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Monday 18 January 2016

FO: Knotted Pine

Ok, I'm not even slightly going to beat around the bush on this one, I freaking love this hat and I think I may actually just live in it from now on.  I love the central cable panel and the way it is surrounded by more cables and a cute rib column.  The short row shaping on the brim is completely delightful and I'm even rather enamoured by the half twisted stockinette which adds a lovely texture even though twisted stitches are kind of annoying to knit.

The pattern is Knotted Pine by Alicia Plummer, a designer who has multiple patterns in my Ravelry library and favourites but this is the first one I've actually knit up.  A few knitters had remarked in their project notes that they found the pattern hard to follow, but I can safely say that I had no trouble whatsoever.  The pattern is very brief and to the point but all the pertinent information is there.  I used KnitCompanion, as I usually do, and really I should have stitched the charts together on there instead of flicking between them but I'll leave that for next time.

I actually cast on for this for the first time when I was on holiday in December, but I'd forgotten my smaller needles and then I got lost on the charts and decided it was best to rip out and try again at home.  Luckily I did because it turns out that my gauge swatch had been telling me some whopping great fibs.  According to my swatch I needed to go up a needle size, so that's what I did and after dithering about what size to choose I went for 22" because that's how big my head is.  It was quite clear before I even finished the ribbing that the thing was going to be massive so I went back down to the suggested needle size and changed to the 20" size.  It fits really nicely now so I definitely did the right thing.

The yarn is Lang Yak, which was sent to me from Switzerland during a recent swap, and I'm a big fan now.  It's really smooth and warm and the colour is lovely.  I haven't washed it yet because I was so desperate to get this hat on my head, but apparently it gets even lovelier after a wash.  I only used a little more than one ball so I have the larger part of the second ball left to make a hat for a small person.  Hmm, now which pattern to choose.....


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