Hats Galore

Weeks before Christmas Jessica and I saw a new hat pattern on the Purl Soho website. They also had released a dozen new yarn colors in their Worsted Twist. The website had the most beautiful photo of a dozen hats, each knitted in one of the new colors. I remarked that it would be fun to make one of these for everyone in the family. So Jessica picked out a color for each of us for Christmas. And I started knitting. Youngest to oldest. I used all the sizes since our family includes a baby and a small child.

I learned a new cast-on for this hat that is pretty basic otherwise. It features a fold-up cuff and a huge pompom. I decided from the beginning that I was putting a pompom on all the hats. Guys, too. (I attached theirs so they could be removed easily.) I was thinking even then that a family photo would be fun and the pompoms would look cute in the picture. The plan was to take the hats to our family's annual mountain get-away just before Christmas. I could picture how fabulous this was going to be—all the colorful hats, mountains in the background.

Well, if you've been reading the blog the last few weeks, you know that we never were all together over the holidays. But I still wanted a photo of the ones who were here. So, "all of us in the mountains" turned into "part of us in the back yard."

Then Jessica sent me a text last week while we were in the midwest delivering the big girls back to their house. "Take a photo of Mommy and Baby Girl wearing their hats. Make sure they are standing in front of a plain wall." I took as many photos as I could in the two minutes that the baby was cooperative and emailed them to Jessica.

And days later, bless her talented heart, Jessica sent me a photo with the entire family wearing their hats! This is more fun than the one I imagined. We were together in spirit over the holidays. Now we are together in a photo. Thank you, Jessica!

Pattern:  Classic Cuffed Hat

Yarn:  Purl Soho Worsted Twist

Needles:  sizes 5, 6, & 7

For the record, this is the best hat pattern I've used. It was easy to make and it's the most flattering hat to wear that I've found. When it's loved by a child, a teenager, the young women and the men, you know it's well designed. It even looks good on me!

 

It was cold here over Christmas and even colder in the midwest the following week. I think these hats will get a lot of use this winter. OH....the pompoms? The men in the family all decided they wanted to keep the pompoms on the hats.  If you've watched much football lately, you've seen all the NFL players keeping warm in their team hats---all with big pompoms! It's the style this year.