Low Functioning Day=Highly Functional Hat

Yesterday was, as I expected it might be, a low functioning day for me. I figured I might feel the effects of the walk on Friday and I did. I started the day with enough focus to finish the e-book I was reading (Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread), but things went downhill from there. I ended up taking a Benadryl, which cleared up my head. My queasy stomach righted itself. I was tired, but able to start to focus--and I was antsy to be working on something. Since my big, mindless shawl project was finished I was in that limbo between appropriate projects. I hate that.

I'd been wanting to make a lightweight, open, summer hat using some cotton/wool/nylon sock yarn I have. I grabbed a skein of that and a 5.5mm Tunisian crochet hook and got started. I finished this afternoon.

  

Hats are useful all year here, where it is often quite windy. When we walk, no matter how well I think I have my hair secured, it flies all around and gets annoying. So a lightweight hat is just the thing to keep it out of my eyes and mouth, while not being too warm.

I started the hat sideways, leaving a long tail for sewing later, and chaining 29. Then I did a regular Tunisian pick-up and work-off row. After that I just alternated a few rows of elongated knit stitch with a few rows of simple stitch until my strip was long enough to fit comfortably around my head.

To make the crown, I simply brought the first row around to meet the last row and began working along the side. Using the same 5.5 mm hook, I used hdc stitches, decreasing at regular intervals until I had 6 stitches left. Then I cut the yarn, threaded a tapestry needle, wove the tail through those stitches and pulled tight to close.

 I used the long tail I started with to sew together the first and last rows of my strip. Then I attached some yarn and switched to a size E hook to do three rounds of evenly spaced sc around the brim.

The yarn is sock yarn that came from Lidl earlier this year. It came in bags of 4 skeins of 50 grams each. I have a shirt that has these colours in it and I made a pair of socks using most of two skeins earlier this summer.

One skein and some scrap balls left. I wonder what they will become!

I am feeling better today--I stayed in yesterday and today. It is a day with an autumnal feel--clouds, a bit of rain now and again, and plenty of wind. I even was able to close a window! I am enjoying it while it lasts because summer is expected to make a (brief, I hope) comeback later in the week. My new hat will come in handy.

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