May 2012 #1 - CottonTails

Or more appropriately this should posting should be titled a "Tale of two Tails". Get it? Well, let me tell you my tale.  It started with a hat. Not that that should surprise you. You are probably more surprised by the fact that it has actually been more than a month since I last posted a finished hat. Unfortunately my personal life has been in a bit of a turmoil with some family health issues that kept us rather busy, hat making got pushed to the side a bit. This particular hat was to be knit flat, and I really don't like to seam hats, so I tried to adapt the pattern to knit in the round. That wasn't working out so well, so after about three inches or so, I ripped it out and started over, I figured, why not I would be a good girl and follow the pattern. After all I love the softness of the yarn, but man was it splitty.

Soooo, I got to thinking, and I decided to prove to myself that, yes, this hat could be made in the round. I picked out another yarn and casted on. What was I thinking? I picked out bamboo! Talk about splitty yarn. This was worse than the cotton, and it stretches too. So I figured I better add in a nice solid cotton to help contain some of the stretch. Hence the white stripe. What I like about the second hat was that it was easy enough to flip the pattern around to compensate for knitting in the round and I didn't have to seam anything. It's a bit bigger than hat #1, but I'm OK with that.

The pattern is CottonTail Rib and Stripes Cap. For hat #1, I used CottonTail by Jil Eaton in Orangini and Pink on a size 8 16" circular needle (used as a straight needle). For hat #2, I used BAM BOO by Classic Elite Yarns in Citrine and I think the white might be Sugar'n Cream by Lily, (but I can't be certain as it was some unmarked stash yarn) on a size 8 16" circular needle and a set of size 8 dpns. Stitches used are knit, purl, k2tog, and p2tog. I choose not to knit the i-cord for the top because I could not make it look right. As it turns out the hat is more teen size than child size, so I think no i-cord is better.

And in case you were wondering why this is only considered hat #1, I used the same pattern for both, so I won't count the second hat.  I guess it is more appropriate to say I'm counting how many patterns I make each month rather than how many hats I make.