Pete is married to my cousin Kate, owner of Kate’s geanie: link text

All the family love the hat and Pete and the three boys wear it inside the house. The problem occurs when Kate tries to leave the house - they don’t like her wearing the hat outside. I asked Pete why and he says it’s not great when she leaves the house carrying plastic bags because the hat makes her look homeless.

I pointed out that this hat is made of posh designer Japanese yarn and he just shrugs. Well, he is an accountant.

Pete also mentions that he loves the hat because it’s lovely and soft. The only hat he had previously was a very scratchy one his mum made him when he was little, so this hat is a revelation.

I then concocted a cunning plan - knit him a hat in incredibly soft, lovely wool and hope he feels more kindly towards the geanie. Luckily he’s got a significant birthday this month ….

Eki Riva is baby alpaca and it just doesn’t get any softer or squooshier. I returned to my trusty Beanie No 212, now heavily modified since I first made it for Mikey: link text

Pete’s beanie went into the mail with a card wishing him a happy birthday and hinting that the hat will have to come straight back if he doesn’t let Kate wear hers. Let’s hope he’s a man of honour ….

EDITED TO ADD THE MODIFICATIONS:

Here are the changes I make to the original pattern to adapt it for circular needles and DK yarn.

I use a 4mm circular, 40cm long and cast on the following numbers of stitches:
For small to medium sizes, I cast on 96 stitches.
For medium to large adults, I cast on 104 stitches.
For melon-heads, I cast on 112!

I then knit 15cm of 2+2 rib (K2, P2). From experience, 15cm of 2+2 rib is about as long as it takes you to feel that you just can’t do any more rib without screaming, plus another three rounds.

After that I start the wide rib pattern (K6, P2). I keep going with the wide ribs for about 25 rounds and then I try it on - very scientific, I know. I may do a couple more rounds or I may start the decreases then, depending on the size of the hat and whether I cheated on the 15cm of 2+2 rib.

I do the decreases on two circulars because I am terrified of DPNs. To do this, I knit a plain round (all knit) and use that to divide the stitches onto the circulars with a stitch marker in the middle of each needle, which gives me four sections. If I cast on 104 stitches, that is 26 stitches in each section.

For each section, I do this:
K1, SKP, knit to the last three stitches of the section, K2tog, K1.

I keep going until I have 16 stitches in total (four per section) then K1, K2tog, K1 in each section. I cut the yarn, draw it through the remaining stitches and pull it tight, then darn in the end.

Darn in the other end(s) and wash and block the hat because it makes the dodgy rib stitches look a bit better.

Graciously bestow the hat upon the lucky recipient and await compliments and gushy thank-yous ….