Ribbed Hat and an Update

I've made Andrew a few hats, with varying degrees of success. Last year, he was wearing a storebought hat. It was a nice storebought hat, but I've begun to find storebought winter accessories slightly offensive. He told me that the storebought one was lighter weight, and he needed that when the weather wasn't extremely cold.

Fair enough. I could make that. So I made him the Brain Wave hat. It's a great hat, but I realized that it's not really lightweight. Sure, it's lighter than a worsted weight hat, but it's still stranded knitting. Even in fingering weight yarn, stranded knitting is dense.

I have remedied the situation, making a hat that is one thickness of fingering weight yarn. Lo, the Ribbed for His Pleasure Hat.

2x2 Ribbed for His Pleasure (mine raveled here),

knit in Knitpicks Chroma Fingering, Misty Morn colorway

This is not challenging in the sense of technique. It is challenging in the sense of patience. There are 160 stitches in a round, and it's entirely in 2x2 rib on size 2.25 mm/US size 1 needles. I started it on dpns, but switched to a circular and am very glad I did. I had to buy the right size circular, but it was worth the money. Forty stitches on a single dpn is just a few too many. They kept trying to jump off the needle.

I persevered. Snug. Lightweight. Covers the ears.

Andrew's adorable. Who wouldn't knit a jillion stitches for this guy?

Update: Anyone remember my Year of the Heifer? It didn't work. I've decided that's okay. A bummer, but okay.