Man Hat

Man, I'm actually doing pretty good with this whole "updating" business. Three days in a row! Go me! The project I am sharing with you today was meant to be a Valentine's Day gift, but it was late... Only by 4 days... That's not over the "bad girlfriend" line is it? Maybe if a purchased gift were 4 days late, but a knit gift? I think I get some wiggle room. Right?

Ryan was wearing this terrible beanie. I'm sure he thought it was fine, but from a knitter's perspective, it was terrible. First, it was acrylic. I have nothing against acrylic for some projects, I believe it has its uses and I use it for projects myself. However, a winter hat, for a native Californian who is used to 60 degree winters, needs to be wool. Second, it had seams, not just one seam up the back, seams all around the crown as well, and not nice knit seams, serger seams. Yeah. Third, it had pilled so badly that it looked pretty shabby. I decided to take action. The result:





The Jacques Cousteau Hat by Lalla Pohjanpalo. The yarn I used was Lana Grossa Cool Wool Big in a gray manly-type color sure to be acceptable. The yarn is fantastic. It's really tightly spun. Even though it is merino and therefore fantastically soft, it has not pilled. It held up to Ryan wearing it pretty much daily for about two months and then off and on as the Portland weather demanded. Ryan has expressed to me many times how much he likes it, and was pretty distraught one day when he thought he'd lost it (it was not lost, just temporarily mislaid.)



The front view make it look like it's just a simple k3p2 ribbed beanie, the top is where all the action is. This could have been knit in about 2 evenings, but law school was sucking away my life at the time, and it took me about a week. So far Ryan has been very appreciative of my crafty gifts, a very good sign. This hat is somewhat boring to knit as the majority of it is just ribbing, but it's good for a mindless stress-free knit and it has been man-approved if you need a quick gift.