Now Knitting: Hats For Giants

Taking a break from baby knitting last week (I finally seamed the sweater -- it's amazing how a little university gossip can distract you into completing the most tedious tasks), I knit up the beanie below. It took all of three days, I zipped right through it. TOO BAD IT CAME OUT SIZED FOR GIANT PEOPLE. 

My bad. Because I'm a lazy knitter, I don't often check for gauge before I start a project from a pattern. I don't think I've ever checked gauge on a hat at all, ever. I like my hats slouchy, and I used to think that the slouchier the better. This humongous thing, though, makes me look like I belong in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Or like I need to dread my hair to have something to stuff it with. Become a dreadlocked cartoon dwarf.

What a quandary. I decided that I had two options: either gift the hat to a person with dreadlocks and/or an enormous cranium, or wet block aggressively and then intentionally shrink it in the dryer (surely felting it in the process, very risky). A shame either way, really. I was really looking forward to wearing this thing in inclement Brontë weather! And that yarn was absurdly expensive! A friend then suggested that I do the reasonable and rational thing, which is to frog back halfway and then knit it up smaller, DUH. Thanks, reasonable and rational friend, I think that's exactly what I'll do!

For those of you interested in the pattern, it's Jared Flood's Rosebud from the Brooklyn Tweed Fall 2011 collection. Beautiful, just like everything else from the Brooklyn Tweed universe. JUST CHECK YOUR GAUGE, PLEASE. 

I'll post back with some "after-after" photos when I'm through, but I need to finish a baby bonnet and some tiny booties first. In the mean time, I'll leave you with this final, dreamy close-up of the mega-cable. Yes, sweet woolen dreams.