Encircle

I made this hat recently and I am head-over-heels in love with it.  I've been itching to share pictures, to wax lyrical about all its virtues, and to spread the word about this heavenly pattern-and-yarn combination. But I made a mistake. A fairly basic mistake. I had been swatching with Amano Mayu for a different project entirely. I had somewhat lofty intentions of designing a dressy winter scarf, with lace detailing a a bias swish to it. And then I remembered. I have two young children. I co-own a small business. We're organising a yarn festival! So I figured I'd leave the designing to the professionals, and I chose to knit Encircle by Woolly Wormhead instead.  And it *is* beautiful! Right? The soft, icy blue shows off the cable detail to perfection and the texture of the reverse stockinette catches the light just so. On a a practical note the double-layer brim is my new best friend, saving me from the painful ear aches I get when the temperatures plummet and the wind starts to bite.  If you suffer similarly, then I can highly recommend two plush layers of Royal Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere... But now, back to that pesky mistake: I cast on quite confident that this hat would use under two skeins of Mayu.  However... I never read the guidelines on meterage. At all. I didn't even glance in their direction. So it's confession time: my version of Encircle ended up using 103 grams of this decadent blend of heavenly fibres.  And I'm going to come right out and say it: this hat cost €96.70 to make (for three skeins of yarn, Woolly's pattern and the Textile Garden button). The good news? I'm here to tell you a few easy ways to knock €29.95 off that price tag. 😉 Some essential stats:

• I made the third size (to fit a 20 inch head), and the pattern specifies 229 metres of sport weight yarn.
• I added one repeat more to the height of the hat (I wanted a slouchier finish)
• So my medium size, slouchy hat used 206 metres of Amano Mayu (which is considered DK weight).

If you'd like to make a similar hat then you can likely squeak a size medium out of 2 skeins of Mayu, by making one or two of the following changes:

• Don't create the overlap at the brim. Instead sew or graft your ends together to make one continuous band.
• Knit the body of the hat to the length specified in the pattern (don't add the extra repeat like I did).  I think you could still block the hat out to a slouchier style if desired.
• Knit a thinner / shallower band.  Casting on just a few less stitches should save you a good bit of yarn over the length of the band.  You will have to adjust the decrease instructions for tab section too then.

So there we go. Almost 14 years after taking up knitting and I still make some quite basic mistakes.  In this instance though, I'm quite glad I did.  I may have played yarn chicken and lost, but this hat is absolutely top of my favourite projects list and I plan on wearing it every chance I get. Lisa