hats hats and more hats ( laura's green hat )

awe heck the lady at the local yarn store is getting used to seeing me every friday like clock work LOL and its always green wool yarn . one skien here one there. maybe two but its always more green. my little stach of green wool hasnt grown any though it seems to remain the same.
so now i am fighting a slight sinus infection. ugh i hate this sort of thing but that is ok. mike and i went to block busters and rented a stack of movies which we are slowly making our way through. as i do i knit more green hats .
the one i came up with this week end was a major figure out how to recreate a new look from and existing pattern.
no pictures just yet . but i got to tell you i did complete the hat .
mandy pie ordered a hat for her sis . had to be a fishermans type of hat. the kind looks like a baseball cap but with a tam sort of hat to it .
had to be green of course this is for her sister. and her sis talked to me about it all and it had to be just about plain. if you put flowers on it not to many. ( i was thinking ya sure what ever gf but i got to create something more ya know )
keeping all this in mind i not only looked at all the patterns for hats like this but tried a few . most of them are crocheted. and i remembered the one i did years ago using a bed spread pattern for the actual hat part. and an old baseball cap to take the plastic bill out of and the brim area so i could build off that.
the challenge would be i have no old baseball caps laying around. so had to come up with something else.
i used an old ice cream bucket for that bill and figured out fast that was all i needed. kids wear the hats back and down anyway. the bill dont have to stick straight out and they like to curve them in the ice cream bucket side gave me all i needed for that part.
so the other callenge was to come up with a hat pattern i would like.
after alot of stummbling around i was back at the tam hat the one i did in green tweed. and alot of thinking .
instead of increasing 50 stitches i increased maybe 25 if that. and made the hat as it said to from there on only less stitches to go around.
of course i dont sew the pea coated edge down i wait until i have enough of the upper edge done and put the lower edge onto the same size needles and knit that thing closed and then knit up from there.
anyway when i was done with the hat it was time to do the bill.
so i picked up two stitches on every pea coated edge half way around the hat. and then as i knit on the right side i decreased on each side and on the purl side i did the same thing. i left off when i had about 25 to maybe less or more stitches. it was more or less a feel for how many. not a count.
once i did that then it was time to increase back to the same as the area i had picked up the orginal stitches. sorry i didnt count those either.
this way i could sew up the sides and tuck in the plastic bill i cut out of the ice cream bucket and then both side of that would be covered.
once done the next challenge was to decorate it. i put a button at the top in the middle one of those silver irish knot ones.
and then i had this one inch brim area above the bill i could use to decorate . and of course i had only 1/2 of that i could actually decorate that being the front half. and keeping in mind laura said it had to be as plain as could be i devised a system on there that would keep it that way if she wanted it to be plain. i sewed two buttons on one on each side of the bill of the hat. right in the middle of the band on each side.
took out some fun fur yarn one in green and one in some other colors and knit a 6 stitch band complete with button holes on each end so the band could be buttoned onto the brim of the hat. did this in a stockenet stitch.
and now it was time to have even more fun.
i took out one of the knitting over the edge books because i was having difficulty as a knitter remembering how to corchet leaves just leaves. and found an edge with a knit leaf. on it attached to a cord . so i knit a long cord one of those on the two needles with three stitches dont turn the knitting things.
at each end i knit a leaf. at the base of each one are eye lets so it was easy to use that to button the long leaf chain onto the hat band . ok keeping in mind this is all made out of super wash wool. so no worries on it shrinking anytime soon. so the opening of the eye let should work for along time to come for a button hole i think . could be wrong have been known to be .
but then it was time to add more leafs so every three inches i picked up three stitches and did a leaf and then at the base of that leaf i knit one more leaf so i had one going one direction and another going the other. when i was done. i had this long knit cord with leafs coming out everywhere. i wrapped that around the band i knit and buttoned it all onto the hat band. added three buttons and then crochet some small well rather some to me large flowers and buttoned those onto the hat band where i had placed the tree buttons earlier and walla i was done. if she dont like the fancy she can remove it all. if she wants her hat to have a diffrent look she can by just replacing the band with another one knit crocheted sewn it wouldnt matter and buttoning on more or less of what she wants.
like i said photos later not enough light here just yet. i also have to say this hat was majorly influenced by a hat that one of the gals did on the green hat along with all the fancy flowers and cords hanging off it. i loved the idea and went for it.