I love how this hat turned out (after many re-knits)! I spent a lot of time choosing this pattern for my own handspun. I wanted the hat to have some texture without being lost in the color changes of the yarn. This hat has columns of cables that help the hat have a ‘ripple’ to it.

In the end I did some modifications to the pattern to make it work with my yarn:

• Changed needle size down to a 5 for the bottom ribbing
• Did one less cable round to make the hat shorter

If I were to do this hat again, I would probably knit the body of the hat in a smaller needle so that not as many modifications would be required to fix the sizing.

10/31/2010
I swatched pattern over 24 stitches using a Size 8 (5mm) needle. I like how the cables give texture to the fabric without taking away from the color changes of the yarn. My small swatch had about a half-inch color stripe but with a full hat it will probably be closer to 1 row of each color.

The pattern on the swatch was 4.75” wide for 20 pattern stitches.

10/31/2010
Cast on 80 stitches as instructed by pattern. I chose to use a size 9 (5.5mm) needle for the hat. My swatch seemed a little bit smaller than I would like. I followed the pattern as written. I did not use a cable needle for the cables.

10/31/2010
After washing and blocking the hat I realized that my yarn expands more than I thought it would and I hadn’t washed my swatch. The hat was about 1” too long and the ribbing was not tight on my head. Note to self - WASH gauge swatch!! Tomorrow I’ll reknit the bottom of the hat.

11/1/2010
Picked up stitches above 2nd cable from the bottom and held on a spare needle cable. Snipped stitch just below needle and undid the stitches and rolled into a ball.

• Knit cable round with Size 8 needles to start tightening the brim.
• Knit 2 rounds.
• (K9, K2TOG) around to decrease to 80 stitches.
• Switched to Size 7 needles for the ribbing.

Knit ribbing for 1 inch then bound off with Stretchy Bindoff

• K2 (Slip stitches back on left hand needle, K2TOG, K1) Repeat to end of round

11/4/2010
The bottom ribbing still isn’t acting like ribbing. It just sits there without pulling back in. With the advice from other Ravelers I have decided how to execute try #3 for the bottom edging.

I picked up the stitches from the decrease round maintaining the decrease and started K1,P1 ribbing for 10 rounds.

I used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bindoff for the edge.

11/4/2010
IT WORKED!!!!! The bindoff worked GREAT for this project. I’ll definitely want to use it again on my socks and other projects that require some extra stretch.

I love the “hug” that the ribbing gives my ears now!

Photo notes:

• The bottom 3 pictures are the “before” from the 2nd time I knit the hat brim.
• The top pictures are of the final version of the hat.