Year of Projects Update - 4th December

Can you believe it's December already? I know a lot of my fellow Year of Projects bloggers have scaled back their efforts in completing projects on their lists to focus on the dreaded Christmas knitting, but as I only have one present to make (Rosie's Rosie) I've been able to keep up with my list quite comfortably.

I've been making steady progress on my other WIPs, but I've been so busy this week doing fun holiday things I've not actually had all that much time for knitting. And now my Christmas tree is up, it neatly hides and partially blocks access to my stash and WIP shelves, so I've not had anything to hand!

Yesterday afternoon I found myself sitting down to watch the rugby with nothing to fiddle with, so I braved the tree and rescued my Rapunzel hat.

It's finished! I'm so excited by this hat. It's amazing. The yarn is so soft and warm, the cables are beautiful and the braids are just the right amount of silly. I decided against adding the pompom to the top, mainly because I already have a hat with a pompom and I know just how ridiculous I look when I wear it. So we made an executive decision to omit that from the pattern.

Here's the details then:

Pattern: Free Rapunzel! by Tiny Owl Knits

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in chocolate brown. I used less than two balls.

Needles: 9mm circular and dpns

Mods: other than omitting the pompom, I didn't really modify the pattern in any way. I could have made the braids looser by going up a needle size or two, but as my 9mms are the biggest I've got, I couldn't do that. I quite like them as they are. I also used elastic hair ties to tie off the braids, rather than a thread of yarn as the pattern suggested. I think they'll be more secure this way. The purple ribbon I had lying around in my LRP kit, and was too short to be of any use to me there, so I happily donated it to this hat.

It all turned out rather well. I have a new hat that I love, one more project to cross off the list and I've developed my knitting skills to the point where I am no longer afraid of cables or knitting on DPNs. So unafraid, in fact, that I've already got another hat on the needles!

I have just over two balls of this lovely yarn left over, so I think once I'm done with the other hat, I will cast on some mittens to match Rapunzel's hat. After all, I'm sure she'd need to protect her delicate princess hands while she's doing all that hard work pulling the prince up into her tower!