
Last winter after I had finished my first two complete projects, a scarf for my mom and a scarf for my friend Courtney, I decided I should make winter hats for the guys. I thought it was lucky that I found an easy pattern in Better Homes and Gardens Knit It! for a "Cool" men's hat. I even bought my first addi-turbo circulars for this pattern. But after a year of anticipation the results were less than spectacular.
DISCLAIMER: When I started this hat last week I was sick.
BUT, that does not excuse this bad pattern or yarn.
I cast on all my stitches and was not sure what end to start knitting on. I've only knit in the round once before. So I knit a row or two and realized the bottom was uneven and I had picked the wrong end. I cast on again and this time was confused about the rib. The bottom of the hat is a k1,p1 rib but since it was in the round and I was sick, I wasn't sure what to knit and what to purl. After 4 rows, I had half rib and half seed stitch. So I cast on for a third time. Yes, it was a charm! The hat was so easy to knit and it took me less than a week! I didn't even do any knitting this weekend and I still finished tonight. I had my misgivings about this hat because I thought the guys in the pictures looked like dorks. But I thought surely my DH would make this hat look hot! But you see the result.
I frogged about a forth of the hat and am going to try again. I think if I take out some rows it might look normal. To my surprise, my husband is a yarn snob and did not like the Lion Brand Wool-Ease that he had suggested I use because of the price. Hurray! We are going to the LYS on Saturday and I'm going to get better yarn and try the pattern that Amy used for her DH. The project was not a total waste...and I improved my knitting skills too :)