Mom’s Hat (or so I thought)…

I cast on near 3AM, December 23rd (really the morning of the 24th), 2018. I figured out the size of the hat, and knew how many stitches I had to work with, so I’d designed out the lettering on graph paper (and figured out mom’s printer has built in things to print, like todo lists, sudoku puzzles, and graph paper!). I reduced letters and spacings until it fit, with enough left over for some space between the last and first letters, so they wouldn’t run together, because the name stretched around the entire hat in this super bulky yarn.

I decided to knit the banner bits first, so I could control the striping above and below them, so I cut off the barberpole bit at the start of the Red Beacon yarn, and knit just with white for 2 rounds. Then I did the lettering with Pointsettia, and the white part of the Red Beacon. I needed to cut another section of candycane off and join in at the next white section to finish it up. I did 2 more rounds of white at the top, then cut off the rest of the white and let the yarn start striping from the next candycane bit. The stripes were too big, though, and wanting to get a few in, I ended up knitting too far before doing the decreases, so I frogged back to the banner, and started the decreases immediately after joining in with the candycane.

The crown done, I picked up the stitches below with some of the cutaway candycane, did a few rounds, then measured the hat, and realized I needed to switch to the rim immediately, and could only go for about 3/4”, so I switched to Pointsettia, did some 1x1 ribbing, and finished with a sewn bind off.

I gave the hat to mom, and she liked it (wasn’t thrilled - it’s a bit strange, I get it), but it was also slightly big. I decided it was my hat, and I’d make her a smaller one.

Mom’s Hat (for real this time)…

I did the same thing for my mom’s banner, but then alternated white and candycane after that for about 6 rounds, and finished off the hat in Pointsettia. Then I picked up below the banner with candycane for 4 or 5 rounds, and switched to Pointsettia for about an inch of 1x1 ribbing, followed by a sewn bind off.

Conclusion

Mom took to the hats more once she saw both of them, and with light prodding, she agreed to wear them at Dollywood. Once we had them on there, I think she really liked them, and it was nice to be warm, because it was in the 40s. We got a lot of looks, but no one asked us about them, as I’d expected. I thought at least one lady would ask “Where did you two buy those?” but alas, no.