A Love Affair with a Hat

For Christmas in 2005 (that sounds like so long ago!), I got the 2006 Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar. I was thrilled. I had been knitting for over a year, but had only made scarves, blankets and one baby sweater. I was ready to branch out, but still a little unsure if I had the necessary skills. I decided to start small--a hat. I could do a hat! The first few hats I tried were okay, but a bit disappointing. Then I discovered the Twizzle Hat (Barb's Twizzle Baby Hat to be exact).

I immediately went to work on my first hat and it was cute. It was remarkably easy. I was thrilled. I enjoyed the quick (relatively) pattern so much that I made lots and lots of twizzle hats. I had some Bernat Softee Baby left over from earlier blankets which worked perfectly for these hats. I loved trying different color combinations.

I even made one to go with my little man's Halloween costume.






I was hooked. I was soon making twizzle hats for every baby I knew and even selling some to babies I didn't know. I raised enough money to buy a Christmas present for my husband--a very nice feeling for a non-working wife. After a while, I grew tired of making the same hat over and over so I tried my hand at a few others including this one from Helloyarn.

But soon more babies were on the way and I returned to my favorite, the twizzle hat. By this time, I had experimented with stranded work and decided to add some to my next batch of twizzle hats. This worked well with a set of hats I made for my brother's triplets who are due in October. Yes, triplets! Two girls and a boy!

Now I was ready for an even more ambitious twizzle hat. One with multi-colored stranded work. I carefully picked out my yarn.






I chose a pattern for the stranded work.




And I made a hat that is both lovely and not all at the same time. I had such very good intentions, but I'm afraid it may be a bit loud. You see I made this hat for a friend who doesn't go for the traditional pastels for babies. I wanted this hat to be bold. I wanted it to be bright and cheerful. It is. But it's also a bit like a flashback from the 80s. And although I love the 80s and have many fond memories, I'm not sure if I miss the fashion.






If my friend hates the hat, I know she will never tell me. I will recieve the obligatory photo of her child wearing his hat. But hopefully, she will love his twizzle hat. She will embrace it's 80s funkiness. As a knitter herself, she will know it was knitted with love. It's a little, slightly garish, brightly-colored labor of love.