3.5 hour hat

Recently, Ryan misplaced his Cousteau hat that I made him last winter. He felt very bad and was very grumpy when he realized it had gone missing. I maintain that it is somewhere hiding in my tremendously messy apartment (no time for cleaning until after finals) but he's convinced that it's gone for good. Since we've been having sub-freezing temperatures on a regular basis here, I decided that until it turns up, he needed a replacement to keep his ears warm.





This is Close Knit Waffle Hat by by Leah Bandstra. The pattern is free and can be found by following that link. The pattern calls for bulky yarn and size 10 needles so it knits up very quickly, 3.5 hours in one night for me (while carrying on conversation and watching TV.) The pattern has a short and long option, and I chose to make the long because I prefer hats that completely cover my ears (probably should have consulted Ryan's preferences rather than my own, but he hasn't said anything about it's length and this way I can borrow it if need be...)



The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Bulky in the color Hawk which was leftover from the blanket I'm making for Ryan. It is a 100% superwash wool. I love this yarn, it's so soft and squooshy. It does have ugly matted joins maybe once a hank though... I wish they would just tie knots instead of trying to do felted joins on superwash yarn, but at least they can be easily cut out and there's never more than one per hank.



Ryan does wear this, but he did inform me that it's "borderline girly." I never would have thought that a gray beanie would seem particularly girly, but I've been told that the texture of the hat seems to make it less manly... I showed him a picture of a cabled hat and he told me that it was "girly" as well, so I think he's adverse to pretty much all texture other than plain ribbing. If the Cousteau hat doesn't turn up in the post finals cleaning I'll cast on a new one (in gray again...) so that Ryan can have a hat he's truly happy with rather than one that just meets the minimum requirements of being warm (and gray.)