FO: Antler Hat
Living in Kenya, my toddler son has no need of winter hats. Since we've been here over a year, he's outgrown the handknit ones he has. However, since we're about to spend 3 winter months in the U.S., he needed a new hat, stat. I loved knitting him the Antler Cardigan by Tin Can Knits in early 2013, and he's been successfully wearing it for almost 2 years (hooray for knitting big!). I'll knit him another when he outgrows it, and I gave a smaller two-color version to a friend's new baby. Time to try the Antler Hat.My son's head measured 20 inches, just below the Adult Small size (huh? He's 2!), so that's what I went with, on lots of U.S. size 8 (5.0 mm) dpns. I did, however, get rid of a few of vertical repeats, or else it really would have been too big. The hat fits well now, with the ribbing folded, and as he grows, we can just unfold that for more room. Or I can knit him another hat. (No! Please don't throw me in that briar patch!)The hat knit up really fast, in just a couple days. The pattern is free on Ravelry, and it's very easy to memorize the pattern so you don't have to constantly refer to it.
Yarn Review
In an effort to stash bust, I gave my son the choice of gray or brown in Caron Simply Soft Solids. I have NO IDEA why I have this yarn - did I buy it back when I was a new knitter and went for inexpensive acrylic at big box stores? Did someone give it to me? I definitely acquired it in the days before Ravelry, and I've used it for a few baby projects since I started tracking in Ravelry. I also have vague memories of a cabled baby sweater vest gift that was gray - maybe made out of this? In any case, it's survived several stash reorganizations because of its softness and washability.The yarn's a bit... sticky. Not in a wool scaly kind of way, but in the way that lets you immediately know that it's made of plastic. Again, it's kind of perfect for a rough-and-tumble toddler, in that we can wash and dry on hot and let him wear it to pieces. However, because it's acrylic, the fold-up band on the hat doesn't fold as well as it would have, had I made the hat out of wool. If I ever knit a hat with a fold-up band out of acrylic again, I might consider doing an entire purl row at the fold point to encourage the band to lay flat.All in all, I'm considering this hat a success and would knit again.