This is the last you’ll hear of the Tuke hat (promise!) but I had to let you know I finished it, didn’t I? I solved the ‘few stitches on circular needles’ problem by figuring out how magic loop works (lots more fiddling but I’m pretty sure it beats double-pointed needles). I’m afraid I did not use the official method, since I was unable to get the working yarn on the back needle as the tutorials say. But it worked out anyway. See?
From there I was just a few decreasing rows away from the finish. Tuke taught me (the beginnings of) round-knitting and magic loop knitting and is just about the best thing I have ever had on my head. When I picked up my five-year old from school wearing my pioneering feat of home-crafting, she liked it but felt it wasn’t a ‘proper’ hat because it did not have a pom pom. So we decided to add a small one using Eskimimi’s nifty pom pom fork technology. Check it out here.
My new hat is soft and cushy, lovely and warm and I might not want to take it off for the rest of the day. I think my significant other would protest if I attempted to wear it to bed tonight, otherwise I just might have!
Both my daughters have already ‘ordered’ a smaller version of Tuke so I’ll cast on the next one using Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn and see if that scales down the pattern sufficiently to fit my eldest daughter.
Wartende Häuser by Friedensreich Hundertwasser
This extraordinary collection of sock yarn is based on several works by Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (1928-2000). I knitted a rib stitch scarf for my daughter from the Wartende Häuser colourway (and I’ll never ever do that again, I can tell you, since I thought I was going to be a doddering old biddy before I finished it!).
It is funny how something as ‘grandmotherly’ as knitting can open a window to the rest of the world. I had never heard of Hundertwasser before I bought the sock yarn but now I am going to find out a lot more about him and share it with you in a future post. It turns out he is one of my favourite kind of people: an artist, visionary and eco warrior avant la lettre wholly determined to walk his own path. Wouldn’t you just love to live here?
Hundertwasser’s Waldspirale or ‘Forest Spiral’ in Darmstadt, Germany
A gilded yarn 
It kind of reminds me of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
I hope you mean the comforting aspect, not that it looks like one ;-). I like them with tomato!
My family also puts in their knitting ‘orders’. I love that they love my knitting.
The hat looks great! Love the soft colors in the yarn.
When I started knitting, my sisters laughed at me. Such a daft undertaking! Now the first scarf has already been ordered. And thanks, I’m pretty proud of it myself. I think I might just need a scarf, mittens and perhaps a cardigan with this yarn, too!
Wait til your children’s friends start wishing for one of your hats too-believe me, it’s a great feeling, though I did have to ration them..
I think that would be lovely! Imagine my children’s friends thinking I did something cool. My 14 year old son just ordered a knitted bracelet and he is very into cool – so I must be doing something right…