pattern: Ribbstickad Hat, by Jenny Gordy
yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in Colonial Blue (92 yards, including pom)
needles: 7.0mm 16" circular
I've been dancing around the edges of the Wiksten world for a few years now. Friends love Jenny's work, at least half of the blogs I read sing of her praises, and I've read enough reviews of her writing and her projects to know at some point I should find my way to her blog. But it wasn't until a friend told me she'd decided she wanted to learn to knit after seeing a few of Jenny's hat patterns that I finally made my way over to her website and shop.
Ribbstickad became the first of Jenny's patterns I put on my needles. My modifications were minor - I didn't have the right size 16" circular needle on-hand so I sized up a tiny bit, and I used a thick worsted weight acrylic yarn instead of bulkier yarn, which gave the hat just a bit more drape.
A simple ribbed pattern, Ribbstickad flew off the needles from brim to pom. After trying it on I wished I'd made it a bit longer, as it didn't slouch off the back of my head as much as I'd have liked, but was also too short to turn up the brim and wear fitted. This happened because of the yarn substitution, giving me fewer rows per inch than the bulky yarn would have, making my decrease rows take up less space.
I forget to adjust for this problem more often than I'd care to admit, leaving many of my hats 1/2 to 1 inch shorter than I'd planned. You'd think after all these years of knitting hats I'd just go ahead and knit a bit extra before decreases, and while sometimes I do, most times I forget!
The hat is wonderful regardless. The pattern is easy to follow, a perfect charity pattern and ideal for people looking to dip their toes into hat knitting - you learn to work in the round, knit, purl, and decrease with ease.
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