star chart

I came, I saw, I conquered. This hat took me less than two weeks to make, but boy it felt like longer. The sheer amount of ribbing involved made the going super slow but the end result oh so squishy. It was easy to get into a rhythm since the pattern is pretty simple, but I did still keep track of my rows with a row counter because I'm bad at reading cables for row count. 

The yarn is malabrigo arroyo which is a nice sturdy feeling wool that stands up really great to all the cabling. The color, pleiades, is a really pretty speckled deep deep navy and white. I am a little bit disappointed that the speckled-ness of the yarn didn't come through as well when knitted up. It kind of looks just like a regular variegated skein would work up. It still looks quite spectacular though. Just not speck-tackular. 

We bought this yarn at ReBelle in Lexington on our recent trip to Kentucky. That was the same place where I saw and loved this hat which someone had made for the shop in a green version of arroyo - a great excuse for a skein of my own to hop in the bag. Despite that project and others on Ravelry using just one skein, I did run out of yarn at the very end. I ended up doing about half of the decreasing in some leftover dark gray I had. Not many yards, but enough that there is a little gray 'cap' on top.  

But fear not! I got this pom pom on that same trip (different yarn shop....) and once it got attached I couldn't even see the gray anymore. The pom pom really makes this hat for me. I liked it without it, but I love it with it. This hat has quickly become one of my favorites to wear. It's warm, fits really great, and makes me feel like a rockstar when I've got it on. One drawback is that I don't wear it when it's rainy... I'm not too sure how that pom pom would like it. 

I decided to call it Star Chart to reference but not use the color way name. The Pleiades are a star cluster that I can recall seeing with just my eyes on a clear night up on Kings Mountain with some friends this summer. It's pretty impressive just gazing up, but with a pair of binoculars they are stunning - a fun thing to commemorate! And just for fun, here is a photo of the two of us up in Napa this week, the maiden voyage of my hat. I literally sewed the pom pom on just before we got in the car so I could wear it on this trip. Fun fact, Dave's hat is also a hand knit and includes the SAME gray on the brim that I capped off my hat with. Cute. 

Pattern: Voleur by Beth Kling (my Ravelry page) 

Yarn: malabrigo arroyo in 'pleiades'

Needle: US 1 and 2.5