Elsica

The freezing weather continues, and a walk yesterday convinced me it was time to knit myself a hat. I don't like the beanie style on me, as I have too much hair, but like the look of the slouchy berets that seem to be everywhere. I decided to try Elsica by Woolly Wormhead. Apart from the look of the finished item, this pattern hits two of my Ten410 techniques straightaway: twist cables and cabling without a cable needle.

I went stashdiving and surfaced with a yarn that was the perfect colour. Unfortunately, it was sock weight and the pattern calls for worsted with a gauge of 20. I pulled out a fluffy worsted yarn with a great texture, but questionable colour. I also got a gauge of 18 when I did a mini-swatch. Couldn't find anything else I wanted to use, so settled on this, and figured that going down a size would compensate for the gauge difference.

I have to say I am finding the pattern quite challenging! I thought hats were quick, mindless projects but I am concentrating hard on this one. The first point I discovered was that I needed to slip stitches with yarn in back to get the right effect - the pattern assumes you know this, but I quickly realised I was getting the wrong effect when I slipped with yarn in front.

I found the increase row a bit tricky because there were so many increases that the yarn was quite tight and it became difficult to knit into the strands. I have also ended up with weird diagonal lines where I did the increases.



The cable twist first row was a bit confusing - I think you need to move the marker before starting this row in order to make the twist tutorial and the pattern align. When I did this, all was well. I find the twisting without a cable needle difficult, as the yarn tends to pull out of the stitch when I re-arrange the order. Still, I'll get lots of practice, as this is repeated all the way up the hat.