Men in hats

I had to knit Half-Dome again. I love that pattern, even if I do knit it in the round and not flat like YarnBoy Jesse Loesberg designed it. I was in one of my favourite restaurants a while ago, (The Dish, on Davie St. in Vancouver BC, and overheard Andrew, one of the owners, say he could use a hat to wear under his bike helmet.

I couldn't resist and offered then and there to knit it for him. He asked me to use grey and black so I headed off to one of my favourite knitting stores, Three Bags Full on Main, in Vancouver where I discovered that they had no grey. I did find a wonderful green yarn though so I called Andrew and asked him if that would work. Thank heaven he agreed.

So I use Lorna's Laces again, with a green body and a black brim and it turned out so well, even if I did have to knit it three times. The first time I knew it was too big, so I ripped back and made it with eight fewer stitches, and then it was too small, so I ripped back and made it with four more stitches than the last time and finally it was just right.

I delivered it to Andrew one day and then told him he had to have it with him the next day when I brought in some friends to see it and to take photos.

Here's Andrew showing off the wonderful colour of the hat from the side.

Andrew side view


And here's Andrew at work. I haven't got a picture of him with his bike helmet, but then it would be invisible anyway.

Andrew at counter


Andrew is a cyclist and runner, and when I last saw him back in the beginning of December he was getting ready to go to Las Vegas to run a marathon. I don't know if he'll need his hat there.

A little history now. I met James over 26 years ago when I visited him with my new partner Geordie in San Francisco. We had a great visit, and invited him back to visit us in Calgary. He arrived in February - not the best time to visit Canada and he was not prepared for the weather. It being cold, and snowy, he was freezing, so I knit him a hat from a lovely Briggs and Little homespun yarn I happened to have lying around.

James came back into our lives just a year or so ago. He was now with his partner Terry of 26 years and they had decided to buy a pied a terre in Vancouver to get some respite from their hard difficult lives in Hawaii (yeah, right, a likely story).

But James and Terry love Vancouver and luckily for James, he had held onto that hat for the last 26 years and finally had a reason to wear it again. Why it didn't get moth eaten after being stored for so long is a mystery to me, but I guess it means that this Canadian yarn is indestructible.

James


Mind you, Terry was in Vancouver too, and he needed a hat, but didn't have one from way back like James did. So I had to knit him one too. His is quite unique. I designed it myself and for some unknown reason I made it reversible. I wonder if that is any advantage.

So here is Terry's less than a month old hat - but one he got to wear during our freak snowstorm which brought cold weather for days.

Terry


Finally, we needed a group picture. Here you see all of us. Andrew with his green and black halfdome, James with a 26 year old brown hat, me with my first halfdome in green and black, Terry with month old purple hat, and my husband Geordie with a Half-Dome in Blue and Black (yarns from Lorna's Laces on that one, too.)

Men in Hats