February Hat

After speed-running a fingering weight cardigan, casting on my Floozy Too, and working on an obligatory pair of socks, my hands were starting to protest my fine-gauge obsession.

I ordered some DK and Aran yarn from WEBS (aka yarn.com, aka LoveCrafts), but while they were en route, I decided to do some stash diving to bring a bit of variety to my needles.

What I came up with after fishing around for a while was two balls of Princess from Classic Elite Yarns in a rich teal color. 

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Princess in "Teal"
Weight: Worsted
Fiber: 40% Wool, 28% Viscose, 15% Nylon, 10% Cashmere, 7% Angora
Meterage: 150 yards per 50 grams, 2 balls = 300 yards total 

As you may have guessed, this is another discontinued yarn -- from a dissolved company, no less. From what I can gather, Classic Elite Yarns closed up shop in 2018, but I'm still not sure when or where I acquired this yarn. Nonetheless, it's soft and squishy and definitely not fingering weight.

Consider me sold.

Since I only had two balls of this, I decided my best bet would be a hat.

Thus began my scrolling on Ravelry. I considered a few different options. I loved the satisfying decreases on the Be Loving Hat, the Feathered Hat made me crave pom-poms in my life, and the Gwedenn Hat is a quintessential cabled classic.  

Ultimately, I decided to cast on the February Hat from Kelbourne Woolens' "Year of Hats" series. It has a folded brim, lots of texture, and a playful pom-pom on top. Plus, it's February. Wins all around.

I started with a standard longtail cast on rather than the provisional cast on called for in the pattern. After completing the brim, I picked up stitches one at a time from the cast on edge and knit them together with the live stitches to create the permanent fold. 

As I was approaching the end of the pattern, I was also approaching the end of my first ball of yarn. Rather than break into the second ball, I decided to omit the last two rows of the main chart and begin the decreases early. I finished the hat with less than one yard of yarn remaining from my first ball.

So far, I haven't made a pompom because I think I want to use the rest of the yarn in a colorwork cowl. I'll let you know what I decide, though.

If you're looking for some quick, cozy knits to pull you through the last leg of winter, have a look at the entire "Year of Hats" collection. If you have more patience than I do, the January pattern is fantastic.