Another hat trick

Continuing with the theme of selfish knitting, I completed three hats in the month of January and they are all for me. The first hat is a practical one; I needed a hat that will stay put on my head while I am shoveling snow or tramping around the woods on snowshoes. When design team Tin Can Knits offered a free pattern, I was immediately smitten with the Hunter hat. I chose Berroco Vintage, a superwash wool, so I can toss it in the dryer without worry, and decided to use two contrasting colors:

I liked the pattern and the cables, but it turned out far more pointed or “elfy” than I really like. Either I misread the pattern or I would find a way to minimize the pointiness if I knit the pattern again. But I guess some humor is always welcome when shoveling snow!

The next hat was knit to match my brown coats. I had been drooling over Madelinetosh yarn in the Glazed Pecan colorway and a new hat was a good excuse to use it:

How I love the Tosh yarn - the color, the feel, the richness. The pattern is the Slouchy Beehive Hat by Flora Cheung, and the alternating sections of knits and purls made it a great project for watching college football bowl games.

The last hat is pure folly and frivolity. The Easy Slouch Hat was either featured in a Facebook post by Jimmy Beans Wool or one of their newsletters, and I immediately thought it would be fun to knit in a yarn with a metallic thread in it. Then I took it one step further and thought "Sequins! It needs sequined yarn!" I found Universal Yarn's Classic Shades Sequins Lite and bought it in the Primrose colorway.

The pattern was very easy but still interesting enough to hold my interest. This was my first time knitting with sequined yarn and it was much easier than I anticipated. Soon I had a sparkly hat:

I adore this hat! It is just what I wanted, a hat that is not necessarily practical but fun, sparkly and colorful. I wore the hat yesterday while out and about, and three women at the library made a big fuss over it, wanting to know where I got it. When I told them I knit it, they were even more impressed. It was nice to have my work noticed, and their compliments along with the sequins helped to lift my spirits.