Throwback Thursday: Green Cabled Hat

I had a plan back in October 2007. I'd been doing cables and enjoying them. I'd been using Malabrigo Worsted and really enjoying it. So I needed a hat with cables out of Malabrigo. I picked a pattern that looked pretty and pretty easy: Cabled Force by Kimberly Lewis. My yarn was a pretty green color (Verde Adriana). I had circular needles. I was ready to go.

I don't really remember much about the actual knitting of this hat. I don't remember if I thought while I was working on it that it seemed to be small. But I sure did a lot of thinking that when I finished the hat. Intended for myself, this hat was instead a child-sized hat.


Yup, I was a victim of not checking my gauge. This was still early on in my knitting life and although I had heard about gauge and knew that it was something I should pay attention to, I didn't listen to that voice inside my head telling me to "save time by stopping to check gauge."

This was the project that made me realize that I am a tight knitter. After a bit more experience, whenever I didn't feel like checking gauge, I just automatically went up a needle size from what the pattern listed (because even when I checked gauge, that was what usually happened). After knitting more hats that actually fit me, I know that a certain number of stitches in worsted weight yarn on size US8 needles is just right (I used 7s on this too small hat; I think at that point, going up to 9s would have been best).

Now that I use Dyakcraft Darn Pretty needles for almost everything, I have discovered that the material the needle is made out of really can affect gauge as now I sometimes do get the gauge listed in the pattern with the listed needle size. But I still knit my worsted weight hats of size 8. Using anything smaller always brings this project to mind, and I shy away from having this happen again.

What happened to the hat? I gave it to my nephew who was a toddler at the time. And truth be told, it was almost too small even then! But I'll always have the memory of the hat to remind me of how important it is to check gauge. And I do listen. Sometimes.