I could have tried to mimic the look without a pattern but I would not have been anywhere near as successful as I was with the pattern. I've also now knit more than 3 hats with it, bringing the price to about $2 AUD for each hat - totally worth it! I also fully intend to make more (in fact, I may have pulled yarn for at least 4 more hats).
Anyways, sorry for the rather long and somewhat rambly post. I hope you'll check out the hat pattern (which I love so so much) and maybe pop over to watch Dani's podcast!
Take care
Bee
XOXO
p.s. sorry for the very inconsistent, phone camera pictures. I promise that I will start busting out the proper, DSLR photos soon but in the interests of getting some posts out there, I've decided to just go with the crummy pictures for now.
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