Le baby camel, take two

We're going skiing this weekend with a couple of friends, one of whom was bemoaning his lack of likeable headgear yesterday, and muttering about 'shopping'. I said, "I can make you a hat!" "Before we leave?" "Sure!" "But what if I don't like it?" "I'll give it to my brother, whom I already promised a hat of this type."

I pulled out some Sundara worsted merino last night — always a good thing to have in your stash:



This is Coronet from Knitty, a nice unisex style. I made myself one last spring, also from Sundara worsted merino. But it took an entire skein for size M, and this is size L, so I know I'll be a bit short on yarn. What to do?

I thought about stripes, and went into my stash to see what I had. And then it occurred to me that I could do the part that backs the cabled band with some random color, because it wouldn't show. But this is the part that goes over the ears. You'd want it to be the softest part, and what's softer than Sundara worsted merino?

Ah. Bouton d'Or Ksar (50% merino, 50% baby camel). Leftover from the Fetching mitts I made myself a couple months ago. Nothing I've touched is softer.

It knits up to the same gauge, and it even kind of matches, so if I do need to add a stripe later on, it might work for that too.

Plus it's definitely going to be both a warm and cuddly earband. Yay.


To answer some questions from the comments: Angie, I used Sundara DK Silky Merino for the Clapotis. Others have done so too, it works well for this pattern and it's SO soft/silky. You need three skeins. However, the colorway I got (Caterpillar) was a one-off — check her site for her latest creations. April, the yarn on my Vandyke-pattern sweater is Araucania Nature Wool, and I highly recommend it. So nice to knit with. Loganoc, I cleaned up the room and I still can't find my elastic thread! So my legwarmers are footwarmers for now. Oh, also, those are googly eye buttons, not just flat stick-on eyes. So very securely fastened. Fuzzarelly, I wish I'd read your advice before I did the waist shaping, but I didn't, and it's very very nipped-in. We'll see how it comes out in the end. If I have to I can stick in a side panel and fake it ;-) I'm not into entire frogging, but I have no compunctions about band-aids.

Oh, and yeah, here is the right front. It curls around the side a lot bec. of the stockinette, but that's okay because it'll have seams and collar. I finished this last night before I started the hat.