Knitting Project #25: Guageless Hat #106

I have been in a knitting slump lately. It seems like anything I cast on needs to be frogged out. I cast on a new pair of socks only to rip them out twice. I will assume that I wasn't doing something right with the pattern (Sensational Knitted Socks, Openwork Rib). I decided to switch to a different pattern (Waffle Rib), but I haven't cast on yet. Too frustrated.

So I did a couple of dishcloths to use up some leftover skeins and went out and bought 6 more skeins to have on hand. The cotton skeins don't take up much space, dishcloths are so easy to do, and they are great for small portable projects. The two ended up in the Husband's Dad's wife holiday gift basket.

And so it was I cast on a new hat for the nephew Finny. First go around didn't go so well, and yup, I had to rip it out. I actually ended up throwing part of it away. I stared with #4 metal dps and it was too slippery for the Cascade yarn that I was using. Plus the increases just didn't look good. That was on the drive down to Marshall.



So on the drive to Fergus I cast on again using my #4 wooden dps and it went much better. However, I still am not entirely pleased with this pattern. It's supposed to be super simple (hence "gaugeless"), and maybe it's my inexperience reading and translating knitting patterns, but I've sure spent a lot to time reading and re-reading the directions. To shorten this tale, somewhere I was supposed to have a 110 stitches for an "adult" hat and I ended up with 140. I decided not to rip out again - I'm just going to deal with it as it is.

But I have enough yarn to do a second hat, and now that I've finished one I'll vary the stripe pattern and do it again.