FOR THE NORTH!

A while back some family friends moved all the way to the other side of the world.

After Mum went to vist them and took the lastest permutation of her hat, she decided they all needed hats of their own for Christmas.

Guess who can use DPNs as is easily bribed with Blackpool Rock and Jaffa Cakes?


*Slowly raises hand*

-.-;

With those incentives dangling before me, I put my latest pair of socks aside and sat down to the task of knitting four hats.

FOUR.

"One for Bruce, one for Allie and one each for the girls"

A nice lady hat, a manly hat and two hats that are similar-but-just-different-enough to make each girl feel special and not cause fights.

Well, there IS rock candy involved.

And Jaffa Cakes. . .

. . . CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!



First Round: The girls

I used Ashford's Tekapo 8ply in colourways that would appeal to both the girly-girl and the tomboy. Pure wool to be snuggly warm in the frozen wastes that Mum swears can be found in the UK at that time of year.

They both got the 'Boyfriend Hat' pattern, with an extra 1.5inches of 2x2 ribbing around the bottom to circumvent this pattern's tendency to become loose and floppy with long wearing.

The basic similarity of the hats should also prevent arguments over who gets which one.

Voila!

Next up: Bruce

I find the absolute dearth of patterns for blokes rather annoying. Is it somehow perceived as not "manly" for guys to knit or design things that THEY would want to\wear?!? I for one find that things male relatives buy for me, while well-intended, don't fit my taste at all. Personally I find a guy that is willing to make some of his OWN clothes the way HE wants them to be to be quite attractive ;)

Unfortunately I forgot to bookmark the pattern I used for Bruce's hat. I'm kicking myself because the decreases at the top look so awesome that I really want to make another one!

The yarn is an unidentified 10ply I leaped on at a sale before realising I already HAVE a billion hats and there wasn't really enough in the ball to make anything else.

This was pretty much how I felt upon discovering this:

So Bruce got my pretty yarn *Sniffles*

Those colours, though. It looks like a woodpile in snow. *Sniffles*



Finally: Allie

I really wanted to find her something fun and a little different. The Double Double Cloche from Mary Keenan on Ravelry looked just right. (Except the pattern broke my brain a bit to start with)

Mum knows what colours Allie likes, and she chose a gorgeous colourway of Cleckheaton's Country Tartan for her that I wanted to steal for myself.

I resisted the urge. Are you proud of me? :p

The yarn doesn't knit up to look very tartan-y, but the colours are so pretty it doesn't matter at all.

I was told that the hats got to their intended wearers just in time for the first snow of Winter 2012, and they were every bit as warm as I had hoped they would be.

Excellent!

Remember, everyone: Knit fast; Winter is coming.

(Yeah I know it's spring for me. I just wanted to say that!)

~Topaz.