Declan's Hat

Last November, I knit a hat for my son using yarn I didn't enjoy.  It was acrylic, but I had knit with the yarn before and liked it.  Not so much this time.  So, when my son lost his hat in school after a couple of months, I wasn't completely upset.

Old Hat - Lost Forever

I decided to just go back to the old standby of Cascade 220 wool for the new hat and he picked out the same color blue as the hat he lost.  I gave him a few options for patterns and he chose Declan's hat.

I searched for a cast-on that looked like it would flow into the 2x2 ribbing and found the Alternate cable cast-on tutorial from Woolly Wormhead.  

Other knitters noted the hat runs large, so I knit him the small on size 5 needles.  The hat fits his 12 year old head perfect and my head as well.  I also started crown decreases after the cable ended in order to provide a little more depth.

As for other knitting, I dug out my Rambling Rows Blanket last week and figured out that I had completed 15 out of 55 blocks when I put it in hibernation last spring.  The hardest part to starting again was just refreshing my mind on what decreases are used in the mitred blocks.  I cast on for a small square and I fell back in love with the back and forth of garter stitch with easy decreases.  I am 4 blocks further along and even decided to go back and weave in some old ends.  My goal is still to finish before Christmas of this year.