Crunchy Granola-Eating Hippie Hat

What do you do on a Saturday night when the hockey game is on intermission and your honey's glued to his computer game? Why, you go in the bathroom and take pictures of yourself in your new hat!
(Double points if you stop to actually put on makeup before taking pictures of yourself in your new hat, in your bathroom, on a Saturday night).














This is the fourth knit-carnation of the Crunchy Granola-Eating Hippie Hat. The first was "invented" whilst playing around with dropped-stitches for a scarf - Peter said "hey, that would make a cute hat." He was right - the first one was done in a camel/wool blend, in natural (ivory? beige? offwhite). Then I made a black one in wool/hemp blend for Yumi, and a sage green one for Sis Karen which I foolishly blocked - the hemp "bloomed" and it's giant-ly too big for her. (Note to self: you still owe Karen a new hat).

Well, I've been asked to teach some knitting classes at the store (put simply, they really REALLY don't want me to leave, so this is their way of keeping me around. Works for me!), and I need some reasonably fast, reasonably simple projects to share. Immediately I thought of the CGH (Crunchy Granola Hat). So I dug up my "pattern notes", typed them up, sent out an invitation for test-knitters (thank you everyone who responded) on the KnitTalk list, and cast on for a new prototype.














This one is in Patons Classic Wool, "leaf green", which is charmed wool because it's the free ball that Stephanie gave to Bundy when he picked up my signed copy of her last book for me in Toronto last year. I had been saving it in stash but it decided this afternoon to become my new spring hat. I like it. :)

Here's a (somewhat fuzzy) close-up of the dropped-stitch pattern (And because my camera hates me, it took all the green out of the yarn in this shot - weird!):















And finally, a weird arty-type self-portrait of me trying to take my own picture. I am pleased to note that in both the pictures of the front of my head I no longer have three chins. Yay weight loss! (Also I deliberately lifted my chin).














And in case you're wondering, that thing on the wall behind me is my shower curtain. It's got a collage of old movie stills and glamour shots of vintage movie stars on it and I love it. However, our shower has a perfectly good curtain on it already and I've not got up the energy yet to swap it out. Hey, we've only lived here - four? Four months. You get a year to completely unpack, that's my rule. Hell, at one time I moved so often I wouldn't even hang pictures until I'd been in a place at least six months.

I'm going to try knitting this hat up in two different acrylic yarns (Phentex Pounder and Red Heart Supersaver), and, time permitting, try a kid-size version in cotton (I have some extra Bernat Handicrafter in stash and I don't think I need two dozen pink&white dishcloths!). I think it might look cool in the Patons SWS... hm, might have to grab a couple balls of that tomorrow to try out. Tomorrow evening is my last shift (well, it's supposed to be - we shall see!) so I gotta make good use of my discount!

Anyway, if you're test-knitting the hat for me, I hope the pictures help you see what it should look like all done. And I'd love to see pictures of yours! Comments please and I'll come visit your blogs to see, or email pictures if you want to. If you're not yet test-knitting the hat but would like to, email me at KitDOTDeepskyATgmailDOTcom and I'll send you the pattern.

Thanks again, and goodnight everybody!