My Weekend Knit...

After I blogged about my Tulisa Beanie I  did a quick Ravelry search on my iPhone to find a new project. I wanted an instant gratification knit, and I found that with the Ribby Slouch Hat by Naomi Adams. This time last year, my Nan gave me two skeins of Rowan Colourscape Chunky. It is a variegated yarn, and the colourway is not something I would personally choose. It is a 100% wool yarn, making it the perfect yarn to use for a winter hat. It is a little scratchy when knitting, and like cassiewu, I found hay/grass woven into the yarn, and had to continually pick it out. 

I loved knitting the massive brim, and will definitely think about including it in the new pattern I'm conjuring up (as well as the colourscape chunky yarn...). I found the brim was finished in about half an hour - 45 minutes. Not too shabby, eh? The body of the hat also knitted up really quickly (even though I had to drop to 8mm circs as I didn't own 9mm that the pattern requires), although I did find it a little short, I think if I were to knit the pattern again I would perhaps do a half repeat of the body, just to make it that bit longer. 

When it came to the decreasing, I found the rib pattern was no longer lining up. I popped my knitting down and did a bit of research on how other knitters solved this problem (I did this by going onto the pattern's project gallery, and reading the notes of different projects). I came across yarnvista, who solved this problem like so:

"I adjusted the decrease rounds to make the ribbing line up:
After odd decrease rounds I purled over the decreased stitch.
It gets eaten on the next decrease round and the ribbing stays true."

Thank you, thank yarnvista, you saved the day. I got to round 13 of the decrease, and found I needed to switch to DPNs. Only problem was, I didn't have 8mm DPNs. So, I cut the yarn, passed it through the remaining stiches, gave it a good tug, and ta da! A beanie completed in just under 3 hours. 

Rizzle kindly sat for another photo shoot - thank you Rizzle!

We can never do a photoshoot without a few silly snaps...

I hated the colourway originally, but now it is knitted up I'm quite a fan of it! The hat only used up half a skein, so I have another 1 1/2 skeins to play with... oooh the temptation!

I've already casted on another beanie (I'm obsessed I tell you, obsessssssssssssssed!), but you'll have to wait   'til next week to see it ;)