Ever since I decided that my first attempt at this beret didn’t look as good as it could due to pooling/mottling in the yarn, I’ve been meaning to unravel it and try again with stripes. It’s March, and I’m unlikely to need a hat again until the last couple months of the year, but the mood struck me.

I’m using the yarn from my first attempt (hand-dyed Fishermen’s Wool) and some over-dyed I Love This Wool (that started out as Stonewash Brown and turned out a bit like camo).

March 14th--
Argh! After figuring out i-cord, reteaching myself how to knit magic loop (which required a re-start after I messed it up the first time), and spending too much time reading up/watching videos about jog-less stripes, etc. (and debating with myself whether to go with 1- or 2-round stripes), I was making slow progress when it suddenly occurred to me that I was using the wrong size needle. I’d started with the smaller needle size-- the one intended for the brim of the hat.

SIGH. I’ve ripped out my tiny bit of hard-won work. I guess I’ll take a break before I try again. There looked to be laddering at one of the gaps, anyway, though that may have been minimal enough to even out with blocking.

This project is taking its own sweet time getting going.

August 14th--
Well, after putting this one into hibernation for most of the year, I’ve decided that it’s time to finally conquer the beast. ;o)

I find that I didn’t leave myself very helpful notes, so I’m mostly starting from scratch. (Good work, Past Me!)

I found this tutorial helpful for making an i-cord with a circular needle (because I don’t have any dpn’s). I knitted the icord (5 or 6 stitches tall) with size 7 needles to keep it small and cute, but I’m changing the tips up to size 10 before starting the rest of the hat.

August 15th--
AUGH! The jogless two-row stripes I was trying are… meh. I think I’d do better to practice them in a setting where I’m not having to pick up the extra loop (or whatever) from a f&b stitch in the previous round. (Grr. Bad planning.) SO. I’m going to rip it back AGAIN and do one-row stripes. If it’s good enough for the pattern designer, it’s good enough for me. If there’s jogging, so be it.

I love knitting this once it’s going properly, but the first 10 rounds or so are annoying, mostly because the stitch markers catch and the magic loop makes it difficult to get the stitches back onto the needles, when there are so few of them.

Later--
Worked the i-cord bit as before.

Knitted the first three rounds before introducing the second yarn/colorway.

Worked the alternating increase rounds until there were 15 sts between markers.

Decreased more than I “should” have, according to the pattern. It just felt like it needed it. So I decreased until there were 9 sts between the markers.

Worked the 1x1 rib brim in one color only. (Still not sure if I love it. Maybe I should’ve kept alternating colors-- but I’m NOT ripping it out.)

Started binding off with a plain bind-off, but thought it seemed too tight, so I tinked it. Trying to decide what bind-off to use instead…

GRAHHHHHH. UNGH. :o( After researching a few bind-offs and trying a couple of different needle sizes, I went up to a size 10 and bound off in “in pattern” (k1p1), fondly hoping that all would be well. Um, NO. It doesn’t fit my oversized noggin. So. Now I get to undo the bind-off again… and I don’t know what I’ll do next. Should I try the surprisingly stretchy bind-off? Should I figure that I must’ve decreased too much and rip back? I’m not sure what I’ll do. This hat pattern is giving me endless trouble. Why can’t I get it to work easily?! (Maybe next time I need a detailed pattern instead of a recipe.)

--Ok. Finally, finally, finally finished! I laboriously tinked back that too-tight bind-off and tried Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off on size 9 needles. And it FITS. (I know. It’s practically a miracle.)

Phew. I still love this hat recipe, but gosh. It’s taken me forever to finish this hat to my satisfaction. Next time should be easier. Maybe.