before and after

I have had snow bonnets on my mind, of late. I saw a college girl wearing a vintage styled snow bonnet, the big fluffy white kind with big pompoms on the tassels. Woosh! A flood of memories came with the sight of that snow bonnet! When I saw the snow bonnet in the Golden Compass, it was the perfect opportunity to create a snow bonnet that satisfied my interest in this vintage style and was something that my daughter would get excited about.
Yesterday, my coworker and I made a lunch-time trip to a nearby yarn store. I was seeking out a good worsted yarn in tan or fawn to combine with the Cascade 220 and Naturespun I already have to make the perfect colour combination. It is turning out more elusive than I expected. I spotted some Lang Naima in a satisfactory colour, 30% off. It's an alpaca/merino blend, making it deliciously soft. I held the two strands together, and swatched with the largest needles I have, a mere size 17. The pattern is written for 6 stitches to 4 inches, but unfortunately, with such tiny needles, I could only get 9 stitches to 4 inches, so I had to recalculate. I started with 45 stitches, and knit the entire yarn up, concluding that the product was too wide and not deep enough. I ripped it out and started over with 40 stitches but by that time, my arms were all sore from wrestling with these broomsticks needles and gave it a rest. Today, at work on break and again at home, I finished up. It took all the yarn I had to make the hat deep enough, and I used the tails left to make a narrow braid for tassels. I almost went out to buy another ball, just for tassels, but we're trying it as is, for now. I only had 15 inches of yarn left!

(she's also wearing a homemade dress in that photo)