The Death and Rebirth of my Cabled Hat

Way back in January 2008, I started a cabled hat project, intended as a winter hat for myself. I was a relatively "young" knitter, and therefore inexperienced. At the end of the project, it was apparent that I had done something terribly wrong. Due to disastrous gauge ignorance, use of a cotton-based yarn (the pattern was written for wool) and wilful denial, the hat proved far, far too small for me. Disgusted, but unwilling to trash it, I put the finished hat in the bottom of the knitting basket never to be seen again. (And forevermore, I vow to make a gauge swatch). A year and a half later I cleaned out the basket and realized I now have two nieces, at least one of which should fit the hat beautifully. I stitched 1.5” wide double-faced satin in ivory color to the inside crown of the hat for a lovely tie, and added two pieces of i-cord on the brim, left and right of the face, to hold them in place. The result is a sweet baby hat that can be worn with tie under the chin or above the crown to raise the brim off the face somewhat. Since it is knit in cotton, this hat could be worn all winter long and into spring. Three cheers for rescuing a failed project!

There's probably a bevy of life lessons here, so I'm going to make an attempt to acknowledge a few of them. 1) What doesn't fit you, today, might fit somebody else later on, so don't throw away clothes - donate them. 2) "Failures" are just learning opportunities. 3) Knitting in cotton is nothing whatever like knitting in wool. 4)Double-faced satin ribbons make everything better. 5) Oh... and, cleaning out the knitting basket every now and again can lead to wonderful things. I rediscovered a very large skein of hand-spun, hand-dyed virgin wool I purchased in West Virginia... I see my next pair of socks now.