June 2012 #3 - Carmel Bucket

I was originally going to start of telling you that this was going to be my last hat of the year. But then I thought you might get the wrong idea, especially if you are a new reader and didn't realize that my new year begins in July (basically tomorrow). So instead I'll focus on this wonderful hat, skip the drama and leave all the year-end statistics for my next posting.

Why? Because I LOVE THIS HAT! So much so I plan to actually make another for myself. And if you've read my blog for any amount of time I have never (and I mean never) made a hat for myself. In all my years of knitting, and after the hundreds of hats I've made, I've never once made one for myself. Why? Because I look positively silly in almost every hat I try on. Oh I do have a few hats. I have two summer hats to keep the sun off my face and one winter hat to keep my head warm. That's it. Neither is fancy, nor a hand knit. So needless to say I'm over the moon excited that I'll actually have a knitted hat (and my own at that) to wear. The best part is that I'll be able to make it in a wonderful cotton for summer and then a thicker acrylic for winter. (again, if you're newer to the blog you might not realize I'm allergic to wool, I can knit with it, I just can't wear it).

The pattern, A Better Bucket by Amy Swenson, is available as a Ravelry download. I used Hobby Lobby I Love This Cotton! in Taupe Ombre on a size 7 16" circular needle and a set of 7 dpns. Stitches used are knit, purl, k2tog, kfb and a provisional cast on. I used the crochet cast on method as described in Knit Speak by Adrea Berman Price. Although it was not difficult to join the original cast on edge I did find it awkward and slow (but that is just me, and my lack of practice using this particular skill, probably because I'm doing it wrong, but hey, it worked and it can't be that bad since I'm going to make another, right?).