Yarn usage: The first skein of Tosh Vintage got me through the hat and one earflap (including its icord and tassel). The other took me 14 yards of the second skein (including the excess for the tassels). Still having trouble capturing the yarn’s true color. The fourth and fifth photos might be closest…?

6 Dec 2016: Finished up! On the second earflap, I ended up modifying the open chain selvedge on one side. Instead of purling the last two stitches on the WS and then slipping them pwise wyib on the right side, I slipped the last two stiches of the WS row pwise wyif and then knit those two stitches on the RS. It helped a lot with the gap problem I was having on this edge, and I think it has to do with the relative looseness of purling vs knitting (at least for me). It still wasn’t quite as tight and neat as the other edge (beginning of WS rows/end of RS rows; right side of earflap if you’re looking at completed earflap), but it was definitely an improvement for me over the pattern method, which I just couldn’t get to turn out consistent and nice.

15 Dec 2016: The first earflap took some doing. I tore it out several times trying to figure out the best way to pick up the stitches, the best way to increase, etc. I did go with RLI and M1L (see 14 Dec 2016 notes). I picked up through both legs of the outermost stitch rather than just the outermost leg.

As with the cabled brim, I had trouble with gaps between the slipped stitches of the selvedge and the first regular stitches on the right side. I messed around with evening out the tension of the stitches after it was done, and it’s improved, though I wish I knew what I was doing wrong in the first place (pulling too tight on the first stitch post slipped? Too loose?).

My icord ended up a little longer than specified, but I think it’s okay. Anxious to get the other earflap done so I can wear this!

14 Dec 2016: Working on first earflap. The symbol key isn’t particularly clear on the increases (they give descriptions without names, so I’m not sure what increases they’re intending). I think the left-leaning increase is supposed to be a M1L and the right-leaning one is a RLI based on the written instructions. It was a little weird and tricky on row 1 because you don’t really have a previous row per se, you just have the selvedge from which you picked up. Eh, I made it work, and I think it looks okay.

13 Dec 2016: Managed to get the seam done. I was intimidated by the thought of trying to get the selvedges and cables to line up, but thanks to Cap Sease’s new Knitter’s Know How, I was able to do it without too much trouble. (Yes, I know there are plenty of tutorials online, but I love having a book—and one that even lays flat!—open in front of me while I work.)

Also picked up the stitches for the stockinette portion. I decided to just pick up 64 and then do (k1, kfbx7) x8 to get to the 120 stitches.

12 Dec 2016: It looks like the pattern has been updated today to clarify the number of cable repeats and to fix the math on the picked up stitches/increases!

Finished up the cable band with 16 repeats. Bound off using a standard bind off (k2, pass first stitch over second, k1, pass over, etc.).

11 Dec 2016: I have now done 13 of the cable repeats. After reading CindyBertinetti’s project notes and messaging with her, I think I am also going to add at least one additional cable repeat (possibly two or three). I am then going to fiddle with the math to make the stockinette portion divisible by 12.

10 Dec 2016: After a false start—I thought I could do a provisional cast on and then do a three needle bind off for the headband portion, and I just couldn’t get the first row’s cable to work with my provision CO—I cast on using cable cast on.

I’ve had this yarn in my stash for quite a while, and although I’d had aspirations of using all three skeins for something like a big cowl, this seemed like a great project for this yarn! Maybe I can find a good cowl pattern that would play nicely with this hat pattern for the remaining yarn…?

Although I typically alternate skeins when using Madelinetosh or other hand dyes, I’m not doing it for this project. It’s done in pieces (sort of… you pick up stitches for various parts), so I feel like I can better control/mitigate skein differences by strategic use on the band, crown, and/or earflaps.

Using Ysolda’s tutorial for cabling without a cable needle. This should hopefully knit up quickly!

New Stuff:
On this project, I learned…

1. How to make a cabled band/brim for a hat.
2. There’s more than one way to combine worked/slipped stitches at row ends to achieve the same look.