Cascade Fixation: Cabled Capabilities

Admin's Note:  For the next 5 weeks, also known as the remainder of the football season, we're going to try to have Pam work on a new hat pattern idea to share with you.  As an avid football fan, she's usually knitting or crocheting something simple to keep her hands busy, but not so difficult as to distract her from the game.

For the record.  I do not swatch hats.  I know every designer and knit/crochet teacher out there are rolling their eyes, sighing deeply, tsk-tsking and pooh-poohing me.  Because I can find a home for most every hat that I make, and I do know the range of sizes that my gauge usually makes…I just don't swatch hats.  Sweaters, yes.  Cowls, sometimes. Mittens, yes.  Not hats.

So about a third of the way into this hat, I realized that the combination of the yarn I was using, Cascade Fixation, and my Kollage size 7 needles would result in a smaller hat.  That's okay.  Kids need hats, too.  But a word to the wise.  The Kollage folks will tell you that sometimes you need to go 'up' a size using their square needles.  They may be right.  Had I used a size 8 and not 7, this hat may have come to gauge. Listen to them when they speak...

But I digress.  This week's hat is the Cabled Chemo Cap, designed by Susie Bonnell for Cascade Yarns, in Fixation yarn.  It is a free pattern.  The Cascade folks have been very supportive of Halos of Hope this year, and were kind enough to provide a sample of Fixation for us at the Stitches East show in Hartford, CT.  The yarn is 98% cotton and 2% elastic, which means it has a lot of stretch.  As seen by the photos below, the completed hat, while comfortably fitting the child head mannequin, also stretches easily to fit a 19-20" adult/teen head.  It would just need to be a little longer, which could easily be done without going into a second skein.

Our Sunday with a Side of Football hats are supposed to be about hats that could be completed in an afternoon of two (or more) football games.  Word to the wise (and the cooks among you) - if this is your goal, don't offer to make dinner on Sunday night.  Why?  It's a distraction!  You don't get your knitting done.  It would be possible to complete this hat in two afternoon games, with maybe a slide over to the Sunday Night game.  However, my offering-to-cook-dinner obligation delayed the hat's completion to the Monday Night game between the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants.  And that meant even more distractions, because Drew Brees was on fire Monday Night!  While I am a Packer fan heart & soul, I harbor a soft spot for the Saints after all that happened in New Orleans the year Hurricane Katrina hit.

But I digress from the knitting again.   I'm always on the lookout for hat patterns and yarns that might be good for sleep caps, or those that are good for the areas in warmer climates, like the Southwest, the West Coast and tropical climates, like Florida.  This pattern, in the Fixation yarn, would be excellent for all of these.  It is a lighter weight yarn (they give it a DK weight rating).  It's not so dense to be too warm for sunny climes, and yet it provides enough coverage for those who want it.  As a sleep cap, I don't think it will be uncomfortable. And the cotton with the stretch allows for the head to breathe, yet remain warm, through the night.  

Lastly, for those who are newer knitters and want to 'try' cables, this is a great project. There is a simple cable 2 stitch (c2), without having to use a cable needle, and a cable 4 back (C4B) every 4th row, which gets you used to holding the stitches on the cable needle, but not having to manage both front and back cables.  Personally, I find cable-back far easier to manage than cable-front, when you're learning.  But that's just my humble opinion.

Again, my thanks to the folks at Cascade Yarns for introducing us to the yarn and the pattern.  It is definitely one that I will make again.

Lest our crocheters following think that I've forgotten them…fear not, crochet pattern ideas are coming, we have 5 more games!!