What does Thorpey have to do with this blog post? Nothing really, apart from the fact that this hat I made at the request of my husband is called Thorpe. Although the designer had another Thorpe in mind. This Thorpe actually, which is fitting since my husband and I enjoy watching American football too. I miss the NFL! I don’t get it on our cable subscription anymore. Thank God for Friday Night Lights!

But I digress, sorry.

He wanted a hat and he wanted something that covers not just his head but also his ears. And he wanted them while the weather is still suitable for hats. I had two similar patterns which I showed him. He found Mintyfresh’s Roman Earflap Hat to be a bit feminine because of the fancy seed stitch borders. So we decided to make Kirsten Kapur’s Thorpe. Go ahead and click, these are not Ravelry links.

Don’t fall off your seat but I made a gauge swatch. 🙂 Yes I did! I had to do it twice the size because the first set of needles I used (5.5mm) gave me the wrong gauge so I switched to 6mm needles and got gauge. Ish.

Oh the yarn! I was looking after the UAE Roaming Bag (note to self: take a photo of the Roaming Bag to show everyone!) and rummaged through it, left a couple skeins of something I know I will never use but someone else might find interesting and saw 4 skeins of this black with tan and orange stripes. It felt soft enough, smooth enough, but alas! it was 100% acrylic. *shudders*

I kept petting the yarn and decided that it was alright for what I have in mind. Actually I used it for something else, the naughty Spiderweb Brassiere which is posted in my Ravelry project page but will never see the light of day in this blog due to sensitive reasons. And no, the spidey bra were not mine, they were made for a friend at her request. They turned out quite well if you ask me. Anyway, so I held this yarn double and swatched and got gauge so I cast on thinking it’s easy peasy.

It was worked from the top down so I started with 4 stitches and worked to 80 stitches. It looked flat in the beginning and I wondered how the heck was it supposed to be a hat. Just look at it! Would you have been able to guess that this was supposed to be a hat?
I just kept on working and working until I got the desired length for the body of the hat, and guess what, it did taper down and formed a dome. I have to say that I did most of the knitting while we took the Metro last Saturday. We went to see our Canadian Immigration agents (more on that later!) and decided to take the Metro just for fun. I whipped out the knitting on the way back from Terminal 3 of the airport where we had a quick meal and I had people looking at me like I was crazy. And I know Bernie was so embarrassed about trying the hat on while it was still on the needles but he was game for it. At the end of our line, back at the Mall of the Emirates, I was ready to do the second earflap. I just didn’t bring my notions kit so I had no scissors to cut the yarn with.

I finished knitting it last night and did the trims as well so he has a new hat! He tried it on last night and it fits so he is quite pleased with it.
He was playing basketball with his buddies last night so I got to try it on before him. It feels comfy, warm and quite soft. Trying to get a self-portrait in such close proximity with a 50mm lens is not recommended. Sheesh!
Project: Thorpe
Pattern: Thorpe by Kirsten Kapur (link to her website is above)
Yarn: Nako Derya’nin tercihi Super Inci
Colourway: Black/Orange/Tan, 1 full skein, yarn held double plus a bit extra from a second skein for the pompom and braids
Needles: 6mm
Cast on: 29 Dec 2009
Cast off: 10 Jan 2010
Notes: I didn’t do the half double crochet edging because I felt that the cast off edges are neat enough and with the black yarn it doesn’t really matter. I’m all about the pompoms so I cracked open my new pompom maker courtesy of Caroline (thanks!) and did a real fluffy one.

Bonus photo! We bought UV and polarizer filters last week and I got to try them on yesterday. We only bought the set for the 50mm and the 18-250mm since we reckon these are the lenses we will be using for outdoor photography.
I love how the colours pop!