off the needles: Adonis Hat

Last week Mr P went skiing. 

As we were starting to think about what bizarre snowy bits and bobs he might need, we realised he didn't have a hat. I thought sadly of the half lined Totoro hat that I had knitted him years earlier with awful acrylic and the wrong size needles. Not very warm and not quite finished. Sigh. I felt like I'd failed as both a wife and a knitter! So, I did what we knitters do best. I dived headfirst (okay, not literally) into my stash, dug out some pretty aran and hit Ravelry to find a basic beanie pattern that matched the yarn and needles I had. Bingo. The Adonis Hat was born. 

Urg. Nobody likes deadlines, but I had a week to knit this blighter and so a week it took. During the process I fell hard for the yarn (Hullaballoo yarn by Collinette, in the Adonis colourway of course), joined the #bedinburghyarnfest on Instagram, watched Bright Star for the first time and bawled my eyes out and became convinced that I was developing RSI. The project came to work with me every day, to a museum and out to lunch. Man, did that fold over brim ribbing take forever. And towards the end I had a very real fear that I would not have enough yarn to finish the hat. I even planned to twist together black and blue acrylic to get it done.

Thankfully, by some miracle, I pulled it off. The hat was completed*, sewn up, fitted like a dream and was all snuggly and beautiful just in time. And let me just wax lyrical about that yarn again. THOSE COLOURS. Kingfisher? Lapiz Lazuli? Northern Lights? It's enough to drive a woman to distraction. 

Anyhow, Mr P simply adores his new knitted hat, and that's the main thing. It kept him warm, and one of his skiing companions even remarked that it looked like something you might buy in a shop (gee, thanks). 

*Confession: I totally did run out of time. The pompom was added somewhat after the ski adventure.