Mullspice Hat

Ah, the start of Spring. It marks the beginning of a time in which every self respecting knit blogger will present their readers with at least some out-of-season projects. I will kick things off here with a worsted weight cable hat. I started this project because I needed a quick and fun project for in between working on my thesis. As you read in my last post my knit time is fairly limited at the moment, as I juggle regular uni work with thesis writing. A fast, cable project was just what the doctor order to distract me from my ‘meh’-feelings about my limited knit time (or time for anything not uni related for that matter).

I fell for the rustic feel of the pattern. I had one skein of Malabrigo Rios in my stash which,while being a heavier weight, suited the pattern very much. Because Rios is a heavier weigh than asked for, I cast on fewer stitches. I didn’t do the folded brim, again because I’m using a heavier weight yarn and thought a folded brim would be a bit too bulky for my taste. I wanted to give Rios a try after my disappointment with Malabrigo Worsted. I have to say the yarn seems to hold up a lot better. I can only tell for sure when I have been wearing it for a while, but it looks a lot more promising than the worsted.

The pattern is a bit unclear about the decreases, specifically on what to do with the cables as you decrease. You can sort of intuitively figure it out, especially if you’ve knitted cabled projects before. I think most people expect that part in the pattern. I tried to keep the cable as it starts for as long as I could then I decreased the cables evenly from 3/3 to 2/2 cables and finally to 1/1. Other than that I had no issues with the pattern.

This was my first pattern by Alicia Plummer. Though not everything she makes is completely my style, I do like the rustic feel of her designs. I also think she has quite a recognisable aesthetics to her designs, which is admirable. While I liked some of her other designs, I’m not sure if I will start one soon. For one, I can only handle so many non-colourwork projects before I cave in and cast on an avalanche of stranded projects, and I’m not sure if her pattern writing style suits me. Perhaps Mullspice was not the best pattern as a first encounter, or to judge her patterns on. Mullspice was not a badly written pattern, but some information was lacking.

Overall I’m quite happy with the end result. The hat came out a bit bigger after a blocking. I have a small head, and think I could have gone for the smaller size, but it doesn’t bother me much.I think I will get a lot of use out of my Mullspice when the cold sets in again.