April 2014 #1 - Robin's Egg

After what has seemed like the winter that has not wanted to end, spring has finally arrived. I have seen my first robin of the season and I can only imagine that their nests are being readied to accept the distinctive blue eggs. The pattern called for a chunky yarn and larger sized needle. However, warmer weather, calls for a lighter weight cotton so I simply adjusted my needles accordingly. What I didn't do was adjust the number of stitches to cast on since I was using a lighter weight yarn. I thought about it, actually did cast on more, but then it just looked like so many that I ripped it back and started over casting on the 60 the pattern called for. What was I thinking? Apparently I had been making too many baby hats recently so the adult sized cast on looked huge in comparison.

The pattern, Bargello Hat, is no longer available (unless you speak French). I used two cottons, the solid is I Love This Cotton in Aqua and the variegated is Universal Yarn Inc. Cotton Supremem Batik in Watermelon on a size 8 16" circular needle and a set of 8 dpns. Stitches used are knit, purl, and k2tog. The pattern is written to be knit flat and seamed but I prefer knitting in-the-round. The necessarily adjustments were easy enough to make as the hat is simple four rounds knit, four rounds purl. I usually work from my iPad, but instead printed a copy of the pattern and then made note of the round changes when shaping the top.

The pattern worked up quickly,even with all the yarn changes, and I plan to make another, adult sized in the near future.