The Hat That Never Was (Part One)

Something my friends in my teacher prep cohort “roast” me for is that when I decide to do something, I lean into it full tilt. In their words, I “do the most.” It is a tendency I have, to get an interest in something and then probe deeper and deeper into it, until my imposter syndrome gets the best of me and I back out, abadoning it at the first sign of turbulence.

This year, this decade, I think I’m making the resolve to undo all of that. Or at least, I will still “do the most” but I want to keep trying once I hit a stumbling block.

Crocheting is unlike most of my other hobbies in that I have been able to, for the most part, keep working even when I have to redo something or things aren’t working out as planned. This is where “The Hat That Never Was” comes in.

I was pretty confident I could self-draft (and by that, I mean, make up a pattern on the fly) a hat with a poof. I bought fancy Mandlinetosh Pashmina wool and got to work. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned. The first time, I got the size wrong. The second time, the gauge was wrong. The third time, I feel like the pattern or mix of stitches I had in mind wasn’t working—my ribbing was too stretchy and loose while the body of the hat’s stitch was too tight. So when I remade it a fourth time, I compensated by just making the hat BIGGER and I still had the same problem.

So what happened? Well, I made a headband. Not my first headband, but the first one I actually liked. I actually really like how it turned out and it’s the first (and currently only) pattern on my etsy shop.

My next plan is to be much more intentional with the other skiens I have of this yarn and really make a hat. We will see how that goes. As they say, fifth times the charm.