Commission Hat

My friend Polly went on a trip to England. She was exited to see sheep all over countryside there, but surprised to find out most of them were bred for meat and not fiber. She bought a wool hat for her husband that turned out to be too small. Polly asked me if I could knit a hat the right size in teal wool yarn, that she could give him for Christmas. Hats are pretty quick, so I said yes to the project.

I happened to find two skeins of 100 % wool Plymouth Homestead yarn that matched the request exactly at Torri’s Tangles to Treasures, from my 2018 yarn store purchase.

I have paper copies of quite a few knitting patterns saved over many years, although usually I forget to check there when deciding what to make. This time I remembered to look, and found an old pattern for hats with different options for the cuff and hem.

I chose the style in the bottom center of the photo above, with the ribbed cuff and square top, but without a tassel. Polly provided me with her husband’s head circumference by measuring two different hats he wears regularly. I worked on the hat while we were in California for Thanksgiving.

In order to figure out how many stitches to cast on, I made a swatch to determine my stitches per inch for this yarn, with the needles that seemed best. The pattern has a formula for figuring out the number of stitches based on your gauge, and then subtracting an inch for negative ease, and also adjusting down 10% for the ribbing.

I started out with 2 x 2 ribbing, but after a few inches I did not think it looked right, and it seemed too big around. I ripped it out and cast on over again with fewer stitches and started knitting in 1 x 1 ribbing. After knitting several inches, I liked the 1 x 1 ribbing better, but now it seemed too tight. ARGGGHHH. I should have just trusted the formula. I ripped it out again (or “frogged” it as knitters say) and started over with the original number of stitches, but with 1 x 1 ribbing.

We were staying at Wayne’s sister’s house in Alameda for an entire week. Our daughter lives nearby in Oakland. In order to give Yvonne a break and also spend some quality time with Britta, the three of us went on an overnight side trip to Monterey. We went to the aquarium, where we loved seeing all the different kinds of jellyfish, and watched a huge octopus. We also went on a coastal hike. The weather was excellent the whole time.

The knitting went pretty fast with the Aran weight yarn, and I was on vacation so I was not too annoyed or worried about having to start over twice.

While in California, we had lunch at In-N-Out burger. I am trying to reduce my red meat consumption, but we do not have In-N-Out Burger in Minnesota, so it was a treat.

I got a lot of knitting done on the plane back to Minnesota, and at my son’s house in St. Paul where we stayed overnight after the late flight home.

The next day we drove to our house three hours away, through some snow squalls with a few stretches of minimal to zero visibility. Despite needing to get back home, we might have waited another day in the Cities if we had realized the driving would be that scary and dangerous.

The pattern said to make the ribbing 4 1/2″ wide which seemed very wide, so I looked at another pattern for comparison. The other pattern had a much narrower cuff, and also seemed to suggest quite a few more stitches for the size and gauge. That was perplexing, but I had enough of the hat complete to be able to measure the actual circumference so I felt mine was correct. The wide cuff was practical as it would be folded over for extra warmth, more or less depending on fit and preference.

Back home after the Thanksgiving trip we were very busy preparing for a new hardwood floor installation in our living room / dining area and main floor bedroom. There will be a future post about that project, which we thought would be wrapped up by the holidays, but in fact I won’t be able to post about it until spring.

I had to switch from circular to double pointed needles as the number of stitches decreased at the top of the hat.

I think the hat turned out well. I was pretty sure it would fit the recipient, but I was going to have to wait a bit before finding out for sure.

I mailed the hat off to the Polly with plenty of time before Christmas. As it turned out, she was out of the country in Morocco with her daughter when the hat arrived. In any case, I wanted this project off my plate so I could get on with other gift items that I also needed to finish. After Christmas, Polly reported that the hat fit her husband James, and she posted this photo on her blog.

Polly’s blog pollycastor.com is A journal of art, photography, spirituality, ideas, books, movies, food, poetry & hope. She inspired and encouraged me when I was thinking about starting my own blog five years ago.

Later Polly sent me more photos of James wearing the hat from different angles. I like the square decrease pattern at the top. It would also be nice with a tassel or pom pom on the top, for the right person.

Hats are a quick easy knitting project. I need baby gifts for several babies due in the spring and summer. I expect there will be some baby hat knitting in my future, as they are very cute and even faster than an adult hat.