Yesterday, after that rather traumatic run-in with the sweater (it is headed for the frog pond, I feel sure of it) I was bundling off to Knit Night and was scrambling for something to take with me. I do have an October Self-Imposed-Sock club sock underway, but wanted something else. Something that was the knitting equivilent of oatmeal. It’s been cold, rainy and nasty here, and I’ve been watching Megan begin to dig through and wear her hats, and all of a sudden, that seemed right. A hat. A nice, simple hat. Maybe something that would look good with her jean jacket for fall, but be warm enough for winter. I grabbed a pattern I’ve been thinking about, some yarn I’ve been thinking about, and my set of WEB’s interchangeable circulars and jumped on my bike. (I know one of you will ask, so yes. I like the WEBS set a lot. I find them a smidge on the blunt side for my personal taste, but I still use them, so they can’t be all that blunt. I love the case they come in, and that’s a big enough plus to make up for them being not the sharpest needles in the drawer. Joins are good, price is right. I like them.)
When I got to the shop, Rachel H poured me a glass of wine (I love the way that lady does things) and opened the magazine to the pattern. I was very quickly convinced – and they were all only telling me what I already knew, that the yarn I’d brought wasn’t enough for the hat I’d picked. That left me with a burning desire to knit the hat, and no yarn to do it with. I perused the shop and came up with this. 
Yummy. Tosh Dk in Mourning Dove, and Schulana Kid-Seta held together. It is every bit as soft as it looks – and it is comforting and reassuring, and nothing short of gloriously glowing and cushy in the brioche stitch variation of the Sweet Honey Beret. (That’s the Interweave link.. there’s a Ravelry one here.) Thanks to my neatly organized stash room, I was able to find my copy of the magazine pretty quickly. (I’ll show you the stash room soon. Keep forgetting to take pictures, and while I love it, it’s not really all that impressive.) 
I love this hat. I love everything about it. (Okay. I didn’t love the first four rounds of the brioche thing while I was figuring it out, but I got there. I take the swearing back.) It makes me feel like winter coming isn’t really the death of hope, and I can’t wait for it to be finished, which might be tonight, given the rate it moves at. When it’s done I might make another one for Sam. Or Amanda. Or my nieces, or all of them, just because it’s fun and because, my friends… it’s not that sweater.
Beautiful Yarn! 🙂
Great looking yarn. I am sure it will be beautiful.
You make me want to knit everything…I sense that this could be french press slippers all over again?
I giggled, ‘coz it’s “not that sweater”. I have a simple but well-received hat pattern I like, and I may have to turn out a few of them soon. Not this weekend! I’m test knitting my own fingerless mitts pattern this weekend, and if it turns out well I’ll be adding them to the Sack O’ Holiday Gifts. Wish me luck!
Lovely! I hope your girls and relatives realize how lucky they are to have to create such gloriosity for them out of yarn…
Oh my! That is extremely yummy looking. Looks like a great hat pattern – this is one of the reasons I love reading blogs – so many knitters start knitting gorgeous patterns that are exactly what I’m looking for (& almost always I have the mag in my stash)!
Loverly yarn and pattern. Can’t imagine anything going wrong with this.
Love the hat…maybe the sweater really wants to be a hat? Or a hat, mitts and a scarf? Could be that its having “identity issues?”
Could happen…
The hat is looking gorgeous.
Sigh.
I love it when you knit oatmeal. . .
Mmmmm those yarns together are gorgeous and the hat will definitely be winter-worthy! Happy hat knitting! It’s not that sweater! 🙂
I got sick of my 1921 cardigan and am more than half-way through very plain vanilla bobbie socks. Cast on 56 stitches, and rib and then knit! (No brains required. I love them.)
Is this viral, like the knit clogs or the baby sweaters? It looks lovely and is making me pine to make something similar!
Beautiful yarn! Love reading your blog every day.
Have you ever tried fine-sanding your bamboo needles for a better point? It takes a little skill to keep the point even but I was so much happier with my needles afterward!
Oooh! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
“It makes me feel like winter coming isn’t really the death of hope.”
I love that quote!!! I love it even more now that I’ve move to Texas.
Now I have to go sort through my unorganized pattern collection to find my copy of that pattern. I’m not sure that that’s nice.
Oh well, loving the yarns you choose and the colors. They are going to really brighten a dismal day or six as winter sets in.
Happy hatting. (Not a word, but most knitters understand I hope?)
I love how you held the two yarns together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. Gorgeous! Also I loved your spinning from the other day. Going to SOAR this year? I am–for the very first time!!! So freakin’ excited!!!
I love how you decided to hold the yarns together. I never would have thought of that. It gives the resulting stitches such a lovely texture.
I just made this hat- love it. I made it a tad too big for my noggin but still. And yeah, I hear ya on trying to figure out the brioche stich.
knitting equivalent to oatmeal. Yes, that is a perfect description. Love it. 🙂
And, you gotta love Tosh anything. Just lovely.
Lucky girl! She’s going to love that hat. 🙂
Is this going to be the 2010 version of the Christmas slippers? Looks sooooo comfy.
Save them for Christmas presents.
Cute pattern.Gorgeous yarn.I’ve been scrolling through Ravelry for mitts and hats and that pattern may be a winner.Hope to see you at Rhinebeck!
Please please pictures of the stash room. Makes me feel all orderly and peaceful to see other people’s organization 🙂 And I love your remodel posts. Still think about how you did the bedroom, how cool that was, the before, the process, the afters. I don’t know if you did any others, because I only started reading about that time. Anyhow, looking forward to stash room photos! 🙂
“knitting equivalent of oatmeal” – yup, I know that one. I’m just finishing up a farmspun alpaca st st pullover that was intended to be exactly that. It got me through the first half of soccer season too. I should go home and sew that guy together now…
I Love the yarn and colors you chose! hmmm Now I’m beginning to think hats. As soon as I’m finished with my baby blanket?… Awww, what the heck, I’m going yarn shopping! 🙂
I love the Sweet Honey Beret, and tried to knit it when it first came out. Sigh… did not work out so well. Maybe now that you’re making it I’ll try again!
Every now and then, only oatmeal will satisfy. What a lovely hat you are/have been making!
I love that yummy fabric! And thanks for the pattern link.
Christmas is coming. Hats make great gifts…
i love knitting hats! i think of them as a vacation from my regular knitting. so quick, so satisfying, so wearable.
in my mind, hats are the perfect knit gift and i’m planning to feature them heavily in my holiday knitting plans this year. which by the way, you have yet to mention. are you cooking up any ambitious holiday knitting plans this year or just giving self-imposed socks?
I think that sweater was doomed from the first diesel-smelling yarn… The bad karma is just too much to overcome.
The yarn is beautiful! I respect giving up on the sweater. You know it’s going to end up languishing in some back closet that’s already too full. Feel free to send it to me! Out of sight, out of mind, and then your mind will feel better and freer to make a whole herd of hats! 🙂 Let me know and I’ll send you my address!
This. This is exactly why I always have multiple works in progress, no matter how much my friends insist that it’s madness, because you know? Sometimes you just need a different project. And I would LOVE to see the stash room! 🙂
I love the blending of the yarns. The net effect is very heathery. I assume it is VERY soft. Good show!
YUM!
it’s been cold and rainy here… and back up to 90F this weekend. *sigh* so much for the wool sweater i’m knitting.
“Being not the sharpest needles in the drawer.” Okay, did anyone else have the urge to giggle? Is that the knitter’s equivalent of being not the brightest bulb in the chandelier or not the sharpest tool in the shed? I may have to use that one.
Makes me jealous for having 3 girls to knit fabulous stuff for. My 2 year old boy just wants a hat like Daddy’s (which, right enough, I knitted…) I lurve that beret!
Good Choice! Beautiful yarn and a fun, comfy hat. SO much nicer to play with than the blue sweater bully. And you sound much happier today!
It must be a hat moon (like a full moon, only more productive for knitters), because I’ve been craving a nice lace tam. The only thing that’s kept me from casting on is the fact that I was craving it in a fiber that had not yet become yarn. I’m plying tonight, though, and then it’s off to the races.
Sometimes the best thing a project can be is Not That Other Project. Have fun!
I love this pattern but it took me a little while to work stitch out. I have made quite a few it knits up quite quickly. I love your yarn combination.
A very beautiful replacement for that sweater of frustration.
“(I know one of you will ask…”
😀
I thought you were going to say “Yes, I am riding my bike in the cold, rainy, and nasty weather”!
The hat is very pretty, I love the colors.
Oooo . . . nice. Perfecr yarn for a really sweet pattern. It almost makes up for the fact that this post isn’t the final reveal of the stash room. ;o)
No offense because the yarn was beautiful and your taste is typically flawless, but I didn’t like that sweater from the get go. I think the yarn deserves better. And so do you. When the knitting gets bitchy, show it the timeout chair.
Ahhh, the joy of fresh starts, a new day, the turn of the seasons. Anything’s possible.
Maybe the blue yarn doesn’t want to be that sweater….
Well, kinda boring. but that’s oatmeal for ya!
but it is . . . ahmmm . . . blue :^)
I see you are using blue to heal the blue angst. Good move!
I think that’s way more lovely than oatmeal…and I love oatmeal. Beautiful choices!
Hey, I made that hat when the pattern first came out and I wear it all the time in the winter! It’s cute, flattering and warm. Definitely a great gift!!!
Gorgeous combination of yarns! Does Megan know how lucky she is??
And why do I suspect that a version of that hat, in a lovely combination of green shades of those yarns, is destined for Megan’s mother?
I want. I have a thing about mohair, anyway.
That hat is so fun to make! I was quickly addicted and made two for myself (cause I’m greedy like that), one for my sister in law, and one for my niece.
You are just beginning.
Plus you have some really, really nice yarn there.
The combination of yarns appears to create a halo; all (teen) daughters should have the opportunity to wear one (halo).
Lovely hat. Brioche is one of my favorite stitches, especially for hats. For some reason I like it better at fine gauge.
I understand how you feel about winter, but in exactly the opposite way. I love spring, but I feel that “death of hope” when I know the deep fryer is heating up, and hat we will broil in insanely high humidity for five straight months when it doesn’t drop below 90 for five months and doesn’t even drop below 75 at night. Blech!
Autumn always fills me with hope and good cheer, the hope of weather chilly enough for knitted garments but not so brutally cold as to invoke despair, the good cheer of clear, dry weather, bright sun and air that actually moves briskly.
Sometimes beautiful needs fast too when the mood strikes.
Beautiful choice of yarn for Faina’s hat design. She started her publishing career while working in my yarn shop and I am so proud of her. Well, actually, her first foray into publishing was a calculus study guide but the knitting is so much more fun! Looking forward to seeing your finished hat.
i so feel your sweater pain.
I really think you should finish the sweater though. It’s going to be gorgeous when it’s done, and you don’t have *that* much fixing to do. At least it’s all above the armhole decreases.
I just knitted a man-size jacket and made mistakes in around the same place. Managed to get through the back ok, but then I made the same mistake on BOTH the fronts even though I was trying hard not to. It didn’t take too long to fix.
Pretty!! So…just how wonderful does it feel to be able to say “stash ROOM”?
Yummy indeed! I just wish I didn’t get an itchy forehead thinking about wearing it, it looks so lovely. I did a brioche class in the summer, and I hope to knit a full brioche thing soon, it’s a great textural stitch. You muct have seen Nancy Marchant’s brioche book? I love some of the colour effects she demonstrates.
And I so want to see the stash room. It may not be impressive, but I will still covet it!
You must be gearing up for “furnace wars” before too much longer, right?
I recognized the pattern before you said what it was, as I made that one too a couple years ago. I agree, getting to know that stitch pattern wasn’t the most fun, I think I had to restart it a couple times. I get a lot of compliments on mine when I wear it though, and it was fun to knit! Love the colour you are using!
Sweet hat! Perfect yarn choice.
Sorry about the sweater, but when you have to fight for the joy of knitting… well, where is the joy? Are they just a wrong match, yarn and pattern?
That pattern wanted to be a (smelly) green yarn, right?
Terri said it first but I feel a hat jag coming. Looks great in progress can’t wait for the finished shots.
Do you know that Franklin Habit tried to work a scarf in that diamond pattern you had on that sweater, and called it the Regicide scarf. He mentions it here:
http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/2007/08/tricot-triage.html
With these words:
“Regicide Scarf. This one’s giving me an ulcer. The yarn – Four Play from Brooks Farms, is delightful to the touch. The pattern, King Charles Brocade, makes it absolutely sing. So, what’s the problem? I’ll tell you. I hate knitting King Charles Brocade. And I don’t mean it bores me. I mean I hate it. And not a small hate, either. A hate that burns with the heat of ten million suns. What’s not to loathe about a pattern that is too simple to be interesting, yet too complicated for mindless knitting? A pattern in which it is shockingly easy to lose one’s place, and in which the smallest error stands out like a pimple on the heavily insured nose of Heidi Klum?”
I think it’s the pattern, not you, Stephanie. 🙂
Ahhhhhh….mood knitting. It is good for the soul.
Why take a but of sandpaper to the needles if they are “a smidge on the blunt side”?
Personalize, make things work for you.
P.S.–Have a GREAT Thanksgiving weekend. It’s going to be marvelous weather for a walk in the woods.
Do I see Multiple hats this year like last year’s French Press Slipper saga?
It is gorgeous.
I think we’ve found the multiple-knit gift of 2010…
Not related to the entry, (btw, the hat is Lovely), but seriously – – – I’m so glad you got the website back online. Reading your blog has become part of my daily routine, kind of like a comforting ritual. First Yahoo, then YarnHarlot, then . . . It throws my whole day off when you’re not there.
Love the 2 yarns held together
I love it when the yarn is so soft and scrummy that you can feel it right through the photo. Makes me want to pet the monitor.
Love the hat pattern and yarn. It is more fun to knit something when you can picture the recipient in it, in this case your daughter will look very cute wearing the beret. Actually, it would look fetching on you, too! Wouldn’t a photo of you and your daughters wearing the beret in different colors be fun?
How funny! I am on a hat kick now too, for some reason it just felt right, even if I do live in Florida. Gorgeous hat, looks like it feels fabulous.
That looks sooo soft and warm. mmm, kid seta. I have about four balls of that and twin it up with yarn cushy and soft, or textury. It is just a bit and it adds a tiny bit of cloud and nice ‘bulk’. Yes, time for hats!!
uh oh – I feel a Stephanie hat knitting jag coming on!!
Happy Thanksgiving.
Hey there knitters!
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Happy Knitting