I designed and knit a hat for a new pattern, and laid it on a pile with a couple other hats. A day or two later, my teenage daughter happened to notice the pile of hats, and she picked one of them up. "Now THIS is something I'd actually wear," she told me. SHE. WOULD. ACTUALLY. WEAR. Did I mention that she is 14? Did I mention that since the age of about 3 she has not been shy about letting me know that she's happy to be in charge of choosing her wardrobe because I "have no fashion"?I did it to my own mom, too. We would go clothes shopping together and she would helpfully pick things out of racks to show to me. 99% of the time, I'm sure my response was something like, "No," "No way," or "I'd never wear that if it was the only article of clothing left on earth. Ok, I wouldn't have said that out loud, but I would have thought it, then tried to say "no" in a way that wouldn't result in me having privileges revoked. When I was in high school, my mom was on a mission to get me to buy a blazer. I wouldn't say that is the reason my favorite clothing style is loose and flowy, but knowing what I know of teenagers, she certainly didn't help her cause by consistently pointing out blazers and telling me how great I would look in one.
So imagine my surprise when my own 14-year-old complimented the hat I made, completely unprompted, and said it was very trendy and something she would actually wear. It's not an occurrence I would count on to happen again....at least not until she's paying her own bills.
You probably guessed that the hat I'm talking about is this week's pattern release, number 2 in the #SquadHats eBook collection. This one is called the Stone Stacking Hat, and it has an all-over faux-cabled texture.It has a nice, rounded crown, so it looks great on its own, but it looks extra trendy with a pom pom, especially a faux fur one like the ones I currently have in my Etsy shop. I started making my own, because the commercially produced pom poms I've come across have been both heavy and have had way more "center" than "fur". I purposefully make my pom poms very lightweight, and I choose faux furs that have relatively long "hair" length, so the center of the pom pom isn't the main event.
The Stone Stacking Hat pattern is available now on Ravelry as a single pattern, but it's also available as part of a 4-hat pattern eBook called #SquadHats. Two hat patterns will be available immediately if you purchase #SquadHats, and the remaining two will appear in your library over the next two weeks, until they are all released by the last week in November. As a bonus to eBook customers, the first 50 people who purchase the eBook will have a Trappings & Trinkets ultrasuede garment tag sent to them in the mail. (Tag will be sent to the mailing address associated with your Paypal account.) You might receive a single-sided brown tag like the one shown on this hat, or a double-sided gray tag like the sample hat pictured on the At the Game Hat pattern page. Make sure to send me a message on Ravelry right after making your eBook purchase if you have a preference about which tag I send.
You can check the Stone Stacking Hat's Ravelry pattern page for specifics about yarn & needle requirements and the techniques this pattern uses. There is an unusual increase included, so there is a detailed written explanation of the increase in the abbreviations section of the pattern & a link to a video tutorial demonstrating how the increase is done included as well. Many, many thanks to sandyvar & mlb, the fantastic test knitters who helped to work the kinks out of this pattern!
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