Leo's Hat

I intended to give this hat to Leo as part of her birthday pressie, however my trip to Finland with work was cancelled at the last minute. I am therefor officially a bad friend and a very bad Godmother. Leo and her son's birthdays are very close together and I had intended to be with them for a few days just after the birthday dates. The first time she sees this hat will be on here - sorry Leo.

They will of course be receiving the gifts when I get to Finland (hopefully before Christmas!) - I could have posted them but one of the items is a very heavy wooden toy!

Back to the hat, the design is the soon to be classic Jarred Flood Habitat hat, knitted in RYC soft tweed, needles in size 4.5 mm for the rib and 5 mm for the main part of the hat (dpn's in 5mm for the crown)

I am committing tweed heresy now by saying - I love how tweed looks, nubbly, flecked, old world and fewer steps removed from the initial sheep than ordinary millspun. However I hate the itch factor, I can't wear it at all - even as a top layer it's prickly itch seems to permeate my inner layers and make me scratch, so forget knitting with it.

I was in one of the few big department stores that sells yarn, feeling all of the skeins when I found this - tweed without the scratch! Soft and lofty, nubbles of brighter blues and whites, but soft enough that I moved from stroking it with my hand to stroking it on my cheek. I immediately bought two balls in this pale grey blue and then went back and bought two more in the antique pink colour.

I know Leo's mum made her a hat this colour a while ago and I had admired it, sadly it met a felty end and now fits a teddy, so I decided to knit this.

I love Jared's designs, the subtle details really make the design sing, look at how the cables come together at the crown.

and how simple cables used together make a sum much more than the separate parts

The simple pattern can be knit on the train with no errors. I may even knit this again - for me.