Another Mystery Knit Along

Last month, Leethal announced she was doing another mystery knit along. I loved the last one she did, I blogged about it here. Before she released the knit along, she asked if anyone was interested in test knitting the pattern first. I signed right up! So I knew that it was a hat, and I knew I'd be using sport weight yarn. But I'd just be knitting blindly and then give Lee feedback about the pattern.

The first part (Week 1) was the brim.

The second part (Week 2) was the body of the hat.

The last part (Week 3) was for decreasing the crown.

The yarn I used I got at Black Sheep Gathering at the Eugene Textile Center's booth. It is a lovely Argentina Yarn Polwarth/Silk blend dyed naturally with indigo. It's wonderful and was great for this hat pattern.

I love this hat and wore it camping. You can buy Leethal's hat pattern here.

I didn't have a bandit hat...

...So I modified this tube sock.

I love the Fantastic Mr. Fox. Even more, I love the character Ash (really, let's be honest. I love Jason Schwartzman.) Back on topic, my dear friend Mary made a joke about us needing bandit hats during our last yarn bombing. She joked that we needed tube sock bandit hats like Asher wore in the movie. A fleeting thought. A simple joke. I, of course, couldn't get the damn idea out of my head. I needed to make that hat. Already have my Halloween costume planned. Getting to be warm- no need for winter-like face masks. I really had no functional use for this mask. But still, I needed to make it.

After watching the movie, again I started to cast on. I've been asked for the pattern. I rarely write down my patterns. My patterns are more like recipes. I just knit a bandit hat with a mouth. Make sure to stripe the collar (I had to frog this part back. I was done with the ribbing, I looked at a picture of Ash and realized I had the striping part all wrong.) And when you start decreasing down the crown, stop when you have a good sized tube and start knitting a sock. Then knit some fox ears and sew them on. I stuffed the sock a bit with some polyester toy stuffing to help it keep shape.

It fits me and my husband Brandon better, I had made it adult size. But Bailey, my 3 year old pretty much has claimed it as his own. It looks like he has his Halloween costume squared away.