So I’ve been knitting the Felicity Hat pattern by Wanett Clyde of the Ebony Butterfly – I found the pattern and tons of advice on Ravelry . And I must say I love this pattern! I just finished my 4th one in about 30 days! Everybody’s getting hats for Christmas – so you all better put in your color preferences now!
The 1st one I made with 1 ½ skeins of Bamboozle from Crystal Palace Yarns in the Seascape color way (it was 40% off! I love sale yarn!). I have to say this is a great yarn – I was worried when I cast on that it was going to be one of those yars that keeps pulling and splitting but I just tied a little knot at the very beginning of the yarn before I cast on and Voila! No problems! I want to find more patterns for this yarn because it was super easy to work with.
Anyway – that itself turned out too small. My own fault – I don’t believe in swatching and I knew ahead of time (thanks to other Ravelers) that this pattern tended to run small – but C’est la vie! I cast on 80 stitches with 9” size 7 circular needles. I had no idea how to use circular needles – I just kinda guessed and it took me a good six rows to figure out that I didn’t have to purl! So that’s why the bottom edge looks a little funny. Switched to size 8 needles (and wow I see why that stupid set of needles was on sale for a buck – it’s awful!) where the pattern said to change. The problem occurred when toward the end I thought I knew what the pattern of decreases was… and I was wrong… so when I pulled the top together there was a rather large hole. Anyway – I’m just going to give it a Pompom! That’ll fix it.
The 2nd one was made with 1 ¼ skins of Mosaic Twist from Yarn Bees in the Iced Fruit color way. (Sale for $2 a skein! Oh Yeah! It’s my b-day!) This was really thick yarn and combined with the tiny size 7’s throughout… oh my hands are still sore! That hat turned out nice but is pretty stiff – definitely a good winter hat.
This 3rd & 4th have been the best so far. The yarn is Cameo from Yarn Bees in the Titian Jewel color way (the orange one – not sure what the colorway on the blue one is) – also known by my husband as hunter orange. Either way it’s super soft and since it’s 100% polyamide (I have no idea what that is…) it’s really drape-y. I used 7’s throughout again (‘cause I hate the 8’s I’ve got and I can’t find a 16” anywhere – they are all 29” long!) and I cast on 100 stitches. I knitted instead of purled the first row and I’m adding an extra row in between the increase and decrease rows to make the hat longer. I love the yarn – although the fuzz makes the increasing harder. If it didn’t have the fuzz I’d consider it for a sweater since it’s so soft!
Now I’m working on some matching arm warmers to match the blue & orange hats!
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention 7’s and 8’s and 16” verses 29” – fear not! For I shall be starting a ‘Tool’ tutorial that will talk about… well tools! All the tools of the crafty trade, be they rocks or rocket launchers; if we can figure out how to craft with it – we’ll mention it here! 
I have a feeling I’ll learn quite a bit myself!