The imperfect hat
I enjoy knitting, especially in the winter. It has this cosy and nostalgic feel, conjuring up memories of my childhood. A lot of knitters in my family now that I think of it. I remember my aunt knitting in front of the evening film; to this day I don't know how she could watch TV and knit. When I knit, I need quiet and pen and paper to keep track of what I am doing. My mom knitted as well, mostly sweaters for my dolls. She once knitted a sweater for me and got very frustrated as she had to start over a few times because I was going through a growth spurt and the sleeves were always too short! And I always remember my dad coming home from work and putting on his cardigan knitted by his aunt. Loungewear long before it became a thing!
Last year I had decided to try knitting a hat using yarn leftover from a scarf (scarves are easy and straightforward, at worst you have some sewing to do if you want to make a snood). Normally I buy a kit where the instructions, correct yarn, and needles are provided. But in this instance, as I had the yarn already, I had to look for a pattern.
I found a pattern that I liked and crucially that seemed to be for thin yarn, close enough to what I had anyway. (I don't understand yarn weight and the one I had didn’t have any tags!) Bought the required needles and started. First thing I did, was to add a few stitches because I thought it might be too small for my head. Ok, a lot, it was about 30. At least I had the foresight, or sheer luck, to keep it at an even number of stitches. I stopped my knitting when I got to the point in the pattern where they instructed me to move my knit onto 4 double-pointed needles. That felt too complicated and with spring fast approaching I wasn't going to be wearing it. So, I put it away.
Fast forward a global pandemic and a few months later and here we are. After a chat with my bubble friend who is knitting scarves for her whole family, I decided to pick up knitting again. So out comes the half-finished hat. With a few motivational affirmations I manage to get the knit on those four dreaded needles. Sure it's fiddly but not too difficult actually. The hard part comes later. Unlike a straight scarf, a hat is smaller at the top, so you have to start decreasing (ie reducing the number of stitches as you go). Problem is I added 30 stitches vs the pattern. After much scribbling and calculations, I think I've figured it out and knit ten or so rows.
When I pick up my knitting the next day, I realise two things, first, there are only three needles left and it’s the wrong shape. Luckily, I figure out where I went wrong, but it does mean I need to take it apart and undo everything I did the day before! But with a clear idea of what to do, I'm off again. Now I can't express the joy at getting to the end of the row with the correct number of stitches. But mostly I'm recounting each row two or three times to be sure.
After all that I finished it!! And all though it’s not perfect, and too big - probably by the number of extra stitches I added - I am quite pleased. It just needs folding over and it's fine!
What I would normally use:
I love Wool And The Gang for their kits but also their YouTube tutorials. They have some free patterns available to download on their site.
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