A head hugger of my own

Here at Hilltop there was a hat model that I loved. It was a cute little ski cap made out of GGH Soft-Kid and Noro's Kureyon held together, and I would wear it every time I worked (except maybe those few weeks in summer when the temp actually broke 80). Sadly, the Soft-Kid went away, and like most floor models of discontinued yarns, the hat was sold.

But! Soft-Kid is now back in stock! I jumped at my chance to make a Soft-Kid/Noro hat of my very own. The pattern is Ann Norling's Head Hugger, and I'm not surprised it's one of the most popular patterns at Hilltop. It's quite possibly the perfect basic hat pattern: pick your size, plug in your gauge, pick your stitch pattern and go. With sizes from infant to large adult, and gauges from light DK to heavy worsted, it's actually like 125 hat patterns in one. All that and it's written clearly. This is my new go-to hat pattern for those times when I just don't feel like doing the math.

Rather than using Kureyon as in the original, I went for a little extra softness with Noro Silk Garden.


This is a yarn I've always shied away from; the variegations were just too much for my tastes. However, when held together with a strand of GGH Soft-Kid:



the color changes mellow. The resulting fabric looks almost like fair isle, done in soft tweedy yarn.



I love this hat. It's soft, it's colorful, it's cozy. I hate to say this, but I wish winter would hang on for just a little longer! I'm not ready to put my new hat away until fall!