Four Finished Hats

I've mentioned before that I love testing out new designers and techniques via small projects like hats and today I have a few of those projects to show. 4 hats knit via 2 patterns from designers I've admired but haven't had the chance to knit from yet!

Colorado Roku Ravelry Post
Pattern: Roku
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted

This was my first Roku hat which I knit while teaching at Fancy Tiger in Denver this summer. I picked up the yarn before Jaime, Amber, Steph & Sarah took a day trip up into the mountains where we hiked up a trail and knit by the side of a little river. I was throughly winded from all of this, being a sea level Midwesterner and all! On the way home we stopped in at Dram Apothecary for drinks, more knitting and lots of Instagramming...but back to the hat!

This was my first knit by Olga Buraya-Kefelian and it was a quite enjoyable one. I chose this pattern after my well documented Boyfriend Hat Disaster and am glad I did. Everything worked up easily, it fits, and it's cute! I think I want to add a pompon to the top of this one eventually, as soon as I work up the energy to dig the remainder of this yarn out from the bottom of my yarn box.

Shelter Roku Ravelry Post
Pattern: Roku
Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter

This second Roku I wear, but don't like as much as the first one. I'm not totally sure I'm sold on Shelter as a good hat yarn. I knit Bray, it stretched out badly and I blamed it on the pattern not having enough ribbing. This hat, while not in danger of stretching out, just never seems to sit right on my head - a problem I don't have with the previous one. This hat was made from leftovers from other projects (the original Bray and my Stonecutter) so it's no great loss that this isn't my all time favorite hat.

Neon Diode Ravelry Post
Pattern: Diode
Yarn: Tosh Merino Light

Now onto Diode, a cutie little hat pattern from Erica-Knits. I'd been meaning to knit this since it came out, but it took an impromptu trip to Berlin to visit Jon and the sudden need for a travel project to get this one going! The bulk of this hat was knit during my week in Berlin, but I finished it up a few weekends later in Denver when we were in town for a music fest Jon was playing.

I love everything about this hat, the doubled brim, the little bobbles that were easy enough for travel knitting but just enough to keep things interesting, the yarn, I totally love this hat so much! This version is a bit slouchier than Erica's original sample so I wanted to try knitting it up in a yarn with a bit more body which leads us to the next hat.

Muted Diode Ravelry Post
Pattern: Diode
Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Loft

Okay so I know I just said that Shelter isn't my favorite hat yarn, and that's kind of true for Loft as well. The bottom of the hat doesn't have the same elasticity and recovery as the neon Madelinetosh hat, which is to be expected, but the structure of the top of the hat makes up for it to me. I lost track of where I was at and this hat ended up a few rows taller than it should have been, but oh well, things happen!

I'm trying to decide on my next hat, I'm thinking something with colorwork so that I can ease into it since there are a few fair isle sweaters I'm interested in making but don't have much experience. A hat would be just the ticket for a warmup!