I am now officially DONE with the White Frost beanie (in Aran).

Here’s the finished product:

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Final Thoughts

General Tightness

On the previous beanie attempt, I had decided to switch down a needle size since my swatches were coming out very large compared to the given gauge. That ended up with the previous beanie feeling a bit too tight. So this time I stuck with the given needle sizes, but it still ended up with a similar level of tightness. Both of them are still wearable, but I was hoping they would turn out baggier (like beanies should be! 😤).

Anyway as long as I can wear them, I don’t feel a need to redo them 🤷‍♂️

Tightness at Top

On the previous beanie attempt, I felt that I had closed up the top a bit too tightly, which gave it a bit of a dimple right at the top. This time I tried to knit a bit more loosely to avoid that, but I now believe that that can’t be fixed. I think the pace of decreases towards the end causes it to close up a bit too quickly, which forces that dimpled shape. However the looseness did at least help with making it feel better to wear!

Pompom Attachment

I had been planning on using this pompom on my previous hat, but decided against it since the pompom felt a bit heavy compared to the main hat. That turned out to be a good choice (in my opinion) just based on the color similarity.

Also, the previous pompom was cut off of a store-bought hat and was basically just a bundle of yarn ends. To attach that on the previous beanie, I just took the loose yarn from the end of the main beanie and repeatedly seamed it through the pompom to attach it.

This faux fur pompom was different because it had an elastic loop, which the other pompom didn’t have. I read one attachment method online where you basically sew a button onto the inside of the beanie, and then simply insert the elastic loop through the top of the beanie and wrap the elastic band around that button. That method turned out to be pretty easy! And it’s also nice because I can detach the pompom if I ever feel like washing the hat.

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Next Project

For my next project, I’m thinking of knitting a sweater for my friend’s dog!

I made one for my own dog some time ago, so I was thinking they could have matching sweaters. It’ll be a bit difficult though, since he lives elsewhere, so I won’t be able to continually test the sweater on his dog to make sure it fits. Guess I’ll have to pester him for a lot of measurements 😮‍💨

Stay tuned for updates on that!

Been a couple weeks since my last post, and I’ve made steady progress!

I’m nearly done with the main part of the beanie.

Here’s my current progress:

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What’s Left?

There are only about 8 more rows remaining, and they’re used for the decreases to close up the top of the hat.

I feel like I knit the top of my last beanie a bit too tightly, which made it close up with a bit of an indent, rather than a rounder dome.

So this time I’m going to try doing it loosely!

And then the last part will be attaching the faux fur pompom 💭

Here’s my current progress on the new White Frost beanie:

So far I’m about one-third of the way done! (28 of 84 rows)

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Some Hiccups

I had to stop and restart a couple of times after getting some rows into it and then noticing some issues.

This project is meant to be done with double-point needles, since the circumference is not that large. However I’m working it with circular needles and a 15″ cord, so the stitches just barely make it around the cord with a bit of stretching. That led to a lot of issuing when initially joining in-the-round, since it was hard to connect up the two ends without stretching the yarn too much. I restarted a couple of times when that beginning part didn’t turn out well.

Also, I must’ve gone on auto-pilot during the ribbing section at the beginning, since I later noticed that I had forgotten one of the cable twists. I really didn’t want to leave the mistake in, so I had to frog the whole thing from there too 😭

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Anyways… assuming I make steady progress of 4 rows per day, I should get the project done in about two weeks!

In the mean-time, I’ll be brainstorming ideas for my next project 😄

I’m back again with a new project!

This is just a repeat of the previous White Frost beanie pattern I just finished. However this time, I’m using my leftover Aran yarn (off-white-colored) and also the faux fur pompom that I had meant to use on the previous gray beanie. And actually I think this color combo should work out pretty well! 🤷‍♂️

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Current Progress

Since I just started, I’m only 8 rows into it (about 10% done).

Here’s my current progress:

Oh and here’s the pompom again:

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Gauging

On the last project, I was really torn about how to proceed with the gauging. I felt like my swatches were turning out too large, so I switched down one needle size from what was suggested. It ended up okay in the end, but probably would have been better with the original needle sizes.

So this time I’m sticking with the suggested needle sizes (US 6/7). And even if it turns out to be a bit big, I feel like that’s the point of a beanie anyway 🤷‍♂️. Plus the pompom is pretty big, so it would make more sense on a bigger beanie.

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Here’s a link to the project on Ravelry.

I’ll be making steady progress on this in the next few weeks!

I’m just planning on doing 4 rows a day, since I have some other things to get to and also don’t have any particular time-constraint, so that should take me 3 weeks or so to finish. At least I’ll finally have something to work on at knitting meet-ups! 😋