top down hat

top down hat…detail

I made just the top of this hat a couple of weeks ago so I could demonstrate the i-cord rose that I like to use (see Technique: I-cord rose (aka go big or go home)).  I only had the crown of the hat, so I picked up from the original cast on and built the hat downwards from there.  Unfortunately, I had only a few feet of yarn left of the variegated I had made the rose with…not even enough for one row more so I couldn’t reintroduce it further down for balance.  I think it is ok anyway.

In order to keep things consistent, I cast everything off and picked up all the stitches again twice further down the hat, once at each place I changed patterns.  I used Patons Classic Wool, yet again.  I always use a 4 1/2 mm needle with this yarn,  For the cast off, I wanted it loose to match the tension on the cast on edge near the crown, so I went up to a 7 mm just for the middle cast off.  Looking at this line,  I thought it could be even looser, so for the final cast off, closest to the ribbing, I used an 8 mm needle. I think I will go with 8 mm in future if I do this again.