On the fabulousness of hats

So I didn’t manage to get this out by the weekend like I had hoped, but I am getting it out to you now.

As I mentioned in my little post before, I am started back at University now. For Sarah, who asked, I am at the University of Sheffield in Yorkshire in the UK. I am studying for a master’s degree in Librarianship (which is why I have been volunteering for the past year at my local library) and the course should take a year to complete. It does mean that I am going to have a huge amount of work going on, I will have lots of studying to do while also keeping my part time job so my knitting time may be reduced a bit, but I do have an hours commute each morning I am there so when I don’t have an essay to draft I am sure I will be sat with my needles clicking away!

So, onto the knitting, I feel a bit bad because the WIP I showed you in my last post isn’t completed yet like I had hoped it would be. In case you hadn’t realised it is the pattern Hermione Loves Ron, which is a cable and eyelet detail beanie style hat based on a hat that Emma Watson wore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If you remember the scene (cursed Katie) then I am also hoping to be able to knit myself the scarf she wears too once I have mastered Fair Isle. At the moment the hat is just going into it’s fourth chart repeat (the above photo was just after the first repeat), after that comes the decreases and then it will be done. If I am not too tired tonight I think it might be finished then.

The pattern calls for a sport weight yarn, and originally I was going to knit it in some Blue Sky Alpaca yarn I had seen and liked the look of but since then in order to keep costs down I had switched to some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a almost silvery grey colour. I might still make the hat in the Alpaca at some point but for now I am happy with the way it looks and feels.
I like the needle sizes suggested, though I am having problems with my 3.75mm interchangeable needles, I have had a couple of Knit Pro ones where the screw teeth are either too tight or too loose after hardly any use and this is one of the pairs so I may have to get some new ones it it gets too annoying. I would hate to lose a whole hat just because my needle came undone.

While I haven’t managed to finish this particular hat, I have managed to finish another one. I knit it for the HPKCHC using the yarn I had left over from my Mum’s French Press Slippers, some Cascade 220 in chocolate. The Pattern is the Robin’s Egg Blue Hat, though mine is obviously not blue. The challenge was to knit something that used a button in the pattern; it couldn’t be a button that you simply added on, it had to be written within the pattern, and I chose a lovely vintage one that I got from Hemswell on that massive button haul over the summer.

I like this hat, and my sister (who is modelling it here) has requested one for Christmas so It will definitely be knit again soon. The yarn is held double for the stockinette portion of the hat and single stranded for the seed stitch band. I knitted both on circular needles for ease as I find it most comfortable though I do think I may have to order some new smaller sized cables.

In other HPKCHC news, I was part of the exploding snap last month and I had a list of WIP's I wanted to sort out. One of them was my Bella's mittens in pink, which if you remember I only managed to finish one before I lost interest. Well I tried to re-knit and I still had no interest, so they jumped into the frog pond.

I am staying positive about them because I now have some yarn I can use to whip up a little something for my cousin if I want who is nearly 3 years old now. Possibly something Peppa Pig related!

I am sad to say that I haven't made much progress on my Marina shawl, again crazy working hours and sorting out the Uni thing have really eaten my time up so I haven't had the chance to sit and knit something which takes concentration, and as my first detailed lace shawl Marina definitely fits that category. Hopefully once things settle a bit and I go back to a smaller contract at work I will have some chill time to actually finish it!

I hope everyone is doing well, I shall hopefully update later this week with a completed hat, perfect for the miserable weather at the moment :)