Home stretch... The decreases on this are fun. You work them inside the cables (like on Imply and Welter) and it's just a really neat trick to have in your knitting tool kit.  It keeps the lines of the cables zipping along perfectly. Plus you'll feel super clever when you do it.  Which is a not insubstantial part of my motivation for knitting anything! Pattern Tuesday, at which point you'll see just how pretty the top of this one really is!  

I resolutely decline to pick a favorite side. They're both nifty in their own way. And I love how different they look from each other.  Sure stitches that look the same on both sides are cool and all...and useful for all sorts of things. But having one that is lovely and different on each side...that's something grand! Pattern should be out on February 5...you can click the magic doohickey down below to get an email when it comes out if that makes your life easier!   [pextestim pex_attr_set="looking-for-this-pattern" pex_attr_autoplay="false"][/pextestim]

See that?  See that set of stitches that is very much not involved in the cable?  Yeah...that's not supposed to be like that. So we figure out the stitches involved and we rip.  Two of the strands are longer because I needed to rip out more stitches there...the rest are shorter because I didn't need to set as many free down there. And then reknit it, this time actually crossing the cable like a smart kid. And then it's as good as new (er...better actually, what with not having the glaring error and all). Much faster than ripping out the [...]

I'm no good at row counters. I generally prefer to just count my rows or find some sort of landmark on the stitch pattern I can use instead of counting rows. But, on this hat, it's all cables.  And cables are sort of a pain to count rows (you can do it, it's just fiddly).  So I cheat. I tie slip knots in my tail for every plain row.  Then when I finish the cable row, I yank them all out. Works great here because I don't need to count very high (4 or 5 knots is practical...12 is not) and because the [...]

Yeah, I'm over here loving everything about this. I can't decide which side I like better...they're both pretty darn nifty. And don't stress, reversible cables are NOT hard.  You know how normally you're working cables over just knit stitches?  Like you cross three knits over three knits?  Yeah, well if instead you cross ribbing over ribbing (so think knit one purl one knit one over knit one purl one knit one) magic happens. All of a sudden the back of your fabric gets very spiffy indeed. Take the time to twist those purls, then the front and back look even [...]

So look...gray hats are apparently just my happy place. It's true and I'm not even going to pretend I'm sorry. At least this one has speckles (Martin's Lab, Bouncy Sport in the color Candy Sparrow)! And is reversible... Which means I will, generally, make some sort of passing attempt to show you both sides as we go along.  I won't always succeed...but I'll try. The side with the untwisted stitches faces out as you knit, and the twisted side faces in.  So I'm going to generally call that right and wrong...but really nothing about this is wrong. Not one thing. [...]