Chess Whim

The husband wanted a very thin hat, in a solid color. I chose "Merino Dream" by Lucy Neatby.

Oh, how I regret that decision.

I started with 3 mm needles (the recommended needle size on the label), and ended up going down two needle sizes and using 2 mm. That's US 0. Which meant that I needed hundreds of stitches (Oh, how I miss the joy of the Addi hats, with their 46 stitches).

The yarn is also splitty, and uneven in both texture and color. The label warns you about color variations, but what I encountered were spots where the hank had been tied too tightly and the color did not penetrate. I seriously hate, hate, hate this yarn. I have about 55 grams left, enough for another hat if I wanted to, but I don't. The spouse suggested matching mittens and I growled at him.

Another problem was that the spouse wanted to have chess pieces as decoration. Without the benefit of a contrasting color, my only choice was garter figures. As I found out, those work well with light colors, but not with pitch black. So even after spending some time charting the figures and experimenting until they satisfied the spouse, once on the hat, they are very difficult to figure out.

Oh well. You can't always be happy with all your knitting projects.