When bad hats happen to good people...or at least to semi-good knitters.

This winter I was all about the slouchy berets that many people wear so cutely. Being a knitter, I couldn't justify purchasing one, so I decided to knit myself one. One turned into at least 5 or 6, and I still don't have a hat I wear out of the house (except for a lovely cabled hat that was hand-knit in South America, not in London, Ontario).

Here are just three of my attempts.

The first one she tried on was too big!

The second one she tried on was too small!

So, one would think that the third one she tried would be juuuuust right. And actually, I thought that until my darling sister looked at me wearing it for the first time and said, "You look like a turtle. A cute turtle though!"

Alas, I will keep trying. There are a few more that I shan't dare post pictures of!

But while my head remains cold, I have an ever-growing collection of cowls that I love. Here is "spiral cowl" generously shared by Knitty Gritty Thoughts as a free pattern. I used Malabrigo in Flamingo, which was actually a Christmas gift from Ian the first winter we were together.

And this is a beautiful pattern for chunky yarns, but for the love of sheep I cannot find the link for the pattern. I will definitely keep looking, b/c I highly recommend all knitters make one for themselves before next winter. I used a chunky cream alapaca and I love it so much!

The dark green hat is "The Sweatshop of Love's Slouchy Beret Pattern" and has giant cables.

Both the purple and the green are "Gwen Slouchy Beret" and are knit from cascade 220.

I should be clear that these are not bad hat patterns, and the ones knit by the creators are beautiful. Bad hats just refers to the ones knit by me :)