Bessie’s Kitchen Hat

This easy chevron hat only took about two days to knit.

I’ve had my eye on the Ida’s Kitchen pattern by Kristen Kapur for a while now, so when I picked up some Debbie Bliss Ecobaby on clearance recently at my LYS, I gathered up some other odds and ends of sport-weight yarn and cast on this adorable hat. See my project here.

I have a small head, so I sized down the needles and used US 5 for the brim and US 6 for the body and crown. This pattern is a great way to bust sport and DK yarn ends from your stash. Each color only uses about 40 yds, and you can experiment with so many different colors.

The pattern calls for seven colors. The ones I used were:

• A: Brown (KnitPicks Simply Cotton Sport)
• B: Blue (Debbie Bliss Ecobaby)
• C: Orange (South West Trading Company Terra)
• D: Taupe (Debbie Bliss Ecobaby)
• E: Green (South West Trading Company Terra)
• F: Purple (Debbie Bliss Ecobaby)
• G: Yellow (South West Trading Company Terra)

The hat only took a couple of days to knit and the pattern is very easy to memorize. This hat was a great way to work out the chevron love I developed while knitting my Chevron Stripes Baby Blanket.

Incidentally, I didn’t post the matching bonnet that I made for the blanket:

The bonnet pattern and my modifications can be found on my Ravelry page.

Hopefully my stripe addiction will be sated for a bit and I can get back to knitting my Damask shawl.

Lunchtime Update

The Chevron Baby Blanket by Purl Soho.

I have completed the knitting on my Chevron Baby Blanket. I’m totally smitten with this afghan and I wish it were my size. It could make a great lap blanket, but I think I’d like to save it for a baby.

I say I’m finished with the knitting because I’d like to line the wrong side of the afghan with some cotton fabric. This will make it even warmer and will help keep the ends from unweaving as the blanket gets washed repeatedly.

I think this project is great for both beginners or advanced knitters. The stitch pattern was easy to memorize and the neat design is a great payoff for a new knitter, while the bulky-weight guage offers fast satisfaction to a seasoned knitter who’s burned out on a shawl or more complicated patterns.

This pattern called for seven skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton, which I have used on several occassions. However, this yarn is a bit pricey and the afghan would have cost more than $100 if I’d used it. I opted for Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted, which has been discontinued and was on clearance. In total, I paid $21 for the yarn (plus a little stash white cotton I had sitting around.)

The only adjustments I made to the pattern had to do with how much yarn I had. The pattern calls for 20 rows of each color (10 garter ridges), but I wasn’t sure I had enough yarn when I started, so I did 18 rows of each color. To make up for the lost length I added the white cotton stripe in the middle, and my afghan is just four rows longer than it would be if I’d followed the pattern.

I will definitely make this afghan again the future, though I’ll have to find some new yarn. I love the organic cotton feel, but Knit Picks Comfy Worsted (cotton/acrylic) or even the pricey Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton would be great choices.

I did estimate incorrectly on the amount of yarn I had, so I have leftovers of each color. I think I’ll make a matching bonnet!