Egads, has it really been more than a month since I posted here? Sorry about that folks. It's not that knitting and crafting haven't been happening. I just haven't had a chance to photograph the evidence. Let's get you all caught up, shall we?
I picked up a wonderful skein of Malabrigo merino wool at ImagiKnit awhile ago. It was one of their test batches. It's a lovely, lightly variegated blue, in a slightly heavier weight than their normal worsted weight. I figured that I could make Erik a hat with it someday. Well, two Saturdays ago we were packing for our trip to Washington DC to see Obama sworn in as president and we realized that E didn't have a winter hat. 'Lantic oceans! I packed up some needles and grabbed that skein and resolved to have a hat for him by Tuesday morning.
Of course he didn't want a plain hat, he wanted one with a cable. He really liked the Gingerbread Cabled Hat I made for JoAnne and myself, but I was afraid it might been a bit too feminine. So I modified the pattern. It took me three tries to cast on the right number of stitches. His head is much bigger than it looks.
Rather than the ladder bits between the cables that the Gingerbread Cables have, I just did a simple one knit column between the cables. This also allowed me to get more cables in. I cast on Sunday morning on the plane and knit all the way across the country. Then as much of Monday as I could while visiting. His cousins laughed at me and didn't think I could finish it, but by 11 PM Monday it was done.
Because this ended up being heavier than the typical worsted weight, it meant there wasn't quite as much yarn in the skein. I started to worry that I was going to run out of yarn before completing it. So it has a rather abrupt finish to it, with a knit 2, knit 2 together for the final few rows. I think I will go back and make it a tad bit deeper, since it was a bit small for him.
I'm rather proud how this turned out, over all. It's the first hat I've done without a pattern at all. And it's so soft and warm. The color looks great on him too.
You're so lucky he likes hats with a little bit of design. The boy always requests such plain, boring knitted goods.
Nice job on the hat! I've never knit with Malabrigo before, but I think this winter it is time to change that...