The pattern is Knotted Pine by Alicia Plummer, a designer who has multiple patterns in my Ravelry library and favourites but this is the first one I've actually knit up. A few knitters had remarked in their project notes that they found the pattern hard to follow, but I can safely say that I had no trouble whatsoever. The pattern is very brief and to the point but all the pertinent information is there. I used KnitCompanion, as I usually do, and really I should have stitched the charts together on there instead of flicking between them but I'll leave that for next time.
I actually cast on for this for the first time when I was on holiday in December, but I'd forgotten my smaller needles and then I got lost on the charts and decided it was best to rip out and try again at home. Luckily I did because it turns out that my gauge swatch had been telling me some whopping great fibs. According to my swatch I needed to go up a needle size, so that's what I did and after dithering about what size to choose I went for 22" because that's how big my head is. It was quite clear before I even finished the ribbing that the thing was going to be massive so I went back down to the suggested needle size and changed to the 20" size. It fits really nicely now so I definitely did the right thing.
The yarn is Lang Yak, which was sent to me from Switzerland during a recent swap, and I'm a big fan now. It's really smooth and warm and the colour is lovely. I haven't washed it yet because I was so desperate to get this hat on my head, but apparently it gets even lovelier after a wash. I only used a little more than one ball so I have the larger part of the second ball left to make a hat for a small person. Hmm, now which pattern to choose.....
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