See train hats – the plan for the background to what I’m on about here.

A long, long time ago I knit Ysolda Teague’s Urchin out of some very expensive yarn from Stash in Putney. I didn’t mind that it cost a lot – it was beautiful yarn. It bobbled in a sophisticated way, included shades of blue & purple, and was just… beautiful. The pattern was ideal for the yarn.

So, I made it. Short rows were a new thing for me, and I wasn’t really au fait with how to “read” where you’d turned on a previous row, so ended up doing it quite quickly – according to Ravelry, about 4 days.

Then I tried it on, and like most hats those days, I thought it made me look like an escaped mental patient. Or an undiagnosed one.

So I offered it to my mother, who wears hats and has a smaller head than me (comments on a postcard, please). She wore it, and she wore it lots.

When she died 18 months or so ago, I took it off Dad’s hands and tried it on again. Strangely, it didn’t look that bad on me any more. Almost as though she had worn it in for me…

Not long ago I came across this project on Ravelry, and was totally inspired to have another go at Urchin.

So, when it came to making a train hat, I wanted to give at least one of them an Urchin – and it’s as much an excuse as anything.

Originally I thought Angie, but the yarn I found was more of a Diane/Bella colour scheme.

I made this in one looking-after-the-children day during the summer holidays. To be fair, it was finished quite late at night and had Australia not been quite such a long film I might have taken it to day 2…

All done, I couldn’t wait to take a picture straight away..

See? It doesn’t really work, does it?

Here’s the one my Dad took in better light.

I still have a plan for Diane, so this one is in the bag for Bella – I hope you like it!