Hats for a Friends

I made these two hats over the past month for the friends you see wearing them.
Both hats are Madeline Tosh merino.  As previously noted, I don't love knitting with this stuff, it splits easily and doesn't feel so good on my hands while knitting  but it has a lovely color variegation and ultimately makes a really nice hat.
And, if I haven't said it before, I really like making hats for other people.

Miss Babs' Kunlun for the Boy!

I picked up a skein of Miss Babs' Kunlun yarn at Rhinebeck two years ago and finally got around to using it a few months ago.  I did a pretty simple little hat, but this was the first time I tried a waste-yarn cast-on and tubular bottom hem.  I really like the stretchyness and the softness of the bottom edge but I'm not sure I love the look of the rolled bottom edge.  It loses the clean smooth finish, but I'll definitely do it again when called for.

And, here I am in my first knit hat with my boy in the first hat I knit for him.  

Twelfth Hat

Since the Wretch gifted the other one he made from this yarn, he had to make himself a new one.  Sadly, it is a little tight on the Wretch's wretched melon.  The wide rib on the upper section came out surprisingly well.

[PHOTOS TO COME]

Time to stop counting hats hat

The Wretch is absolutely convinced that no amount of swatching will ever produce accurate measurements.  Instead, he just starts knitting and if it seems too big he frogs it and if it seems to small he imagines he will gift it to a child someday.  It is an inefficient approach but it works for the Wretch.

I made this with the exact same number of stitches and on the exact same needles as the twelfth hat, but it came out much larger.  This surprised me, but it is fine since the twelfth hat was too tight.

I used Purl Soho's "line weight" merino yarn.  It is a great weight and nice to knit with and very soft, although something I was doing (or something I did when winding it) made it extra twisty so that my slack yarn would curl up and when I knit one side of each knit stitch came out tight and straight. Strange but cool looking.

Satisfaction level: High!

Eleventh Hat

This lovely but small hat is made of leftovers from hat number 10 and a skein of brown Karabella Margritte. 

I tried to do vertical stripes. It ain't easy. 

It feels wonderful and the karabella is nice and springy.

Tenth (maybe?)

I have lost count but this is my favorite hat in quite a while. It is a fingering weight cashmere - I don't know the brand but I love how it knits and feels. 

I did all my decrease stitches as purls thinking it would look like a ribbed decrease but it just looks a little puckered instead. Still, I am very happy with how the decrease worked out. 

I lost my first hat somewhere between Paris and New York so I made this one for myself then realized it belongs on my best friend's head. Hooray for another hat finding its head.

Seventh Hat

I like doing the braided cable, but I could never remember how many stitches since the last cross from the other side and I'm not so good at counting.  Still it came out well.
You can't see it in the pic, but there are a total of six cables - three braided and three doubles with a simple repeating right to left cross - alternating around the hat.
Yarn:  Madelinetosh Worsted DK - French Grey
Same comments on Tosh worsted.  Looks beautiful on the skein, but the hand isn't so luxurious as I hoped.
It looks good though.  We'll see how it wears/pills.