Hip Knit Hats: 40 Fabulous Designs by Cathy Carron mostly lives up to its name. There are few hats that could not be called "hip" in any decade, even ones when that term was relevant, cutting edge slang. However, there are plenty of wearable and even cute hats.
I made "Beth" which I would wear, well, with slight modifications. First of all, I made the adult women's medium size. I never thought I had a giant head, but this hat fits Beckett perfectly and I can barely get it on.
The dark green is a fairly accurate representation of the color.
The fit issues don't really bother me because I think the top knot is mostly ridiculous. I would make and wear this hat but sans giant bulbous, bobbly, knot. However, for Beckett I think it's cute. I'd heard this hat ran small so mostly I was making it for him anyway. I may go back and actually make a grown up size for me. It knit up very fast with bulky yarn.
The pattern looks minorly complicated with its twisting look, but it's simply alternating blocks of knit and purl stitch shifted one stitch every two rounds.
It's quite clever and makes an interesting pattern.
I've seen variations where you knit with one color and purl with another. I may try that.
I knit the Fingerless Gloves for my mom. She wanted them a little longer than the pattern called for. Due to arthritis she wanted them to cover her second knuckle to insulate and soothe them. This was kind of the practice pair so I experimented with length. On one hand I knit 4 extra rows on every finger. This seemed a bit much. On the next hand I knit 2 extra rounds on the pinky, 4 extra rounds on the ring finger, 5 extra rounds on the middle finger, 4 extra rounds on the pointer finger, and three extra rounds on the thumb. I stuck with the slip stitch pattern although I only knit them in one color. You can see a subtle pattern though.
At some point in time I'll need to weave in all those ends. It's a depressing prospect.
