Based on pattern by Deborah Pulliam in Nov/Dec 2003 Piecework magazine, heavily modifed by Betty Johnson and described by Matthew Newsome on Albanach.org. I contacted Betty, and she provided me her version of the pattern. Mainly, she replaced the 4x4 blocks in the dicing with 6x6 blocks, and changes the overall height. Her bonnets are in display in the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, NC.

11/7/2014 Made gauge swatch. Got 6 sts/in and 8 rows/in.

I looked at pattern specifying 3 sts/in and thought there was NO WAY to get that with #5 needles. I guessed that I MIGHT get 6. I e-mailed Betty and asked her about it. She said that during fulling, when the piece first hits the water, it will expand to three times the size before it starts to full. She said not to worry about gauge, but just check the fulling process frequently.

11/13/2014 Cast on and restarted three or four times. This is the first pattern I’ve made that didn’t tell me what length circular needle to use. Turns out stitches will compress, but won’t stretch much. 128 sts at 6 sts/in should be a little over 21 in, right? Ended up using a 20” needle, but even trying really hard not to make them the tight, the cast-ons were tight. Fortunately, after the first row of k sts, it loosened up. In fact, it’s somewhat bunch now.

I am terrified of connecting the hem. Trying to figure out where the stitch is and where to poke the hook is the thing I don’t like about crochet. And the things that makes me scared of making my first sock. I put lots of markers on the active row - one every sixteen sts - and clip-ons on the associated cast-on row. That will let me tell if I skipped or doubled a st when working the hem before I get too far along.

Oooo….I hadn’t mentioned my yarn choice. I looked at the jumper weight (2 ply) wool yarn and thought that was too much to spend on a hat. The Jamieson Simply Shetland Spindrift seems to be the only yard of this spec, and yarnbarn.com the only USA mail order retailer with on-line ordering ($5.95/115 yards). Fingering weight is same linear density as the jumper, so I am using that ($3.49/231 yards). I hope there is not something I’m not considering that I need to. We’ll see.

BTW, the Knit Picks Palette yarn I’m using sure looks like 2 ply to me anyway, so I don’t know what the difference would be between this and the jumper.

11/15/2015. If I ever do a hem again, I may cast on in a contracting color so I can ID the stitches. Worked and ripped back the first dozen sts or so of the hem join about a half dozen times now. This is testing my determination.

11/16/2014 About 1/4 way through the hem. So tedious. I’m sure it’s not perfect, but doesn’t look bad. This is one of those things you should learn to so with super bulky yarn on huge needles first.

11/18/2014 WHEW! Hem is done. I know that I may be off a stitch on the pickup here and there, vertically or horizontally, but the hem doesn’t look too wavy. I had to correct by one stitch horizontally at the markers three times, IIRC. I think I was getting the hang of finding the correct stitch by the last 16 sts. The next time, I should have this done. Anyway, as I say, “Fulling covers a multitude of sins.” Now to get going again.

Completed the two increase rows. The original pattern (Pulliam) increases from 128 to 152 sts. I don’t know how that occurs with the given instructions. I am also fanatical about evenly spacing the incs and staggering them on subsequent rows, so I replaced the first increase with

*k1 [m1, k5] 3x

Betty’s biggest change was to make the dicing squares 6x6 instead of 4x4, and requires an increase to 156 sts. I used

k17 *m1, k38.

That is staggered from Betty’s instructions.

I have started the first row of the dicing. I hope that my float tie-downs come back to me quickly. With the 4x4, tying down was probably not necessary, but I think I need to do it with the 6x6.

11/22/2014 About 2/3 of the way through the dicing.

At the end of the first row of sts in the dicing, I was one st short, despite the care I used with the increases. Very frustrated. Did an M1 an continued on. Five rows later, spotted the dropped st back where my count went off. What??? I don’t drop sts!! I corrected it, but now have 7 sts in one column of the dicing blocks. I’ll correct in the (Betty’s) decrease following the dicing.

11/26/2014 Finished the many even rows and the big increase.

SIDE NOTE ON THE HEM:
I found a YouTube video from BloomingKnitter on making a hem. I think next time, I will make a provisional cast-on like shown in the video. When ready to fold them hem, you put another needle in the first row of sts. You then knit off that needle and the original left needle. It’s a lot easier than what is described in the pattern, and makes it easier to find the sts to sew into. BloomingKnitter also describes putting a purl row in halfway up the rows that will make the hem. When the hem is folded, it makes a nice, flat edge.

ALSO, I’ve started reading about double knitting. I’m thinking about double knitting the dicing next time.

11/27/2014 Past the even knitting of the max sts rows and well into the decreases. Before going to bed, hit the milestone of the row that has the newest fewest number of sts (126).

It looks like a race to the end whether or not I’ll finish the bonnet on the one ball of navy yarn. If I don’t have to start the second, I will make a second one sooner than later.

I’ve made minor changes to the decreases. I like to stagger the decreases from one row to the next, and switch between k2tog, and ssk. I also like to recognize the number of segments the designer is using, and put markers between them so I can recognize the decrease formula. In this case there are 7 segments, and each decrease row decreases by 7 sts. In fact, I went out and left my pattern sheet at home and worked on the decreases in the car, since I know what the formula is.

An example of my decreases is:

Rnd 78: * k19, ssk
Rnd 80: * k9, k2tog, k9
Rnd 82: * k17, ssk
Rnd 84: * k8, k2tog, k8

11/29/2014 After row 99 (63 sts), things are getting tight on my 20” circular. I am switching to my 17” to get a few more rows. I can make a 9” circular, but that’s really hard to knit with.

I have a dilemma. At this point, I’d usually just make up two circulars from my interchangeable set with the size needle I’m using on one end of each circular, and with the next smaller needle on the opposite ends. However, with my set, the #5 IS the smallest needle, so I have nothing smaller to switch one end with. I have a #5 DPN set on my Christmas/birthday list, and am prohibited at this point from buying it. It looks like I’m going to switching tips back and forth between to circulars.

KNITTING IS DONE! (except for weaving in ends). I have a little yarn left over, so I have a spare ball from which to make a second one for Luke. It also means this project uses a little less than 230 yards of the MC (at least with Betty’s modifications that cut out a few rows - not sure if it would have made it with the original pattern.) The original pattern claimed it could be done with 150 yards (although I didn’t use the exact yarn indicated, but I’d be surprised if it were that far off.) If I had a scale that read to 0.1 g, I’d figure out more exactly what I used. But I don’t. So I can’t.

Here’s the link to the second project, which will include some additional, experimental modifications.