Flings 'n Caps

In early July I featured a pattern book called, "In Fashions  for him for her" that has a section called flings and caps. One of the hats was so unique, I knew I had to make it. 

There is no fancy title for this hat in the booklet which is kind of a shame. The violet hat in the photo deserves a good name. It uses worsted weight yarn and specifies American Thread "Dawn" Knitting Worsted. It tells you that you will need a J hook and 2 - 4 oz skeins for both the scarf and hat. I took a chance with a partial skein of Lion Brand Basic Stitch Anti-Pilling Yarn in the color Prism. I had a little over an ounce of it to use and hoped that because it was a pretty open looking hat it would be enough.

The hat starts at the top and works in rounds to the brim. When I started out I wondered if I was making a doily or a hat. In the photo on the right you can see the cluster stitches. Those are the ones that stand up in the photo above.

This wasn't a difficult pattern and it worked up quickly. There are a couple of rows where you're working around the back of stitches in the previous row that might be hard to understand if you've never done a doily or something that explains how to do those well. The finished hat seems pretty small when you look at it and I had doubts it would fit. Here's the finished hat next to my hand and a skein of yarn for scale. The weight of the finished hat is one ounce and I had just enough yarn to complete it.

It turns out the mesh is a little stretchy though so it does fit. The band around the bottom isn't stretchy and that feels a little tight but it does stay on. I think this falls into the "decorative" hat type and since it is a booklet called "Fashions" I guess it makes sense.

I'm going to give it 4 stars because the pattern directions were easy to understand if you've made doilies.  It does fit but I'm not sure if it's actually useful or just fashion. Would you wear this? If you would wear it and you want it I will happily send this on to someone who would use it.