I finished the hat I’ve been knitting. It’s really warm, though I won’t know that for absolutely certain until I try wearing it outdoors on a cold, windy day. The half-ribby hat I made last year is good most of the time, but two weeks ago it didn’t quite cut it in the wind.
This one has two layers over my ears, whereas the other has just one, and this one is heavier yarn to boot. I started with Bartlett Mills fisherman yarn, aran weight, for the outside of the cuff, and switched to the Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed wool-silk-cashmere blend (that I blithely picked up and took to the checkout counter without looking at the price! oof) for the inside. And wow is that soft! It doesn’t have great stitch definition, but I know the hat is cabled, and I don’t really care if that’s not obvious from a distance. I have lots of the Jo Sharp left over from two balls I bought (though I did get well into the second) and I’m a little sorry I didn’t make the whole thing out of it. I started with 108 stitches on number 7 needles, cast on with the Maine cast-on from um, is it Robin Hansen’s book Favorite Mittens. Because I haven’t started anything except those Fair Isle mittens in a while, and (oh no) I forgot how to cast on, and that was the only book I had handy with instructions for casting on. Of course, I could have looked at the internet, but I went for a book first.
