I’m learning to embrace my quirks instead of trying to change them.
One of them, dear reader, is that I loooooove sock yarn and, well, any fingering-weight yarn.
I have lots of it. Fleece Artist, Knit Picks Palette, Stroll, and Felici, some Lorna’s Laces, Indigodragonfly, more Fleece Artist, some Madelinetosh… Oh, yeah. I’m a junkie. I like the good stuff.
I collect it with good intentions, I swear. I try diligently to think up projects for the skein in my hand before I buy it. I never leave the store with a skein that doesn’t have a future, a purpose.
But let’s be honest. Sometimes I make those purposes up. I would never admit it at the time, but having had certain skeins for a couple of years now, I can say that I *may* have been a teeny bit delusional. But only maybe. This is not a confession, and my husband is not allowed to use this post against me.
(Thankfully, I don’t believe he’s ever read a word I’ve written here, so haha! I’m probably safe.)
ANYway, I love working with this weight of yarn. My hands don’t get as tired. I can make a whole project with just one or two skeins. No large purchase decisions, no sweaters that started off well and then went off the rails… *ahem*
So here’s a hat. It’s made of sock yarn. Well, Knit Picks Palette, which isn’t technically for socks, but it’s close enough. Especially since it can be replaced very easily by any old sock yarn out there.
Even a basket of those teeny, tiny, stupid, useless-looking leftovers from all the socks and gloves and hats I’ve made.
This hat, basically, is a stashbuster — an alternative, if you will, to making a Sock Yarn Blankie or a Beekeeper’s Quilt. (Both of which I have been working on for years now. My Blankie is about 4 feet wide and 1 foot long, and I have a small peach basket of hexipuffs. I’ll return to you someday, my dears, I promise!)
It’s a nice, basic slouchy hat construction, so you can, if you want, make it from one new ball of yarn and forget the stashbusting altogether. It’s up to you.
I made it to match my Scrunchy Ombre Arm Warmers pattern. Why not, right? I love the rainbowiness of them.
The pattern comes with instructions for working not only the basic structure, but also these rainbow stripes specifically and some tips for inventing your own stripes — tips on how to use up your stash, no matter the lengths of yarn you have left.
Now, some of you may have already found this pattern on Ravelry. It’s actually been there for a little while, and I’m only just now realizing I forgot to post about it! But I like it so much, I really wanted to share it. It’s actually been one of my most popular so far.
And now, without further ado, you may click this link to go to the pattern page:
[box type=”download” icon=”none”]Sock Stashbuster Slouch Hat[/box]