An Irish Hat

My Christmas knitting projects are all over and done. I managed to knit a hat for both my son and my daughter-in-law, a pair of socks for both Jack and Mickey, a pair of pants for little Marty, and three pairs of fingerless mitts. Of course, because I waited and did them all at the last minute, I didn't get good pictures of any of them. It was dark and rainy and I had to get them wrapped, so all that "work" is undocumented! (What did we do before Ravelry and blogs?) In any event, I decided to just knit something for myself. I like hats with brims and they are so hard to find. Most of them have to either be felted or they're so ugly, you wouldn't wear them anyway. Roxi of Lamb's Ear Farm posted a picture on the knitlist of this new hat she had designed. I immediately wrote and asked (okay, begged...) her to let me know when it was available as it was just what I wanted!

It's called the "Limerick Hat" and although it's not posted on the website yet, you can still order it. I used Cascade 220 Heather in Turtle Green. I decided it was time to really start using up my stash, so I'm trying not to buy any more yarn unless I absolutely need it. Yeah, right. I figure that resolution ought to last for at least another week or two!

The hat is knit in three steps. You knit the brim, which is folded, then you knit the cable band and seam it. Once that's done, you pick up the stitches along one side and knit the top. I altered the directions because it was too peaked for my taste. I omitted the plain knit rounds in between the decrease rounds for the last five rows. It lays flatter and looks more like a traditional hat. Finally, you have to sew the brim to the other side of the cabled band. It wasn't too difficult, but I also had to make the cable band a little shorter to fit the brim, otherwise, there would have been tons of ease to try to work in. It's not a fast knit, meaning that it took me two nights, instead of one, but it's relatively easy.

I would have posted a picture of me actually wearing the hat, but I didn't want to frighten any of you away, besides, my camera has been acting up and I didn't want to have it die altogether from the shock of seeing me actually in a picture!