A cloche floated into (metaphorical) view. Yes, that could work, and has pretty much enough sophistication for the lady in question.<\/p>\n
Plus, having done a brief Ravelry search, a simple free cloche pattern<\/a> presented itself, and what’s more I had some appropriately coloured yarn in the stash.<\/p>\n I noticed the other day that mystery lady X has reddish hair (probably not naturally so, but as effectively a stalker, who am I to judge?) and so the colour which suggested itself to me was green. However, I have a friend who has (naturally) flame red hair (hi Vicki) but also has startlingly blue eyes, and so as well as looking stunning in green, looks _utterly_ stunning in cornflower blue.<\/p>\n So, the closest I have to this blue is some Aran left over from the poncho I made for Lily.<\/p>\n I won’t go on at length (hah!) but the first version of this hat didn’t go well.<\/p>\n This is taken late at night and granted, a bottom up half-finished hat is unlikely to WOW, but quite honestly it didn’t improve with completion. Whether I chose the wrong type of cast-on for the brim (which can’t be seen in the above photo) or it was just too small, it was a bit pants. Steve’s comment was that it looked unfinished.<\/p>\n So I unravelled it. I’m sure masterpieces of this pattern exist whose creators did something I didn’t. This version was Not Nice.<\/p>\n And in relating how the second pattern I’ve used came about, I have a confession to make. The stalking is not a new thing.<\/p>\n Getting on for a year ago I saw a woman at Oxford Road with a FABULOUS hat. So I kinneared her<\/a>. Purely for her hat. See how I’ve obscured her features. When I told Steve he said it was Wrong and I shouldn’t have done it. I reminded him of his reaction this evening & he said that although he didn’t remember the conversation, he was remembering the uncomfortable “my wife is insane” feeling.<\/p>\n I subsequently found the hat for sale in Lakeland on Lord Street, but buying<\/em> the hat is the defeatist’s way out. I wanted the creative challenge of recreating it. Months ago I swatched to see how the ridges might be achieved, and the slanty ridges at that. This is my chance.<\/p>\n I wrote some pattern notes. See – personal growth & professional development. It’s like I pay attention sometimes.<\/p>\n Given that I appear unable to follow printed patterns that have been tech edited and test knitted it will be no surprise that these notes were at best a guideline.<\/p>\n It has a double layer band at the bottom as first encountered in Joel’s pirate hat<\/a>, but I tried a different provisional cast-on method. My gung-ho attitude here meant that some stitches came unthreaded so the inside of the band may not win any competitions other than ones which give out prizes for good recovery.<\/p>\n The rest I knit largely to plan during a trip to London so bizarrely this is the first of the\u00a0train\u00a0hats which has actually been on a train<\/em>, and was finished late on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n I crocheted a flower-type feature and sewed on with a specially acquired button (acquired to go with the first pattern, while I’m being honest) – again, finished at the end of an evening in front of the telly. The film “United 93” features here, but be reassured that it was largely background noise, it’s not the first time I’ve seen it.<\/p>\n So I finished it, modelled it for Steve, and do you know what his verdict was on this original home-designed hat?<\/p>\n “Nice button.”<\/p>\n Yes, good work, Mark at Knit-wise, you picked out a good button for this hat.<\/p>\n (and the pictures were taken the next day with my new favourite model – I haven’t suddenly turned into Winnie The Pooh).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This has been painful on more than one front. In a “think of anything except a purple cow” scenario I was trying to settle on anything other than a red-beret for nameless-woman-whose-name-I-must-find-out and properly failing. What goes with long straight … Continue reading ![\"half](\"http:\/\/www.jude.hanlon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/iphone-friday-012-225x300.jpg\" "\\"iphone-friday")
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