Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bicycle Boy, the post where the hat drama comes to an end.

Last year Chris mentioned that he would like me to knit him a hat with some sort of bicycle chain motif on it, and I, of course, agreed. Several terrible swatches involving cables that attempted and failed to curl, snail-like, around the hat, one completely failed cable hat, and one moderately successful fair isle later, I was still acutely dissatisfied.

But Chris rather liked the moderately okay fair isle hat and started wearing it, and whenever he did its design flaws, its pointy, too-square crown, its exaggerated pattern, its unintended stretch and floppiness, made me cringe.

So I took it away. And hid it. And told him he would soon have another, improved bicycle chain hat. That was in January 2009.

When I finished the pattern for Bluebird and forced Chris to admire it and make flattering comments about my design skills, he finally cracked and said, "HONEY, BLUEBIRD IS GREAT, BUT WHERE IS MY ******** CHAIN HAT!??????"


Here it is. The fair isle pattern is the chain, and the crown decreases mimic the chain ring.

You can make one, too! Hannah already has (thank for the test knit and edits!), for a friend who is traveling across the country by bike... you can read more here.

And you can get the pattern for $2.50 here:



P.S. I'm off to Michigan to see my family for a week as of tomorrow after work!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

this hat is awesome! Took my girls to Nahant after reading your post about 40 steps - the pics looked so good - but we drove. How can there be NO parking in an entire town?? Keeps the outsiders outside, I'm guessing. Anyways, A nice man let us use his driveway and we had a groovy time. Thanks for the tip, Thea

Chris said...

Totally awesome hat! I have knit hats for the cyclists in my life before (thin but warm - to fit under helmets in cooler temps) but they did not include a CHAIN!!I'm making this. Right now.:)

Emily said...

Haha, what would we do without partner-based motivation? This is so cute, and I'm glad your honey has his hat in time for fall!

Kym said...

Such a patient partner! Hope you have/had fun in Michigan with your family. I love your mom (she was my daughter's teacher in those rough middle school years. . .).

Salty Miss Jill said...

A lucky man indeed!

craftivore said...

Poor neglected Bicycle Boy. I hope he loves his hat, it looks fabu on him.