Our friends recently moved from Boston to Northern California, which I had to take into consideration when planning their baby gift package. I wanted to make another hat, but it needed to be lighter, and definitely less bulky than
this one. I had had my eyes on this
garter ear flap hat from the ever so lovely
Purl Bee for some time, and it seemed like the perfect choice to complete my baby gift series. I wrote down my shopping list for the yarn store, was pretty much ready to go with my coat on, until at the last minute I decided to glance over the pattern and saw the dreaded words:
short row. I immediately abandoned my idea, took off my jacket, and said goodbye to this terribly cute hat project. See, short rows have terrified me for a long time, probably because I approached them unknowingly, following a pattern that never mentioned anything about picking up the wraps, and there were so many short rows, so many rows before picking up, and I was so upset when I realized, well into knitting it, that my cowl was full of holes. I realized that short rows create a wrap that needs to be picked up in order to avoid making holes, frogged my cowl and set it aside, where it still is, about a year later. Sad, but true.
