Tams

Laurie asked me where I got my tam pattern: I got it from the book
Knitted Tams by Mary Rowe. After fruitlessly searching the Internet last spring for a tam pattern, I found this book by searching Nashville Public Library's online catalog. Eureka!

Besides the solid-colored tam pattern, there are fair isle patterns and many ways of decreasing in a fun pattern. I used the zigzag decrease on both tams--easy.

I played with the pattern a bit, i.e., I customized the hat for mom and made some mistakes I chose to work with along the way.

When I knit this tam, I did not do the recommended fancy tubular cast on, and I even skipped the k1, p1 ribbing, knowing I was going to sew some elastic in the brim anyway. I did k2, p2.

I made the plain knitted part pretty long, which is something mom asked for with the previous hat.

Also, the pattern has a mistake: it says to k1, inc* for sport weight, but really you should k2, inc*. You want to increase your stitches by 50%, not 100%. Whoops! When I figured this out, I was ready to decrease. Following the pattern, I divided the stitches into seven segments of 24 stitches--but instead had nine sections with eight stitches left over. Whaaaaaa?

I decreased to nine sections and commenced with the decreasing rows. All was fine. My hat's a bit more voluminous with the extra two sections, but mom will probably like it all the more.

(BTW, one yard of half-inch black elastic cost 35 cents! What a cheap way to keep a hat on your loved one's head.)

I have an oft-repeated knitting philosophy when things go wrong: Too bad!