My first knit off the needles for the Olympic Games (and the similarly-named Ravellenic Games happening on Ravelry) is the Hurricane Hat. Knitting this hat feels like coming home to me - the pattern is the first I used in my One Hundred Hats project back in 2009 (blogged here)!
pattern: Hurricane Hat, by Andrea Goutier (free online!)
needles: size US 8 / 5.0 mm 16" circular and dpns
yarn: Patons Classic Wool (100% wool), 90 yards
The first time I knit this hat, I knit it to the exact specs of the pattern. As I noted back then, the hat was a bit short on me. This time around I made a few modifications to the pattern and love the results!
For starters, I sized up my needles one. The pattern calls for size US 7 / 4.5 mm needles, but I knit tight so I always size up at least one needle size. This change got me to gauge, and the hat knit up to the right size.
The other change I made came in the length of the hat before the crown decreases. Again because of my tight knitting, I tend to need a bit more hat length before my decreases begin. In this case, the pattern calls for knitting to 5" before crown decreases - I knit to 6" before beginning my decreases. In all honesty, I had a nagging feeling I should have gone to 6.5" before decreases, but I ignored it. Knitters, never ignore those instincts! While the hat fits just fine, I know I'd love it more if it were just a tad bit longer.
After the hat was done and I wore it for the photo above, Zach commented that he liked the hat as well. I hadn't thought of the hat as being for men as well as for women, but after Zach said that, I started to picture this hat knit in dark browns, greys and black.
This hat is getting placed in a box I'll be filling over the next two weeks for nest: Maine. I'm hoping to use up some of my languishing wool stash during my Olympic knitting, and this was a great start!
//
I'm making 10,000 hats for 10,000 people. This is hat 111.
Post a Comment