Where did you get that hat?

Many years ago, when acrylic yarn was always pretty horrible but it was the only thing I could afford to knit with, I designed and knitted a V-necked slipover using the traditional Irish cable pattern "Homes of Donegal".

Fast forward a few decades. I've put on quite a bit of weight (and I really needed to do that, because I was far too thin in my 20s and 30s), so even if I still had the slipover and it was still in decent condition, it wouldn't fit. Meanwhile, the yarn spinners have been very busy, and they've worked out how to make acrylic yarn that doesn't pill the moment it comes off the needles... but it's still cheap. So now I'm very happy to knit with acrylic, and I still really like "Homes of Donegal". And one day I thought... you know, that cable would make a great hat.

Designing a hat isn't remotely like designing a jumper or anything related; at least, it isn't for me. For a jumper I'll work a tension swatch, possibly more than one if I'm using several cables plus a filler stitch, then work out the shapes of the pieces almost like a sewing pattern and do the maths to find out how many stitches of what sort I'm going to need where. For a hat... all right, I'm going to start with the tension swatch, since it's always advisable; but after that, I'm pretty much going to busk it.

This hat is worked in the round, and I'm pretty pleased with myself that you can't see the junction where a new round starts; it's hidden in the cabling, sometimes with the odd little trick (on some rows I might have to increase on one side of the junction and make a corresponding decrease on the other). Having worked out how many stitches I was going to need for the pattern (to be precise, that's two numbers, as it comes in two sizes which I call Medium and Large), I then had to start with the ribbing, and I realised that the ribbing wasn't going to sit nicely with the main pattern unless I did another little trick. So, if you look closely, you can see that I've worked two stitches together on the last row of the ribbing just under where the cables are on the first row of the main pattern, and balanced that with an increase halfway between. You end up with the same number of stitches, but they just align better once you start the main pattern.

The decreases for shaping the top of the hat are also all hidden in the cabling; they all involve working a stitch at the edge of one of the diamond panels into the cable next to it. This particular incarnation is worked in Deramores Studio Aran, and I had plenty, so I made the scarf to go with it. As there's more room on a scarf, I made the feature pattern larger, so each diamond-shaped enclosure has nine "homes" in it rather than four. (You can, of course, use any square number.) The "homes" look slightly complicated, but they're not; you start them off by working five stitches into a single stitch (knit, wrap, knit, wrap, knit) as if you were going to make a bobble, you work a couple of rows straight, and then you progressively decrease till you're back to one stitch. The bobbles on the scarf are started in just the same way, but for a bobble you turn, work a tiny row on the stitches you've just made, turn again, work back, and then slip the four right-hand stitches in turn over the left-hand stitch, so again you're back to one stitch - you're just doing it all on one row, as it were.

I have made quite a few of these for various family members and friends; the next one is going to be for my ancient mother, whom I have finally (I'm delighted to say) talked into accepting some knitting. I have not made one for Athos because he just wouldn't wear it, but I have for both Porthos and d'Artagnan. The latter is a cyclist (and when I say he's a cyclist, I really mean it; he's a few years older than I am, and is still perfectly happy to cycle the breadth of southern England to sing in a music festival, then cycle back afterwards), and he's not a big chap so it's important that he is visible on the road. Not being able to lay my hands on an actual luminous aran, I did the best I could and knitted it in a very bright yellow. Porthos is very fond of purple, so obviously I made his hat that colour; when I gave it to him, he said it was a great hat but what it really needed was a pom-pom. And, sure enough, less than a week later, he sent me a photo of himself looking very cheerful, wearing the hat, to which had been added a massive pom-pom... plus a matching scarf! (It was just Irish moss stitch, not cable, but still, the fact that it had been knitted in such a short time was most impressive, especially considering the yarn has to be ordered online and can't be bought in the shops. For the curious, it's Paintbox regular DK.) The person responsible for this transformation was Porthos' mother, who is a most enterprising old lady; she looked at the ball band with the washing instructions, tracked down the yarn, and set to work. Well, if I ever knit him another one I'll know to add a pom-pom myself. 😃

Next up: that knitted jacket in very nearly the same colour (but, in fact, a totally different yarn). That's not one of my designs. Stay tuned!