A couple of years ago, a young colleague of mine admired a cowl I was wearing and mused that he’d love to have one.  I don’t tend to knit for just anyone, but a cowl requires so little work so I told him that if he was prepared to buy the (good quality) yarn, I’d knit it for him.  He didn’t bat an eyelash at the $30 a skein price tag, so I knit him a Stonehenge Cowl.  Every time he wore it, he came by my desk gushing about how much he loved it.

This same young man came to me a few weeks back and asked if he could commission a hat.  He, like my husband, has a particularly large head and told me that every commercial hat he tried on was too small.  I normally would have knit him the same hat that I have knit multiple times for Chase but because he wanted it less slouchy, I decided on the Squared Away Ribbed Watch Cap.  It’s been in my Ravelry favourites for a while; I liked it because of the originality of the crown decreases.

Generally speaking, the males in my life ask for things in various shades of brown, black and grey…but not Patrick.  He told me he wanted bright and colourful.  I sent him to the Madeline Tosh website and told him to pick a few colours – he chose a red, a green, an orange and a blue and upon calling Romni Wool, discovered that the only skein in stock of the four he had chosen was Baltic.  Done!  (The fact that I adore that colour was a lovely bonus!)

It took me a grand total of about a week to knit.  He wanted it to be good and long to cover his ears when folded up, so I knit it for as long as I thought I feasibly could before starting the decreases.

It turned out beautifully.  Plenty long enough to be folded up once or even twice if he wants.

Madeline Tosh Vintage in “Baltic”

And I can’t say enough about how much I adore the decreases in this hat.  So clever and I am totally enamoured with the result!

Thanks, Patrick for lending me your head! 🙂

Pattern: Squared Away Ribbed Watch Cap

Yarn: Madeline Tosh Vintage in “Baltic”

Who Was It Made For?  Patrick

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern?  No

Did I Learn Anything New?  No

Anything Else?  No

Would I Make Another?:  If I ever have the need to knit another worsted style hat, I will definitely use this pattern.  My only concern would the 96 stitch cast on, which might prove too large for some heads.