Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Blimmin Cool Bucket Hat

Clearly I am in denial that summer is over. I have left it to the last minute to make myself a sunhat.

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Pattern: A Better Bucket by Amy Swenson
From: Make One Yarn Studio
Yarn: Flair Ombre Peaches and Creme 100% Cotton 1.75 skeins
Needles: 4mm 30cm Addi Turbo and DPNs
See it on Ravelry


Love this pattern. Quick and easy and it's a nice shape.

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The pattern is for worsted weight yarn and 4.5mm needles. Since I was making this with cotton which has, in my experience, the awful tendency to stretch to high heaven, I used 4mm needles. Initially I was worried it come out too small but actually the FO is not too small at all, even a little big. 4.5mm would have made a huge hat for me.

My only modification was to avoid the provisional cast on and I cast on normally. Instead of following the pattern suggestion to sew up the brim I picked up the CO stitches and K2tog as I went. Big mistake. Somehow I didn't pick up evenly round and was left with too many CO stitches. So there is a small overlapping bit on the underside of the brim. Which isn't that noticeable I guess but I am disappointed in myself for not following the pattern (when will I learn??!!) and for being in an impatient mood to finish and not frogging that row (when will I learn??!!) and redoing.

My only disappointment....love love love it otherwise. If I was to do over I would do 6 inches (not 6.5) from the brim and either do the PCO or sew up the brim at the end.

The cotton I used is from the US. A friend ran a mini co-op and I couldn't resist getting a few balls. The colour selection is amazing. Despite the claim on the label to be 'the softest 100% cotton' it is NOT easy on the hands and was akin to knitting rope. Its aran weight so quite thick and sturdy. It would make excellent dishcloths which is what I will probably do with the rest of the balls I got, or maybe a string bag. I think in the US it's pretty cheap and available from Wal-Mart and the like. There is nothing like this in NZ and at my local less than adequate yarn store there is only one cotton and it is $7/ball!! I wish I had got some more colours now. Maybe next time .

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This colourway is the "Flair" ombre. I am a sucker for purple and green together.

I read somewhere (can't remember if it was on a blog, or Ravelry or somewhere...) that putting stretched out cotton in the clothes dryer can make it shrink back. I tried this yesterday on Baby M's cotton sunhat and Katja which had both stretched horrendously. And....I am pleased to report this works fabulously. They have both just gone back to their original off the needles size, no smaller. Just thought I would share just in case you have a cotton something suffering from stretch-itis too.

4 comments:

Sharonnz said...

Too funny...I'm in denial too...and knitting hats...but winter ones. Love the colourway & such a groovy style!!

Anonymous said...

Love it! Lily would love it too. I've never done a provisional cast-on before though - scary!!!

Anonymous said...

It's funny, because I'm US and enjoying the first spurts of spring. One day the sun shines, the other day, it's off.

I'm actually working on a super-cute cotton beret, too, in Lousia Harding Nautical Cotton. I'll have to post about that soon.

In the US, cotton is one of the few natural fibres that you can find at Walmart and other places, and $1.27 or a $1.50 will get you just about any color of cotton that you can. For $6-7, you can get an enormous cone of it. I have a store near me called Crafts 2000, and they have so many colors of Sugar'n Creme cotton it isn't even funny.

Anonymous said...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh funky hat Gabes, well you are in the winterless north hahaha for a couple more weeks! Looks like we are heading up your way on the 8th will email re plans to stop in :D The lovely Kelly send me a ball of that same cotton :D now I know what it knits up like :D