The Winter 2004 Knitter's arrived on a cold snowy day in very late November. While I was scowling through the magazine, I spotted a pattern for a helmet hat.
Ugly? Yes. Warm? Yes.
Perfect for walking the dogs on this snowy path. Plus, it looked interesting to knit and I happened to have a container of left over Lopi from making CIC vests.
Some of the Lopi even matches my new Squall Parka from Land's End.
Many times when a pattern strikes my fancy the urge to knit it fades rapidly after I look at the picture more closely. This was just a simple, quick to knit hat so I didn't study the Knitter's picture too long.
If I would have looked at the picture with a more critical eye, I would have noticed that the hat is very large on what appears to be a woman with a normal size head.
Since I have a small head, I went down a needle size and cast on without swatching. (Not swatching on small projects is a bad habit of mine that I am uninspired to change.)
The hat still turned out too big for my head.
The helmet knit up fast. The modular knitting was different and fun - until it was time to weave in all the ends.
Hint: When joining yarn for a new triangle, take time to figure out which stitches need to be picked up in order for the new triangle to end in the right place. Or frog like I did.
Only had to frog once before I figured it out.
The extra knitting probably didn't take any longer than trying to calculate the best joining stitch from reading the pattern.
Yes, that does mean that the pattern could have been more helpful. I wouldn't want to be a new knitter and try to knit this helmet with the minimal instructions given for joining the triangles.
The helmet hasn't been washed and blocked yet because it's cold outside and I've been wearing it several times a day when I take the dogs out for a walk.
I'm having dangerous thoughts about trying to shrink it a little. Shrinking is an exercise at which I've never been successful.
I could knit a swatch and see how it felts/shrinks. But then I would have to think about how if I only would have measured my head and knit a swatch in the first place, I might have a helmet that fit better without the extra fuss.
There's a pattern somewhere in an old Knitter's of a helmet hat that covers the entire neck and rests on the shoulders. I remember it being much more ugly than this one, but it might be warmer. Maybe I'll just find that pattern and knit a second helmet instead of knitting an after-the-fact swatch.
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2 comments:
Call me crazy, but I think it's cute and not all that big. I'd leave it alone. It's certainly good enough for walking the dogs. I envy your snow, well a little. I don't envy shoveling it. Here in Washington we just get rain, rain and more rain. Dorothy
Thanks Dorothy. But now I have more to confess. I folded a terry washcloth into quarters and put it on top of my head before putting the helmet hat on for the pictures. The washcloth held the top in shape so the hat looks like it fits much better than it really does.
The final test will be when we get a day with a brisk cold wind. If my ears stay warm, I will be happy with it.
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