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.

Sixth Hat

This took somewhat more work (thought-wise) than the first five hats - but ultimately it seems that the skill required for cabling is more math and memory than craft. 
The size was pretty perfect except the ribbed band at the bottom was too loose so I ended up having to re-thread the needle in just above the ribbing and then snip it and separate the ribbed band and frog it and splice it and re-knit the ribbed band with a decrease of about 20 stitches - and I made the ribbed band a full inch shorter than it originally was.  Wish I had a pic of before - but I only have after.  

Yarn: Madelinetosh Worsted DK - Stormy Night (or something like that)
I like knitting with this stuff, but it isn't very tightly plied and it splits fairly easily.  The upside is that the variegated dye results in a beautiful abrash AND the yarn picks up the light differently depending on the angle of the thread, so the more movement in the pattern, the more it really jumps.
downside is that it isn't a very soft yarn.  Feels more suitable for a tank-top or something than a hat.  
Anyway, the wretch likes how it came out and can't believe he had the patience to keep it up for a whole hat.

Third and Fourth Hats

I made this one out of some extra lengths of yarn - some merino-cashmere blend and some straight merino.  Strangely, this is my favorite hat for fit - the ribbing at the bottom is tight and springy and feels great.  I want more of it - wish I knew which brand it was.

The Accursed Wretch ought to try to look happier in these pix 

And then there is this fancypants number, which is made from a bunch of different left over lengths of yarn - alpacas and merinos - crazy soft but a little ridiculous looking maybe?  Anyway, it isn't for me.  

Second Hat

Knit this on the flight home from CA.  
Yarn: Blue Sky - some sort of Alpaca / Merino blend.
Fuzzy and soft.  

First Hat

Knit this slouchy thing in Winter 2011-2012.
It has the distinction of being the first item I ever knit.
Yarn: Karabella Margritte - 80% Merino / 20% Cashmere. 
Plied.  Nice to knit.  Feels super.  Doesn't pill too much.