Lucy

Were you bitten by the Lucy bug? When the Winter 2012 issue of Knitscene magazine came out this year everyone I know went absolutely gaga over the Lucy Hat by Carina Spencer. We had people calling the shop for months to order the two colors of Madelinetosh Vintage that the hat is pictured in. I succumbed and knit one straight away.

Pretty darn cute eh? A few notes about the pattern. I knit the small size and it fits the circumference of my 21" head perfectly. However, for the small size the pattern says to knit until it is 5" deep. I found this to be too shallow. I think 5.5" is much better since I like hats that cover my ears, not brush the top of them.

Also, the directions for the short rows are written confusingly. The patterns says "Knit to two stitches past the last wrapped stitch, wrap the next stitch." The designer has since made it clear that when she says "Knit to two stitches past" she doesn't intend you to knit the second stitch, you are just knitting up to it. This means you are wrapping the second stitch after your last wrapped stitch. Many people misunderstood and wrapped the third stitch. (The designer's clarification on this point was really snarky. It totally had the tone of "If you were stupid enough to misunderstand, I'll spell it out for you." That pretty much ensures I'll never pay for one of her individually downloadable patterns.)

I knit this one out of the new and absolutely luscious Madelinetosh Pashmina Worsted. It's 75% merino, 15% silk, and 10% cashmere. Because of the silk and cashmere it takes the dye a bit more muted than their pure merino lines. I used the colorway Hickory for the body of the hat and Betty Drapper's Blues for the band. 

This one was knit up as a sample for For Yarn's Sake to show off the pattern and the new yarn line. At least once a day someone takes it off the shelf and asks about the pattern or the yarn. Can you blame them? A hat this cute is pretty eye-catching.