Brodir

Look! Stupid human tricks! Now don't move...

How do you get your husband to sit still while you're taking pictures of a hat? Mention something called Human Tetris. He'll be on YouTube faster than you can say Shedir.

Speaking of Shedir...

The nargles made me do it.

Oh Shedir
'Member how I had to completely frog V.1 (aka, the Fezzik topper)? Yeah, that sucked. My gauge was WAY off, so it turned out giGANtic. And ya know, the whole time I was knitting it, I could sense it was gonna too big. Oh hell, I could see it was gonna be too big. And yet, I kept going. Even finished the damn thing off. Even wove in the freakin' ends.

I suspect nargles. Little suckers nipped my brain.

The second one, made with some semblance of common sense :P, worked out much better. Having learned from the first one (it wasn't an eff-up, it was a learning experience! yeah, yeah, that's it...), I made a few additional mods to bring down the overall size:

- Reduced the CO to 112 stitches
- Knitted 5 rows of ribbing (instead of 9)
- Knitted 7 cables around (instead of 8)
- Knitted 3 pattern repeats (instead of 5)
- Skipped rows 73, 76, 82, and 83 in the crown.
- Not a mod, but a heads up (hat, heads up, get it? bahahahaha!): The "(1st*)" note is missing from Row 63 of the chart, but it is in the pattern notes.

Just keep watching those Japanese game show knockoffs, don't pay aaaany attention to me...

I was a little worried removing those rows in the crown would mess up that groovy star effect at the top, but thankfully, it didn't make any difference. Really glad I used white for the ribbing, too. Makes for some very cool contrast!

And look, the size turned out perfectly! Just the right length and width. Plus, it's nice and stretchy. Hubster's doing the modeling here, but the hat is actually a Christmas gift for my little brother. (Yeah, my little brother who's taller than me. Bastard.) He's got kind of a big noggin (uh, Bro, if by some remote chance you're reading this, I mean that in the nicest way possible), so there shouldn't be any probs with the fit.

Wrap it up
This is such a fun pattern to knit! It's really interesting but not mind-boggling, and I loves me some cabling without a cable needle! Which is good, since I had to knit it twice. :P

But it was worth it, 'cause this is one wicked cool hat I think my bro will love! In fact, Hubster kept commenting on how neat it looked and how comfortable it was (he should know, I only made him try it on a billion times to check the fit), so there miiiight be one in his future as well. ;)

Brodir
Pattern: Shedir from knitty, Fall '04
Yarn: Rowan Calmer, 1 ball Onyx + bits of Drift
Needle: Addi Turbo, Size 3, 40"
Mods: Reduced the number of stitches, cables, repeats, rows in the ribbing, and rows in the crown to accommodate my ridiculously way-off gauge; used a contrasting color for the ribbing