my Holiday Bowl Hadley hat!

pattern: Hadley Hat, my free pattern
yarn: Bernat super value in red and white
needles: size US 10 / 6.0mm circulars and dpns

It's been so fun, knitting along with Elise as we get ready for the Holiday Bowl! I worked on my adult sized Hadley Hat a few rows at a time in between knitting presents, finishing it up just a few days ago - just in time for kids to get sick! I was actually worried I wouldn't get photos of it or be able to share the final hat in time, so I hopped in front of our tree with my iPhone and the TimerCam app, and hoped for the best.

I wrote the Hadley Hat pattern almost four years ago now, and when I wrote it, I think I was a much tighter knitter than I am now. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, but size 10 needles with 80 stitches cast on, which seems very large to me now. In fact, while the hat wasn't too wide to fit around my ears, it sure is super slouchy, far slouchier than I remember it being when I first wrote the pattern and knit Hadleys on repeat a few years ago!

While I love a slouchy hat, I'm considering re-writing the pattern a bit. I could just change the needle size, which would solve most of the problem, or I could decrease the number of stitches and rows for each color section, which would keep the extra flouncy nature of the fabric when the yarn is knit on these larger needles.

Or I could leave it as-is, and add a note to check for gauge, and to probably size down the needles.

Pattern issues aside, I am totally smitten with the idea of knitting the same pattern with another blogger and sharing the progress as you go. With a hat, that becomes more of a "here's what I'm going to knit" post followed by a "here's what I made!" post, rather than a huge series of posts, but the idea is so fun I think I want to do it again! And again! And again!

For those who shared projects with the #holidayknitalong tag on Instagram, it's been so much fun seeing your projects, hats and other things. I hope I remember to use the tag again next holiday season, and a bit sooner at that - I love to see even the smallest peeks into what people are making and gifting!

I'll be wearing my hat proudly tomorrow night as Nebraska takes on USC in the Holiday Bowl, and hope it brings my team good luck!

my Holiday Bowl Hadley hat!

Dec 26, 2014

#holidayknitalong

clockwise, from top left: kirtleymichelle | laurenlikesblog | alliefinch | cadysinks 

clockwise from top left: delightfullyash | julieloveg | aprilfreshknits | mygurumi 

clockwise, from top left: barleysoup | alliefinch | thenauticalwife | rwerwai

Man, have people been sharing some great projects to the #holidayknitalong hashtag on Instagram! With Hannukah rounding out, solstice just happened, and Christmas around the corner, I we'll be taking some time for family in the next few days. But before I take off to celebrate, I wanted to share some inspiration from those that are knitting at least part of their holiday presents! Thanks to those who have already shared photos - and if you're knitting away, there's plenty of time still to share!

#holidayknitalong

Dec 23, 2014

Hadley Hat Modifications

(photo from Elise's Instagram feed)

So far, the #holidayknitalong has been going like gangbusters! Elise has officially become a hat addict, knocking out an adorable hat for Ellerie (seen above), with plans to make a few more in the near future!

While I'm still slogging away at my hat, working a row or two in between holiday presents, I wanted to take a minute to share a few ways to modify the Hadley Hat pattern to suit a wide variety of needs. I wrote the pattern over two years ago now, and when it was originally written I only had one size, and used a very specific yarn. These notes will hopefully help you make your hat in a bunch of different ways!

One of the things I love most about hats is that you don't need to worry AS MUCH about sizing - most hats will fit most heads, and have a few inches of stretch to cover any possible sizing mistakes. That said, you can't expect a hat made for a baby to fit an adult, and visa versa.

One of the other things to keep in mind is the number of stripes you'll use for your hat, and even how many stitches to use in each stripe. The adult size has six stripes made with six rows each, but for a newborn hat this would be far too long. You'll want to adjust both number of stripes and number of rows per stripe accordingly.

To make life easier for everyone, I've made this handy chart to help you out. While you can definitely measure your hat recipient's head and then figure out the cast on number, number of stripes, and number of rows per stripe, this chart makes the Hadley Hat a bit more "thinking-proof"!

** Remember, the number of stripes INCLUDES the ribbing rows as the first stripe color. **

Now let's talk yarn. The pattern calls for Hobby Lobby's house brand of yarn, but what's great about this hat is that you can substitute in just about any thicker worsted weight yarn and the hat will turn out perfectly!

What do I mean by "thicker worsted weight"? Well, just about any acrylic yarn with a "4" on the label will work perfectly. That means you can head into any craft store, and just about any of their acrylic yarns will work just fine. Some brands I've used for this hat include Bernat, Vanna's Choice, Red Heart, and Lion Brand Wool Ease.

If you're making the hat with wool yarn, just be sure the suggested needle size on the ball band is at least a size US 8 / 5.0mm. Anything smaller will give you a much looser gauge hat, and the fit won't be the same.

All in all, the Hadley Hat is a fun and fast knit, perfect for last minute presents, or for cheering on your favorite football team during the bowl games, as Elise and I are doing! I'd love to see how you modify the Hadley Hat for everyone on your list - tag your finished knits #holidayknitalong and/or #shemakeshats so I can see!

Hadley Hat Modifications

Dec 15, 2014

Holiday Bowl Knit-Along

Every fall, our home and lives are covered in red and white, and not just because I want to start decorating for Christmas as soon as school supply sales are done. We live in Nebraska, and that means chants of GO BIG RED and going to all the home games, and talking football and living football and breathing football for three full months.

This year has been especially hard for Nebraska fans, as we've won most of our games but seemed to lose the big ones, and then fired our head coach before the dust of the season had even settled. We made it out of the season still ranked (#25, but still ranked) and are headed to a bowl game, like we are  most years.

This year, we are going to the Holiday Bowl in December 27, and are facing off against USC. And while other Nebraska fans have a wide variety of thoughts on this, my first thought was, "My friend Elise went to USC! We should do a knit-along!"

I e-mailed Elise, she jumped on board immediately, and so the two us are knitting hats to celebrate our rival schools squaring off in just a few weeks! We chose my Hadley Hat pattern (available for free download!) - simple enough for a novice hat maker, but with stripes galore so we can show off our school pride!

The plan is to knit away on our hats between now and game day, and then wear our hats with all our school pride, as we cheer on our rival schools! I'm hopeful Nebraska will win, but with all that's happened this season, I'm just holding out for a loss that's not so bad I won't have to hide my face in my hat the entire game!

The best part of all this?! We're inviting you all to knit along with us! You can make a Hadley Hat in your favorite team colors, or you can simply knit along on whatever holiday knitting is currently on your needles - I know we're still in the thick of it, and most of us are just now starting to realize just how few days we have left to get those presents knit up and under the tree!

Share your projects on Instagram using the hashtag #holidayknitalong, so we can all see what you've been working on, Hadley Hat or otherwise! Me, I'm headed off to cast on my red and white Hadley Hat, and can't wait to see Elise's take shape as well!

Holiday Bowl Knit-Along

Dec 11, 2014