twisted beanie

I was recently asked to pattern test a new crochet hat pattern by the lovely Hanni at HanniCraft.  You can find her Etsy shop here.  I'm not sure if the pattern is up for sale yet, but it should be soon.  (Edited to add - you can buy the pattern on Ravelry).   Oh, it's called The Twisted Beanie. I was asked to do the testing just before my holiday, so I went to buy some yarn so I could whip one up sitting by the beach (yeah, in my dreams, I do live in England!).  The pattern called for Worsted Yarn which isn't available in this country, having checked the internet, most people said to substitute it with DK.  Hobbycraft had a sale on and I bought some Sidar Soft Spun for less than £2.  Wow, this yarn is gorgeous.  So soft, just lovely.  It was black with a sliver of silver running through.  Halfway through the pattern, I realised it was too small.  As in FAR too small.  It might even be too small for Jacob!  I didn't want it to get longer, so I abruptly finished halfway down the twisted pattern. 

So sweet!  I know the photos aren't amazing, it was very hard to shoot as the yarn is glossy and light reactive, I'm pretty pleased with these "floating photos" though. 

I tried to get a close up of the colour as in the top photo it looks more silver than it actually is, the above photo is more accurate.  I emailed Hanni about the size issue and she said her other testers had used Aran weight, so back to Hobbycraft for me!  The selection of Aran was rubbish, a handful of variegated yarns basically.  I didn't want to use variegated for this project as I feel the texture would be lost in the mix of colour.  I finally found Patons Wool Blend Aran.  The wool is 63% which was a concern as this beanie is for me and I find wool very itchy, but it's not, so that's good! 

 

Here's the finished item, proudly modelled by the small globe that sits on my windowsill! 

 

I LOVE the pattern and if I can find some black aran, I'll crochet up another.  As far as my pattern testing job went, I didn't have to correct the pattern at all, it was very well written.