I made a small alteration to this pattern to make sure it would fit me…

When I got to round 26 of the chart, I started to get the feeling that this hat was going to turn out enormous… so I decided to skip an entire 10-round repeat of the cables and bobbles, and skipped straight ahead to round 36 and followed the decreases from there.

When I blocked it, I basted the rim to stop it stretching too much, but the hat still threatened to grow to immense proportions, so I gave it 10 mins in the tumble dryer inside a lingerie bag - just to shrink it down a little bit. It worked a treat and the resulting hat has turned out just the right size. Not too slouchy, but with a little bit of floppiness (i.e. it is more of a beret than a beanie).

The yarn is beautifully soft with no trace of irritation. Roll on autumn…