Occupyin' the Needles - Hat One

My first hat to donate to an Occupy group for winter warmth.

Ingredients: #8 & #6 dpn, MC: Araucania Quillay (color 14), CC: Cascade 220 Superwash

Just a simple top down knit, an improvised pattern I’ve been doing for years.
I believe its basis is the top-down hat directions in Knitting from the Top, by Barbara Walker.

I started with 8 stitches on 4 needles, increased 8 every other round and then checked for gauge to know when to stop increasing. Knitted around and around and around ’til it measured about 7”, then changed to the smaller needles and the CC, began 2/2 rib.

If I make another like this, I’ll probably make the body a wee bit shorter, start the ribbing earlier and make it longer.

Quillay is 57% superwash wool, 43% acrylic - I think an easy-care hat is most appropriate for the purpose.
It’s a new yarn to me and I liked working with it. 

I’d have liked it even better if the lighting in my living room was better.

This happens to me all the time: I see a yarn in RiverWools which thrills me colorwise, take it home, begin to knit and find the color not so thrilling. (Sometimes even unpleasant - some colorways just irritate my very soul. )

Then I take my knitting or finished object back into the shop and am totally surprised at how much I like the color again.

So either Martha has some sort of magical lighting that makes yarn colors look extra yummy or I need to find better lighting.

Next I think I’m going to try either MK Carroll’s Top Down Beanie Recipe  (that link will take you to a page with yet another link to the free pattern at Ravelry) or the one by Charisa Martin Cairn , which is another free pattern. (Look around there, she’s got some other cool top-down hat patterns.)

Next post I'll talk about fingerless mitts, another item Occupiers might really appreciate.