FO: Wood Hollow Hat

Pattern: Wood Hollow Hat
Source: Through the Loops!
Yarn: Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool in Berries
Needle: Knit Picks Options, size 6 & 7
Started: January 6, 2010
Finished: January 11, 2010
Mods: Went up one needle size for body of hat, knit an extra cable repeat
Ravel It!

I. Love. This. Hat.

Another home run from Kirsten of Through the Loops! Every other pattern she publishes I want to knit. I think she might be responsible for 25% of my Ravelry queue right now. But can you blame me? Kirsten designs some really fabulous stuff.

This hat and I had a bit of a rocky start. I began knitting with some Cascade 220 in dark gray and just was not feeling it; the yarn felt too rough for my liking. I totally messed up the small cable pattern, knitting a twisted cable instead of the wavy cables called for. Of course, I realized it about halfway through and totally lost momentum.

When I came back around, I decided I needed new yarn and knew the perfect one. I saw the dark red color on the yarn store shelf and grabbed it up immediately. I love the depth it gives the pattern and it's SO soft. Once I got going again there was no turning back. It took me less than a week to finish the hat. I think it took me longer than that to actually photograph it!

The fit is perfect, long enough to cover my ears and not too tight. I went up a needle size for the body of the hat both to make it slightly larger, but also too keep that luscious softness of the yarn. I think that's one reason the Cascade 220 wasn't working out. I also knit an extra repeat of the cable pattern to make sure the hat fit the way I wanted. Quite a few of the hats I've knit in the past I end up making too tight because they're not long enough. I constantly pull them down trying to cover my ears and they end up squishing the top of my head. With the larger gauge and size, this hat may not keep that bitterly cold winter wind at bay quite as well, but the comfortable fit is a good trade off.