Sweet Honey Beret

I have returned from my mini-vacation to Maryland and I had a great time. I took a ton of photos including these finished object photos!

Okay, since the hat is on me, I obviously didn’t take these, but you know what I mean.

Faina Goberstein’s Sweet Honey Beret (Ravelry) caught my eye when I first saw it in the Winter 2008 issues of Interweave Knits. When it comes to hats, I prefer berets and the like to beanies. I think they fit my head better.

I used size 4 DPNs to do the ribbed base of the beret instead of the suggested size 5s. I used size 8 DPNs for the hat part, and I do wish that I’d had a 16 inch size 8 circular needle, as I think the DPNs bear some of the responsibility for the weird little line that runs up the back of the hat. And I don’t really know why the crown of the hat came out the way it did, but I actually really like the star-like pattern it made.

I used about 393 yards of Imperial Stock Ranch Sock yarn held doubled. The yarn is from Sonny and Shear. This pattern was also my first time using brioche stitch, and I really like the way this stitch turns out. The doubled yarn and the stitch combined to make a really dense and warm fabric that was still very flexible and comfy. The yarn really bloomed after blocking and became super soft. The base of the hat ended up a little bit large after blocking, but not so large that it slips off my head.

(I’m excited in that photo because the bear that we had been watching was coming back out from his little hidey hole.)

The weather for my entire trip was pretty constant. Low- to mid-forties, gray, sort of rainy, and pretty awesome to a girl who’s already sick of the mid-70s we have down here in Florida. So I experienced perfect knitted beret weather and really good photography weather, too, as the lack of direct sunlight is beneficial to not having pictures that are totally blown out.

The above photo is awesome for so many reasons. One, it contains a red panda (albeit a blurry one). Two, I actually like the way I look in it. Three, I am wearing not one, not two, but THREE knitted objects: the hat, the fingerless mitts, and a scarf that isn’t visible. I’ll let you guess at how many days I can wear three sets of knitted objects in Florida.

Coming soon! Stash enhancement photos, or why I should not be allowed to buy souvenir yarn, and hopefully another finished object series this weekend.