KitKat Comfort Hat

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TW: death, loss of a pet and a loved one

1/15 – Our cat KitKat passed away this morning, in my arms. :sob: I was so glad I was there for him at the end, to keep him warm and comfortable and let him know he was loved as he literally took his last breath, but it triggered a whole lot of emotional stuff for me as I once again mourned the loss of my son who died all alone in August of 2022. That thought will haunt me forever. :broken_heart:

It was a very hard day for me, I was a mess, and I needed a comfort project, so I decided to cast on a simple hat out of handspun because knitting with handspun is the epitome of comfort for me and a hat is easy and doesn’t require a lot of thought.

I decided to use a basket of small bags of random handspun that I’d originally set aside for punch needle projects, but it seemed the perfect choice for a hat that I wanted to be kind of a memory project around KitKat. While he was a black and white kitty, he always looked like a hot mess. LOL His long fur was forever going in every direction, aha because he loved being outside before he got really sick, he constantly had all manner of weeds, briars, sticks, leaves and what have you stuck on him. So I chose one of the larger balls that was right around 50 grams, to use as my “main color” (I have no idea what I spin it from specifically, but it was clearly a batt with a lot of nepps and sparkle elements), and I’m just randomly striping in other handspun for a round or two with no actual plan or pattern.

I was originally going to make this a normal beanie, but then I had the thought of doing it with the kitty “ears” instead of the crown decreases. I need to look back at the pattern for the Hunter Hammersen hat that I made that had the ears to remember if there’s anything special I need to do to shape those or if it’s just a matter of a three needle bind off at the top. But that’s my plan at this point. My own KitKat Comfort Hat. :smile_cat:

Regarding the yarn: I have no records on these bits of handspun that I’m using, but it’s all of a similar weight, averaging out to worsted weight, so that’s the yd/gm numbers in going to use based on weight of the hat at the end.

1/19 – I “finished” this hat today, but oh my gosh, it is HUGE. I did follow the “ear” chart part of the Decorum hat, but the fact that that hat was cabled had to have played a much bigger part in the pulling in and shaping of the hat than I’d realized, because this is just a hot mess. I also think I knit it too tall before starting the chart.

I’m going to rip back to a reasonable place and do a normal beanie crown decrease. Maybe I’ll make another with ears sometime. We’ll see.