Good golly, it's winter

Although the weather has turned colder and we've had a few small snowfalls, I am still trying to get in power walks around the village. As long as I'm bundled up properly, the cold doesn't bother me much and I usually work up a sweat by the time I am done. But one recent day, it was very windy and the cute sparkly beret I was wearing almost went airborne, more than once. I soon realized that I needed a hat that would hug my head better so I set about to find a cute hat pattern.

I don't know that anyone has noticed, but it has been quite some time since I talked about knitting. I've been knitting, but not with much enthusiasm. I will knit a few rows on a project then ignore it for days, even weeks. There is one project that hasn't seen the light of day in months but I'm not sure that I want to frog it. Using the yarn I received in the Top Chef pool, I cast on a kerchief and while I really like the way it looks, I've still been rather fickle in the attention I have paid to it. A hat is just the thing to ignite knitting fervor. It is quick enough that it almost provides instant gratification; for slow knitters like me, it still may take a month but at least at the end of the month, I have a new hat.

After perusing the many hat patterns on Ravelry, I found Molly by Erin Ruth. I liked that it is slouchy without being a beret, that there is texture in the body and that it has a frivolously fat single cable that runs from the ribbed edge to the top. I chose Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lana D'Oro yarn, which is 50% superfine alpaca and 50% Peruvian Highland wool. I wanted a colorway that would complement many different colors and ended up choosing a dark grey and medium grey twist that is quite similar to the color shown on the pattern.

The pattern is well written and easy to follow but has one small potential hiccup: the body is a three row pattern combined with an eight row cable pattern. To eliminate confusion, I did a quick Excel spreadsheet to show which cable row I needed for each regular row. Since the pattern was free, I didn't mind doing the extra work and after that, it was easy peasy.

Ta da! I now have a new, cute, snug-but-not-too-snug hat:

Despite fleshing out the cable repeat, one or two of the cables ended up a bit wonky so this photo is as close-up as I will show:

If I knit the pattern again - and I just might - I am going to try one needle size smaller and maybe eliminating a few rows so it won't be quite as slouchy. I have some lovely Dream in Color Classy in a gorgeous purple that would show off that cable. Of course, I would pay more attention and not let the cables turn out wonky!