Hats off

They say there's nothing original under the sun, and this hat would seem to be proof of that.

The inspiration - apart from wanting something warm for winter - was this pic of Tom's Watch Cap (scroll down) at The Panopticon.

The brioche-in-the-round instructions came from the briochestitch.com and the crown shaping is borrowed directly from the shaping on Crosspatch at Knitty.

I did make it myself, though, which surely counts for something :)

For future reference or anyone who wants to replicate it:

Brioche hat

Yarn:
Cascade 220 in a dark chocolaty brown.
The colour number seems to have faded from the ball band (its been in the stash for a while). This photo is the best representation of the actual colour - the others are a bit light.

I used slightly less than one skein - so a bit less than 220 yards.

Gauge:
18 sts and 24 rows on 5mm needles in stocking stitch.

Needles etc:
5mm needles - 16" (or smaller) circular for the body of the hat, double pointed needles once you start the decreases on the crown.
Tapestry needle to weave in ends
One stitch marker

Measurements:
The finished hat is about 23" around, lying flat and unstretched. There's plenty of stretch in it, given the nature of the brioche stitch.

If you want to make it larger or smaller, or need a different number of stitches because you're working to a different gauge, I've put a few notes at the end of the instructions that might help.

How to make it:
Cast on 80 sts and join to work in the round, being careful not to twist and placing a stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round.

Following these directions for brioche stitch in the round, starting with the prep round, work until your work measures about 8.5".

(You can, of course, vary this measurement to suit yourself, just be aware that the crown is virtually flat - not domed like a typical beanie - so it doesn't add any height to the hat.)

Now, work one purl round before starting the crown shaping.

Note that every second stitch will actually be more like a p2tog - because you'll still have the yo which you created in the last round of brioche which you worked.

It's worth counting your stitches at the end of this round, just to make sure you're back to 80.

Shape the crown: Follow the instructions for shaping the crown given in Crosspatch, starting from decrease round 1 (ie ignore the K 2 rounds at the beginning of the instructions).

Weave in ends, and you're done.

Notes for varying the size
If you want to vary the number of stitches either to change the size or suit another gauge, just bear in mind that you need an even number of stitches for the brioche, and you'll need a number divisible by 5 for the crown shaping to work.

You could cheat on the latter by starting out with an even number and then adding or subtracting a stitch or two in the purl round before the shaping starts, if you're having trouble getting to a number that is divisible by both 2 and 5.

For the crown shaping, if your number of stitches is divisible by 10, then you're good to follow the instructions, working either more or fewer stitches between the S2KPs in the first round as appropriate. (That first round is stitch total divided by 5, minus 3 - eg 80/5 = 16-3 = 13.)

If you are starting out with a number of stitches divisible by 5 but not 10, you'll eventually get down to 15 sts, making the last decrease round S2KP 5 times to take you to 5 sts.

Finally ...

... the sofa saga comes to an end.

So all that remains is to change my mind a couple more times about just where in the room I want it. And to make new cushion covers, because these ones don't really work.

Lessons learned:

1. If you want to donate large items to charity, assume that you need to contact them at least 2 weeks before you want them to come and pick the thing up. Not one week. Like you might have thought. Because if you do that, you'll end up having to store the new furniture in the spare room for a week. Which is really disappointing because of course you want to use it straight away.

2. But then, it turns out that the charities are so overwhelmed with donations of stuff that they are really picky about what they'll take. No: really, really, picky. Which is fair enough, it's their call but it would be helpful if they'd tell you that up front - like saying "if its not in basically as-new condition we don't want it" - instead of asking "is it ripped or stained" as their qualifying question when you call them. Because that is rather misleading. And if they were up front with you then you'd know what they were after and you wouldn't waste a whole day at home from work waiting for them to come and turn down your donation and then another day waiting for someone else to take it away.

Not that I'm cross about this.

Blurry

Slightly blurry bougainvillea.

Not a big fan

Australia Day, today.

A day that has always been problematic - if you must have a national holiday to celebrate our "one-ness" as a nation, then it needs to be held on a day that isn't the anniversary of when the white fellas turned up and unilaterally moved in on the basis of vacant possession. Add to that the way its become increasingly embarrassingly jingoistic and awash with cheap sentimentality (see also, Anzac Day). And if I see one more goose walking around wearing the flag like a cape ...

On top of that, it's hot, and the fan (pictured) is the only thing standing between me an a complete meltdown.

On the positive side, I got a four day long weekend out of it, which isn't to be sneezed at.

Slacker

Well, I've been a real slacker both on the photo and especially on the posting front. Small compensation (from a diversification perspective) but I've been crafty. Two socks, nearly finished, snapped last Tuesday.

Since then, the orange ones are completed (bar sewing in a couple of ends). Yesterday's photo also served the practical purpose of being a record of how I picked up the stitches for the vertical sections.

And today, the finished article. The second black and white is still under way.

The only other day I took a photo was last Friday: the road on the way home.

Anyway, resolved to try to be a bit more diligent.

Sunny Monday

A nice contrast to last week's pic of much the same scene. This is what summer in Sydney is supposed to look like.

Weekend

Missed Friday all together and then snapped but didn't post over the weekend. Clearly by the end of the working week I'm over everything.

This hydrangea - looking less blue in the photo than in real life - is proof that my total neglect approach to gardening occasionally pays off. I must have planted this maybe seven years ago - it had a couple of ok seasons then died back during one of Sydney's drought-like periods. But this summer it's back. I did nothing to encourage (or deserve) this. Just nature reasserting itself, I guess.

This tree is, just down the street. I love the gargoyle-like growth on it.