A year or two ago a New Zealand friend gave me two balls of Supreme Possum Merino 8ply. Soft and robust, it said “man’s hat” to me in a firm way that I knew better than to argue with. And my New Zealander friend would be the perfect recipient, being male and the yarn gifter, and living in a country that has relatively cold winters.
My friend is a cartographer so I entertained crazy ideas about incorporating a mariner’s compass design into the hat… right up to the third time I frogged it. Then, chastened, I knit a perfectly ordinary beanie.
By then I was in love with the yarn. Being sensitive to mohair, any yarn with ‘halo’ tends to repell me. This yarn has fuzz, but it doesn’t get up my nose. Also, I’d read feedback on this yarn on a blog, and the blogger hadn’t liked it, so I was expecting the worse. In fact, it’s soft, robust and easy to knit with. I’d definitely buy more, but since I couldn’t find a supplier on the net I suspect I’d have to go to New Zealand to get any.
I finished the hat on Friday:
And immediately I was faced with a dilemma. It had used only one ball of yarn. I had another. Should I knit something for myself in this delectable yarn, or make a smallish scarf for my friend?
If I made something for myself, what could I make out of one ball of yarn? I certainly don’t need any more hats. If I made a scarf… I worked out that I could probably make one that was 80-100cm long and about 10cm wide. A simple 2×2 rib would pull in and make the scarf even narrower, so on a whim I tried mistake rib.
Darn it. I like the effect so much, I really wish I’d used that rib on the hat. I’m not going to frog and reknit the hat. I’m not going to frog and reknit the hat.
I’m not going to frog and reknit the hat.
No.
I’m not. Just stop it.
You are totally going to frog and reknit the hat, and you know it. Fight not your knitterly inclinations, lest they drive you crazy. To make things a bit easier, you could simply undo the cast-on edge, rip back to the start of the ribbing, and knit back down in the mistake rib (which does look great in that yarn, by the way).
I could. And you know what? I knit the hat top down, so the cast-off edge is the bottom of the knitting.
Hey – you’re not supposed to side with the voices in my head!
I’m siding with the voices in your head, too. I always do :).
If you need an explanation of why the hat is plain, tell him it represents the map from the Hunting of the Snark, which makes it not only the perfect cartographer’s map, but also suitable for epic journeys.
That yarn is pushy and opinionated. Giving in only encourages such behaviour in the rest of your stash!