Modified Short-Row Hat

So . . . I think I mentioned, oh, a few years ago, that I was trying to make this hat by Véronik Avery for one "V" out of Noro Kureyon.

And I think I mentioned that I was having a leeeeetle trouble with the gauge.

Ya see, the fit of this hat depends on both the stitch and the row tension being just right.

Somehow, simultaneously, my stitch gauge was too loose and my row gauge too tight. (Ugh.)

Which meant I was going to end up with a hat that was too tight around and whose brim was too long.

In other words, a hat for a Conehead toddler.

V is neither that young nor a Conehead.

What to do, what to do?

Stubbornly didn't want to change needles. (And, really, in which direction would I go? My tension was both too loose AND too tight. Holy Headache, Batman!)

The compressed row gauge probably isn't too much trouble, really. To fix that, I suppose, I could just add one additional repeat. (Or possibly two . . .)

But the pattern is not easily modified to be shortened, lengthwise.

Only thing for it is to continue to deny the problem and "Knit On!" (I don't think that's quite what E.Z. meant . . . )

Good thing, too, because upon finishing the knitting . . . bolt of lightening.

FLIP UP THE STUPID BRIM, GIRL!

So, we have:





I have my fingers crossed that this will fit V, because I really don't see any way to make further modifications. It fits me perfectly, and my head is sized in the norm. (Physically, at least.) So there is some hope.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you, I hear you: "Okay, yeah, that side looks okay, but what about that seam issue?"

So here's the flip side:




Yeah, but where's the seam?

Right here:




WHERE?

HERE:




Required scissors. And possibly too much hubris.

In the original pattern, there are "set up" and "end" sections. They are what make the half-diamonds, etc., at the beginning and ending of the knitting. This makes seaming easy, because you can just use a straight three-needle bindoff. But if the colours of those half-diamonds don't match up perfectly, it looks a little wonky.

My colours definately did not line up. (Who has that kind of luck, I ask you?)

So . . .

I skipped the "end sections" when I got to them. And then I SLASHED OUT the "set up" sections. (Tried unraveling, but you really can't unravel this from the bottom . . . probably a good thing, really, given how much trouble I had picking up stitches on this new edge.) Picked up what I hoped were the right number of stitches from where the "set up" sections used to be. THEN I did the seam, zig-zagging back and forth along the diamond edges.

The garter stitch part of the seam doesn't match exactly (the three-needle bindoff adds a row of knitting). And I wasn't able to perfectly fit the diamonds into eachother. But all in all, I think it is better than the alternative.

If I were to do this hat again (and I rather think I won't), I would skip the "set up" sections entirely. Maybe this would require fewer or additional stitches cast on, but since it is a provisional cast on, I think that it is probably possible to cast on way more stitches than one actually needs and just not use the extras.