squared away

Like the owl mittens, this hat has occupied much of my winter. The Rowan Scottish Tweed DK yarn was leftover from Tweed, and I impulsively cast on for this watch cap. The 2x2 ribbing made for a mindless work, and it was an easy project to pull out whenever I wanted to keep my hands busy.

I realized pretty quickly that I was not going to have enough of the slate-colored Lewis grey to finish the cap. I frantically began to search for another skein. I revisited Linden Hills Yarn where I had made the original purchase, only to find that they were out of stock. I found some from an online retailer, but when the package arrived, I realized that Rowan had changed the yarn drastically. There was no way I could finish the project with the mismatching yarn.

Late in the project, I decided to try something bold. In addition to the yarn that was almost gone, I had the other, much lighter skein that I used for Tweed's body. I tend to rely on neutral colors, especially earth tones, but lately I have begun to notice the power of contrast. It was risky to introduce a second color at the end of the project. Thankfully, I had recently listened to an older episode of the Cast On podcast that featured an essay about the Fibonacci sequence. Finding inspiration, I invoked Fibonacci to begin my sripe pattern, and ended with a solid field of the very pale grey.

Overall, I am very pleased with how the cap turned out. The only change I would have made was beginning to decrease every row toward the end. This would have minimized the pointy peak on top. The hat fits tightly, though, so the peak tends to stay down.

Next up - hopefully a hat with matching mittens for Ginny and a dark button-up jacket or cardigan that I can wear to work.