FO Report: Santa Lives Here

Santa Lives Here

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky 100% baby alpaca, color 2050 "lipstick" and Patons allure 100% nylon, color 04005 "diamond"
Pattern: my own
Gauge: 4 sts/in for hat; 3.5-3.75 sts/in for brim
Needles: US6 16" circular for brim; US9 16" circular + dpns for hat
Size: 20" around, 13" from brim to tip (not including pom-pom)
Started: 12/1/08
Finished: 12/1/08

Jackson wore his witch hat religiously from early October until almost Thanksgiving and was a little irritated when I said that it was time to put it away until next year. I told him it was time to get the Christmas stuff out so Santa would come and visit us, to which he replied "Can I have a Santa hat then? Will you make one for me?"

You betcha.

I checked a few patterns online, but really just ended up doing my own thing on this one. I was planning to write up the pattern to post here, but the kids are getting the better of me today.

I will say that this is the second rendition of this hat, though. The first was knit from the same brim yarn (which is horrible to knit with and wonderfully soft and perfect when completed) but I used sport-weight yarn from stash for the hat. I doubled up the yarn, thinking that I could then get away with larger needles and fewer stitches (and have a warmer hat). Okay, no. The needles were still US6 - not terribly large - I still had 80+ stitches and the row height was dismal. Still, I knit on, which turned out to be a mistake. I was about 2/3 of the way finished with the first one when I realized that, no matter how much I willed the hat to be the floppy elf hat that my son so wanted, it was the wrong yarn. Not only would this hat not flop, but it could likely have walked away on its own too.
So much for knitting from stash. I was already too entrenched in the project to go back now (and Jackson was asking about his hat at every turn) so I did what all good Knitters would have done: I went to my yarn store. There's no way that I would have splurged for Misti Alpaca on his hat to begin with, but after having worked it up first in stiff, rough, boring old wool and getting both of our hopes up for this hat, the Misti just kind of jumped into my arms. It only took one skein, so that's good. And the hat's a teeny bit too big for Jack, so it will last for another year too, which is also good.

But, yeah. My kid's the one walking around with a 100% baby alpaca Santa hat, proclaiming in his (adorable) deep Santa voice (which even requires lowering one's head and eyes...so cute), "ho, ho, ho, merry christmas!" over and over and over. I think I may have created a monster, but he's so adorable (and the hat is so incredibly soft and floppy) that I don't mind.

Santa lives here, indeed.
P.S. My first pom-pom! The yarn is horrible, like I said, but it screams to be made into a pom-pom! This hat may have been altogether too fun...the second run, that is.