WIP Wednesday: Christmas Tam Surgery Fail

  **This post contains affiliate links. Any link marked with an * may give me a reward or commission if you visit and/or purchase something using that link, at no additional cost to you! And, if you do purchase from my affiliate links, thank you for helping to keep rent paid!**

Hello, and welcome back to WIP Wednesday.  This week, I come back to a languishing project - redoing the Christmas Tam. 

I decided that, rather than sewing in an elastic, I'd attempt surgery on the hat.  That is, I'd cut the ribbing out and work the hat down from the brim with a smaller number of stitches, turning what had been an increase round into a decrease round.

Then, I realized that given how much I will -hate- picking up 168 stitches in a cable pattern, making sure all of them are not twisted, and, the potential for utter disaster if this goes wrong. . . . I'm just re-knitting it.  Considering that I eventually want to sell the hat pattern, anyway, it's best if I do, in fact, just have a working pattern right from the start, rather then a pattern I've cludged together. 

 

So welcome back to cast on number two of the Christmas Tam!  I've dropped the number of stitches in the brim by 20%, to 104 stitches for the Adult Small size, and, here's hoping this fits my giftee better (it should!)  She's been exceptionally patient in waiting for the Fire and Light Shawl to be done (it is, it's currently drying after being blocked!) and, this is the next project that should hopefully not take too long. Given that I know the rest of the cable pattern works just fine, I expect to knit this up pretty quickly, despite me being just on the ribbing. 

Yarn is Fleece Artist's 2/6 Merino in "Spruce", which is quite discontinued - this yarn was reclaimed from a previous hat project, so it's quite old now.  Needles are my *Knit Picks Nickle-plated 2.25 mm circulars, and I think I've gushed about them enough in the previous posts!

Right now I just have my dolphin stitch marker from *NotionsEmporium to mark the beginning/end of round.  They were right on my desk as I'd just finished casting off the Fire and Light Shawl Monday night. So, they were convenient!  

My giftee has been making polite noises about wanting the hat done for Fall so it can actually be worn - and, hopefully, I can oblige!  Wish me luck in that I can finish this quickly!  I have a two-hour train ride to Barrie Fibre Spirit since I'm teaching there this weekend (August 24, 2024), so, I'll have lots of time to get some progress done!