Smocked Slouch from Genuine Purl - Done!

It’s finished.

I can’t decide if I love it, and that’s SO frustrating. 

On the one hand, it’s so warm and comfortable.  I actually like the extra room, and I seem to be all about green this year, so the color appeals to me.

On the other hand, I put it on my head and think “Are you sure you can pull this off?  Are you sure you should pull this off?”  In the back of my brain I hear passersby snickering and thinking unkind thoughts the way I do when someone wears leggings as pants.  You know, I’d stand up on a soapbox in the middle of Times Square and reprimand the female half of the world for wearing leggings as pants.  If I can see all of your backside--or worse yet, if I can clearly see what color underwear you have on--you need more substantial pants, sister!

Ahem.  I digress.  It’s a gift.

I do like the hat.  I wore it shoveling the huge amounts of snow that dumped on Chicago this week, and I have to say I’m impressed that it didn’t totally destroy my hair (see left--no small feat!).  I have not yet mustered the gumption to wear it out and about.  I, who drive a moss-green Nissan Cube, a car some people (i.e. my teenage son) consider the ugliest car ever made but which I adore, have no business being hesitant about a hat.

After all, there’s quirky, and then there’s just plain in appropriate.  Me in a Cube?  That’s quirky.  Me in a bikini?  Inappropriate for at least another 25 pounds, and probably not even then.

But, really, it’s either a quirky or inappropriate HAT, not a national crisis.  DestiKNITters, what do you think?   Should I wear it proudly, as a reminder of my wonderful visit to Genuine Purl in Chattanooga or tell my 20-something daughter she has a new hat?

Smocked Slouch from Genuine Purl - Day 5

Closing in...

I’ve finished the prescribed rows of stockinette, and am starting the decreases needed to make the crown of this hat.  Decrease rows are always fun, because you pick up momentum as the rounds get shorter and shorter.  You’re rounding the last corner, careening toward the finish line, and that’s always fun.

I never truly get a sense of a hat’s shape until the decrease rows.  Mathematically, it’s a small percentage of the hat, but it seems to dictate shape almost more than the band does.  Perhaps that’s because it’s so visible.  Or just that the structure takes its cues so strongly from the crown.  That’s not a bad thing; it strengthens the creative process of making a hat--you’re never really done until you’re done.

I’ll admit, doubts are creeping in about my extra-slouchy choice.  I look at this hat and it looks, well, roomy.  Not sloppy, just slouchy.  Aptly named, I guess.  One thing I’ll say for this design and this yarn; this is a cozy hat.  It’s warm without being bulky or hair-smushing.  

Come on, northern girls, you know what I mean--most knitted hats can ruin a hairstyle in ten minutes flat.  You get inside a restaurant and remove your fetching headwear only to find your bangs plastered to your forehead and the volume sucked out of your hair.  Not to mention enough static to power a small country off your noggin.  This one sits far enough back on your head (if the style magazine instructions are to be believed) that my hair might just survive the day.

That alone would be a deal-maker for me any day.