That beautiful aran yarn and what I said about it yesterday, combined with the sea of stockinette sweater knitting I have in my immediate future, has me yearning to cast on some serious fisherman-style mixed cables, and I’m trying to bait myself into fantasizing about hats instead of sweaters. A nice juicy small-scale project to keep my knitting life lively without being another sweater on the needles, in other words. So I went back through my years of favorited hats on Ravelry and picked out a few longstanding temptations:
TOP: Bulletproof Aran by Chuck Wright
MIDDLE: Bray Cap by Jared Flood
BOTTOM: Traveling Cable Hat by Purl Soho
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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: from BT Fall/Holiday
Great hats. You can always do what I do (following EZ’s advice) and use your aran hat as a swatch for an in-the-round sweater design. Granted, if you decide to use it as a swatch you’ll probably want to cut it open so it will lie flat for measuring purposes, keeping in mind that the final width can vary hugely depending on how aggressively you block it. But you know that already!
P.S. Just signed up for your class at Squam.
But my class is beginner cables! I would think you already know everything I’m teaching, no?
Not to worry. It’s not a first choice, and there is always something to learn from a class.
Love all those hats especially Bullet Proof! Thanks once again for the suggestions. I agree
it’s a good project instead of a sweater right now!!
I Knit the Bulletproof Aran last year, using Bartlettyarns’ 2 ply. One of my favourite hats to knit and wear!
It’s one of the very first things I ever favorited, and I think it’s time might finally have come.
I loved knitting the Brackett hat from Laine in my own Harrisville Color Lab 2!
That’s actually what Rachel was knitting that morning with her yarn. And it was all over Rhinebeck. I do love it, but it also reminded me of Bray when I first saw it, which has been on my list for quite awhile. Your hat looks GORGEOUS in the blue Harrisville.
They are similar, and I almost knit Bray instead (it’s been in the favorites for a long time too), but the not-quite-honeycomb cable on Brackett is what won me over (instead of the smaller horseshoe-like one on Bray). Funny enough, several people have swapped out the xo honeycombish cable for one that looks like the second cable on the Bray cap when making Brackett, when you browse the Rav projects. It makes them even more similar!
Now that I know how, my favorite thing to do is make folded brim hats
I love them, too, but I also love how a fold-up brim allows you to get it right where you want it on your head.
The Bray Cap is one of my favorites to knit and to gift! The little bit of lace mixed with the cables makes it a more wearable cap for mild Texas winters.
It looks super fun to knit.
All of them look so tempting right now…but I must be good & knuckle down to get my Xmas knitting out of the way first + 1/2 finished sweater for my younger daughter….I like the look of the Purl Soho one in particular AND the yarn I have in mind is waiting patiently in my stash.
I live in Minnesota, and I would never knit Bray. Lace and hats and January equal cold head.
I’ve made the Bulletproof aran five times and everyone who’s ever gotten one loves it. (Four men, one woman.)
A great hat and a fun knit.
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I’ve knit the Purl Soho hat 5 or 6 times now, for myself and for several gifts. It’s a great pattern, and I think it was my first attempt at cables. In fact I just finished one for my sister-in-law last week! I’ve always knit it in lovely neutral colors, but now I think it would be fun to try neon or some color blocking or maybe speckled yarn…perhaps I should finish my Bronwyn sweater before I start any more cables!
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