Using #3 16” Addi circs and Destiny circs

When I started the ribbed brim I was running out of room on the Addi circs, so I swtiched to my Destiny circs which are longer - made it sooooo much easier to manage. I think I was supposed to pick up the stitches with the slipped stitches showing on the right side, but I did it with them hidden on the wrong side. I could have corrected it, but there were a couple places where I had forgotten to slip the first stitch, so it looked a bit messy - all the better it stays hidden. I initially tried binding off the ribbed border with JSSBO, but it turned out looking too ruffly so I re-did it using a regular knitted BO in pattern using #5 needles instead. It still turned out a tad curly on the corners, so next time I could start and finish with the regular needle size to tighten up the corners and do the majority of the middle of the BO with 2 needle sizes larger to maintain the stretchiness of the ribbing.

This was by far the biggest pain-in-the-ass project of the Ravellenics roster. I thought it would be my favorite since I loved swatching with the yarn so much, but the gauge was just too tight to be enjoyable. It was on-gauge for the pattern, but it seemed too dense for the yarn. If I use this yarn again for this pattern I think I would try modifying it to fit a looser gauge. The large gauge would probably be too large for DK yarn, but I could swatch it and see what it looks like…

In addition to angering my hands, I was constantly plagued with doubts about how it was knitting up. The fabric seemed too thick and I didn’t think it would drape right. The crown was knitted flat and was too wide for my 16” circs and I constantly had to wrestle it to keep stitches from jumping off the needles. The crown also looked too wide for my head and I feared it would end up looking baggy instead of slouchy. I also had doubts it would fit around my head as it looked WAAAAY too big once it was off the needles and I didn’t think gathering the side would be enough to offset that big of a size difference. I was also still ambivalent about the use of pom-poms. They normally seem so tacky, but the photo makes them look so stylish, but I don’t know if I could pull them off, blah, blah, self doubt.

Once I got it off the needles, fearing the fabric felt too stiff I tried wet-blocking it by letting it dry on the glass head that is about an inch smaller in circumference than my own head. The doubly-thick casing took forever to dry, so it too ended up on my bed in front of the fan

The pom-poms were surprisingly fun to make and I am unnaturally proud of how perfect they turned out! If one is going to make pom-poms, using silky hand-dyed yarn infinately increases the class factor. Those pom-poms are PERFECT.

Up until I attached the pom-poms I was ready to declare this hat a failure, but once I cinched that side shut and stuck it on my head I was shocked to find a freakin’ adorable hat had emerged from that pile of ugh. It’s not baggy, it’s slouchy. The band fits perfectly and isn’t too big for my head. I CAN pull off pom-poms if they are perfect little balls of Kim-yarn fuzz. The fabric could stand to be a bit more drapey, but it doesn’t look or feel nearly as stiff as I made it out to be in my head. I still think I would re-gauge in the future to better suit this yarn (and my hands), but I’m declaring this particular hat a success.

132g left