Gem Hat

A chunky chenille hat, soft and slightly floppy.

Black is such a difficult colour to photograph. No stitch definition whatsoever.

Pattern Source: Yarn: # of balls: Notions: Needles: Meterage: Yarn Source: Colour: Size: Started: Finished: Resting Period: Recipient :

Rowan Chenille Collection Rowan chunky chenille 16x24 1.5 petersham ribbon 4.0mm --m Stash from summer sale at Liberty Elephant Dye Lot Unkown one size 8 Nov 2003 10 Nov 2003 11-13 Nov Lou

Chenille is not a fun yarn to work with. You need to work with a pretty firm hand to prevent worming. You can't unravel it or it goes bald. You need to cast on and bind off loosely. Even if you do unravel it slowly and carefully, it's all crinkly and needs to be relaxed before you reknit it. You can't sew up with it (at least not easily, since yanking it, usually leaves you with 2 pieces of thread. You need to find the nappe... (huh?). Combined with knitting it in black and having to sew it.... yipes.. Rowan what are you trying to do to me. Did I mention that you need to do this on bamboo/wooden needles? I know why patterns are rarely written in the round, but I disagree with this, because some things shouldn't have seams.

My first attempt at this hat was to make it seamless. This was an utter failure. Why? The Chenille collection is taken in a dark room with dark surroundings. It was impossible to **see** the hat in detail, prior to knitting it. So it's not easy converting a pattern when you're not entirely sure how it's supposed to look. After a go, I gave up and cast on straights.

Petersham ribbon... people did look at me rather oddly when I asked if they had any instock. In the end I bought some grosgrain ribbon and hoped for the best.

The most annoying thing about this pattern is that the tension for the yarn is given in a differnt needle size that the pattern, leaving me to guess if I was going to knit it to the right tension. Anyone for a bit of adventure knitting?

Project Notes

1. Not many notes for this project. Lots of swearing though when the yarn snapped when pulled too hard or when I was pulling against the nappe and the chenille proved to be as stubborn as a mule.

2. I did mattress stitch using the chenille but the yarn snapped twice. I proved more stubborn and inelastic in the end. Here's Polar, modelling the finished product. She's got a head of 22 inches.





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