Alternative to Nesting {knitting}

A lot of work has been done for Baby MiH - not only decorating the room, but Mr MiH is also making his own contribution, as in building a shed - like from scratch. Now that something has actually emerged from the grounds (yesterday's big news) I will keep you posted on progress. Before you call social services however, this is not to be Baby MiH's room but our office/hobby/sleeping/chilling out space. 

Even though I enjoy all this nesting, I needed a project for me, and after hours of some Ravelry research I found the perfect knitting pattern: the Contemporary beanie hat by Veera Valimaki. I love Veera's designs, even though I have never actually knitted one. And this one seems gorgeous. 

Pattern chosen, next is the yarn. I am still on my stash busting drive (and this is why I just bought 3 new skeins of yarn).  The pattern calls for needles that are a bit small for my liking (3.0 mm and 3.5 mm) and some sport/5 ply yarn. Hmmm no sport yarn at mine... Small setback when you want to start a pattern then and there. What I seem to have loads of though is sock yarn - which is weird as I have never knitted any socks. Clearly I like the concept but not the implementation. 

I started with sock yarn only (bottom of the gauge). It looks good (purely because of the yarn though), but I found it quite thin and see-through, and thought it might not be ideal considering how the weather is turning to here (i.e. grey and cold). How to make a 5-ply, well I did have even thinner yarn, some laceweight yarn/2-ply in black (double stash busting, hooray). Finished the gauge - and it fitted with the recommended gauge (phew!) and looked nice - Result!

All I had to do was to knit 5 cm of garter stitch - which incidentally takes forever in 3.0 mm circular needles, but somehow looks much better than with bigger needles. 

Pattern: Contemporary Beanie Hat (there is a cowl pattern included as well)

Yarn: Variegated Merino Tweed Sock Yarn 100g from Whaferdale Woolworks) and 

Laceweight yarn in black from The Gossamer Web

Needle sizes: 3mm circular (brim) 3.5mm circular body of the hat

Size: hopefully fits my head.. (had a little try yesterday and it was fine)

Started the body of the beanie hat now, so I am going to juggle the pattern stitch (which I assumed to be the stitch used for the back of the hat on the picture) and cable work. So hopefully my frizzy (and surprisingly voluminous) hair (thank you pregnancy) will now get tamed under a beautiful hat. 

Linking to Tami's Amis on Wednesday.