Shedir

For Christmas my college friends sent me the pattern, needles and yarn to knit Shedir, a cabled hat from knitty. I really like cabling, and the pattern on this hat is beautiful. It's also pretty complex, which is nice- I like it when my knitting makes me think, especially when it is winter break and I have plenty of time to knit when I'm not studying. Unusually for me, I didn't fuss with the pattern, other than the original yarn substitution. I've seen many versions of this hat online, and most people repeated the saxon braid 3 or 4 times instead of the 5 that the pattern calls for. I repeated it 5 times- the resulting hat is very deep- it covers my ears- but I like this in a winter hat. If you prefer hats that don't cover most of your forehead, I would suggest doing the repeat only 4 times- the hat was designed as a chemo hat, so the goal is to cover over people's hairlines.
This version was knit with Cascade 220 superwash wool, color 866. The pattern calls for size three needles, creating a nice, dense hat. Nice and warm to wear out in the snow. I also have a but of an obsession with knitting yarn on oddly-sized needles, if you haven't noticed- I like the resulting changes in texture.

The pattern, if you are interested, is available at: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/knittyF04surp.pdf. Happy knitting!