A Hat, Maybe

    There is a ball of yarn in the stash that was destined to be my next hat, but I kept procrastinating. With a major cold snap headed towards Florida, I finally threw that yarn into a bag so I could work on it while waiting for an appointment. However, after just one round I found it to be too scratchy to be wearable. The cold front wasn't here yet, but it was already less than seventy degrees outside. No time to waste!

    A trip to the local Big Box Hell solved this problem. What do I see just around the corner? A big display of Bernat Blanket yarn! That will make a really warm hat to fight these freezing temps, right? I grabbed a ball in my favorite color, and this super-bulky yarn helped me finish my new "hat" later that night.

    I checked the recommended hook size on the label, then discovered my N/15 (10 mm) to be missing. A quick decision was made to downsize to the next size available, which ended up being a 7mm. Perhaps that's the first place where this project went a bit wrong. I'm well aware that making a hat with super-bulky yarn might be... overdoing it, but it's a project I've always wanted to try. Let's see how it went, shall we?

    My original plan was to work a hat from the top down. I tried every trick I know, but could not close the gap in the center of the circle. (I don't know how I did it when I made a blanket with the same yarn.) The temperature outside was now in the fifties and dropping, with a cold front still on the way. Never mind the magic circle, we've got to get this hat done! Giving up after half a dozen attempts, I figured this bulky yarn would work great with the pattern for the Irma Hat, which is worked from the bottom up.

    This is my favorite way to start a project when working with bulky or dark colored yarns. No fighting with finding your stitches; no struggles to stick the hook in the right place. You can learn how to create this kind of "chainless" beginning in this video, starting at 2:00. Although using the smaller-than-recommended hook size caused this beginning to be slightly more difficult than usual, it still was easier than wrestling with that magic circle.

    Okay, so I'll admit that it was an absolute pain to join into a loop. That's mostly my own fault. Instead of slip-stitching I remove the hook, insert it into the beginning space, then pull the working loop through. Using too small of a hook caused the not-a-chain to twist. A few times I lost my grip as I was working and had to straighten the whole thing out before trying again. The twisty stiffness caused by the smaller hook made it difficult to tell if I had it right in the first place. It took a few more tries (and words) to get it right.

    Next, I make the next few stitches to anchor the loop. Stop, sew the tail through to close the gap that's left from the join. (Using a slip stitch makes a weird space that doesn't match, but this join allows the loop to twist until you work the tail through.) I don't have a yarn needle with an eye big enough for this yarn. Go find a smaller hook. Come back, think it looks twisted. It is twisted. Undo. Redo. Repeat. It took me about 20 minutes to finally get it right. It only took another thirty minutes to finish the whole hat.

    That time includes working through a break in the yarn that happened in round three. It was impossible to attempt a Russian join to repair the break, so I just worked as you do when changing colors and worked over the tails. This made a really weird spot in my hat. Not only is the yarn double-thick, I missed that I made an extra chain just before the yarn broke. I bet nobody can see it in the final project, but I can feel it when I wear my hat. This problem might be amplified by that other thing that I did wrong...  

   The original hats made with Charisma yarn stretched a little after a wash and wear, so I thought it would be smart to make this one slightly smaller. The pattern for the Irma Hat is easy to adjust for size. I finished my chainless beginning when the band was tight around my head, instead of "comfortably snug". I compared it to one of my other hats as I worked. I confidently finished the project without trying it on, because I didn't want my hair stuck all over it before I got pictures.

    

    When it plopped down over the nose of my foam model, I thought I had made the hat too big. The original Irma hats had fit this thing just fine. Do foam heads shrink over time? Or is my head swelled up from all the amazing work I've been accomplishing since I got back to crocheting? (That's sarcasm if you couldn't tell.) It fits me quite tightly and I find it a bit uncomfortable to wear all day like I can with the originals.

    A wash and wear did not stretch out the Bernat Blanket version of the Irma hat. Bonus fail: I usually wear my hair in a low bun under my hat. (That's why I prefer the slouchy style.) Once I stretch this thick monstrosity over all that mess, I kind of look like Toad from Super Mario. It pulls the hat up and it bunches a bit around my ears. Really glad I didn't make it in red. Even better that I didn't make some kind of hat with a seam in the middle.

    Bonus bonus fail: I assume part of the reason my Irma hats stretch out is because I hand wash and hang them to dry. For the love of Dog, do not attempt to air dry this hat. I had to wash it again because it was still wet two days later. I rolled it in a bath towel twice. A fan blew on it for two whole days. It was hanging under a vent with the heater running for two whole days and it was still more than damp. It has to go in the dryer.

    The win? I've always wondered how warm a hat would be made with this yarn. Now I know. My part of Florida didn't see any snow, but we did get freezing temps and frost. It kept me comfortable. If you're a warm person who doesn't need an external heat source to survive anything less than 50 degrees, then you probably wouldn't like this hat.

    Bonus win: This hat is stiff enough to double as a basket. So, maybe I made a perfectly good basket and it's not a hat at all. Bonus bonus win: I still have enough of that yarn to make at least two more hats. I can find the correct hook size and try again, making a better fitting hat. The question is: Should I? It seems a bit impractical for everyday wear. But then, it's not every day that Florida has two days in a row that don't reach a high of 50 degrees. It might seem like a bit of a novelty hat, but it's the only way I survived the Ice Age.

Happy Crocheting!