Silver Linings

Remember the fiasco of the black slippers inadvertently felted with tissue? I had wanted to knit those felted slippers so I could trim them out with rabbit fur. The fur 'yarn' had been purchased at a trade show this fall at the Paula Lishman booth. She had such gorgeous things on display

and I - silly me - thought I could so something just as spectacular.

Those felted-with-tissue slippers almost proved me wrong, but rare the cloud that doesn't have a silver lining. It occurred to me that it was not the best idea to put rabbit fur on sippers anyway. Why not a hat? A non-felted hat. Doesn't this look much better?

With Mission Falls wool and 4 1/2 mm needles, I started with cast-on numbers for my size and yarn as given in the Need A Hat? book and worked a reverse stockinet rolled edge as per pattern #10 in that book. Next I worked a band of my own design, bordered top and bottom by 5 rounds of plain stockinet stitch. In the middle of the band, I placed two rounds of
'YO, K2tog' stitches separated by another 5 rounds of stockinet. The yarn over holes gave me a spot to thread the fur through.

Because both my Grand daughters have lots of hair, after the band I increased adding eight stitches for Abigail - age 9 - and 16 for Sarah - age 13.
Hopefully, that accommodates the pony/pig tails. The top of the hat was finished as a normal hat - decreases made in multiples of eight - until just enough stitches remained to thread the yarn through and pull tightly.

Personally, feeling and working with the fur gives me the creeps, but I think my grand daughters will be enthralled. It is soft and soft does have it's appeal.