After finishing my first crocheted sweater, I decided that I really wanted to knit a sweater. I’ve only tried to knit once or twice, probably a couple decades ago. But with some exceptions, I like the look of knit sweaters better than crochet. I decided that the Everyday Raglan from Sheep & Stitch would be ideal since she provides videos each step of the way. But there are a few skills that she recommends having first. Knowing that, I decided to start out with a smaller project first to work on those.
This hat is the Hive Hat by Tanya Patterson. I got the pattern on Ravelry. It was a perfect starter project because it has long stretches of just knit or just purl to really get the rhythm of those stitches. And it also requires both circular needles and double pointed needles. So it covers all the skills I needed for the Everyday Raglan.
I used some rainbow acrylic yarn leftover from an Adabox that I decided I wasn’t going to use for its intended purpose. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough, but my local yarn store was having a post-Thanksgiving sale so I was able to get this green wool blend pretty cheap. I didn’t want to get nice stuff since it was just for practice so this was great even though it means the hat is now half acrylic and half wool so we’ll see what happens whenever I decide to wash it.
I’m quite happy with how it turned out, particularly the little tail on top. I think it’s a cute design that I would definitely make again (and it would probably be much faster next time). The color blocking I ended up with is a bit “quirky” but I’m proud of it.
