Crofthoose hat version 2

I made this sweet hat last year but it came out too small, so I have made it all over again and now it fits!

I only had to change three things to get the hat to fit.

1)  I went up half a needle size.
2)  I put away the circular needle that was the exact length required and instead used a longer cord on the circular needle and used the magic loop technique.
3)  After every few stitches I would stretch out the knitting on my right needle, give each stitch a bit of space inbetween one another.

Crofthoose Hat

We love visiting the Scottish Islands and have taken MANY photos of the small cottages dotted amongst the beautiful landscapes.  When I saw this year's free pattern promoting Shetland Wool Week I just had to knit it up!

Ella Gordon is the designer of this free pattern available from the Shetland Wool Week website.
She has suggested four different yarn colourways, but so many people are coming up with their own!  It's such an inspiring hashtag to browse #crofthoosehat  I chose to stick with mostly natural yarn colours, but added red roofs to some for a pop of colour, and to remind me of our holidays.

The intricately patterned crown above.   And below it is inside-out to show my yarn floats.

I kept two rows of the more traditional coloured cottages, as I really like the natural brown colours, and also because we once stayed in a thatched cottage for two weeks on the Island of Benbecula.

And I added in a row of red-roofed cottages, as we have taken many photos of these whilst journeying through the Hebridean Islands of Scotland.

Overall, I feel this hat is too snug and too small for my head unfortunately.  My guage is really quite off too.  The pattern calls for a guage of 26 stitches per 10cm square, and mine was 30x36 stitches.  I think I knit this too tightly.  I will be knitting this again, but on bigger needles.  I do love it and really want to be able to wear the wee crofthooses to remind me of so many happy times.