Hats. They are taking over my world.
In truth, this hat should have taken me an evening to knit, but the combination of a too-loose gauge and lack of a 16″ circular needle made this project slightly maddening. I chose the Vermonter pattern (free on Ravelry) by Abi Gregorio for its simplicity. Initially I attempted the Amelia Slouch Beanie, but the yarn was so heavy I scrapped that idea halfway through and tried again with this pattern.
The yarn is Malabrigo Rasta, a superbulky yarn that seems to even outdo other superbulkies. It’s almost like knitting with pencil roving (not that I’ve tried that, but I’m using my active imagination here), and ultimately I had to take out 4 stitches from the written pattern so that the hat would fit my head without toppling off. I probably knit this hat about four times trying to find the right stitch count, and all of that knitting time was spent on US 11 and US 13 double-pointed needles, so I can’t say I particularly enjoyed myself during the process, but at least I finally found the magic number (40 stitches around). It is worth mentioning that I have a smaller head and a looser gauge, so that might not be necessary for others. The slightly altered stitch count meant that I had to improvise my decreases at the crown, but it seemed to work out fine (sorry, I don’t entirely remember what I did!).
Making the pom-pom was hilarious; it started out crazy gigantic and I kept giving it haircuts and trimming as evenly as I could, aiming for a reasonable size that was close to uniform, but it’s still pretty enormous. The first time I wore this my husband pointed at the pom-pom and asked “what is that for?” I told him it served no particular purpose and was just for fun, which only encouraged him to bat at it like a tennis ball. Boys.
Having said that, this hat has already gotten a lot of compliments and I love wearing it, especially in the middle of this brutally cold winter (please, can we have some more degrees out here? more than 10 F? also, are you serious with this freezing rain?). Malabrigo colorways, particularly the variegated ones, never disappoint, and this hat screams “handmade” in the best possible way.
More hats to come. Specifically, pink hats.
Stitch Party 
It’s beautiful, I make handspun yarn so I’ve added this to my Ravelry que
Yes, handspun would be perfect!