winter hat

An Awkward Transaction

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I was delivering a hat I had knit for my son to a friend of mine as it was a bit big for Ethan, but would fit her little guy better. She actually does my hair and is the owner of the salon I go to, and was generous enough to take $20 off my bill for the hat. It was really my first piece of knitting I’ve ever sold (!). 

While we were talking at a coffee shop a friend of hers came over to say hi. It turns out he’s another small business owner locally. He commented on the hat and once she told him I had knit it, he got all animated and asked if I could knit a bigger one. All you knitters out there know what I was thinking, umm yea…of course 😌. But I just said yes, an adult size isn’t hard at all. He said he can never find a hat that covers his ears for some reason. And to that, I was thinking maybe instead of a 9 inch length he might just need 10 inches and a folded brim so he can customize it. 

He asked if I’d knit him one with white on the brim and a big white pom pom and bright blue for the main color as those are his company colors. I said I’d be happy to do it (and I was). I guess the problem came in when I had to buy the yarn. I got a skein of blue Plymouth Merino and white Cascade 220. $28 😲


It turns out once I looked at what I had in my stash once I got home there was some white Berroco Vintage so I used size 6 needles and did a four inch brim. I feel like this yarn is more aran than worsted as the guage is significantly bigger than the worsted merino on size 7 needles. Anyhoo. Here it is finished, modeled by my husband. 


Plenty big. Happy with the results. Now this guy is really a complete stranger so it was very awkward when we were figuring out when to meet and he asked how much for the hat. I had a $16 investment in the blue yarn and a few hours at least in knitting. I had gotten $20 for the kids hat so I said $25-30 but no pressure. 

He gave me $30 which was generous, but then when I stepped back and thought about it I’m sure that was at least double what he was originally thinking when he first asked for the hat. I was able to return the Cascade, so I made $14. 

Lessons learned:

  1. Set the price ahead of time and explain the cost of the yarn (especially with strangers). 
  2. I won’t make much of a profit without using cheaper, synthetic yarns or buy wholesale. 
  3. Knitting is really something to do as a gift of a part of myself to someone and being compensated for my time knitting is nearly impossible. 
  4. I probably won’t do that again! 😋

Top-down Ear Flap Hat

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Another hat to keep another head warm! I’ve been looking for a good ear flap pattern for quite some time and hadn’t had any luck, until a few days ago when Purl Soho released their top-down ear flap hat. I don’t have the specific yarn the pattern calls for but I’ve had some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino tonal grey yarn for a few months in my stash and it has the same guage as the pattern. 

I haven’t ever knit a hat from the top down and I’ve knit many hats. The pattern starts by casting on eight stitches then dividing among four needles. What!? I had to do it twice because I had no idea where to join the round because the needles got all jumbled up. 

Somehow the second try did work and I knit a round and placed the markers.  


Once the increases of the crown were complete it was just stockinette stitch until I got to seven inches from the cast on. 


I find the swirl increases to be really interesting and pretty, which was a pleasant surprise. After binding off the front and back stitches to shape the front and back of the hat, I worked the i-cord for a little over an inch. The PS finished hats all had long cords so I was confused, but then realized long cords and babies are probably a safety hazard. 😳 So I kept it short as this is the 3-6 month size for my co-worker’s baby. 


Here’s the finished i-cord and tassel. I plan to add a small pink pom pom at the top so it should go well with the tassels. I’ll update with a finished picture of her wearing her new winter hat! 💕



A note about the yarn: it is very soft and knit up fine, but the “tonal” color just looks camouflage to me with the way its color worked out in stockinette. I’m not a fan and won’t be using it again. At least I only had one 50 gram ball of it so I’ll probably just hold onto it for waste yarn. Oh well! That’s all part of the process 😂. Maybe different colorways are much nicer as a finished product…I will remain open minded. 

Here’s a picture from Jeff of Sedona wearing it 😁

Hat Season

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Apparently I have very little self control when it comes to keeping my kids’ (and other people’s kids) heads warm for the fall and winter. Right when I declared this would be a time of knitting for myself, already, the evening and early morning temperatures have dropped to the 40’s and I have begun my 9 month old son’s hat. I decided on a beautiful, almost electric color blue with a heathery grey to stripe his hat. My son Ethan’s buddy Phineas has his first birthday coming up…so it only makes sense to knit Phineas the opposite color variation so the two can match. And yes, this should use up two skeins of yarn perfectly 🤓. 

I decided on a long brim to fold over to keep their ears especially warm. I’ve folded it a few times to make sure I have the right length. I refreshed my memory with how to achieve stripes in the round without jogs and though I tried something new with this approach, I went back to the trusty: knit round with new color and lift the stitch below purlwise, then knit two together on the second round (shown here).


If it looks like I live a life of luxury knitting at Starbucks, you’ve been deceived 😂. I got to a meeting early so I spent it going around and around on Phin’s hat. I should be able to finish it tonight once the kids are in bed. Then make the pom poms, attach in time for the birthday party this Saturday (it’s now Wednesday as I write this so I’m making great time).

I’ve made pom poms with scrap cardboard and they turned out fine. I did want to try this Clover pom pom maker just to compare methods. I have to admit – the Clover method was straightforward, easy and made a big, thick ball. I will be using this for all hats going forward.

Did you happen to get a glimpse of that gorgeous mustardy yellow Malabrigo yarn in my bag? Here’s the thing – I promised myself after knitting these hats for the boys I will knit a hat for MYSELF. I am SO excited about that!!! More to come in another hat post on that project soon.


Here’s a quick pic of the finished product. I’m not nuts about the blue pom pom and I think I have enough yarn to redo it – that one will go to my little guy 😉. Hopefully I’ll add a photo of the two of them wearing them sometime soon!

Project details: basic hat pattern with ten decreases at the crown. I used size 7 needles and Plymouth Select Worsted Merino Superwash in colors 49 blue and 7 light grey, click here for other color ideas. I would definitely use this yarn again. Now time for my hat 😁!!!!